Angels Watching Over Me (Shenandoah Sisters Book #1) (27 page)

‘‘I don’t know—why would his light skin bother you? You’re not near as black as Emma either.’’

‘‘That’s different. There’s all shades of colored folks.’’

‘‘Then why are you upset about little William’s color?’’

‘‘That’s another thing—that’s a white name,’’ I said, ignoring her question. ‘‘Why would she give it a white name? And so quick-like. There wasn’t a second’s hes-itation—‘ Da chil’s name be William,’ ’’ I said, and I reckon I was a little sarcastic as I repeated Emma’s words. ‘‘I don’t like it.’’

‘‘What’s come over you, Mayme?’’ Katie asked. ‘‘This isn’t like you.—Well, no matter,’’ she said without giving me the chance to answer, ‘‘we’ve got to try to get her inside.’’

‘‘Miss Katie,’’ I exclaimed, ‘‘you’re not thinking of putting her in one of your beds!’’

‘‘She can’t stay in the barn. We have to feed her and get her a comfortable place to rest up.’’

‘‘But . . . I figured you’d make her go back to her own kin.’’

‘‘Maybe later,’’ said Katie. ‘‘But she can’t stay in the barn. And besides, we don’t have any idea who her kin even are.’’

‘‘She’s just a runaway slave girl who’s birthed a white man’s baby.’’

Katie stopped and looked at me in a way she’d never done before.

‘‘Mayme,’’ she said, and I could tell she was more than a little annoyed with me, ‘‘we have to take care of her. And we are
going
to. So help me get a bed ready, and then help me get her inside.’’

I didn’t argue any more about it. Katie’s voice made it clear enough that there wasn’t anything further for me to say on the matter. With all that had just happened, I didn’t know what I was going to do now. Just when I’d gotten up the gumption to leave . . . now this. I couldn’t very well walk out on Katie now, with a dimwit like Emma and a little newborn on her hands. And yet . . . I didn’t think I ought to stay either. I’d made up my mind the day before, and I didn’t want to go back on it. I reckon my pride was getting the better of me.

A couple of hours later, after she’d had a good sleep, we half carried Emma inside. She was skinny as a rail and wasn’t too heavy and we managed to get her into the house. Katie arranged a bed for Emma on a sofa in the parlor. She said it would be easier for us to take care of her there.

Katie busied herself warming some soup, then sat beside the sofa feeding Emma with a spoon for the next hour. The girl was so weak after what she’d been through that she could hardly sit up or talk. But Katie sat beside her and spoke softly to her and fed her and gave her milk.

Every once in a while, when I’d walk by the room, I’d hear Emma talking a little crazy, like she was half awake or half asleep, which she probably was. The baby cried a little, but not too often.

I was still stewing inside, I think as much from having my own plans turned upside down as from anything else. But I had a feeling that if Katie let her stay around, Emma was going to get her into even more trouble than she was already in.

And likely me too. . . .

T
HE
A
RGUMENT
41

K
ATIE CAME INTO THE KITCHEN AFTER BOTH Emma and the baby were sleeping again, carrying the empty bowl and cup.

‘‘When are you going to make her leave?’’ I asked.

‘‘Leave?’’ said Katie, putting the things in the basin. ‘‘She can’t leave. She’s so exhausted she can’t even stand up right now. She’ll be in bed for a week.’’

‘‘A week!’’ I exclaimed. ‘‘She can’t stay here that long. She’s going to get you into some bad kind of fix before that. Didn’t you hear her say somebody was after her?’’

‘‘No,’’ Katie answered slowly.

‘‘Well, she did.’’

‘‘It doesn’t matter. They won’t find her here.’’

‘‘What makes you think that?’’

‘‘Why would they look for her here?’’

‘‘Somebody could have followed her. What if they have dogs—?’’

‘‘We’ll hide her.’’

‘‘Miss Katie! What if the baby starts crying?’’

‘‘It doesn’t matter,’’ said Katie with that determined voice she’d been using lately. ‘‘I’m
not
going to make her leave.’’

‘‘Well, I don’t like it,’’ I insisted. ‘‘She’s just a thickheaded guttersnipe that’s got no right to put you in danger like this.’’

‘‘Are you really so concerned about
me,
Mayme? Why don’t you like her?’’

‘‘I just don’t,’’ I said. ‘‘She’s just a dumb colored that got herself knocked up by a white man.’’

‘‘What’s come over you, Mayme?’’ Katie asked. ‘‘Are you so ornery all of a sudden because somebody else needs help now instead of you?’’

‘‘You never gave me no help!’’ I shot back. ‘‘It was me that helped you!’’

‘‘You’re right,’’ said Katie. ‘‘I did need your help. I’d have likely died without your help. But now someone else needs help, and I don’t know why you’re too stubborn to see it. Why won’t you help Emma the same as you helped me?’’

‘‘It ain’t the same.’’

‘‘What’s different about it?’’

‘‘It’s just different, that’s all.’’

‘‘You know what I think, Mayme,’’ said Katie, and her eyes flashed, ‘‘I think you are all mixed up right now. You don’t like the thought of me helping someone, especially a colored girl. What if she were a white girl who needed us, Mayme? I think you’re jealous of Emma—’’

‘‘You think I’m jealous of
her
!’’ I practically yelled. ‘‘She ain’t worth it!’’ I turned around to stare out the kitchen window.

