Our eternal curse II

by Simon Rumney

  Julii told no one she had sent money because she was ashamed of her own actions. She really wanted to storm over to the saloon and give Miss Dotty a piece of her mind. It was the cat house mother who should be punished, and “sucking up” really felt wrong, but she hated the thought of Samantha being victimized for what she had done to defend her and her Robert's baby.

  There was great relief when the runner returned with news that Miss Dotty had “graciously” accepted the cash and agreed to take no further action, on the condition Julii send a further thousand dollars to compensate for loss of earnings. Under the circumstances, Miss Dotty no longer believed she could take care of Julii's hair and makeup. Julii sent the runner back clutching another full envelope without even a hint of hesitation.

  She immediately returned home to tell Samantha and Tilly, in words punctuated by many tears of relief and comforting hugs, that Miss Dotty had agreed not to retaliate.

  A strange side effect of this peculiar incident was an even stronger bond between all three of them. The deep mistrust that all brown people had for white folks, however friendly, had now been completely removed between them. Samantha and Tilly now spoke to Julii as though she was, as they put it, "A nigger like them." Julii corrected them by saying, "They were red niggers like her."

  With the last barriers to trust removed, the three women spoke as openly as sisters. The trusting maids spoke about everything freely. Samantha and Tilly even told Julii how they gave the money Count Anton insisted upon paying them to an organization called “the Underground Railroad” which was run by some “good white folks” who smuggled slaves from the south to the north and up into a place called Canada. Hearing this, Julii knew she had found a good way to spend all of her cash, as well as a good idea for the final part of her Vicksburg plan.

  The very next day, Julii asked to meet the man who ran the Savannah end of the Underground Railroad. Samantha sent a message to the man they called “the preacher” and, two days later, he walked calmly to the back door of the kitchen.

  He wore all black clothes with a white collar. Julii was intrigued by both his serenity and his collar. It stood stiff and upright like the yellow collar Confederate officers wore, but his white one had no gap at the front. While sitting at the kitchen table wondering how the white collar worked, he interrupted her thoughts by speaking though his warm smile. "I believe you asked to meet me?"

  By way of a greeting, Julii slid a large, fat envelope across the kitchen table. The preacher looked inside and smiled as Julii turned to Samantha and Tilly and said, "Join us at the table and please bring four teacups."

  The preacher was clearly impressed with the way Julii treated her niggers. His voice was warm and sympathetic. "Thank you for giving us the means to save more human beings."

  Thoughtfully he added, "May I ask why you donated so much money to our cause?"

  Julii reply was serious and passionate. "Let me just say, I know what it is like to be mistreated by the people of the South."

  "You?"

  The preacher sounded genuinely surprised. His confused expression showed that he was about to ask another question that Julii did not want to answer. She cut him off with the words: "Suffice to say, I want to help you because, other than the count, you are the only white person I have met who sees brown people as human beings."

  The preacher's reply was melancholic. "I am deeply ashamed to admit it but that is very true."

  Then, as a sad and thoughtful afterthought, he added, "Unlike my brethren of the cloth, I do not subscribe to the southern interpretation of the good book."

  Looking confused, Julii asked for clarification. "By the good book, do you mean the book called the Bible?"

  The preacher replied: "Yes, but I do not personally believe God put Negros on this earth as inferior beings to do the white man's bidding."

  Julii looked and sounded even more confused. "I have read your 'good book' many times, but I do not remember reading anything about that."

  The preacher looked terribly embarrassed as he said, "It is an extremely loose interpretation. But let us not dwell on the negative when you have done something so positive."

  Without further delay, Julii handed another envelope to the preacher saying, "The first envelope is yours to keep whatever you decide to do at the end of this meeting."

  Pointing to the second envelope, Julii added, "In that envelope is a reward for something I need done."

  Pausing, Julii waited for the preacher to open the envelope and look at the money. Pleased by his surprise, she went on. "I have been able to gather enough Union dollars to buy a good-sized farm in Canada. It is for the person who carries something north on my behalf."

  As the preacher looked at the strange-looking currency, he found a folded letter. Julii nodded at the letter as she said, "Please read the letter."

  As he read, the preacher became suspicious of Julii's motives. He glanced at Samantha and Tilly to judge their reaction. His expression asked, 'have I been set up?' He was risking his life and everyone at the table, particularly him, was aware of it. Just moments from leaving his chair and the kitchen, he was calmed by the two brown women's obvious lack of concern.

  With a deadpan expression, Julii asked, "The human beings you help escape pass through a city in the north called Washington DC, yes?"

  The preacher nodded his head 'yes' but his tone was suspicious. "Most do."

  Julii produced another envelope from within her petticoats. This envelope was thinner than the first. As she slid it across the table, she said, "Please read this letter."

  The preacher looked at the envelope. It was addressed to “The War Office” and his tone conveyed his fear. "Does that refer to the war office in Washington DC? The war office of the North?"

  "It does."

  Julii paused to let the implications of her envelope sink in. She waited for the preacher to finish his sip of tea before going on. "I assume that you are a man who would like to see the end of this Confederacy, am I correct?"

