All Men Fear Me (14 page)

Chapter Thirty-three

“The fine and noble way to kill a foe

Is not to kill him; you with kindness may

So change him, that he shall cease to be so;

Then he's slain.”

—Charles Aleyn

The beans were about to take over Alafair's truck garden. The warm, dry, summer had produced a bumper crop of beans of every ilk. The pole beans were so prolific that they were pulling the vines down off of the stakes. Blanche and Sophronia were crawling along the rows, on their knees among the vines, harvesting beans and piling them into bushel baskets while Alafair finished hanging the last of the Monday wash on the line. Chase Kemp and Grace were there, too, though whether they were helping the girls in the garden or not was a matter of interpretation. Alafair had put them to picking beetles off the bean plants and drowning them in kerosene. If their loud expressions of delighted disgust were any indication, they were enjoying themselves very much. Alafair picked up her empty clothes basket when Sally McBride drove up in her carriage and hollered at her from the drive. Alafair walked over to the fence, a bit worried. Her mother-in-law seldom just turned up without a good reason.

“What's going on, Ma? Is somebody sick?”

Sally grinned down at her from the driver's seat. “Don't look so worried, honey. Nothing's wrong. Remember the conversation we had at the house on Sunday? About the folks I take food to every once in a while? I can tell by how your eyes are about to pop out that you do. Well, I'm on my way over there right now and I figured to take you along.”

“Oh, no, I couldn't.” Alafair's insides shrank at the very thought. “We've got to get these washtubs put away before I start dinner. Besides, I couldn't leave the little'uns here on their own…”

“Alafair.” Sally interrupted her in mid-ramble. “It's two hours before you have to start dinner. You have plenty of hands for the task and we won't be gone more than an hour. Blanche is old enough to keep these ruffians in line for that long.”

Alafair climbed up into the buggy, but only so she could protest in an undertone. “Ma, why are you wanting me to do this so bad? Why, it'd be awful if we were seen to consort with such types. What would everyone think?”

Sally was five feet tall and round as a dumpling. But anyone who crossed her soon regretted his mistake. She drew herself up. “Alafair, the Pharisees asked Jesus why he was keeping company with criminals and prostitutes. And he said, did he not, that it was the criminals and prostitutes who needed the grace of God and not the righteous people? Well, I don't aim to let the judgments of the Pharisees in town get in the way of doing a small good deed to our local criminals and prostitutes. And I don't want you to do so, either, if I can help it. These are human women, sugar, who have fallen as low as they can go. How can it hurt to show them some kindness?”

Alafair bit her lip. What could she say? That she had to live in this town? That her actions would reflect on her children, and she'd do anything to keep from causing them grief? What if she was seen and she had to explain to her family what she and Grandma were doing talking to a bunch of whores?

Sally was regarding her with keen black eyes, waiting to see which way Alafair would jump. Alafair didn't want to pay a call on a passel of soiled doves, not even as an act of Christian charity. But even more, she didn't want her beloved mother-in-law to think less of her.

Sally's expression softened. She could tell that Alafair was weakening. “You don't have to speak to any of them. You don't even have to get out of the carriage. I always put the top up and come up the back way around town. Nobody will see.”

“You promise we'll be gone less than an hour?”

“Less than an hour.” Sally's eyes crinkled with amusement. “Even if I have to throw this food basket into the yard as we gallop by. Come on, honey. It's good for your soul. You'll see.”

“But look at me. I'm in my washing clothes and have soap on my sleeves. Let me take off my apron and change my hat, at least.”

“No excuses, now. You think the girls will turn up their noses at your outfit? Besides, you ain't even going to talk to them, remember?”

Alafair's resistance collapsed in the face of the juggernaut that was Sally's will. She climbed down long enough to charge Blanche with keeping her siblings on the job while she and Grandma ran a brief errand. Grace whined to go along, but Alafair refused with such force that she dropped the subject and hastily resumed drowning bugs.

Sally turned her horses onto the section road and headed toward town at a breezy trot. The two women rode in silence for a time, Sally secure in the rightness of her path and thus happy as a puppy with two tails. But Alafair was bitterly ruing her decision to go along with this ill-considered errand.

They reached the main road, but instead of turning right into town, Sally turned the carriage left and drove north for a quarter-mile, until she reached a rutted farm path that circled around Boynton to the east. Alafair shrank back into the seat when they passed in sight of a farmhouse, but they saw no one.

Alafair finally ventured a comment. “I cannot imagine what would drive a woman to a life like that, not to mention run a business that shames others of her own sex, some of them barely girls. Why has Scott never closed down her institution?” 

Sally kept her eyes on the road. “I asked him the same question not long after she came to town. He said that she's real protective of her girls and runs a clean house. He told me that for years there was a similar establishment out in the country, south of town. Did you know that?”

Alafair's eyebrows shot skyward. “No, I didn't.” She wasn't surprised that none of her men had mentioned that fact to her, but there weren't many women in town who would have kept that titillating bit of information to themselves. The minute Rose's place opened last year, churchwomen of all denominations had sent a delegation to the mayor to demand that the fallen women be immediately run out of town. The mayor and town council had promised to consider the problem, but nothing had ever come of it.

