Blues Along the River

by Sandra Robbins

  She nodded. “I’ve been busy all morning. I made the bed, and then I dusted the parlor before I came in to help Sally with the noon meal. I love this house, and I can’t tell you how wonderful I feel being here.”

  “That’s good.” Marcus looked at Sally again, but she hadn’t moved. He took Victoria by the arm and nudged her forward. “I need to speak to you in the parlor, Victoria.”

  “All right.” She started from the kitchen but stopped and called over her shoulder, “I’ll be right back, Sally.”

  Marcus clenched his fists as he followed Victoria to the parlor. When they stepped into the room, he motioned her to sit in a chair and positioned himself to stand in front of her. She gazed up at him, and his heart pumped. How could he make her understand what he wanted their life to be at Pembrook?

  He took a deep breath and raked his hand through his hair. “Victoria, what were you thinking going into the kitchen and working alongside Sally?”

  The smile on her face dissolved, and her eyes grew wide. “What are you talking about, Marcus?”

  “You are the mistress of this house, Victoria. I want you to remember that.”

  Victoria pushed up out of her chair. “I thought I was your wife and that my job was to take care of our home.”

  He blinked in surprise. “You are my wife, but I don’t want you acting like the hired help. I don’t need another worker. I need a wife who wants to make a home with me, preside over the table at dinnertime, conduct herself like a Southern lady of privilege.”

  She moved closer to him. “But I want our home to be our own special place. I can’t be like a princess sitting on a throne. I have to be active in making our life happy. I’m used to working, Marcus, and I can’t change that. Sally is the only woman here, and I want to be friends with her.”

  He drew back in surprise. “Friends with her? That’s impossible.”

  “Why?”

  “Because she’s. . .”

  “Not white?” Victoria finished the sentence for him.

  He licked his lips. “Sally is a former slave who works at Pembrook now. You are the owner’s wife. There is no place for friendship between the two of you.”

  Anger flashed in her eyes. “That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. The war has been over for sixteen years. Don’t you know that ended a lot of the old ideas in the South? I worked with women whose skin color was different than mine in Mobile, and I found I liked them. This morning I found that I like Sally. I can’t ignore the fact that she’s in this house, and I can’t sit around all day waiting for you to come home. If we’re going to be happy together, you have to let me be the person I’ve always been. Don’t try to change me, Marcus.”

  “I just think you should remember the difference in your and Sally’s stations in life. If you want friends, there are Savannah and Tave.”

  Victoria crossed her arms and glared at him. “They both live miles from here. How am I supposed to see them?”

  “I’ll have one of the workers drive you over in the buggy whenever you want to go see either of them. As far as Sally is concerned, you can’t be friends with her. My father made it clear that there was a line between the owner and the workers at Pembrook. They’re like children that we have to take care of. Remember that when you deal with Sally. Be firm with what you expect from her and don’t become involved in her life.”

  She shook her head. “That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. You sound like a slave owner from thirty years ago. It’s a new day in the South, Marcus, and your father is no longer here. You have to make your own decisions and find your own way of dealing with life as it is now.”

  He regarded her for a moment. “Your mother said you’ve always been impulsive. For now, I see I can’t change your mind. As you get used to life here and see how the tenants need guidance, you’ll change your opinions.”

  She shook her head. “I wouldn’t count on it.” Her gaze softened, and she reached up and stroked his cheek. “I don’t want to argue with you, Marcus. I love you with all my heart, and I want us to be happy. Please try to understand how I feel.”

  His heart pricked at the sadness he detected on her face. How could he deny her anything? “I want us to be happy, too. I love you so much, Victoria, but you have to understand you’ve entered a different world.” He glanced down at her simple dress and the grease-stained apron. “How would you like to take a trip?”

  Her eyes lit up. “A trip to where? You said we couldn’t take a honeymoon trip until later in the summer.”

