“Hush, Aurelia,” Justice warned. “Let Aunt Tempie fi nish her
tale.”
“Don’t you worry, Justice,” Castor asserted. “Brer Rabbit is
th’ cleverest.”
“Mm-hmm,” Pollux added. “He’ll get away from that ol’ wolf.”
Tempie went on. “Now, Brer Rabbit thought to hisself as he
dangled there in Brer Wolf’s grip, ‘I must gather my wits and
contrive a way to stay out ol’ Brer Wolf’s stew pot.’”
Maggie leaned forward, as caught up in the tale as the rest
of them. “Th’ rabbit has no chance. Th’ wolf is bigger and
stronger . . .”
“Shhhh!”
“The first thing Brer Rabbit thought to do was quit his strug-
glin’. Instead o’ strugglin’, he set his clever mind to
thinkin’
.”
Tempie tapped her index finger to her temple. “Just then, Brer
Rabbit spied a buckthorn bush filled with berries ripe for the
pickin’ and that’s when he hatched himself a scheme.”
“A buckthorn bush,” Simon snorted. “That’s trouble.”
“Brer Rabbit said to Brer Wolf, ‘Why, would you look at those
purty berries? So ripe an’ juicy—mmmmMMMM—don’t every-
one know nothin’ goes better with rabbit stew than a great big
bowl of juicy, delicious buckthorn berries.’”
“Buckthorn berries!” Castor and Pollux fell into a fit of giggles.
312 Christine
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“What?” Maggie whispered to Simon. “What’s wrong with
buckthorn berries?”
Tempie ignored the interruptions. “Now, most folk know,
eatin’ buckthorn berries will have you squitterin’ from your hind
end with a bad case of the trots in no time. But Brer Wolf is a
natural-born meat-eater, dim to the ways of things that grow.
Those berries tempted him, hangin’ on that bush, a-gleamin’ red
like jewels in the sunshine. He held on to Brer Rabbit’s long
fl oppy ears and set him to pickin’.” Tempie began picking imagi-
nary berries from an imaginary bush.
“As fast as Brer Rabbit picked those berries, greedy ol’ Brer
Wolf ate ’em. He took to those berries like a mule to millet. Soon
there warn’t a single berry left on that bush. With Brer Rabbit by
the ears, Brer Wolf set back onto the path to his cabin. They
walked quite a ways, and Brer Rabbit got to worryin’ that maybe
all his schemin’ went for naught, when he heard a deep rumblin’,
grumblin’ sound. ‘Sounds like they’s a storm a-brewin’,’ Brer
Rabbit said, ‘But they ain’t a cloud in the sky.’”
“Brer Rabbit.” Justice laughed, slapping his knee. “He
is
a cau-
tion!”
“Then a mighty queer look come over Brer Wolf. He let loose
Brer Rabbit and grabbed himself ’round the belly. ‘Oooohhh,
lawsy . . .’ says he, fi ddling with the buttons on his britches.
“Brer Rabbit got to snickering with delight, ‘Is you feelin’
poorly, Brer Wolf?’
“And Brer Wolf took off like a blue streak, into the bresh. And
Brer Rabbit laughed and laughed, then he lit out, hippity-hoppity,
back to his briar patch.”
Everyone clapped, happy Brer Rabbit had succeeded. Using his
wits and cunning, he beat Brer Wolf once again.
“That was a good trick he played,” Simon said. “Getting the
wolf to eat those berries.”
Tempie nodded. “Brer Rabbit, he never ever gives up.” With
Midwife of the Blue Ridge
313
that, she sent the twins to their beds. Achilles got back to pluck-
ing his
banjar
and the adults sat quiet for a moment, savoring a
tale well told.
“Tha’s the way . . .” Maggie murmured, sitting upright. “We
can do it, too.” She turned to Aurelia. “
We
can stay out o’ th’
wolf’s pot as well.”
“What are you talkin’ ’bout, Maggie?” Aurelia leaned back
against Justice. “There ain’t no wolves ’round here.”
“I mean him.” Maggie waved her hand toward the block-
house. “Cavendish. We can do like Brer Rabbit did to th’ wolf—
fix him so he doesna want either of us in his bed.”
“Feed Marse Cavendish buckthorn berries?” Aurelia gig-
gled.
“Aye. Or rub his smallclothes with stinging nettle leaves.”
Maggie laughed. “Between us cookin’ his food and tendin’ to his
linen, we can keep him awful busy—him in a quandary as to
whether he should scratch, spew, shite, or fart!”
“And in such a predicament, havin’ his puny cock polished will
be the last thing on his mind!” Aurelia clapped her hands with
glee.
Justice’s whisper was harsh. “Hush this foolishness, Aurelia.
Pay no mind to this white woman and her crazy talk.”
“Ye wouldna think it crazy, Justice,” Maggie spat back, “if ye
had to answer his call—bend t’ tha’ devil’s will as we must.”
“I been bending to the will of men like him my life long, and
I’ve stripes on my back to show when I didn’t.”
“I’d rather be whipped than go t’ his bed willing,” Maggie
hissed.
“Hmmph. That what you two are talkin’ ’bout don’t lead t’
the whippin’ post,” Justice countered. “Slaves caught poisoning
their master be burned alive at the stake.”
“We ain’t fixin’ to poison Massa so’s he die,” Aurelia whis-
pered. “We’ll just make him a little uncomfortable, is all. Just so
314 Christine
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he keep to himself long enough for Maggie t’ heal up an’ run off
to her ol’ massa.”