Sally continued. “Rose was one of the girls at the old place. The previous bawdy house was a den of iniquity, according to Scott. It was run by a devil of a woman called Star Karsten who used her strongman to keep her girls in line, then she robbed them of their shameful wages on top of it. Finally she got stabbed during some big dust-up at the house. The woman didn't die, but never quite recovered, either. I reckon when she closed down, Rose saw a business opportunity.”

“Well, why does he let her stay and not that other woman? I don't care how nice she treats her poor girls, that's a horrible life for them.”

Sally shrugged. “Scott seems to think that if it ain't her, it'll be someone worse.”

Alafair wasn't going to accept that explanation. “But why must we have such a place here at all? What about our children?”

Sally chuckled, amused at Alafair's righteous indignation. “You'd better ask the town council about that, hon. I blame the men. As for the women, who knows? Rose has had a pretty sad life. Don't judge her without knowing what drove her to it.”

Alafair was feeling cautiously relieved as they drove up the dirt path that ran along beside a few houses at the edge of town. Just before they reached the turn to Kenetick Street, Sally guided the carriage into a wide drive behind a plain, two-story clapboard house that edged up to an empty field. She reined at the back door just as an enormous Negro man came down the steps to greet her. He offered her a hand down and a big smile. “Hello, Miz McBride. Nice to see you.”

Sally retrieved the basket from the backseat and passed it to him. “Hello, Dave. I brought y'all some dried apples, a sack of pecans, and a few loaves of fresh bread to go with the extra jars of jam I had in the pantry. Is Rose up and about?”

Dave was eyeing the jam jars with anticipation. “Now, ain't that nice? Thank you, ma'am. Last I seen Miz Rose was at the breakfast table. I'll tell her you come by.”

Alafair's eyes were glued to the back door, where an attractive if somewhat frowsy older woman stood at the screen, watching. She was clad in a dressing gown and holding a tea cup in one hand. The expression on her face was anything but welcoming.

Sally was aware that she was being watched. Before she stepped back up into the carriage, she nodded at the woman. “Good morning, Rose. Hope y'all enjoy the eats.”

“We don't need your charity, Miz McBride,” Rose said.

“I know you don't need charity, Rose, so just think of it as a neighborly gift.”

Rose made a disparaging noise and disappeared back inside as Sally turned the carriage and headed out.

She snapped the reins and the horses picked up the pace. “See, now, Alafair, I told you this trip wouldn't take but a blink.”

Alafair was aghast. “Why, Ma, you made me think that you and that Rose woman were best of friends. She didn't appreciate your charity a bit, or that a respectable woman would even speak to her, much less bring gifts!”

“Nobody likes to be pitied, Alafair. Besides, the Lord wants us to try. He don't care if we succeed.”

That gave Alafair pause. She mulled over the sentiment in silence long enough for Sally to make the turn onto the road north of town. “How did you come to meet that woman, Ma?”

Sally clicked her tongue at the horses and they picked up the pace. “Do you remember Gertrude Bent? No? Well, she was a real nice woman who used to belong to my ladies' sewing circle. She got the cancer and I went by regular to sit with her and bring food so her and her husband wouldn't starve. Her house is right across the lane from the brothel. Rose's place looks like any other house during the day, so I hadn't even given it a glance. But then once while I was visiting, Rose and a couple of her girls came over to look in on Gert. They brought a real pretty wool blanket for her since she was always cold. Rose took one look at me and left, but the two sporting girls walked right in and made themselves at home. They were bawdy, all right, but I liked them for the way they teased and joked with Gert. After they left Gert told me that they had all kindly looked after her ever since she got sick, and several of them had told her their stories. Even sinners can be kind. So after Gert passed on, I resolved to try and be kind myself, for I expect them women don't get much kindness in their line of work.”

“But she doesn't even appreciate what you're doing, Ma. You could become a subject of gossip if word gets around. Why do you insist on taking food over there to them if they don't need it or want it either?”

Sally emitted a derisive
pfft
. “I'm too old to care what anybody thinks, Alafair.” That seemed to be the end of the conversation, but not long after Sally turned the carriage off the main road toward Alafair's place, she said, “You know that after Shaw's daddy died, me and the young'uns were left in bad spot.”

“Yes, I know it.”

“I had six children under twelve, one just weaned. Jim had taken out a loan to buy ten more acres of hillside for logging. He wasn't cold in the ground before the bank called in the loan. I had the cabin and yard, and fifty acres of woods. I could have found a buyer if the bank had given me time, but I think old Plummer, the banker, smelled an opportunity, so he foreclosed. I was in a bad way. Jim was gone and all those babies and I hadn't had time to take a breath. I was left with the cabin and yard, but no means to make a living.”

As Alafair listened to her mother-in-law's story, she felt a chill envelop her heart. “You don't mean to say that you…?”

