by Simon Rumney
In order to appear “daring”, even “radical”, the clever “revolutionary” young mothers arranged for their nannies to meet them at prearranged locations. Waiting in their fancy horse and carriage at the entrance to the most fashionable parks, they would only leave the comfort of the vehicles when they saw Julii approaching.
These beautifully-adorned mothers, carrying their exquisite Paris silk parasols, would then push their child, preferably asleep, in their ornate baby carriages as they vied with each other to get close to Julii.
On the day she was interrupted for the first time, Julii's instinct was to be rude to the woman. After all, 'this was her private time with her Robert's little Helen and she did not want it sullied by those horrible Savannah women.' But for many months Cecilia had been encouraging Julii to focus only on the possibilities of the future and never on the terrible events of her past, so instead, she smiled politely.
Initially, Julii felt she was betraying Robert's memory by giving in to these wives and sisters of the men who murdered him, but with each passing day, she learned to forgive and let her anger subside. Some of the white women were actually quite nice to spend time with, so Julii even allowed herself to become friendly with many of the Savannah ladies who, because of an early mix-up, called her “Mrs. Roberts”.
The mistaken name came about during a befuddled conversation with three of the more aggressive white ladies. They had been competing with each other for Julii's attention, when one of the mothers had asked, "Do you have a husband fighting for the South?"
Julii gave the somber answer. "The man I love is dead."
Even while Julii was still speaking, the second aggressive lady, who just happened to have a single and “eligible” brother, asked a question while the third lady simultaneously asked another.
As a result, the second and third questions came out as one confusing sentence. "Would you ever consider remarrying?" and "What was the name of your husband’s family?"
Responding in the correct order, Julii answered the second lady's question first. "I will never remarry. I will always be Robert's."
But this was somehow interpreted as the answer to the third lady's question and, because of the incredible efficiency of the Savannah gossip-mill, the name “Mrs. Roberts” immediately leapt its way from one person to the next until the name was known by everyone, and anyone, who mattered.
No one questioned it because Roberts was such a plausible surname in the South. No one knew anything about her past, but people in high society were becoming used to displaced families of breeding. Everyone assumed Julii's home had been destroyed by those “damn Yankees” like so many other transient people in Savannah and “the lovely Mrs. Roberts” soon became the most desired and sought-after conversation companion in Savannah.
Always elegant in her wonderfully bright silk dresses brought all the way from Paris and Milan, her latest hairstyle, and perfect makeup, “Mrs. Roberts” was the woman who came to define beauty and sophistication in Savannah.
Her radical child-raising was groundbreaking enough, but she was also admired because she personally oversaw the business that was keeping the South in the fight.
Her conversations were always scintillating because she simply knew everything about anything. Mrs. Roberts had read everything and could converse eloquently about topics as diverse as the state of the Civil War to the siege of Troy.
As the days passed and Mrs. Roberts spent more and more time walking and talking with so many ladies while pushing baby Helen, she began to mellow. Eventually she even came to believe that these women of the South were not so bad after all.
Little by little, she forgave the Confederacy its many faults and reasoned that striking the major blow in Vicksburg had caused enough damage. She decided to ease up on her punishing payment terms and follow Cecelia's advice by allowing herself to forgive.
Julii was healing and giving herself permission to let Robert go and move on with her life. For the first time since losing her Robert, she entertained the possibility of a happy future with Count Anton in Savannah or Rome or wherever he decided to live.
She began to positively bask in the joy of being loved and being happy and being able to believe in the existence of an optimistic future when, one bright and happy day, something so shocking, so inhuman, so vindictive happened that all of the good work that had been done to Mrs. Roberts was undone for Julii in an instant.
When Julii first saw him, he was stumbling along the street with his unshaven face and humiliatingly-naked body covered in bloody cuts. She did not recognize him, but there was something familiar about the broken man. Something that tugged at her memory.
His swollen hands were tied together then strung to the saddle of an old horse. She noticed the worn-out rope around his wrists was cutting deep into his flesh. She realized that he must have come a great distance in this awful manner.
Then, suddenly, she recognized why the man seemed so familiar. All of Mrs. Roberts thoughts of love and tolerance and acceptance and forgiveness were banished for good. Anger and rage and hatred and the need for bitter vengeance came flooding back into Julii like a wave crashing on the shore.
In order to take a closer look at the struggling man, Julii pushed her fashionable handmade English perambulator off of the sidewalk and out into the middle of the street, stopping directly in front of the horse.
The rider looked like the filthiest, foulest, most disgusting human being Julii had ever seen. He was white but his face was so filthy he could have passed as a brown man.
She glared at the rider and demanded to know what he thought he was doing. The rider merely looked at her with no emotion and said nothing. Julii was taken completely by surprise by his cold reaction. She was no longer used to white folks not adoring her or not wanting to spend time with “Mrs. Roberts”.
She moved her angry glare one perambulator push closer, but the rider just pulled the horse’s bridle and the horse obediently stepped around the baby carriage. As the horse kept on moving, Julii pushed her pram alongside and kept asking the man: "What do you think you are doing?"