  When the preacher nodded his head 'yes', Julii placed her hand solemnly on the envelope. "Whoever carries this envelope will be in great danger. Those dangers must be made clear to that person before he, or she, agrees to carry it for me. Can you guarantee this?"

  The preacher's smile returned. This time his tone conveyed irony. "Anyone found traveling along the Underground Railroad is usually returned to their slave masters for a beating or lynched immediately and without trial. The only person endangered by that envelope is you."

  "Nothing in that envelope can be traced back to anyone at this table. Can it be posted in Washington?"

  The preacher picked up the envelope and tucked it into his inside jacket pocket as he said, "For the price of a farm in Canada, I believe I can safely say your letter will be posted."

  After the tea was drunk, the preacher shook hands with all at the table and left silently through the back door.

  Vicksburg

  General Hardee would forever blame himself for what happened on the sixth of July 1863, the day he received disastrous news that the forty-day siege of Vicksburg had ended in a total, crushing defeat.

  The news in itself was both surprising and devastating for the South, but that was not why he blamed himself. He blamed himself for what delivering the bad news, so thoughtlessly, had done to Julii.

  As a southern gentleman, he should have handled things in a more subtle manner. He should have thought it through, but the news was so deeply troubling, and he was so deeply troubled by it, that he reacted more like a general on campaign with his army than a gentleman at a civilized meeting.

  In his defense, Julii was extremely pregnant, the topic of the original meeting was routine, her attendance had not been entirely necessary, and the courier's sudden entry to hand him the communiqué had taken him completely by surprise.

  None-the-less, General Hardee believed he should not have blurted out the terrible news about the fall of Vicksburg without laying some preparatory groundwork
first.

  He should have built to the news of General Grant's extremely well executed invasion into the Deep South. He should not have just come out with: "It was like that damn Yankee knew everything about Vicksburg. If I didn't know better, I would say he was born in the South!"

  He should have stopped there, but he continued with, "It was like he knew precisely how to get in undetected and what assets to destroy!"

  Even this would have been an acceptable place to pause, but he went on with the shocking words: "In one short campaign, Grant has completely broken our supply lines with our southern states."

  The only thing General Hardee could find not to be upset about his behavior was the manner of Julii's collapse. It had not been dramatic or violent, she had merely said, "Oh."

  General Hardee now berated himself for turning to Julii and saying in a far too sarcastic tone: "You may well say ‘oh’, Madame."

  The general had no way of knowing what Julii was actually expressing with her “oh”. He, like all of the officers sitting at the table, believed she was shocked and upset about such a bitter defeat. The truth was, Julii actually said “oh” because she was in the simultaneous grip of two powerful emotions and one unstoppable physical process.

  The first emotion was surprise. She found it hard to believe her letter, sent so haphazardly north six months earlier, had resulted in her vengeful idea coming so completely to fruition. The second emotion was a sudden surge of overwhelming and angry spite because, after months of biding her time, she had finally delivered a crippling blow to the evil Confederacy that had murdered her Robert. It was her baby's reaction to that surge that caused her “oh”.

  It took a little while for the military men at the table to realize that Julii's “oh” had not been a lament for the good people of Vicksburg.

  Her expression did not seem to fit the news, and it told them all something else must be going on with Julii. The way Julii held her very swollen tummy should have been another clue to what was happening, but the men at the table, even the ones with children of their own, were soldiers who believed it was a woman's duty to deal with woman's troubles.

  All of them, to a man, could take charge of a complex military action. They could give orders to maneuver thousands of men in the heat of battle without a moment's hesitation but, in this instance, none of them knew how to help Julii.

  General Hardee was the first to ask, "What is it, my dear?"

  Julii's reply, "My waters have broken", might just as well have been words in a foreign language because the men, even the ones who knew what Julii meant, still had no idea how to respond.

  Because of his senior rank, General Hardee took command of the situation as best he could. He helped Julii to her feet then walked her from the meeting room, apologizing over and over for his insensitivity.

  He seemed truly shaken and quite penitent until they passed one of the black messenger boys who worked as fully paid employees at Count Anton's office. Seeing the boy, General Hardee's voice turned from sweetness and light to fowl bile. "Go in there and get the mess cleaned up, boy."

  Julii realized that being a man with absolutely no idea about the workings of the female body, his imagination had conjured up a flood of biblical proportions. As he helped Julii into Count Anton's carriage, General Hardee looked directly into her eyes. He was silently begging for her forgiveness.

  Julii gave him a well-rehearsed, deeply troubled smile that conveyed her discomfort, while portraying herself as a stalwart martyr. She even spoke in a saintly voice. "Please do not trouble yourself, General. How could you possibly have known that your insensitive words would cause all of this to happen?"

  Julii knew full well her words would not bring General Hardee relief. He tried to hide his true feelings, but the little lines around his eyes betrayed him. They tensed for only a microsecond. It was just an infinitesimal movement, but it was enough for Julii to see his pain. Julii's expression, tone and words had struck deep, and she extracted evil pleasure from it as he closed the carriage door.

