“Get back in the house, Mama!” Noah said. He wiped the blood from his face and turned to the two men. “I didn’t rob no store.”
“You’ll have your chance to prove that. Put the cuffs on him, Merle.”
Jenny watched helplessly as they put the cuffs on the big man and forced him into the backseat of the car. Deputy Merle Arp stopped long enough to run his eyes up and down her figure and said, “I’ll be seein’ you, sweetie. I think you and me would go pretty well together.”
“You’ll see me all right, but it’ll be in court! I’ll be there to testify to what you two did.”
The two deputies grinned at each other, and then Arlie Pender winked at her. “You just do all you want to, Yankee lady.”
The car pulled out, and Jenny turned to the black woman. “I saw it all,” she said. “I’ll go see the sheriff about it. My name’s Jenny Winslow. I live down the road.”
“I’m Hattie. Noah’s mama.” A deep sadness revealed itself in the woman’s large brown eyes. She was a strong woman but bowed by time and trouble. “It won’t do no good. That sheriff, he hates my boy just ’cause he got in trouble one time.”
“What did he do?”
“He sold some moonshine whiskey, and he had to go to the pen, but he found the good Lord while he was there. He served his time, and ever since he’s been helpin’ me raise these chil’uns. They daddy’s dead.”
“It’ll be all right, Hattie. They can’t do anything to him because I saw it all.”
“You don’t know this place, Miss Winslow. A black man ain’t got no defense against a white man’s word.”
Jenny, at that moment, felt a surge of rage such as she had rarely experienced. Her life before the stock market crash had been smooth and relatively uneventful. She had not experienced things like this in New York City, but now standing in front of the pitiful shack with the sorrowing mother in front of her, a resolution formed itself. She nodded and said, “I’ll go see the sheriff right away, Hattie. Don’t worry about it. The Lord will take care of you.”
“The good Lord will have to because there ain’t nobody else. But I thank you, miss, for your kindness.”
Jenny went back, got into the truck, and left. As she pulled out onto the highway, she took one glance and saw Hattie Valentine staring at her, the children gathered about her. They made a sad tableau to her, and the resolution to help Noah Valentine grew into something stronger than she had ever known before.
****
Dr. Harrison Peturis was enjoying a rare moment of rest. He was one of the few doctors in the county that would go outside the city limits to treat patients, and as a result he kept a busy schedule. He leaned back in his chair reading from his favorite book, Paradise Lost. He always read the book aloud, and his voice rolled as he seemed to chew on the words and brought them out in full-throated tones:
“At certain revolutions all the damned
Are brought; and feel by turns the bitter change
Of fierce extremes, extremes by change more fierce,
From beds of raging fire to starve in ice
Their soft ethereal warmth, and there to pine
Immovable, infixed, and frozen round
Periods of time, thence hurried back to fire.”
“Now there’s a punishment for you.” Peturis got up and read the lines again, filling his office with the sound of his powerful voice. He was a big man, built like a huge stump. Everything about him was thick—his arms, his legs, his body, his neck. He had coarse salt-and-pepper hair, a clipped black beard, and snapping brown eyes. As he continued to read from the poem with obvious enjoyment, he stopped only to puff on the thin cheroot that he kept clamped between his jaws like a bulldog. White ash from the cigar covered the front of his vest, and some flakes even showed in the blackness of his beard.
The door opened, and Peturis looked up to see his nurse, Geraldine Sweeting, enter. She was tall and rail thin, with a voice surprisingly deep for a woman. “Doctor, Jenny Winslow’s here.”
Tossing the book on his desk, Peturis turned and nodded. “Must be time for that baby.” He walked out of the office and found Jenny standing in the waiting room. Without preamble, Jenny said, “You’ve got to come, Dr. Peturis. It’s my stepmother. The baby’s on the way.”
“How’s she doing?”
Jenny shook her head. “She seems all right to me, but I don’t know anything about babies.”
“All right. I’ll come right away. No patients here. Geraldine, you’d better come along with me. At her age it’s liable to be a troublesome delivery.”
