Pete swung in Mary’s direction. “Mercy?” he said and his voice was bitter as gall. “They was no mercy this day.”
“They held Ott Tweed’s girl, Hannah, down and—” he looked sideways at my girls. “She’s about the same age as you, Abigail. They took turns at her.
“We followed ’em down the creek shooting at ’em, trying to kill as many as we could. But they was too many of them. By the time they caught me, Edison, and Little Johnny there at Paul’s place, they had took ten other prisoners.” He snorted. “Prisoners! They had old man Joe Woods, who was seventy year old if he was a day, and little David Shelton who was but a boy! They did have six er seven of us what was in Marshall that night. Rest of ’em, though, was innocent as Julie here. They made camp that night on Paul’s place, and I told Edison and Little Johnny that I aimed to try to make a run for it. Now, they’d told us that evening afore they put us in Paul’s shed that they’s gonna take us into Asheville for a trial. But I saw the look in Allen’s eyes that evening. They was red and flat as a snake’s during dog days. Edison allowed as to how I’d get myself killed or maimed, and I told him I figured that was better than what Allen aimed to do to us.”
I thought Pete was going to set into crying then, but he did not.
“I let on like I needed to go to the woods. Finally made such a ruckus that one of the soldiers let me out and took me to where the trees started at the edge of the barn lot. I squatted down like I aimed to take a shit and felt around under me till I found me a good-sized rock. Hit him in the head with it and run. I knew if I could make it up to the laurel thicket, they’s no way they could catch me. Hell, they didn’t even send nobody after me. I sneaked back about daylight and when they pulled out, me, John Kirk, and Hersh Cantrell counted thirteen prisoners. One of them had got away. I knew hit weren’t Edison. I could see his red hair in amongst them that was being led off. We watched till they was gone and then there come Little Johnny sneaking out of that shed, purty as you please. I whistled and he come straight as a shot.
“We set out after Allen, keeping to the ridge. When they got down to the flats at Hickey’s Fork, they stopped and Keith commenced to giving orders. We eased on down the mountain till we got to where we could hear him. Six of the fellers they had rounded up was jerked out into the open field and they commenced to beating them till they was all on their knees. Then Keith hollered for some of his crowd to shoot ’em. They was all right still and quiet. Then Keith hollered that if they didn’t shoot, then they could join the prisoners. Old man Joe asked for time to pray if they were going to kill them. Then Keith dropped his sword and they fired. Killed five of ’em. And Edison.” Pete swiped at his eyes. “Edison was begging fer them to let him go. That soldier raised his gun and shot him.”
Pete reached for the crock but it was empty and he put it back down on the table. Larkin reached down beside his chair, brought up a full one, and handed it to Pete.
I knowed Abigail was crying before I even looked at her. Though she was just twelve, her and Edison had set together twice during church and we had all deviled her about it. He was the sweetest thing, and I was certain he would have been asking to walk out with Abby this coming summer. But that would never be now, and my heart just broke with the knowing of it. I reached out and took her hand in mine and was just about done in when I noticed it were as big as my own.
“Then they made the rest of them kneel down and shot them too. They gathered up and rode out then. Us there on the mountain didn’t dare come off till the next morning. We loaded the dead on Nance Franklin’s sled. Had a time digging the holes. The ground was like flintrock.
“After they was buried, I lit out. Struck out by myself. They won’t catch me if I’m on my own.”
Larkin got up and went over to the fire. He squatted down and laid on three logs and stirred up the red embers until flames caught the dry wood. Pete hunched forward and laced his fingers together on the table. “One of the reasons I stopped in here was to see if Hack was home.” His voice seemed loud in the quiet room.
“No,” Mary said. “He deserted from Allen’s regiment back in September. We ain’t heard nothing since. For all we know,” she swallowed hard, “he might be dead.”
“I don’t reckon. Not unless he died in the last week.” Pete said.
“You seen him?” me and Larkin said at the same time.
