“You’re leaving me now?”
He read a hint of panic in her question. “I thought you might want to rest after such a long journey. I have to go now to find my friend John Gorrie to find out if a portion of our building might still be available for your shop. Of course, if you’d like to come along, I’m sure John would be pleased to meet you.”
“Oh, yes, I’d like that! Do you have time for me to freshen up a bit, or should I just come as I am?”
“I’m afraid I need to catch him as early in the day as possible. You see, in addition to being the city’s postmaster, he’s also a doctor, and he’ll be out making his rounds before long. But you don’t have to go with me. It’s really up to you.”
Margaret did not hesitate for a moment. She smoothed her hair, adjusted her redingote over her skirts and said, “I’m ready.”
Mikal paid the driver and dismissed the carriage. “Dr. Gorrie’s office is not far from here, and I think a walk on dry land will be good for both of us.”
Margaret noticed as they walked along the street that people waved to Mikal and called his name. “You know a lot of people in this town, don’t you?”
“Yes, I have a lot of friends here, but this place is growing and changing so fast, I couldn’t possibly know them all. See that house over there? That’s the Taylor house. Mr. Taylor is John’s attorney, and mine too when I have need of one.” They rounded the corner and crossed the street. “Here’s where my friend has his medical practice, and he resides here, too.”
Mikal led her up the flower-bordered walk and onto the porch of the two-story house. He raised the brass knocker and gave several sharp raps. The door was opened at once by a white-haired, uniformed Negro man. “Why, Mistah Mikal! Come right in. The doctor, he gonna be mighty glad to see you.” Then, as his eyes fell on Margaret, he exclaimed, “Well, looka here! Who’s this you brung along with you?”
“This is Miss Porter, a friend of mine, William. Has Dr. John been behaving himself while I’ve been away?”
The old man’s white teeth sparkled against his dark skin, and he emitted a high, cackling laugh. “Hee-hee! I reckon as how you’d have to ask him about that, Mistah Mikal.”
“Ask me what?” A short, portly gentleman wearing a long, white lab coat came striding down the hall. “Well, look who’s back in town! And who’s this charming lady you’ve brought with you?” John ushered them into his parlor. “Come in here where we can talk. William will bring us some tea.”
Mikal began the introduction. “Margaret Porter, allow me to present Dr. John Gorrie, my good friend and business partner.”
Margaret offered her hand and John clasped it so tightly that her fingers hurt, but she liked the man at once. His eyes met hers with a probing intensity, and his friendly smile made her feel as though she had known him for a long time. “Dr. Gorrie, I’m so glad to meet you. Mikal has told me many good things about you.”
“Uh-oh! What kind of tales has Mikal been telling about me?” He winked at her and said, “You mustn’t believe everything that sailor tells you! I’m likely not nearly as bad as he makes me out to be.”
Laughter filled the room as William placed a tray of tea and petit fours on the table and began to fill the delicate porcelain cups.
“John,” Mikal said in a more serious tone, “I know you don’t have time to socialize with us this morning, but I must ask you about our new building. Have you filled it with tenants yet?”
“Of the four units, three have been leased for a year and will soon be operating as respectable stores. The fourth, and I hope you won’t be disappointed when I tell you this, but I turned down the man who tried to tie it up with a deposit.”
“I’m not disappointed, John. In fact, I’m elated because, you see, I’ve come to think that I may have a use for one of the stores myself. But I’m more than a little curious as to why you refused to lease it to someone with ready cash.”
“You won’t be surprised when I tell you the man’s name. Harry Robards!”
“Harry Robards wanted to lease our store? What does he want it for?” Mikal asked.
“I’m not really sure. Oh, he says he wants to open a little pipe and tobacco shop, but I have a feeling he may be using that as a front for some of his more, uh, questionable business enterprises.”
Margaret’s curiosity peaked, but her good manners did not allow her to ask any questions about Harry Robards.
“Anyway,” John continued, “what did you have in mind for the store? Are you going to give up the life of a merchant seaman for that of a storekeeper?” He laughed at the incongruity of such an idea.
“Not for myself,” Mikal explained. “For my business partner here.” He indicated Margaret with a wave of his hand. “This lady has a real talent for turning out stylish hats and bonnets, and I’ve brought her the materials she will need to make them. All she needs now is a place to work.”
John’s eyes brightened. “A milliner? What an interesting idea. I don’t believe we have ever had one in all of Apalach-icola. By George, I think you might just have stumbled onto something there.”
“John is always receptive to new ideas,” Mikal explained to Margaret. “He has some very innovative ideas of his own which I’m sure he’ll share with you when he has more time.” Then turning back to John, he continued, “Our building should provide an excellent location for her shop, don’t you think? And there’s even a little room upstairs that she might be able to turn into living quarters.”
Margaret jumped up from her chair, almost upsetting the teacup she held on her lap. “Oh, Mikal, it all sounds so perfect! When can I see it?”
“I’ll give you the key,” John said. “Why don’t you take her right on over there, Mikal, because I have patients I must see. Just let me know what you decide, and you know I’ll help any way I can.”
