A Season in Hell

by Easy Jackson

  “I couldn’t possibly consider it,” Maribel exclaimed, meanwhile spreading the fingers over her eyes so she could peek at Hawkshaw.

  “Mr. Hawkshaw realizes this is a surprise,” Tennie said.

  “Why doesn’t he speak for himself ?” Raiford asked in irritation.

  “Because I am the law and the matchmaker,” Tennie said. “Mr. Hawkshaw has asked me to speak on his behalf.”

  Maribel lowered her hand and was shooting glances in Hawkshaw’s direction. “In name only?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Tennie said. “If that is what you prefer. I cannot guarantee that Mr. Hawkshaw would not occasionally seek solace in the arms of a barmaid, but I can assure you he would never embarrass you in front of friends.” She wondered where all this information was coming from. Words just seemed to be flowing from her lips.

  One of Maribel’s eyebrows rose, and she began looking at Hawkshaw in arched interest. He stretched his legs out, took the toothpick from his pocket, and put it in his mouth. Maribel’s eyebrow went down in distaste, and she looked away.

  “Of course, Mr. Hawkshaw has plenty of money of his own,” Tennie said, “and wouldn’t dream of touching any dowry Miss Maribel might bring into the marriage. Any money she has would be in her control. In her full possession from the start.”

  Maribel shifted her attention to Tennie. “Really?”

  Tennie nodded. “There is one thing. Mr. Hawkshaw’s sister in Houston has begged him to wait and have the ceremony there. She wants to have a small elegant affair with just a few important guests.” She wondered if anybody in Houston knew what a small and elegant affair was, thinking they only knew “get her hitched” or have a big blowout, but it sounded good. She continued. “That is where Mr. Gid comes in. Mr. Hawkshaw would never dream of pushing himself off on Miss Maribel, and he has asked her cousin, Mr. Gid, to be her male escort on the train to Texas.”

  A rich man with a plantation who didn’t even want to touch his future bride or be near her until after the wedding was surely too much for anyone to swallow without suspicion, Tennie feared, but the Beauregards appeared to be gulping it down without a thought.

  Gid leaned forward again. “That’s right, Cousin Raiford. I’d be right proud to escort Cousin Maribel on the train.”

  Raiford and Maribel frowned, but Helen said, “That is so kind of you, Gid.”

  Tennie wondered what Helen saw in the unattractive Raiford. Was it the plantation that possessed her? Despite what Nab said, Tennie thought Helen still young enough to bear children. Perhaps she wanted it for them.

  “The train for Texas leaves tomorrow at eleven,” Tennie said.

  Maribel waved her hand. “I couldn’t possibly be ready by then. And my maid will have to go with me.”

  Esther burst into the room. “No, sir, no sir, no sir. I’s not going to Texas. No sir.”

  “Don’t be silly, Esther,” Maribel said. “Of course, you’re going.”

  “No, ma’am, I is not,” Esther said. “I ain’t going to that wild country. I be free now, and you can’t make me.”

  Maribel gave her a long look under frowning eyebrows. She turned her head, raised her chin, and looked off into another part of the room. “Then I can’t possibly go.”

  Helen’s fingers were digging into Raiford’s shoulder so hard, Tennie was surprised he did not cry out in pain.

  He said, “What will it take to get you to go, Esther?”

  Esther opened her mouth as if to imitate Maribel’s histrionics, but thought better of it. “Ten acres of river bottomland for my grandson.”

  “Impossible!” Raiford thundered.

  “Give it to her,” Maribel said with the air of someone who couldn’t be bothered with trifles. “You can take it out of my share of the inheritance Father left me.”

  “I certainly shall,” Raiford said. Giving Esther a sulky look, he promised to prepare the papers that night.

  “I still don’t see how I can be ready so soon,” Maribel said.

  “Of course, you can, Maribel,” Helen said. “I’ll help you pack. It will be just like old times when we were girls going off to the academy.”

  For a minute, Tennie thought Maribel was going to tell Helen where she could go but evidently thought better of it. A free slave for the evening was not something to discard lightly, and Tennie had no doubt Maribel would make Helen do all the work and dance to her tune while doing it. What an unpleasant woman! Lafayette had no taste in women, except that they be beautiful.