  “I know, but I’ve changed my mind. Maybe we need to get away from Pembrook for a few days and go where we can be alone and get to know each other. We could go to Selma and stay at the St. James Hotel, and we could shop for a new wardrobe for you. I want to buy you whatever you need.”

  She clasped her hands in front of her. “Oh, Marcus, do you really mean it? We can stay in a real hotel, and I can shop for clothes?”

  He put his arm around her and drew her close. “You can have anything your heart desires. I want you to know how much I love you and how proud I am to have you for my wife.”

  “When can we go?”

  “How about the first of next week? That should give me time to make arrangements to be away.”

  She threw her arms around his neck and hugged him. “Thank you, Marcus. I love you.”

  He put his finger under her chin and tilted her face up. The lips that he’d dreamed about so many nights hovered right beneath his. He tightened his embrace as her arms circled his neck and pulled his head down until their lips met in a sweet kiss.

  Nine

  With only one day left until their departure for Selma, Victoria was determined to finish the dress she’d started working on before her wedding. As she concentrated on the hem, she thought back to how wonderful the last few days had been.

  Ever since her argument with Marcus the day after their wedding, she’d tried not to upset him. She was sure that once they had adjusted to living together, he would see how some of the ideas he still held to weren’t reasonable.

  In the meantime she still helped Sally, but she tried to be waiting in the parlor when it was time for him to arrive home. He hadn’t said anything else, and she hoped there wouldn’t be another confrontation like the one they’d had.

  The sound of music drifted through the house, and she sat up straight. The needle she’d been pushing through the fabric jabbed her finger, and she cried out. A tiny drop of blood bubbled up on her skin. Frowning, she stuck the finger in her mouth in an attempt to ease the sting.

  The music echoed through the house again, and she pushed to her feet. What was it, and where was it coming from?

  She stepped into the hallway outside the parlor and listened. The sound of a low-pitched voice singing reached her ears, and she moved in its direction. Stopping outside the closed door to the kitchen, she put her ear next to the door and listened again.

  Strumming on some kind of instrument accompanied a melancholy voice that moaned the words of a song like nothing she’d ever heard. “ ‘The river calls me home, ain’t gonna stay no more. The river calls me home, ain’t gonna stay no more. When I leave on that boat, it gonna drop me off on heaven’s shore.’ ”

  “Oh, that’s good, James. You done make up one I like.” Sally’s voice drifted to her ears.

  Victoria pushed the door open and stepped into the room. A young man who resembled Sally sat in a chair, and he held the strangest instrument she’d ever seen. “I heard the music, and I came to see what was going on.”

  The young man jumped to his feet and backed toward the door that led outside. “I’s sorry, Miz Raines. I didn’t mean to cause no problem. I jest come in here to wait so’s I can walk home with my mama. Whilst I was here, I let her hear my new song. I won’t do it no more, Miz Raines.”

  Victoria held out her hand. “No, don’t go. I liked your music.” She glanced at Sally. “Is this your son?”

  “Yes’m. This be James. He
likes to play music. He makes up songs all the time.”

  Victoria pointed to the instrument he held. “Is that a homemade guitar?”

  James nodded. “Yes’m.”

  Victoria took a step closer and studied the strange device he held. “Would you tell me how you made it?”

  James held out the instrument for her to see. “Mr. Perkins down at the store give me a empty cigar box, and I cut me a hole in the middle of it. I found a plank that Mistuh Mahcus done tore off the henhouse, and I whittled it down till I got the right size to nail onto the box for my handle. There was some old screen wire left over in a shed out back, and I made me some strings out of that. ’Course, first I had to make this here bridge to lift the wires up so they’d make a sound.”

  Victoria’s mouth gaped open. “You made this all by yourself?”

  “Yes’m.”

  “James, you’re so smart. And the song I heard you singing, did you write that, too?”

  “Yes’m.”

  Victoria ran her hand down the strings and plucked at one of them. The twang sent a thrill through her. “I’ve heard lots of musicians in Mobile, but I’ve never heard any song like the one you were singing. What kind of music is it?”

