Princess Ces'alena (55 page)

“I can’t Jordan. You see, I can offer her something, he never can. Marriage, respectability, happiness, and a chance to be free. A chance to live, the way a woman like her, deserves.” The two men stood in a face off.

Thomas said in finality. “I don’t know this Manny. He might have been a fine and fair man. But when it comes to a woman like that, it is every man - for himself. He’s gone…and I’m here. I have every intention, of using every day he’s away…to my advantage. That’s all I can promise you…that is all.” Thomas walked out of the barn leaving Jordan to stand with his words.

Jordan shook his head; turned and muttered, “Hurry up on back here Manny…hurry up on back here.”

That same year, Charles and Mildred returned with Katherine. Who stayed with them at Hastings Manor as they laid plans for their new home being built not far from Hastings Manor. She wasn’t in a hurry to return to Webster Fields, knowing that Manny had not yet returned, so there was no sense in her going back there until then. Once word of her return got back to Kayleen and Lena - with Ma’Nicey’s assistance they came up with a plan to disguise Hope.

They concocted a cream that Lena would apply to her skin made of crushed flower petals, blackberry juices and dark brown tree bark ground to a fine powder … that she would mix with lard. It would wipe off without staining her skin, but while wearing it, Lena would braid her hair, and tuck it under a scarf to hide its honey blonde color and wavy straight texture. She also knew it would only work keeping her at a distance. Their hope was that she would never need to use it, but if Katherine returned, Lena would be forced…as well in not being able to bring Hope into the mansion again.

They were ready just incase. Thomas, inadvertently assisted her further in hiding her daughter. Morris was on a trip to travel down the Mississippi river, upon hearing about a new way of gambling on a riverboat, where there would be a big game at high stakes. He was at the dock in Vicksburg’s to board for the experience. All was well at the plantation and he needed a little adventure. So it was during that time he was gone that things really starting happening. Lena sat on her porch as the summer breeze teased at her damp skin from the heat as she watched her daughter play with Jamie and Nia.

Jamie…the child used to trick Manny, and Nia…Mazie’s daughter, a year older than Jamie and Hope. Everyone was out on their porch that Sunday afternoon. A cacophony of laughter rang out with other sounds from many visiting and milling about.

Older children played running in and about the cabins chasing butterflies, jumping on and off of porches, aggravating Caesar and Ben with their nonsense.

Lena loved days like these, where she could sit, watch and laugh at the antics happening around her. She would sit like that for hours, wondering as she watched the growth of other children, did her son too…wherever he was, laugh with some joy? He was twelve years old now she remembered. Distracting her from her reflection back, was Hope being naughty.

“Hope! You be nice and let Jamie play with the horsy too!” Lena called to her, when Hope snatched the horse from Jamie as well the others. “No! Me ‘orsie!” She shouted with a pout, shaking her head of golden locks. “Hope! What did I say, give it back to him!”

“Nooooo…m’orsie! No!”

“Yes! You share!” Lena ordered. Hope gathered everything in her arms, and stood defying her mother, with her bottom lip out in full petulant display. “If I have to get up from this porch young lady…you are going to be sorry.”

“No!” She stomped her foot to add emphasis.

“Oh that is it little girl-…” Lena leapt from the porch to go after her, but the defiant child turned to take off screaming, “Noooo-…” As if the hounds of hell were in hungry pursuit.

“Hope!” Lena yelled, just as her daughter ran into Thomas’s legs. Laughing after witnessing the scene, he bent and picked her up. “What is this I see. Surely someone so pretty…should act pretty too?” He asked walking towards Lena, who stood with her hands on her hips glaring at her daughter. Hope gave no reply, her glare a belligerent frown with her arms clutching the small toys to her just incase he meant to steal them, and then her eyes narrowed at Thomas and he threw his head back laughing.

“Okay fine, you don’t want to share, you shan’t have any.” Lena decided, and then removed them from her daughter’s arms, while she screamed and kicked her displeasure. Lena placed all the toys before a wide eyed Jamie and Nia, and then turned back to Thomas who was struggling trying to hold onto her. Lena laughed at the look on his face and took her screaming toddler to walk to her porch where she sat, placing her on her lap.

“G’down…mine … mine…mine…!”
She screamed and struggled in Lena’s lap. “Would you like mama to get a switch? Would that help?” Lena asked her softly, calmly. Hope suddenly grew still, then quieted sucking in a few calming breaths, having tasted the sting of a switch on her legs. “Now when you are good, you can get down and play.”

“I g’momie.” She sniffed looking up at her mother.

“Em hm, we shall see. You just sit here until I’m convinced.” Lena replied as Thomas came and took a seat beside her. Hope leaned forward and looked at him with drawn eyebrows. Her expression was clear, and it conveyed the question,
“What you want?”
Lena chuckled and shook her head. “What can I say?” Was her only response with a smile, flashing clean white teeth.

“No explanation needed. She’s beautiful and spirited.” Thomas complimented. “And a bit spoiled…I admit it.” Lena added.
“It’s a beautiful evening isn’t it?” Thomas nodded while engaging in his favorite pastime, staring at her. “Were you on your way somewhere?” She asked feeling uncomfortable with him always staring at her so closely. “As a matter of fact I was, and I came to see if you would like to join me.”

“Join you…where?” She asked, not realizing her daughter had quietly left her side and was off the porch, back on the ground with the other two children. “I’m on my way to an Indian village, the Chickasaw Village.”