“Would you hurry please, Doctor,” Jenny urged. “I think my father’s worried.”
Peturis puffed on the cigar rapidly, then pulled it from his lips and grinned. “He ought to know all about having babies. He had you, didn’t he?”
“This is different. He’s older now. Please hurry, Doctor.”
“All right. All right. I’m on my way.”
“I’ve got one errand to run, and then I’ll be right home.”
Jenny left the doctor’s office and went at once to the sheriff’s office. She walked in and found the new sheriff, Max Conroy, standing with his two deputies. The three grinned at her when she entered.
“Well, I’ve been expecting you,” Max said. “I understand there’s a little difference of opinion here about this business.”
“Noah Valentine didn’t do a thing, Sheriff. These two just started hitting him for nothing.”
Conroy shrugged and said, “I have to take my deputies’ word for it. Noah’s been in fights before. As a matter of fact, he once beat up a fellow so bad he almost didn’t make it.”
“But that was then and this is now!”
Jenny stood there arguing, but she saw that the men were toying with her. A fourth man was in the room, but he said nothing. He was standing against the wall, not tall but well built, and bearing the uniform of the sheriff’s office. Jenny did not notice him at first, but when she turned she saw him standing there and surmised that he was an Indian. He had copper cheeks and eyes black as obsidian, and his face was absolutely expressionless, so she had no hope of his helping her.
“You boys leave here, and I’ll settle this with Miss Winslow,” Conroy said. The two deputies, Arp and Pender, laughed and then disappeared into the back, where there was evidently an extension of the office. The copper-faced man said nothing but went out the front door. As soon as the door was closed, Conroy walked over to stand by Jenny. He was no more than thirty-five, tall, lean, and wiry. He had sandy hair, and his green eyes were as cold as she remembered them from the store. There was something suggestive in his manner that made Jenny’s stomach turn. “You just don’t understand these niggers,” he said with a half smile. “You got to crack down hard on ’em. Why, half of ’em are cutting the other half to bits with razors on Saturday night.”
“Sheriff, I admit I’m new to this country, but if I had seen what I witnessed this afternoon in New York, I would have come to the same conclusion. Your deputies attacked Noah Valentine for no reason.”
“That’s not what they say.”
Jenny felt a sense of hopelessness, but something about the bland expression of the deputies and the sheriff infuriated her. “Why would I lie?”
“Now look, Jenny, when you get to know me better you’ll understand that this is a tough job. We have to be hard. Maybe the boys get a little over-anxious sometimes, but they put their lives on the line every day.” He reached out and put his hand on her arm and squeezed it. “Look, why don’t you and I go out tonight? We can talk about this.”
Jenny wrenched her arm away. “I’m not going out with you, not ever,” she said, “and you haven’t heard the last of this!” She turned away and heard Conroy’s laughter follow her. She slammed the door and started blindly down the street but quickly collided with a man.
“Excuse me,” she muttered. Looking up, she saw it was the deputy who hadn’t said anything.
“My name’s Billy Moon
, Miss Winslow.”
The voice seemed to come from deep within the man’s chest. He was more muscular than most men, extremely strong looking, and although his face was expressionless, she saw something in his eyes that caused her to feel he was a different sort of man than the sheriff and the other two deputies.
“It’s not fair, Deputy Moon,” she said.
Moon studied her for a moment, then said, “If I were you, I’d go see Luke Dixon.”
“Luke Dixon? Who’s he?”
“He’s a lawyer. Trying to be, anyway. He does surveying on the side to make a living.”
“Why should I go see him?”
“He’s a pretty good man, and he sometimes takes on cases other lawyers won’t handle. He’s got a bad name with some of the local leadership around here because he won’t play their game.”
“I don’t have any money for a lawyer.”
“Go see him anyway,” Moon said quietly. He hesitated, then said, “If you do go, you might tell him I heard Merle and Arlie brag on how they beat Noah up.”
“You’d testify to that?”