In an attempt to slow the rider down, she raised her voice for all to hear, but the rider plodded silently onwards. He couldn't care less what people thought of him.
It was only when a young Confederate officer saw the commotion and crossed the street to confront the man on the horse that he even bothered to look down.
The young officer decided to put on a show to impress Julii by saying in a haughty voice, "May I ask what is going on here, sir?"
The rider stopped his horse and Julii stopped the pram. Folding her arms, she adopted the 'now we will see who has the upper hand' stance, but the rider looked disinterestedly at the officer and replied. "This here woman's got herself in some kind of flutter cause she don't like I'm moving that there nigger up this here street."
Julii could not believe her charm was not working on the ghastly rider. 'The young officer was almost swooning, so why not the rider?' She even heard the sound of her own disbelief in her voice as she said, "That's not it at all! I know this man!"
The rider turned to look over his shoulder as though he was making sure of what he actually had on the end of his rope. Satisfied, he turned back and said, "Ain't no man. That there's a runaway nigger."
Looking at the young officer, he added, "This here woman's got too much sun. She ain't thinking straight."
Julii was delighted to see the young officer’s hand move rapidly to the hilt of his sword as he said, "How dare you insult a lady of Savannah, sir!"
Moving to the brown man at the end of the rope, Julii took out her beautiful silk handkerchief, spat on it, and wiped crusted blood away from his mouth and eyes as she said, "Paul. It's me. Julii."
Looking into his vacant stare, she asked gently: "Where is Matilda? Where is your baby?"
Paul's eyes stared blankly out in shock and exhaustion and pain. He did not understand who Julii was, where he was, or what was happening to him.
The rider and Confederate officer were both surprised and appalled by the beautiful woman's intimate treatment of a nigger. Any thoughts the young officer may have had about impressing such a beautiful woman were gone. Only confusion and doubt could be heard in his voice as he asked, "Is this your nigger, Madame?"
Julii turned to the rider and glared at him with all of the old anger and hatred she felt for the South and, without words, she made him flinch for the very first time. The danger she conveyed with that look was unmistakable. The rider looked relieved when she turned to the young officer and gave him an order. "Use your sword to cut this cord."
As frightened and confused as he was, the rider could feel his hard-earned profit slipping away. Using an aggressive tone to bolster his courage, he asked, "You some kinda nigger lover, lady?"
The young officer was now totally confused. His core “southern values” told him to defend a lady of such obvious breeding, while those exact same values told him to disrespect the very same lady for being too familiar with a nigger. Turning to the rider, he spoke without true conviction. "You will not talk to a lady like that in my presence, sir."
Turning to Julii, the young officer had an idea. Hope of resolving this absurd conflict flickered across his face as he asked, "Perhaps this is your husband's nigger, Madame?"
The young officer's words were obviously offering her a way out that made some kind of sense to him. The tone of his question was giving her the chance to be upset about the loss of an asset instead of being a “crazy nigger lover”.
Julii showed her understanding by saying, "Yes. That's it exactly. This here is my husband's nigger."
Sensing some kind of scam, the rider became more than a little animated. "I picked this here runaway nigger up fair and square. If you got some kind of claim on him, you best get to the market!"
The rider kicked his horse to move on but the young officer grabbed the bridle. Relieved he could make sense of what was going on, the young officer looked from the rider to Julii and said, "This man has clearly expended a great deal of time and effort returning your husband's nigger, Madame. Surely you will be able come to some kind of an accommodation that suits both parties?"
Turning back to the rider, he added, "How much is your reward for returning this nigger?"
"I gets five hundred bucks for every warm body. No, six hundred!"
The rider's fear of loss had clearly been overcome by his greedy potential for profit.
Julii looked at the rider with contempt. She could have tied him up in verbal knots if she wanted to. He would have been a pushover in a negotiation, but she really needed to save Paul. Unable to give up without at least a passing shot, she said, "That's a lie but I will pay you. Follow me and I will give you your thirty pieces of silver."
The filthy rider protested. "Thirty pieces of silver don't add up to no six hundred dollars, lady!"
The young officer was no longer able to contain his temper. "Shut up you ignoramus or, so help me god, I will run you through!"
Shaking him by the hand, Julii thanked the young officer for his help, returned to her baby carriage, and led the rider to Count Anton's office.
Raiding her own pile of cash, she purchased Paul for six hundred dollars. The act of purchasing a human being felt completely wrong; it was an evil deed that captured the shabbiness of the Confederacy completely. She was going to remember how disgusting it made her feel until the day she died.
She was also going to remember the repulsive slave catcher's parting words. "You feel like forking over another six hundred for another no-good nigger, you'll find me down the street in the saloon."
As he passed through the office door, he couldn't resist adding, "Don't come round this week though, lady. I won't be up for no nigger catching till this here money runs dry."
Paul
Julii would have happily given up her own bedroom for Paul, but one of the guest rooms was chosen because it was at the quieter rear of the house.