“Seen him? He was with us up till a week ago. He lit out right afore Allen and Keith showed up. I figured he was heading here.” Pete rose from the table and stretched. “I’m going to sleep down in the hayloft, if you don’t care. I won’t sleep in the house. I’ll be gone before you milk in the morning.” He stopped at the door. “Thank you. I won’t forget this.”
“Larkin?” Mary whispered.
“I’ll see what I can find out.”
When Larkin come back in, all he told us was that Hackley had gone to Marshall with them and Pete hadn’t seen him since. Something was just not right so I went to the barn before daylight the next morning to ask Pete myself, but he was already gone, and I never saw him again.
Later on that day, Larkin come by the house. “Hackley,” he said, staring at the floor, “he’s been laying out over on Shelton Laurel since September.”
I did not even ask what the woman’s name was. I did not want to know.
MARY WAS WORRIED TO death after that, and she was at my house more than she was at her own. Poor little thing. They was many a morning that she’d show up when I was milking the cows and she would be there when I went to milk that evening. She was still foolish over Pearl, and playing with her seemed to take her mind off her troubles.
My precious Pearl was truly a jewel. She was black-headed and black-eyed but did not have the dark skin like you might think she would. The only real pearl I had ever seen was the one that Wade Hensley had give to Vergie, and I swear to you that my Pearl’s skin looked just as smooth and, well, pearly, I guess you would say. She had great big slanty eyes and little features like her daddy’s people and was singing up a storm by then, even though it was all in baby talk and you could not understand a word she was saying. And she was not spoiled, though it would have been no fault of all of us. By all rights that young’un should have been rotten. She was a real friendly young’un, too, and never knowed a stranger. And Lord, she loved Mary and would go running to her the minute she saw her.
If I could have got my hands on Hackley I would have slapped him halfway to Sunday. Some men ain’t worth killing, but I would have pure-D relished the chance to choke my brother senseless right about then. The least that man could have done was to have wrote to Mary and told her he was still among the land of the living. I was always watching for a line or two from Zeke, and bless him, he never let me to wonder long. I got many letters from him during that damn war and I still have every one of them today.
Mary got five letters from Hackley during that whole time.
Right after the killing over on Shelton Laurel, she asked me if it felt like to me that Hackley had just fell off the face of the earth.
She was a strong woman, Mary was. But even the strongest of us has to lay that heavy yoke down every now and again. I knowed beyond reason that she was having a struggle and comforted her the best I could, and I would have worried more about her if I had not knowed her people. They was a strong bunch of women that she was cut from. And she was young, and youth is a blessing when you are going through a hard patch. The very lack of having something to measure against can be a good thing. She would come every morning saying, “This will be the day I hear something,” and when it was not she would say, “Well, mayhap tomorrow.” Is that not the way of it? But she was awfully lonesome, too. And she’d had plenty of time laying with a man whose hands was not just able to bring pretty songs from a fiddle. She was missing that, just as I was and every other woman I knowed.
But the rest of us did not have a big strapping man around that looked at us with eyes as black as night and full of love. I think that had start
ed to wear on her as much as anything.
Truth be known, it was right about this time that Mary began to harbor a different sort of affection for Larkin, too. But I, for one, knowed my brother would pop back up. And he did.
LARKIN COME TO ME late up in the evening and I knowed the minute I seen his face that something was wrong. I guess I was primed for bad news as I had got a letter from Zeke that day.
I want you to rite to me as soon as you git this letter. Arty I saw you last nite very plain. O that it could hav been so this morning. Arty I think if I liv to git back we will liv and injoy ourselves better than ever. I will be of more use to you than ever before.
I cried my eyes out while I was writing him back. My heart was just broke. I did not have an inkling how in this world I was ever going to be able to live and stand it.
