A Most Precious Pearl
Page 22
“She is.” Elodie attended to her sister, and Mags wiped her own face, gathering up soaked linen to take down to the wash closet. “A little miracle.”
“What will you call her?” When Mags returned to the room, Elodie had some waste to dispose of and she left. “I told Paul Winslow that you were going to have a girl and that you would call her Mary Margaret.”
“You did not!” Ruby declared. “That was naughty of you.”
“It served my purpose at the time,” Mags said.
“I should really ask Adam.” Ruby sniffed. “But he’s on a call and I’ll remind him of that whenever he asks me about her name. I’m going to name her Margaret Elodie. We’ll call her Maisie.”
Mags put a hand up to her cheek, feeling that it was growing warm. “I’m so flattered, Ruby.”
“So you were half right.”
Elodie came back in and seemed more emotional at hearing the little girl’s name. “I am too, Ruby Jean. Thank you, honey.”
“It’s fitting that you are a part of her life since you’re going to be in the family now.”
They stood there silent for a minute, but then Mags thought about something. “How did you know that I was engaged?”
Ruby looked up at her for just a second, and her eyes were smiling. “I always knew, from the moment I sent Asa down there to you. You just had to figure it out.”
Her sister’s words confused her as she heard the door slam and Adam’s hurried footfall up the stairs. He emerged through the door with a worried expression on his face.
“She’s fine,” Mags said to the mustachioed blur that passed her by to the washstand first, wanting to know all, right away.
“Leave it to you, Ruby to not even wait for the doctor.” Adam scrubbed and chuckled, clearly happy, “But she is so lovely, honey and she’s the picture of health. I can see that from here.”
Ruby’s face shone with pride, making both Mags and Elodie teary as Ruby presented Maisie to her father. They both left, taking off their aprons for the linen closet, going down the stairs to meet Asa and Solomon sitting in the parlor.
“You have a new sister,” she told Solomon.
“Oh no.”
“Oh yes.” Mags sat on the other side of him and held his little hand. “And we are grateful to God for her life.”
“We are,” Asa intoned. “We are grateful to him for many things.”
“We are.”
“When can we be married in this parlor?” Asa asked her. “I think that Solomon’s sister…does she have a name?”
“Margaret Elodie. Maisie.”
“Maisie would like a playmate cousin close to her age.”
Mags lowered her head. “Well, I can probably pull a wedding in a few weeks’ time. A month or so. Something like a cousin for Solomon would take longer.”
So on a late August day, three days after her twenty-first birthday, wearing a brand new string of pearls her husband bought for her, they were married in Ruby’s parlor with Ruby, Adam, Solomon, Elodie and Asa’s sisters and family looking on with pride and love. Maisie slept through it all.
Surrounded by love on that special day, Mags knew that she had come to this time and place through God’s grace, manifest in precious nature of the necklace she wore—a true sign of her husband’s love and devotion to her and for her.
Author’s Note
The summer of 1919 was not just one of turmoil for Asa and Mags. Asa represents the population of The Great War who were not at all satisfied to be complacent after they had fought for the United States. Glenda Gilmore’s Defying Dixie: The Radical Roots of Civil Rights 1919-1915 clearly traces the Civil Rights Movement to before Montgomery and Rosa Parks. When they returned home, soldiers felt they had a right to demand better lives.
The result of these demands during the “Red” Summer of 1919 was an increase in lynching—killing outside of the law by any means necessary. When someone like John Bledsoe spoke about lynching, he was not referring to a method of killing by vigilante mob, like hanging. He was referring to all of the ways in which African Americans were confronted with the threat of violence. Thus, people could be lynched by several methods—and were. These incidents were regularly reported in newspapers like The Chicago Defender and The Pittsburgh Courier. Journalists like Asa, were sent to report on these horrors. Their reporting lead to the renewed vigor of The Great Migration when people like Mags began to steal themselves away with increased frequency. The leave-taking from the South by millions of African Americans was a direct reaction to forces of oppression and violence.
To learn more about the history surrounding Mags and Asa:
Cobb, Charles. This Nonviolent Stuff’ll Get You Killed
Epstein, Abraham. The Negro Migrant in Pittsburgh
Foley, Barbara. Spectres of 1919
Lee, Chana Kai. For Freedom’s Sake: The Life of Fannie Lou Hamer (all about a great female manager)
McWhirter, Cameron. Red Summer
Wilkerson, Isabel. The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration
About the Author
Piper Huguley, named the 2015 Debut Author of the year by Romance Slam Jam, Breakout Author of 2015 by the AAMBC and a top ten historical romance author in Publisher’s Weekly by Beverly Jenkins, is a two-time Golden Heart® finalist. She is the author of “Migrations of the Heart,” a five-book series of historical romances set in the early 20th century featuring African American characters. Book one in the series, A Virtuous Ruby, won the Golden Rose contest in Historical Romance in 2013 and was a Golden Heart® finalist in 2014. Book four, A Champion’s Heart, was a Golden Heart® finalist in 2013.
Huguley is also the author of the “Home to Milford College” series. The series follows the building of a college from its founding in 1866. On release, the prequel novella to the “Home to Milford College” series, The Lawyer’s Luck, reached #1 Amazon Bestseller status on the African American Christian Fiction charts.
Piper blogs about the history behind her novels at www.piperhuguley.com. She lives in Atlanta, Georgia with her husband and son.
Look for these titles by Piper Huguley
Now Available:
Migrations of the Heart
A Virtuous Ruby
Coming Soon:
Migrations of the Heart
A Treasure of Gold
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This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
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A Most Precious Pearl
Copyright © 2015 by Piper Huguley
ISBN: 978-1-61922-742-2
Edited by Latoya Smith
Cover by Kanaxa
All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
First Samhain Publishing, Ltd. electronic publication: September 2015
www.samhainpublishing.com