  “It’s all settled then,” Tennie said, rising. “We shall expect you at the judge’s house at ten in the morning.” She sallied out of the house while the going was good.

  Hawkshaw stayed behind only a few seconds longer to press the money he owed him into Raiford’s hand. Gid assured them he would take good care of Maribel, but it was clear they wanted him out of the house.

  Tennie thought them awful.

  The boys ran from around the side of the house where they had been listening under the window, beating them to the surrey. Gid helped Tennie in, and she put her hand to the side of her head, wishing to slow the blood pounding through her veins.

  “Miss Tennie!” Lucas said. “That was the best lying I’ve ever heard in my life. Couldn’t nobody beat that.”

  Tennie took a deep breath and tried to calm her jangling nerves. “Every time I looked into Helen Beauregard’s pitiful face, I just lied that much more.”

  Hawkshaw’s face showed he was still furious about the whole thing. He turned to Gid. “You keep her away from me,” he said in a tone so menacing, Gid leaned back.

  He nodded. They all nodded and rode most of the way in silence.

  Before coming into town, Tennie broke the silence. “Maybe we should pull over and eat some of the food Miss Viola sent. I don’t want to hurt her feelings.”

  Hawkshaw glared at her. “I don’t care about her feelings.”

  “I’m hungry,” Lucas said.

  “Me, too,” Badger said. “I want to eat something.”

  “You always want to eat something,” Hawkshaw growled.

  Gid had taken the reins when they got in the surrey, and he solved the argument by pulling over. “I could eat a little something, too.”

  Tennie divided the food in the basket. “Will the train we are taking to Mobile have first class on it? Maribel’s going to want to ride first class. We can stick her and the maid in there and leave them alone.”

  “I got to look after her,” Gid said, talking with a mouthful of bread. He swallowed. “I done promised Cousin Raiford and Cousin Helen.”

  “You can check on her, Mr. Gid,” Tennie said. “She’s not going to want you sitting right next to her the whole trip.”

  “She’ll probably pretend she doesn’t even know who you are,” Hawkshaw said. “I’ll get her a first-class ticket if they have it. Anything to get out of this town.”

  They finished eating, and Gid took up the reins once more. Tennie began fretting about Rusty. “I hope everything is going all right with Rusty.”

  “It better be,” Hawkshaw said. “I’ll whip Floyd’s and Rusty’s asses if anything happens to those horses.”

  “Floyd ain’t gonna let nothing happen to those horses,” Gid said in a note so firm, it dared Hawkshaw to contradict him.

  Hawkshaw didn’t, and Tennie told Gid she wanted to stop by Viola’s before taking their stroll through town.

  “Let me out,” Hawkshaw said when they arrived at the judge’s house. “I’m walking to the train station to get a first-class ticket if I have to beg for it. I want that woman as far away from me as possible.”

  “You must not have seen her face when you started picking your teeth,” Tennie said, “or you wouldn’t be so agitated about it.”

  Gid helped Tennie from the surrey, and she ran up the perfect walk to the perfect house, wondering if life would ever bring her anything like it. She remembered all the losses the judge had suffered and thought he would give it all up in an instant to
have his family back.

  Tennie knocked on the door but didn’t wait for Viola to answer. She opened it and was greeted by the aroma of mouthwatering cooking. “Miss Viola, Miss Viola,” she called, heading toward the kitchen.

  Viola met her in the dining room.

  “It worked,” Tennie cried. “Maribel’s going with us on the train tomorrow.”

  “I told you it would,” Viola said.

  Tennie gave her a fast rundown on the events. “But what shall I tell the judge? He knows I didn’t have a clue how to go about it when we first arrived.”

  “You tell him everything you told me,” Viola said. “Excepting you say you and Miss Nab and Mr. Hawkshaw figured it out.”

  Tennie stared into her dark eyes. “But you thought of everything.”

  “Yes’um,” Viola said. “But the judge might not like me interfering in other folks’ business, so just to be safe, you don’t bring me into it.”