Larkin said he’d been down in the barn milking when the awfulest-looking man ever was had come up on him. Said he was nasty and had the worst smell about him you could ever wrap your nose around. I give a big sigh and said, “Where did you hide him?” because I knowed right then that my brother had come home to roost. Larkin did not even ask me how I knowed. He just said up in the cave and I said that was as good a place as any. I started gathering up quilts, an old coat of Zeke’s, and snatched up what was left from supper to take up there. While I was putting it all in a sack, he said he’d had a time keeping Hack from going to the house to see Mary, but he had finally convinced him that it would put her in harm’s way if she knowed where he was. I said, “Larkin, you must tell her.” But I knowed he would not. He could not even look me in the eye when he muttered around saying how he would have to study about it, that he had to protect Mary. Poor Larkin. He knowed when he told her it would take what little part of that girl he had managed to wrassle away for himself.
I cooked a little extra after that, and every evening Larkin would take it up on the mountain to my brother. And now Larkin had yet another burden to tote around on shoulders that was already plumb loaded down. It is a thousand wonders that that child did not go stark raving mad. But you know, maybe he did a little bit. And truth be told, I reckon it all probably drove Hackley mad, too. He was never one to be by himself and always wanted to be putting on a big show and having him a big time. He was lonesome up there and worried the hell out of Larkin wanting this, that, and the other. Poor old both of them, and me too, while I’m about it. I knowed it and could not tell a soul and I worried about Hack. In the bottom of my heart I knowed he would not stay hid for long. Everything Hackley wanted was just a stone’s throw down the mountain. He said if the wind was blowing just right he could smell the smoke from his own chimney. But at least he was in out of the weather, and I sent all manner of stuff up there to make it more homey for him.
We had so much on our minds that we never give one thought as to what Mary might be thinking about Larkin disappearing for long periods of time. We was too caught up in trying to hide it from her to imagine where her mind might take her. She never so much as wondered that we was hiding Hackley. She just knowed that Larkin was gone a lot more than he used to be, and her mind went right where any woman’s would. She decided all on her own that Larkin had him a sweetheart, and who do you think she imagined it to be? Why, of course she thought it was Maggie.
She told me years later that she would lay there in her bed pretending to be asleep with all sorts of things going through her head. She said if Julie had not been laying right there beside her, they was no telling what she might of done and sometimes she just had to make herself keep from getting up and crossing that floor and laying down on the floor next to him. And one of the reasons she did not do this was because she thought he would have turned from her.
Now that was something that would never have happened. As bad as I hate to admit it, Larkin would have shucked Hackley’s corn so quick it would’ve make your head spin, if only he’d knowed it could have been his for the shucking.
ONE EVENING IN MARCH me and the young’uns went over to Mary’s and she fixed supper for all us. Larkin and Julie was both good hands at riddling and my Carolina was right in there with them. It felt good to be out of the house and I was laughing and carrying on too. It took me awhile to notice that Mary was looking at Larkin more often than not. Her eyes would sort of light on him and then go sliding off somewheres else. Then I caught her studying his hands with her whole heart in her face for all to see, and I thought to myself, Oh, no. For a woman that goes to studying a man’s hands is thinking where she’d like for him to put them, and that is the gospel truth if it was ever told.
Right before we eat Mary got real snappish with Julie, which is no wonderment when you understand that there was a real easiness that had sprung up between her and Larkin. Mary straightened from the hearth where she’d just swung the great iron pot back over the fire, and I could tell by her tone that she was aggravated.
“Git the plates out, Julie. Larkin, strain the milk. I’m tired to the bone of having to do everything.”
They was a look flew between Julie and Larkin that let me know this was no new thing. Julie hitched a little shrug and went to the sideboard for plates.
Larkin said in a real easy voice, “I strained the milk, Mary, and already carried it to the spring house ’cept for the crock over yonder that I left out for buttermilk.”
Mary bent over the stewpot then, and I could tell she was already sorry for being so hateful. “Reckon I’m just tired of cold weather. Tired of eating the same thing night and day. I’m so sick of cornbread I could just spit!” She bunched up a handful of apron to lift the Dutch oven and carried it to the table.