  At last Julii had struck a blow. Even better, she had heard the news in the deeply troubled voice of the man who had ordered her Robert's murder. Best of all, Robert's murderer was now genuinely distraught because of his apparent lack of tact.

  She would have liked to stay and make life worse for the general, but she could feel the baby moving. Robert's child really wanted to come out and she had to get home. She would have to be satisfied with the vindictive memories of General Hardee's troubled emotional state. She would use them to take her mind away from the pain of giving birth to her baby.

  By the time Julii made it home, Count Anton had called a doctor who, with Cecilia, Samantha and Tilly in doting attendance, delivered the healthy girl without any complications.

  Everything went exactly as Julii expected until she was amazed to see the doctor cut the cord between her and the baby with a very sharp knife. When she asked, "Why do you not use your teeth?", the doctor looked at Julii to see if she was making a joke. Unsure of how to react to Julii's still-questioning expression, the doctor laughed. His laughter started Samantha and Tilly laughing, and by the time Count Anton was allowed into Julii's bedroom, he was greeted by all four people laughing hysterically.

  Taking the baby from Julii's arms, he waited for the laughter to die down before asking, "What are you going to call our wonderful new girl?"

  A single word projected by Julii's voice sprang from somewhere deep within her mind but without her consent. "Helen."

  The swiftness of her answer came as a surprise to Julii. It felt as though she was hearing the name at exactly the same time as Count Anton. The only reason she knew the name “Helen” was because of a book called the Iliad written by an ancient writer by the name of Homer. She had connected greatly with the story of Helen and her lover Paris and the battle for the city of Troy, but she had never even considered naming her child Helen before this moment.

  Julii needed time to think it through, but before she could give it any thought, the name was cemented in place by Count Anton's excited words: "Helen? An excellent name."

  Rocking the baby in his arms, Count Anton whispered to her. "Helen, pretty little Helen."

  He looked like a doting father and Julii would never dream of doing anything to disappoint her savior, so the baby's name was Helen.

  Helen

  Helen was healthy and Julii was happy and, after the birth, Count Anton's household seemed to exist solely for their well-being. Without exception, all of the staff loved beautiful little Helen as much as they loved Julii.

  Samantha and Tilly both competed for time with Helen. They couldn't wait to smother “their” baby with love and kisses whenever she woke up or finished breastfeeding.

  Sometimes their bickering got so out of hand, Julii had to intervene. On one occasion, Count Anton had to call them to his study to have serious words. This “staff conference” was supposed to be somber. It was intended to instill discipline, but when Julii wandered into the study holding Helen in her arms, Samantha instinctively reached for the child, then Tilly, then Count Anton found himself competing, and the disciplinary meeting broke up into laughter.

  Somehow the world outside was forgotten. It was as though the count's home had become an island of blissful sanity in a sea of war. Outside his home there were downtrodden slaves and shortages of every kind, men with missing limbs on the streets, and women wearing black armbands to mourn their lost husbands and brothers and sons, but inside was normality and fun.

  In this happy little bubble, Julii was able to forget the troubles of the outside world. She would gladly have spent the rest of her life hidden away from reality, but after only a month of recuperation, she felt duty-bound to return to work and repay the generosity and kindness of her wonderful host.

  Her decision to return so soon after the birth caused great surprise and shock among the society ladies of Savannah. It was unheard of for a white lady to even work, let alone take her baby to work with he
r, but Julii no longer cared what white people thought of her.

  Julii's absence could have had a negative effect on the count's blockade-running organization but, because of the well thought out business structures she had put in place before Helen's birth, she was pleased to find it was working like a well-oiled machine.

  Given their head, the staff had flourished and were now very capable of making very positive decisions on their own. Julii's skills were required less and less. When she grew bored with the lack of challenges, Julii began positioning herself as more of an overseer. Whether she was there or not, the systems she had put in place made sure the business kept on thriving without her, so she carved out greater and greater chunks of time to spend with no one but baby Helen.

  She felt proud of her baby and her achievements and the respect she was shown by her able and trusted staff. For the first time since the day she met Robert by the river, Julii could honestly say she was truly happy.

  Unlike the Savannah mothers, who were hampered by their perceived status, Julii pushed Helen's pram through the streets by herself. At first her behavior was considered extremely odd by the “women of good breeding” but, one by one, the fashionable young mothers of Savannah began relieving their nannies and pushing their own children in an attempt to make themselves appear as “radical” as Julii.

  It amused Julii to see how her radical behavior was setting a trend. It also amused her to observe these “revolutionary” young mother's inability to go “all the way”.

  They just could not bring themselves to push their children everywhere, as she did, because that would simply be too radical, not to mention inconvenient. Anyway, they all had very important time-consuming activities like “bridge games” and “luncheons” and “meetings of the Wives and Mothers of the South Committee.” No, it would simply not be possible for such self-important women to dedicate so much time to their children when they all had perfectly capable nannies.