  Tennie stared, searching her face. “All right. If that’s the way you want it. I just hate taking credit for being the least bit smart when I know I’m not.”

  Viola laughed. “You smarter than you think you is.”

  Tennie smiled. “I’m going to walk through the stores with Mr. Gid,” she said, excited at the prospect of shopping, even if she didn’t have the spare money to buy much of anything. As she looked at Viola, a pall crept over her like a disconcerting shadow. “Will they let you go into those stores?”

  “They will because I works for the judge,” Viola said. “You run along now with Mr. Gid. And you be sure to keep your promise and tell everybody in town what a fine old gentleman the judge is.”

  “I most certainly shall,” Tennie said with a gentle but determined smile.

  * * *

  As they finished supper that night, the judge wanted to hear about the events at the Beauregard plantation. Tennie, beginning in hesitation, soon found herself jumping from the dining room chair and mimicking with exaggeration the voice and movements of each person—Esther became even surlier; Raiford became impossibly pompous and ruder; Helen’s voice dripped ever sweeter in a fevered pitch of desperation. Tennie pretended to be Hawkshaw turning loutish with the toothpick in his hand, and poor Gid trying to be nice and obviously feeling like he wasn’t good enough to be in the room.

  It was when she threw her hand to her forehead, imitating Maribel’s dramatics in the hammiest way that the judge burst into laughter, and Tennie thought she heard giggles coming from a crack in the door leading into the kitchen. Lucas and Badger stared at her wide-eyed with mouths open, laughing whenever the judge did.

  “My dear child,” the judge said when she finished. “You are enchanting.”

  He looked at Tennie as if he wanted to eat her up—she wondered if she had perhaps gone too far with her theatrics. She breathed heavily from her exertions. He breathed stronger and faster for perhaps another reason.

  “I think I, and the boys, should go to bed now,” she said. “We have a long trip in front of us.”

  The boys immediately began a clamor, but Viola entered the room and began urging them toward the stairs. “Miss Tennie be right. Y’all be having a big day tomorrow.”

  Tennie said good night to the judge and followed the boys up the stairs. After seeing them settled in another bedroom, she entered the room she’d slept in, shutting the door behind her. As she prepared for bed, she knew it would be the last and perhaps only time she got to sleep in such heavenly comfort.

  She climbed into bed, lying on her back with her hair against the softest and smoothest pillow she’d ever known. There would be word from Wash in Waco. Perhaps he would even be there to meet her. She hugged herself in joy thinking about it.

  The day had worked so perfectly, thanks to Viola. And later, she and Gid, with Badger and Lucas trailing along, had walked into shop after shop filled with treasures she never knew existed. Gid knew everyone, talked to everyone, while she looked. Sometimes the boys were rowdy and had to be made to wait outside, but whereas they knew they could get around her, they obeyed Gid much better, and she had been able to look to her heart’s content. And at every place, when she was asked, she repeated in varying words how grateful she was for the judge’s hospitality, how pleasant it was to stay in the home of such a nice gentleman.

  She jerked up in bed, suddenly remembering she had forgotten to put the chair underneath the doorknob. Her feet hit the floor with a soft thump, and she practically flew to the chair, grabbing it and placing it under the knob as fast as she could. Only when it was safely in place did she breathe a sigh of relief.

  CHAPTER 20

  Before he left for the courthouse, the judge gave Tennie a letter to deliver to Winn Payton. “I’ll come down to see you off before the train leaves,” he promised. He took her hand. “This house is going to be so lonely without you. It’s going to miss you.”

  “I’ve loved staying here,” Tennie replied.

  Viola entered the room with baskets filled with food for them to take on the train. The judge dropped Tennie’s hand while she suppressed a sigh of relief.

  “I’ll see you at the station, Tennie,” the judge said as he left.

  Tennie turned to Viola. “Badger will be in heaven.” She paused for a few seconds before saying, “Miss Viola, is there anything else, anything at all I can do to repay you for your kindnesses?”

  Viola looked embarrassed. “They be one thing,” she said shyly. “I ain’t never had a letter. Could you . . . ?”