‘‘Well, she’s worth something to me!’’ said Katie at my back, and it was as close to yelling at me as she’d ever come. ‘‘She’s all alone and her baby’s helpless, and she’s just about as helpless herself, poor thing. So I’m going to help her whether you like it or not. I don’t know anything about taking care of a baby because I never had younger brothers and sisters like you did. I’m sure you know more about it than I do. But if you won’t help, I guess I’ll just have to learn. And I will too, because she needs me.’’

She paused and glanced over at my note where it was still lying on the kitchen table.

‘‘So you might as well just leave again,’’ she said, ‘‘if you’re so determined to go.’’

‘‘Maybe I will,’’ I said, ‘‘just like I said I would.’’

‘‘Then go ahead!’’ said Katie in an angry voice. Her face was red again. I guess I’d riled her up pretty good. ‘‘But I’m staying here, just like I said too. And Emma and her baby are welcome to stay with me as long as they like!’’

‘‘You’d rather have her than me!’’ I blurted out, knowing even as the words passed my lips how dumb they sounded.

‘‘I wouldn’t
rather
have anybody. I don’t love you any less, Mayme—’’

I couldn’t help looking away again. I hadn’t expected her to say something like that right in the middle of an argument. Suddenly my eyes stung with hot tears. The words tore me apart.

‘‘—There’s plenty of love in my heart to go around,’’ Katie continued softly. ‘‘I’d hoped you had the same kind of love in yours. But if I can give some of the love that’s in me to Emma too, then maybe I’m supposed to. Maybe that’s why she wound up here. When you first came, you and I both needed help, and we helped each other. You’re right, you helped me a lot more than I helped you. Maybe that’s why I’ve got to help Emma now.’’

The kitchen got real quiet. We just stood there looking at each other, both of our faces full of emotion. I reckon I’d dug myself in too deep a hole to climb out of without eating a heap more crow than I wanted to right then. Maybe my pride had got the best of me, and when that happens a body doesn’t think too straight or make good decisions.

‘‘Well, I sure as shootin’ ain’t gonna stick around and wait for that fool to get us in a fix,’’ I finally said. ‘‘She’ll be the death of us both if she’s found here. The day’s going to come as sure as sin when somebody comes after her and maybe kills her, and us at the same time.’’

‘‘Well, I’m not going to make her leave, Mayme,’’ said Katie.

Just then the baby cried out from the parlor. Then came Emma’s voice.

‘‘Missus . . . Miz Katie . . . der baby’s cryin’. . . .’’

For a second or two more Katie’s eyes stared into mine. I knew she was pleading with me to come to my senses.

Then she turned and hurried into the parlor.

L
EAVING
A
GAIN
42

I
STOOD IN THE KITCHEN FOR ABOUT A MINUTE after Katie’d left.

Finally I picked up the note I’d written early that same morning before it was light.

Dear Katie,
I read.

There ain’t no good way to say good-bye, so I’m
leaving before daylight so we don’t have to go through
the pain of it. Only one last thing I want to say—and
that is that you’re the best friend I could ever have in the
world. I’ll never forget you. I love you, Katie.

Mayme

Tears were already in my eyes before I finished reading it. They were sure more pleasant words than the ones we’d just fired back and forth at each other.

It wasn’t much of a way to say good-bye, but I didn’t want to have to try to say it again, especially with Katie mad at me.

I set the note back down on the table and slowly walked outside. My Bible and bundle of things were still in the barn. I walked across the yard, through the door, and found them where I’d dropped them earlier. I carried them out and stood by the pump, holding them in my hands and trying to make some sense of all the thoughts and emotions swirling around inside me. Then I set out walking.

A minute later I was on my way down the road again just like I had been earlier. It was so quiet. Even the baby’d stopped crying. It seemed like it took forever for me to get down the road a hundred yards. Tears were coming down my face because I knew Katie wouldn’t come riding after me this time, and I knew I couldn’t look back.

On I walked, one slow step after another, hating myself for leaving, still thinking I had no choice, though my brain was pretty mixed up by now.

Then again came a familiar voice. I wanted to think I was dreaming again, like I’d thought earlier. But I knew it was no dream.

‘‘Mayme!’’ Katie called behind me.

I stopped.

‘‘Mayme . . . please don’t go!’’

Slowly I turned around. There was Katie standing next to the porch.

Before I realized what I was doing, I was running toward her. Then she started running toward me. I dropped the things I was holding . . . and I saw Katie open her arms . . . and all of a sudden we were in each other’s arms crying like a couple of babies.

We didn’t do anything for a while but just stand there sobbing on each other’s shoulders.

‘‘I’m sorry for the things I said, or if I hurt you,’’ Katie said finally. ‘‘I didn’t mean to.’’

‘‘You didn’t,’’ I said. ‘‘I was wrong to think what I did. You’ve been better to me than I deserve. I know you care about me.’’

‘‘I do, Mayme. You’re the best friend I’ve ever had.’’

‘‘You too, Katie. I was thinking earlier, when I left this morning, that you were my family now. I don’t know how I could leave you. But it just don’t seem—’’

‘‘Oh, Mayme!’’ she cried, and she put her hand over my mouth to stop me from saying anything more about my worries. ‘‘My heart was breaking in two to see you walk away down the road. I didn’t know what to do for the longest time. I just stood watching your back and crying. I don’t know what’s going to become of us, or what we’re going to do. But let’s not worry about it just now. All I know is that I couldn’t let you leave again.’’

T
HE
D
ARING
S
CHEME
43