Larkin smiled and his black eyes just danced over her. “This here is some of the best cornbread in the country.”
She glanced at him, then shot a look at me, and her eyes was plumb naked.
That was a long supper. I set there the whole time watching her watch him and Julie watching them and it was just a mess, I’m telling you. I was wore to a frazzle when we left.
I reckon things would’ve still been all right if Lucindy hadn’t sent for Julie a few weeks later. Andy was home with the bad dysentery and Julie had to go help take care of him. Mary come by the house and told me that Larkin was going to stay on. I made ready to tell her what I thought about that, but before I could get a single word out she said, “Now, don’t start, Arty Wallin. I have already had it out with Julie and I ain’t in no mood to get into it with you, too.” I just looked at her. This was the first time Mary had straightened that little back at me, but I was not about to let that slow me down. “Well, you’re going to have to hear me out anyways,” I said. And she said right back, “I will tell you what I told Julie, then, and save you the breath.” So I just held onto my tongue and heard her out.
She said they was out on the porch right before Julie left and they’d sort of got into it when Mary told Julie that Larkin was going to stay. Julie had grabbed her by the arm. “Don’t do nothing foolish, sister,” she said, “as you will live to regret it.” As I say, they was no flies on that girl. Mary looked me right in the eyes then. “I have already done it in my heart a thousand times, Arty,” she said. “In your heart is not the same as in the flesh, Mary,” I said. She turned beet red but raised that chin at me. “He will stay,” she said, and I answered her right back, “Then God help you, for you will need it.”
And right then I figured God might not watch them two near close enough, so I appointed myself the guardian of them both and that was a very tiresome job.
NOT LONG AFTER THAT Hackley finally begged Larkin into bringing him his fiddle. I figure Larkin thought that would keep Hackley on that mountain, as he was in a constant state of threatening to come down. It did seem to pacify Hack for a while.
SO THAT IS HOW we passed the rest of the cold weather, and then came the greening up of spring. And the sap began to rise, if you know what I mean, and I was in and out of Mary’s house or sending my young’uns by just every little whipstitch. I went at different times so
they never knew when I was coming.
Mary come by the house one afternoon with her eyes big and round and a flush on her cheeks, and I thought I had not done my job well enough. But I put that thought to rest when she said, “Arty, let me tell you that I think I heard Hackley’s fiddle when I was out in the yard today.” My heart was in my mouth. I knowed exactly what had happened but could not say a word to her; I had promised Larkin I would not, and I was one to keep my promises. “Now, it could have been anybody, Mary,” I said in as normal a voice as I could muster. She looked at me like I had gone lame in the head. “Why, it were the tune ‘Elzig’s Farewell,’ Arty. Do you not think I would know his hands?” And I said to myself, I reckon you would, honey. But what I said to her was “Well, then, you should not be out traipsing around in the woods. You should tell Larkin.”
And she hied out of there allowing she would do just that.
I studied and studied about all that until well after dark. I knowed there would be no sleep for me, as I had managed to work myself up into a state. I was resolved now that she should know that it was Hackley she’d heard and be damned the consequences. After Pearl went to sleep, I told Abigail I was going to Mary’s and lit out.
And so it was that I caught them.
I was not thinking of anything like that romance business when I went across the porch and pushed on through the door. I reckon in normal times I would have howdied the house, but, like I said, I was not thinking. So I can only imagine what went through their minds when they finally come to know I was standing there in the room with them. I will not embarrass you with the details. But suffice to say I saw way more than a body should see concerning the private actions between a man and woman. You could have cut the air with a dull knife when we was all standing there looking at each other. Finally Larkin said, “Amma, we was just talking about Mary thinking she’d heard Hackley playing the fiddle today.” And I said, “Larkin, what you was doing was not talking,” and he shut his mouth. Then Mary’s chin come up and mine come out and before she could say a word that would cause hard feelings between us, I said, “Get your coat, Mary. We’re going up on the mountain and you’ll be there all night.”
My Old True Love Page 17