  James shrugged. “I doan know. It just a kind of song my mama and pappy used to sing to me when I was a little boy.”

  Sally stepped forward. “Back when we was slaves, we’d get so sad sometimes we jest had to let out our feelin’s in our songs. James’s music jest the same kind we used to sing.”

  Victoria nodded. “It does have a sad sound. It seems to come from the bottom of your soul. I’m glad I heard you singing, James. It was very beautiful.”

  The front door of the house opened, and Marcus’s voice rang out. “Victoria, where are you?”

  She whirled around at the sound of her husband’s voice. “I have to go now, but please come again and play for me. I’ve never heard such a haunting melody in my life.”

  Marcus stood in the middle of the parlor when she reentered the room. He turned and smiled at her. “There you are. I saw your sewing lying here and wondered where you were.”

  “I was taking care of something in the kitchen.” She stopped in front of him and put her arms around his neck. “I can hardly believe that we’re leaving on our trip tomorrow. I’m so excited. Did you see my mother when you went to town today?”

  “I did. I told her and your uncle that we would be away for the next two weeks. They said to tell you to have a good time.”

  She tilted her head and directed what she hoped was a coy look at him. “Just being with you will make me enjoy the trip. Of course, the new clothes you’ve promised me will be nice, too.”

  He threw back his head and laughed. “Mrs. Raines, you make me so happy.”

  “And you do me, too, Mr. Raines.”

  He drew away from her. “I need to go out to the barn and see if I can see James before he goes home for the day. I want him to drive us in the buggy to the boat landing tomorrow. We’re going to Selma on the Montgomery Belle.”

  “Then you don’t have to go to the barn. He’s in the kitchen.”

  Marcus stiffened, and he frowned. “You were in the kitchen with him?”

  “Not just with James.” Victoria picked up the dress she’d been hemming and sat down. “Sally was in there, too. I don’t know if they’ve left to go home or not.”

  “Victoria, I have told you how I feel about. . .”

  She frowned at him. “I wasn’t doing anything wrong, Marcus. I heard some music, and I went to investigate.”

  “Music? What kind of music?”

  She shrugged and reached for the thimble she’d set on the table next to the chair. “It was a song that James made up. It was really quite beautiful.”

  His eyes grew wide. “You were in there listening to music with Sally and James? Really, Victoria, have you not listened to a thing I’ve told you for the past week? You are to keep your distance from Sally and from James, too. The only conversation I want you having with them is when you instruct them in what you want them to do.”

  “And what if I don’t want them to do something? What if I just want to talk to somebody or to listen to a gifted young man play a homemade instrument?”

  He gritted his teeth. “Find something else to occupy your mind. Don’t befriend the tenant farmers’ families.”

  She held up her hand. “Let’s not start this again. We’re leaving on a trip tomorrow, and we don’t need to leave with an argument hanging over our heads.”

  He exhaled. “You’re right. But when we get back, we’re going to settle this once and for all.”

  Victoria jumped to her feet, and the dress tumbled to the floor. “Yes, we are.”

  He stared at her for what seemed an eternity before he turned and stormed to the hallway. Victoria stood with her fists clenched for a moment before she dropped back into the chair. What had happened? One moment she and Marcus were speaking of their love, and in the next instant they were locked in a war of wills. How they were ever going to settle this disagreement she had no idea.

  ❧

  Victoria stared at her image in the full-length mirror of their hotel suite at the St. James Hotel. The new evening dress with its white satin underlayer and pink silk overlay trimmed in pink roses and delicate lace had taken her breath away when she first saw it in the store. The scooped neck and short sleeves added a stunning look to the elegant garment. She’d never felt so beautiful in her life.

  The door to the room opened, and Marcus entered. His eyes lit up when he saw her. “You look beautiful.”

  She bowed her head and curtsied. “Thank you, kind sir. Maybe I can persuade you to escort me to the dining room tonight.”