“Yes.” The answer came quickly, and Moon said, “We had a pretty good department here as long as Sheriff Beauchamp was around.”
“It must be hard for you.”
“I don’t think I’ll be around long. Conroy’s trying to figure out a way to get rid of me. He will after the next election.”
“I’ll go see Dixon.”
“Drive down Main Street, turn to your right at the next corner. You’ll probably find him there. He’s between jobs at the moment.”
“Thank you, Deputy.”
“You’re welcome, miss.”
Moving quickly along the street, Jenny found the office of Luke Dixon without any trouble. The sign outside his door read Luke Dixon, Attorney at Law. She entered and at once was greeted by a lanky man with a head full of blond hair and pale blue eyes. “Can I help you, miss?”
“My name’s Jennifer Winslow, and I need help.”
“Have a seat,” Dixon said. His eyes took her in quickly, and he sat back and listened as she explained why she was there.
“And what would you like for me to do?”
“I’d like for you to defend him. He doesn’t have any help at all. His mother and his brothers and sisters saw what happened.”
“Their word won’t mean much in court. It’ll have to be up to you. Are you ready to testify?”
“Yes.”
“All right. I’ll see what I can do.” He hesitated, then said, “I heard about your folks. Your dad won the Congressional Medal of Honor, didn’t he?”
“Yes, in the Spanish-American War.”
Dixon did not comment, but Jenny could see that this meant something to him.
“All right,” he finally said. “I’ll go down and see Noah. I always liked the man. He was a rough one in his early days, but he’s been straight since he got back. Straight as the law will let him.”
“I . . . I don’t have any money,” Jenny said simply.
“Neither do I.” Dixon grinned suddenly. “Maybe you can make me a chocolate pie. We’ll call it square.”
Jenny smiled at him and made a pretty picture in his eyes, though she did not know it. “I can only make squash pie.”
“Squash pie? I never heard of it, but you do it. That’ll be payment enough.”
****
Lewis had not stopped pacing the floor for what seemed like hours. Clint had tried several times to get him to sit down, but it never lasted. Finally Clint said, “You might as well calm down, Lewis. This may take a long time.”
Lewis, ordinarily the mildest of men and very fond of Clint, suddenly struck out. “Wait until you’re in a mess like this! We’ll see how you handle it!”
Jenny came to stand beside her father. She patted his arm and said, “It’s not a mess. It’s a baby. Now, you sit down. I’ll bring some coffee.”
Jenny left, and the two men sat down in the living room, Lewis twisting anxiously in his seat. Hannah came in once and tried to calm her father, but it seemed impossible. Jenny came back and, glancing at the clock, saw that she had been back for two hours. Dr. Peturis had come out twice, each time saying that things were going “pretty well.” On the last time he had said, “She’s a little older than most mothers, but she’s strong.”
Jenny sat down beside her father and tried to take his mind off of Missouri Ann. She related what she had seen at Noah Valentine’s and then went on to tell of her visit at the sheriff’s office.
“Those three are pretty sorry,” Clint said. “There’s going to be an election in a few weeks, but no one’s running against Conroy. One man started to run, but then he dropped out. My guess is Conroy’s cronies threatened him.”
“Maybe someone else will run,” Jenny offered.
“I doubt it. Nobody can beat Conroy.”
“Why not, Clint?” Hannah asked.
“Because there’s money behind him. Nobody really knows what’s going on, but the big money in this county is all behind Conroy. The men I talk to think it’s got somethin’ to do with bootleggin’ in the county. They know Conroy will wink at it. There’s big money to be had.”
“I didn’t know there was that much money in this county,” Lewis said, making an effort to concentrate.
“The way I hear it the moonshine operation has gotten big here. A lot of booze going up north, and if Conroy gets in office, it’ll be bigger yet.”
At that instant Dr. Peturis came out. Lewis jumped to his feet and cried, “How is she, Doctor?”
“You’ve got a boy, Mr. Winslow. A fine boy.”
“How’s my wife?”
“She’s doing well. She had a hard time, but—”
At that moment the door opened, and Nurse Sweeting said, “Doctor, come quick!”