  “Of course,” Tennie said. “I will mail you a letter from Texas addressed personally to you in care of the judge at this address.”

  “I won’t be able to read it myself, but the judge, he will read it to me,” Viola said.

  Tennie nodded and hugged her before going out onto the porch to wait with the boys and Gid for Maribel to arrive.

  “Mr. Hawkshaw said he’d wait at the station,” Gid said as they sat on the steps.

  “I’m surprised he didn’t decide to just ride out of here without us,” Tennie said.

  “He was going to, but I stopped him,” Gid said. “That and he wants to get to them there horses as quick as he can.”

  They talked in a desultory way while they waited, but Maribel did not come.

  Viola came out onto the porch. “Y’all best get on down to the station. If she’s a-coming, she can meet you down there.”

  “But what if she doesn’t come?” Tennie asked.

  “Y’all done presented the case, and they done agreed,” Viola said. “Now if they reneges, the fault will be all their own. You can just go on to Texas with a clear conscience.”

  They nodded, and as they walked away, they waved good-bye to Viola.

  Just as they were almost out of sight, Badger hollered loud enough for the whole neighborhood to hear, “You make the best biscuits in the world, Miss Viola!”

  Tennie hugged him. “Sometimes, Badger, you are such a little pest, and other times, you are like an angel from heaven.”

  “What about me?” Lucas demanded.

  “Of course, you too,” Tennie said.

  They wanted to know about Gid, and to his embarrassment and pleasure, Tennie laughed and said, “Mr. Gid, too.”

  When she saw Hawkshaw waiting impatiently at the station, she thought she would have gladly said the same thing about him, too, but he wouldn’t want her to even think it of him.

  They sat on a bench next to the stationhouse, looking down the road, watching for Maribel’s buggy. The judge arrived to see them off. From a distance, they could hear the sound of a train whistle blowing. The train pulled into the station, puffing black smoke and carting a long line of cars. The brakes screeched to a stop, steam blowing everywhere.

  “Look!” Lucas said.

  A buggy driven by Helen with Maribel on the seat beside her was followed by an old black man in a wagon containing a tight-lipped Esther wearing an old maroon velvet hat pushed down so hard on her head, it looked like it was giving her a headache. Behin
d Esther were piles of bags and trunks.

  “I’ll have to pay extra for all that luggage,” Hawkshaw said, so furious he could hardly move his lips. He left to find the conductor.

  When the buggy stopped and Maribel alighted, Tennie gasped. Maribel was wearing a new satin dress with wide white and black stripes. It had a wide red ribbon tied around the waist and flowing over the bustle in the back. Another red scarf was tied in a large bow around her neck. Her hat was red, with a black ribbon around it. Tennie had never seen a dress that looked less like mourning and wondered how long Maribel had secretly been hoarding it.

  Maribel fluttered her handkerchief, making noises about being helpless while Gid hastened to assist her. The conductor came back with Hawkshaw, took one look at the wagon and said something to him that caused Hawkshaw to look even more cross, but he nodded before turning abruptly to enter the second-class car, taking his usual window seat in the back.

  There was a problem about having Esther on the train, especially in first class, but Maribel insisted, and with the judge there to smooth things over, the conductor agreed. Esther, in the meantime, stood looking even more like a mean old bulldog, but Tennie didn’t think she could blame her. She’d probably be spitting in people’s food, too.

  While Gid saw Maribel and Esther safely ensconced in first class, Helen took Tennie aside. “I know you think we are terrible.”

  Tennie murmured no and shook her head, but Helen continued as if she hadn’t spoken.

  “Our grandfather was a warm and generous man. He was known far and wide for his kindness and hospitality. The house was wonderful back then. I have so many happy memories of it.”

  Tennie nodded, realizing it was the house Helen wanted.

  Perhaps Helen knew what she was thinking because when she spoke again, it was about Raiford. “Raiford’s father was . . . a little unbalanced, like Maribel. Poor Raiford tries to live up to some imaginary standard he thinks his father had for him, and he can’t do it. He’s really not that bad.”