She was stunned. “The Chick-a-who? Why?” She asked, giving him her full attention. He wondered if he should totally confide in her. But if he was inviting her to come along, he would have to. Thanks to Morris, he could now go about the business at hand. He couldn’t believe his luck after the nightmare of being attacked by the group of white men who raided his and Phillip’s camp. They’d been robbed and beaten, his papers proving him a free man taken and destroyed. He hadn’t a clue as to what happened to Phillip from being tied up by the ankles and wrists, then he was dragged behind a horse until he’d passed out. When he’d come to, he’d been in a barn where someone threw a bucket of water on him to wake him. They’d argued about what to do with him, one wanted to hang him, and the other came up with the idea to sell him. They’d left him there tied to a stall rail. He’d passed out again. Next time he woke…it was to see her eyes staring down at him. He owed Morris Webster his life, and was sincere in all he did for the man. But he had his assignment to fulfill. At night, he’d been sneaking out to meet with the others, each taking turns to hunt out the village and its location. Patrick Johnson had been the one to finally find it. So with his wife Liddy, they would escort Thomas back and forth to the village, while Jacob, and Markus Gentry worked on trying to set up a hidden education system that would teach any of the slaves who wanted to, how to read and write.

Once they were educated enough, they would then go about helping them to escape to freedom. One of the jobs Thomas had to do was to falsify freedom documents once they had so many selected and ready to escape.

Jacob and his son, Zedekiah would transport those who were ready to a point of contact on the Mississippi river. Under the cover of night, the night before the power steam engine riverboat got underway; volunteer emancipators in place would stash them away below, where they would then smuggle them up North where they could live free, with some education aiding them in their freedom. Persons there would place them in whatever jobs could be found. There was a call for ship builders in Boston, many free blacks fled there for jobs, as well as joining on as crew members on ships.

However, as he learned first hand, and then from what Jacob and Patrick informed him, only a few at Webster Fields were interested in the prospect of freedom. Reluctantly, they would gather for learning, but they were only willing to hear about the possibility of being free. None yet voiced a desire to actually seek the chance to be free. There was fear of the unknown, and leaving the good life found at Webster Fields – few were willing to take that gamble. All their needs were met – there was no abuse – they were left with their dignity and self-respect – in exchange for fair labor.

Manny and Morris Webster they knew.

That world of freedom out there…they didn’t. For the most part, their fears were that the newcomers would do something to jeopardize their peaceful lives there. So many turned a deaf ear of disinterest in what they were trying to do. So far, they’d made contacts and spread the word to Harvest Gold plantation, Hastings Manor, with their base at Webster Fields. There were still many more plantations to infiltrate, but they were off to a good start. As well as keeping an ear out for what may have happened to Phillip Preston, who also happened to be white. Thomas prayed that his being white would have saved his life. He took a deep breath and stated, “Ceś alena, do you know what an abolitionist is?” She stared a few moments, with her mind working, then nodded and finally voiced, “I have heard of them. You are one of them, are you not?”

“Yes, I am…and I’m here to help the Indians, and our people as well. Every Friday when Morris leaves for his games, I leave to go and teach.”

“Teach?” Her eyes lit up. Thomas picked up on it immediately. “Yes, I’m a teacher. And I’m here to instruct those within the Chickasaw village on the laws of the land, and those of our government…as well as, reading and writing.” She was quiet, but very much intrigued. “I knew you were different, that night when Morris brought you home.”

“Yes…well, it is what I have come to do.”

“I wondered where you’d disappeared to over the weekend only to reappear Sunday before Morris returned. You know - what you are doing is dangerous. I cannot believe after that beating, you’re still taking such risks.” She shook her head.

“Black people, in the South - just like you and I, are slaves. I will not stop - until I see its end. Slaves live in a constant existence of pleasing and aiding the white man in material gain and prestige. When we, gain nothing in return! The Indians, because of the white man’s aggressive takeover, also loses all that was once theirs. This growing white nation is fair to neither in their pursuit of freedom! I cannot help but feel anger at their hypocrisy, when I know the very things for which they fought and came here for – that, they ran from - they now subject others too! Though my part is small, I will do that small part! Risk or not - I will do my part to help in building for a change.”

“You are only one man, how can you possibly make a change?”

“By infecting other men with a desire to fight for the very same rights those Europeans crossed the water for! By being a part of a team who believe as I do. There are many others like me, and the more people I get, and educate, the more powerful this movement becomes. We have to start somewhere.”

Lena looked away at her daughter, and thought of her son. Of course he was right, she’d tasted the bitter reality of who, and what they were when Katherine felt the desire to take revenge, and there was no one to stop her. She gazed back at him, he was watching her, reading her thoughts.

“You know I’m right. Unless we begin making this change, how many more mother’s will weep as you must have, when you lost your son?”

“Why? You waiting on him to return? And then what?” He asked softly. She shook her head unable to answer him, still unable to look at him.

“There is not much time. I have made my feelings no secret. You are a woman who knows when she is being pursued. I want you Ceś alena, I want you – in an honorable way, allowing you your dignity and the respect due you. God is my witness, I will do all within my power to convince you…that you are better off with me.” He pressed, and added. “You still have one child left? What will be her fate…if you stay?”

That snapped her head around and the tears she tried to dry rushed forward and spilled over. “Go! Go about your assignment…and leave me alone.”

“Today I will. But the next time I go-…” He nodded sure.

“You’ll go with me and you’ll see a new way…a different life. One that could be, for you…and more importantly…for her.” He nodded towards Hope playing in the dirt. Then rose and walked away; leaving Lena, with that plaguing thoughts.

For the next week, Thomas left her alone to think. He was ever present, but only for a reminder of the promises he made to her. The night before, she lay in her bed, reading over another of Royal’s journals, this one focused on her time with her son, and the joys that he brought her. The mischief he often found himself in, and the bravery of him. Half way through it, Lena lay down the journal and stared up at her ceiling deep in thought.