Peturis whirled and rushed back down the hall and into the bedroom, and Lewis would have followed him, but Clint held his arm. “Hang on, Lewis.”
“Well, what could be wrong?”
Jenny and Hannah tried to calm him, but Lewis was pale and sat down as if his legs would no longer support him.
The waiting seemed intolerable. The clock ticking on the mantel was the loudest sound in the room.
Finally Peturis came out again, and leaping up, Lewis ran to him as if he would grab him. “What is it? What’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong.”
“Is my wife all right?”
“She’s fine. Doing wonderfully well.”
“And how’s the baby?”
Peturis reached into his pocket and pulled out a cheroot. Everyone watched as he extracted a kitchen match, struck it on his fingernail, and lit it. When he had it glowing comfortably, he blew a smoke ring and then grinned broadly. “They’re fine.”
“They!” Lewis blinked with shock and glanced wildly around at the others. “They? You mean they’re twins? There are two of them?”
“No,” Peturis looked at his cigar and chuckled deep in his chest. “There’s three of them. Three fine boys. Congratulations, Winslow.” The laugh grew broader, and he shook his head. “Looks like you’re not going to have a great deal of spare time in the future.”
Lewis stood there and could not speak for a moment. Finally he swallowed hard and said, “Three of them?”
“That’s right. You’d better start thinking up some new names,” Peturis said, grinning. Then he took Lewis’s arm. “Come on. You can go see these new boys of yours.”
CHAPTER FOUR
Three Are Better Than One
The end of May had come, and as Jenny took down diapers from the clothesline, she wondered what life had been like before the onslaught of babies had struck the Winslow home. The breeze filled the diapers, puffing them up into rounded shapes, and they flapped like white flags along the line strung from the house to the towering walnut tree in the front yard. Jenny filled the clothesbasket and turned to see Hannah, who had come out with another load of wet diapers.
“There�
��s no end to it, is there?” Hannah shook her head ruefully.
“I think having one baby would be easier after seeing how hard three are.”
“Even naming them was hard,” Hannah replied as she removed a clothespin from her mouth and pinned one corner of a diaper to the line. As she clipped the other one, she added, “They had struggled so hard to choose one name for a boy and then all of a sudden they had to pick two more.”
Indeed, this had been one of the many problems the triplets had brought. Lewis and Missouri had settled on the name Michael if the baby was a boy, but when they were suddenly faced with naming two others, they chose Samuel, Missouri’s father’s name, for one but were stumped for a third name. Then, the day after their birth, Hannah had a dream in which she proclaimed the Lord had given her a name for the boy. “His name is Temple.”
“Temple?” Lewis said. “I never heard of a man called Temple.”
“Well, I have,” Missouri said. “Sam Houston had a son, and his name was Temple. Temple Houston. I think it’s a beautiful name.”
Lewis stared at the three boys lined up on the bed and laughed. “Michael, Samuel, and Temple. Michael, I suppose, will always be the oldest by about thirty minutes.”
“God is going to use these boys. I just know He is,” Missouri Ann had sighed.
Now Hannah and Jenny finished hanging the laundry and then went back inside. Missouri was sitting in the rocking chair, nursing Temple. She looked up and frowned. “I need to be doing some of the work.”
“You’re doing exactly the kind of work you’re supposed to do. You nurse those babies, and we’ll take care of the diapers,” Jenny said, smiling.
Missouri cuddled the infant in her arms and stroked his hair, which was a beautiful auburn color. “I’ve always been embarrassed by being so big, but God knew what He was doing. Only a giantess could nurse all three of these fellows.”
Hannah laughed and began to fold diapers as Missouri continued to speak. “It’s a miracle. Every time I think about it, I just can hardly keep from crying. Here a year ago I was living by myself out in that old house, no husband, my two children grown and gone, and now look at me. Right in the middle of the finest family in the world.” She hugged Temple and whispered endearments to him, then suddenly looked over and said, “Hannah, you’ll be having your own baby.”
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