The doctor reached under his white coat and extracted a large ring of keys from his trousers. Flipping through them, he settled on a long, silver skeleton key and removed it from the ring. “I think this is the one. I hope this works out to suit your purposes.”
Margaret was so happy she could have hugged him. “Thank you for all your help, Dr. Gorrie!”
“The name is John. And you’re very welcome, my dear. I’m glad to see that my friend Mikal has such good taste. Maybe he has more sense than I’ve been crediting him with.” He gave Mikal a playful jab on the arm.
“I’ll be in touch, John,” Mikal said as he followed Margaret toward the front door. “Don’t bother to see us out. We can take care of ourselves.”
❧
Mikal slid the key into the lock and gave it a twist. He turned the knob and held the door open to allow Margaret to enter first. Trash and dust covered the oak plank floor, and Mikal was afraid that Margaret would be discouraged before she even got past the front door, but her eyes did not focus on the dirt and debris. Instead they circled the perimeter of the room and sparkled with excitement. “Oh, Mikal, this is going to be just perfect!” She moved across the floor, shuffling trash as she stepped gingerly across to the other side of the room. She ran her hand over one of the three long tables that constituted the room’s only furniture. “This will make a perfect cutting table after I clean it up, and the other two tables could be used as counter space.” Her excitement mounted. “If I could just get a few shelves put up, I’ll take a broom and mop to this place and soon be ready to start making bonnets!”
“Let’s see what the room upstairs is like,” Mikal said, starting up the steps that rose from the back corner of the room. Margaret was quick to follow him.
The small attic room had three dirty windows that looked out onto Market Street, but the sloping ceiling made it impossible to stand up on the side of the room beside the windows.
Margaret hunched over and crept toward them. She ran a finger over the glass, leaving a streak in the dust. “As soon as I wash these windows, I’ll make some gingham curtains to hang over them. I can just picture it all in my mind. It’s go
ing to be so pretty!”
Mikal could not picture this dismal little room becoming “pretty,” even under Margaret’s talented fingers, but he did not tell her so.
In one corner was a small, cast-iron cookstove. Against one wall, a single bed made from plain pine panels supported a thin mattress. A sawbuck table and a slat-backed rocker completed the meager furnishings. “Are you sure this place will be adequate for your needs, Margaret?”
“Oh, yes! When I get through with this place, you won’t recognize it, Mikal. When can I begin?” Then she was hit with a thought that should have occurred to her before now. “Mikal, what is the rent for this place?”
“Look, Margaret. I thought we agreed that we were partners. The rent will come from the profits as soon as there are some. Anyway, no one would rent this place the way it is now. Anything you do will only add to its value.
“Downstairs, I’d like to put in a few shelves along one wall to stock with merchandise other than hats,” he continued. “That might give us an additional source of income.”
“What kind of merchandise did you have in mind?” Mar-garet asked, leading the way back down the stairs. “Something else for the ladies, to go with their hats?”
“I’ve always thought I’d like to have a bookstore. We could just put in a few shelves of books to start and see how well they sell. I don’t think we’d have so many customers that they’d interrupt your hat making too often. Do you think you could handle all of this by yourself?”
Margaret gave the matter a few moments of serious thought. She did hate interruptions when she was cutting out her bonnets, but if she were to run a millinery store, she would probably have to do her cutting and sewing after hours anyway. She’d have to put the customers’ needs first, no matter what she sold. “I’m sure I could handle the sale of books alongside my bonnets,” she said. “What kind of books would we sell?”
“Useful books. Bibles, of course, and dictionaries, and reference books. And some just for reading pleasure, like The Last of the Mohicans. I don’t have a lot of time for reading, but I sure enjoyed that! I’d bring the books down from New York, and I could bring some magazines that show the latest fashions for women. I think the women of Apalachicola would snap them up in a hurry, and they might even give you some ideas for your hats.”
“Could I start today?” Margaret pleaded. “I’d like to get the little room upstairs cleaned so that I could move over here from the hotel.”
Mikal knew that her main concern was her lack of money, but he could see that she needed to get some rest. She had some hard work ahead of her. “Margaret, I want to take you back to the hotel now. You can have a nice, relaxing bath and rest for a few hours. I’ll come back to have supper with you, as I promised earlier, and then you need to get a good night’s sleep. Tomorrow will be soon enough to start on this job.”
“I suppose you’re right,” Margaret agreed reluctantly. “But I want to start early in the morning, if it’s all right with you.”
“I’ll bring in some cleaning supplies, and I’ll see about getting enough lumber to put up some shelves. I’ll put in a few shelves upstairs, too. I can work with you all day tomorrow and the next day, but after that, I’m afraid you’ll be on your own for a while. Those Georgia and Alabama cotton farmers are beginning to come in with their bales of cotton. As soon as the schooner is loaded, I’ll be heading back to New York.”
Margaret tried not to show her disappointment. Mikal was so good to her, the best friend she had ever had. She couldn’t expect him to drop everything to take care of her needs. She would have to learn to depend on herself. “Mikal, you still haven’t shown me the millinery supplies you brought from New York. When do I get to see them?”