On the day of her disgusting act of purchasing a human being, Julii patched Paul up and, because he stared blankly off into the distance, she repeated his and her name over and over again as she did it. She tried letting her hair down, she removed her makeup, she even wore her beautiful deer hide dress, but he showed absolutely no sign of recognizing her.
Julii remembered how her mind had very nearly snapped and feared his mind had gone too far and may be too badly damaged to recover. She needed a doctor to look at his physical and mental wounds, but no white doctor in Savannah would even look at a nigger. Julii tried bribery. The amounts she offered were truly fantastic but, unlike the dress store lady and the shoe store lady and Miss Dotty, doctors could not be bought.
She tried pressuring them by reminding them their Hippocratic Oath was in no way qualified by skin color, but even the ones who showed compassion for Paul's condition would not risk being driven from their all-white practices for being “a nigger lover”.
One of the doctors told her about the “vets” who take care of sick niggers on plantations, but Julii had heard about their cruel reputation and refused to sink so low.
When all else failed, Julii, Samantha and Tilly took responsibility and did their best to nurse Paul back to health. Julii even tried amateur therapy to get Paul's mind to return to him. She read every psychiatric book in Savannah looking for a way into his damaged psyche, but none of the few available books seemed to have the answer. As a last resort, Julii decided to dedicate all of her time and attention to healing his physical damage in the hope that, just like her Robert, his mind might mirror his body's eventual recovery.
Making absolutely sure that she, Samantha or Tilly sat by his bed around the clock, one of them would wash his horrible wounds and dress them regularly. Julii took charge of even the minutest details of Paul's recuperation. She made sure that he drank all of the water and ate all of the nourishing food he was given, even if he did not know he was doing it.
It was disappointing work because he seemed to be making no mental progress but, even as his mind hung in the balance, his body began to heal. Within two days, all of Paul's bleeding, infected and puss-oozing sores had been staunched and converted to healthier scabs by the natural process of his body.
On day three of his recovery, Paul suddenly cried for the first time and, even though she hated the agony that created them, Julii hoped that meant progress was being made. Watching his tears, she understood exactly why they were falling because she had cried exactly the same tears in Atlanta for exactly the same reasons.
After that first time, his tears began to fall down his gaunt cheeks at no specific times and for no apparent reason. It made Julii so angry to see this proud man laid so low. She really wanted to grab one of the count's many rifles and murder everyone in Savannah. She wanted to lash out at the Confederacy by strangling supply, but loyalty to her savior kept her anger at bay and the Confederacy in the fight.
Love for the count was paramount. Julii would never do anything that could harm his reputation, or his profit margin, so she diligently cared for Paul by night and his business by day. But when he changed his mind, her leash was slipped.
Having Paul in his household had changed the count's view of the Confederacy. Until Paul's dramatic arrival, he had been taking delusional comfort from living in an environment that kept the ragged reality of the 'South' outside his doors. His own brown staff were all well paid and treated with the respect of highly-trained European servants. This allowed the count to remain in denial about what was happening in the real world, but seeing firsthand the bitter reality of Paul's condition simply stripped his denial away.
This man who considered himself a European gentleman, a humanitarian, could no longer ignore the suffering taking place all around him. He could no longer justify his actions. He could no longer accept this war as just “an inevitable part of the human condition”. This corrupt southern regime was torturing human beings on an industrial scale, and Paul's broken body was the stark re
presentation of all of the Confederacy's evils.
After Paul's arrival, Count Anton’s changing opinions were made clear when one morning he surprised Julii with the words: "We have to put an end to this evil. We have no other choice but to withdraw our support."
With her mouth still full of breakfast, Julii was unable to respond. Blindsided by Count Anton's change of heart, she was all at once relieved, excited and disappointed. She had never even considered the possibility of complete withdrawal. She desperately needed to bring great damage to the Confederacy personally. She needed revenge, and “withdrawing” would not give her what she desired.
While chewing and swallowing as quickly as possible, the ever-growing anger in Julii saw the chance to rekindle the plans that had been shelved by her blissfully content alter ego Mrs. Roberts.
Sipping lemon tea to clear her mouth more rapidly, she phrased a question that was designed to give her the spiteful retaliation she desired while benefiting the count financially. "If we remove our services, will not someone else simply move in to fill the void? Will this not keep the Confederacy alive while doing nothing more than taking away your profits?"
Count Anton nodded his head 'yes' as he replied. "Of course you are right as always, my dear."
Julii paused, seemingly in deep thought, before delivering her often-rehearsed coup de grace. "Our disruption of supply must appear beyond our control."
After a moment’s apparent thought, Julii pretended to have a new idea before she went on. "If we reduce the number of ships getting past the blockade, who is to say we are not trying?"
The count's smile was all Julii required from this meeting. He had accepted the potential closure of this extremely profitable arm of his business, and that was the thing she had been waiting for. Julii now believed she had free rein to carry out her plans without hurting her beloved benefactor, and that was all that mattered.