  “It would be my honor.” He stopped beside her. “Do you mind if we have guests join us?”

  “Who?”

  “Matthew Chandler and his wife, Portia. I ran into them downstairs. Matthew’s family owns Winterville Plantation, and he and his wife are staying at this hotel, too. They asked if we would join them tonight.”

  “That would be wonderful,” Victoria said. “I’d like to meet Portia. Is Matthew a friend of yours?”

  “I hardly know the man. His father is still in control at Winterville. I don’t think Matthew stays there much. He met his wife when he visited family at Dauphin Island. They’ve been married several years.”

  “They sound interesting, but do you think I’m dressed all right?” She grinned and turned in a slow circle.

  His gaze raked her from head to toe. “I’ve never seen anyone more perfect.”

  Two hours later, Victoria swallowed the last bite of her dessert, wiped her mouth on her napkin, and glanced across the table at Portia Chandler. She studied the tiny woman who had picked at her food throughout the meal. Victoria thought she had spent more time pushing her food around on her plate than putting any in her mouth.

  Victoria leaned forward. “Portia, my husband tells me you grew up on Dauphin Island.”

  Portia’s hand shook as she set her coffee cup in its saucer. “I did. Are you familiar with the island?”

  “I am. I’d lived in Mobile all my life until we came to Willow Bend.”

  Portia nodded, and the long curls that hung from the back of her head bobbed up and down. “I heard that. You must miss Mobile a lot.”

  Victoria laughed and glanced at Marcus. “I thought I would, but then I met Marcus.”

  Matthew Chandler leaned over and circled his wife’s wrist with his fingers. Portia’s already pale face grew whiter at his touch. “Portia feels the same way. Don’t you, darling?”

  Portia dropped her gaze to the tabletop and bit her lip. She nodded but didn’t answer.

  Victoria glanced toward Marcus, but a sudden movement of Matthew’s hand caught her attention. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Portia wince as if in pain, and that’s when she saw Matthew’s fingers tightening around Portia’s wrist.

  Startled, Victoria couldn’t react for a
moment. Then she pushed her chair back and jumped to her feet. “It’s getting stuffy in here. Portia, why don’t we go up to the balcony on the second floor and get some air. We can sit out there and watch the river roll by while we cool off.” She turned to Marcus. “You men can do without your wives for a while, can’t you?”

  Marcus stood. “Of course. We’ll come up later.”

  “Good.” Victoria grabbed Portia’s arm and pulled her to her feet. “This will give Portia and me a chance to get to know each other better.”

  Without speaking, Portia followed Victoria from the dining room, up the stairs, and onto the second-floor balcony overlooking the river. When they’d settled themselves in chairs, Portia turned to Victoria.

  “Thank you.”

  Victoria arranged the skirt of her new dress around her legs. “For what?”

  “For getting me away from him.”

  Victoria reached over and clasped Portia’s hand in hers. “I saw him squeezing your wrist. You looked like you were in pain.”

  Tears stood in Portia’s eyes. “I was, but that was nothing compared to what it is sometimes.”

  Victoria’s heart pricked at the sadness lining Portia’s face. “I’m so sorry. Is there anything I can do to help you?”

  Portia shook her head. “No one can help me. I should have gotten to know him better before I married him. He seemed so sweet and kind when I first met him. Then after we were married, it was too late.”

  “Have you talked to Matthew about this?”

  “Yes, and it’s done no good. I even tried to talk to his father, which was a big mistake. I paid a high price for that. Matthew beat me so badly that my eyes were so black I didn’t leave my room for a week.”

  Victoria wiped at the tears in her eyes. “There has to be something you can do. You can’t live the rest of your life in fear of being hurt by your husband.”

  “I don’t intend to.” Portia took a deep breath. “One of these days I will disappear. When you hear about it, pray for me that I may escape the monster I married.”

  “I will.”

  Portia leaned forward in her chair. “And be careful, Victoria. You didn’t know your husband well before you married him, either. Take care that you don’t end up like me.”