Mikal led her outside to the sidewalk and turned back to lock the door. “The boxes are still on the Windsong. I’ll have them brought to the store as soon as we get the place cleaned up a bit. You wouldn’t want to get dust and grime on your new fabrics, would you?”
Of course, Margaret agreed that she would not. Still, she found it hard to be patient when she was so anxious to see the materials she would soon be transforming into stylish bonnets and hats.
“I’m going to have a sign made,” Mikal announced as they began their walk toward the Mansion House. “I can see it now: Margaret’s Millinery Shoppe.”
Margaret could see it, too, and it caused her heart to pound with excitement. “But what about your books? Shouldn’t the sign say something about them, too?”
“This town has a way of passing news around. I think word will spread fast enough once we have our shelves stocked.”
The two business partners walked hand in hand, each wondering just how far this new partnership was destined to extend.
thirteen
Margaret rolled up the sleeves of her calico dress and set to work with the new broom that Mikal had brought. Together they had carted out three bushel baskets of trash this morning, and they had not even started on the upstairs yet. She wiped her face with the edge of her muslin apron. My, it was hot for a November day!
Margaret coughed and choked as dust raised by her broom spiraled around her. One thing was certain: if she ever got this place clean, it would never again collect this much dust and filth, at least not as long as she had anything to do with it!
On hands and knees, she and Mikal worked side by side all morning, using stiff scrub brushes, lye soap, and buckets of cold water that Mikal carried in from the backyard pump. Even though perspiration ran down her cheeks, working alongside Mikal gave Margaret a happy, secure feeling. The hours seemed to fly, and by noon, they were ready to tackle the room upstairs.
Mikal stood in the center of the spotless wooden floor and admired the fruit of their morning’s efforts. “I’d never have believed it possible! Say, there’s a café on the corner where we can get a bite to eat. Do you like fresh oysters?”
“Love ’em! I’ve only had them once or twice, but my father was very fond of seafood, particularly shellfish. Whenever he could buy it fresh from the ocean, he always brought some home.”
“Apalachicola probably has the most and the best oysters found anywhere in the world. At least, that’s what people around here say. Let’s go try some and make up our own minds!”
The café was bustling with business. Mikal and Margaret sat across from each other at a small table near the window, and Margaret found that oysters were every bit as good as she remembered them, perhaps even better. Certainly they were much larger than the ones she had eaten in Savannah. She could not dispute the extravagant claim of the locals. She and Mikal ate them on crackers and washed them down with hot coffee laced with thick, sweet cream.
“I can’t remember when I’ve enjoyed a meal so much,” Margaret said, wiping her lips on her napkin. But her thoughts were still focused on the new store with her own little room above. “Mikal, I don’t want to rush you through your meal, but do you think we could get the upstairs done before dark and have my trunk brought over from the hotel? I’d really like to move in as soon as possible.”
Mikal was as anxious as Margaret to get the work finished, but for a different reason. He would be leaving Apalachicola in two more days, and he wanted to make sure that all the heavy work was taken care of before he left. But he did think that Margaret deserved a few days of luxury before she began work in her millinery shop. Life was not going to be easy for her once she settled into her room on Market Street.
“We can get the work done, but why don’t you enjoy a few days in the hotel before you have your trunk sent over? You can have warm baths and a comfortable bed to sleep in. Do you realize that after you move, all your water will have to be carried up the steps from the pump in the backyard? And the wood for your stove will have to be carried up, too.”
“I–I can manage.” Margaret tried to project more assurance in her words than she actually felt. She had never before been responsible for carrying in her own wood and water. But she was fast learning to do a lot of thing
s she had never done before. Why, until this morning, she had never even scrubbed a floor!
“We’d better get back to work, then,” Mikal said. “If you’re bound and determined to stay in that room tonight, we have a lot to do between now and dark!”
❧
John Gorrie invited them both for supper on the night before Mikal’s departure. After starting the meal with fresh conch chowder, William served them fresh pork roast, baked sweet potatoes topped with hand-churned butter, tender young pods of okra from the garden, and a basket of beaten biscuits made from his own secret recipe.
Margaret groaned when she heard him announce dessert, but the compote of fresh tropical fruits was the perfect ending for the delicious meal.
“Let’s take our demitasse in the parlor,” John suggested. “And then I have something I’d like to show you.”
As they moved into the parlor, Mikal explained to Margaret that John was an innovator and an inventor, and he almost always had something interesting to share. “What is it this time, John?”
As they sat sipping their coffee, John told them of his latest idea. “I’ve lost several patients to high fever, and I’ve tried various ways to lower their body temperatures. Cool compresses help to a degree, but I think I’m about to come up with a way to cool their entire room.”
“And do you think that would lower their body temperature?” Margaret asked.
“I’m almost certain it would. I don’t have the machine perfected yet, but as soon as I do, I plan to apply for a patent on it. This could be quite a revolutionary development in combating some of these virulent fevers we continue to encounter down here in the tropics.”
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