Sally shot her an amused glance. “I did not, honey. You can be at ease. Jim's brothers and sisters came to my rescue. But I know only too well how fast a woman can be left with no options. In fact, in the course of my long life, I've known many good people who have been driven by circumstance to do an evil thing. I long ago decided that I should be kinder with my opinions and to leave judgment in the hands of the one who knows a sinner's heart.”

“Are you trying to make a Christian out of her?” Alafair could understand that motive.

Sally disabused her. “No. I'm trying to make a Christian out of me.”

“But she wouldn't even come out and say hello!”

“No, not yet. But I haven't given up on her. Besides, me and Dave and a couple of the girls have got to be friends.”

They were home by this time, and the instant Sally pulled up in front of the garden, a gaggle of children tumbled out the gate and ran to meet them, all talking at once.

Whereyoubeenwhycouldn'tIgoChaseateabugIdidnot
MaItriedtogethimtowegottwobushelsMadoIhavetohelp
stringthebeans…

Alafair climbed down to adjudicate. Sally laughed and glanced at the sun. “I told you I'd have you home right quick,” she said over the chatter. Alafair only had time to give her a wave before Sally circled the drive and headed out.

Chapter Thirty-four

“Hear, my son, your father's instruction,
and forsake not your mother's teaching,
for they are a graceful garland for your head
and pendants for your neck.”

—Proverbs 1:8-9

Alafair saw Charlie coming from the kitchen window and had time to chip a handful of ice from the block in the top of the icebox before he made it into the house. His face was red from the heat. She handed him the glass. “How was your first day as a brickmaker, son?”

Charlie hung his hat on a hook by the back door and flopped down at the kitchen table. His mother was cooking and it was hot in the house. He wiped his forehead on his sleeve. “It was good, Ma. Most of the fellows on my shift are swell. Mr. Cooper put me with another new man by the name of Henry Blackwood. You know Eric Bent who lives in town? Henry's his nephew from Brownsville. He's a good guy.”

Alafair made a surprised sound. She had never heard of the Bents before, and yet today they had been brought to her attention twice.

Charlie went on. “It was hard work, though. I thought I was pretty strong, what with all the hay bales and newborn foals I've toted, but shoveling clay all day will plumb wear you out.”

Alafair watched him gulp down the tall glass of iced sweet tea. “Now, if the job is too much for you, you don't have to be doing this, you know.”

He set the glass down and Alafair refilled it from the pitcher. “It's not too much for me, Ma. I just have to get used to using a different bunch of muscles, is all. Besides, I'm doing my bit for the war effort.”

“But all the mules your daddy raises and trains are for the war effort, Charlie. I don't understand why working for Mr. Ober at the brick plant is so much more patriotic than working for your dad.”

Her comment irked him. She just would not believe that he was smart enough to make his own decisions. “I can do both,” he said. It came out sharper than he intended, and Alafair drew back, stung.

Charlie had surprised himself with his tone. He was about to say something conciliatory when Gee Dub appeared at the back door.

“There you are,” Gee Dub said. “I thought I saw you ride up. You'd better turn your horse out and head on up to the stable. Dad and Uncle Robin are bringing in those mules we've been working with. Captain Worley from Fort Reno is coming tomorrow to look at 'em, and Dad wants to clean them up and put them through their paces once more before he shows up.”

Charlie stifled a moan. He had no intention of letting his parents see how tired he really was. He straightened and shot his mother a defiant look before he stood. “I'm on my way, Gee.”

Gee Dub pushed his ancient flop-brimmed black Stetson back off his forehead with his thumb. “Slug down that tea and come on along then. I'll help you with the roan and walk up to the stable with you.”

The boys were down the steps and walking toward the roan before Gee Dub said, “What's eating you, Charlie Boy?”

“Nothing. What makes you say something like that?”

“I heard you snap at Mama. That was uncalled for. She's just worried about you trying to take on two tasks at once.”

Charlie stopped walking, his irritation bubbling up. “She treats me like a baby and I'm tired of it, Gee. She don't treat you like you ain't got a brain in your head.”

Gee Dub laughed, which didn't make Charlie feel any better. “She don't treat you like a baby any more than she does the rest of us, knucklehead. I've never known her not to fuss over us, each and every one.”

Charlie raised his hands to his hips and studied his boot tips. “Dang, I know it, but it does get on my nerves. I reckon I'm in a bad mood because old Billy Claude Walker gave me a hard time about having a German in the family. If I thought he was teasing that would be one thing, but he was pretty mean about it. And I heard that he's taken over for Win Avey on the Council of Defense.”

“I hope you stuck up for Kurt.”

“Of course I did, but I didn't like having to do it. It's not fair. Kurt chose to be an American. He can't help where he was born.”

“Durn right.”

Charlie looked up, his forehead wrinkling. “What if Billy Claude finds out about Uncle Robin? Will we get in trouble for harboring a Wobblie? Maybe Dad ought to talk to Scott about it.”

Charlie's attitude disturbed Gee Dub more than Robin's leftist tendencies. “Don't go borrowing trouble, now. Let Mama and Daddy worry about Uncle Robin and you mind your own business. Let's get that horse unsaddled.”