Simon added, “It’d serve us all to have that bastard laid low
for a few days. He’s been drivin’ everybody hard.”
Justice turned to Tempie, his voice dropping to an exasperated
rumbling rasp. “You may be no bigger than a skeeter wing, Miz
Tempie, but you are the mother of this mischief. Make these
fools come to they senses. This kind o’ talk is bound to get some-
body killed, or worse.”
“Justice is right—this kind o’ talk is best left for the light o’
day.” Tempie stood, linked her fingers behind her head, and
stretched catlike. “Th’ day has eyes, but the night has ears. Ev-
eryone ought just button up now and find their bed.”
21
A Deadly Web
It was very dark when Maggie startled awake. Barely able to see
her hand before her face, she rubbed the sleep from her eyes,
pressed up to a stand, and tiptoed around two blanketed gray
mounds lying on their darker gray pallets. Aurelia rustled in her
bed and moaned, “It daybreak already?”
Maggie whispered, “Shhha . . . back t’ yer dreams, lass . . . I’m
just off t’ pee.”
Fingers skimming over the rough timber wall, she felt her way
to the corner where they kept the night bucket. Maggie fumbled
gathering her shift and positioning the bucket—urinating being
one among many things made more difficult with her arm en-
slinged.
At last squatting over the bucket, she released her water to
shush into the pisspot. Maggie scrinched her nose at the strong
smell, like that of stewed celery root. Regretting having added to
the funk of their close quarters, she picked up the bucket with
her good left hand and headed out to discard its noxious content.
The door latch pushed up with a loud thunk. Wincing at the
noise, Maggie eased the door open.
The bucket’s bale handle cut into the fleshy mounds on her
316 Christine
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fingers. She padded on bare feet past the long row of cabins,
down to the far end, where several large collecting barrels sat at
the base of the stockade wall. Aurelia used the stale urine as a
detergent to launder woolens. Tempie used it to set bright dyes in
her fabric. The hunters used it as well when tanning hides.
Maggie spilled her bucket into the barrel. The fortyard was
ghostly still—no cricket’s chirp or owl’s eerie trill interrupted the
silence—that brief pure moment in time when it seemed all living
things waited with bated breath for daylight to arrive.
The damp hem of her shift tickled her ankles as she ambled
back to her cabin. Against the blueing eastern sky, Maggie could
make out the lone silhouette of a sentryman posted atop the
blockhouse. The blinking orange glow as he tugged on his pipe
almost illuminated his face. She quickened her pace.
Back inside, she found Tempie awake and fully dressed, feed-
ing wood to the fire she’d coaxed from the banked coals. Still in
her thin shift, Aurelia hopped from one foot to the other.
“Where you been with that pisspot?” She snatched the bucket
from Maggie and scurried into the dark corner.
Maggie sat on the stool and slipped her arm out of the sling.
With elbow bent, she tested her injured shoulder joint, raising
her arm up and down like a bird flapping one wing. Tempie
turned from tending the fire. The ruffled mobcap she wore
glowed like a golden halo in the firelight as she laid hands on
Maggie’s shoulder. “Swelling’s gone down. How’s it feel?”
“A bit tender, but I can do without the sling, I think.”
“Just mind you don’t
overdo—heavy liftin’ and suchlike.”
Tempie fi lled the kettle at the water barrel by the door and hung
it from the lugpole over the fi re. “Get dressed. I’ll fi x tea and we
can have us a talk.” She tossed several chunks of red sassafras
root into the kettle.
Maggie retrieved her clothes, stepping into her skirt and lac-
ing up her bodice lickety-split. She settled with legs folded in
Midwife of the Blue Ridge
317
front of the fire and tied a kerchief around her head to hide sleep-
mussed braids.
“Aurelia honey,” Tempie called, her voice almost childlike.
“Come an’ have yo’ tea afore the overseer rings the call.”
Aurelia stumbled into the light cast by the fi re, properly
dressed save for the massive explosion of curls haloing her head.
“I hate my hair!” she moaned.
“Sit here.” Maggie patted the floor beside her. “I can fi x it.”
Maggie smoothed and tugged Aurelia’s wild locks into a thick,
fuzzy braid trailing down her neck.
Sassafras tea brewing in the kettle filled the cabin with its
clean, spicy scent. Tempie poured them each a noggin of hot tea
sweetened with dogwood honey and sat on her stool with cup in
lap, steam-dampened skin glistening in the fi relight.
Aurelia ventured to begin. “Justice was sho’ agitated last
night . . .”
“Justice ain’t nobody’s fool. When contemplatin’ dangerous
doin’s, wise folk plan it out careful, an’ that’s what we’s about t’
do. Agreed?” Both of the young women nodded, and Tempie
continued: “The twins tol’ me Marse Cavendish drank himself
beyond useless—pecker-wavin’ drunk he was last night. He is
bound t’ be sick as a dog when he wake today—”
Maggie interrupted, deep ridges furrowed in her brow. “Was
Justice tellin’ true? That what he said about slaves poisoning
their masters an’ burnin’ at the stake?”
“What? You think you is th’ onliest slave ever wished her
massa ill?” Tempie shrugged. “Those burned were stupid enough
to get caught. But I’ve lived this long, and I ain’t been caught
yet.” She winked. “Now, when Marse Cavendish wakes poorly
and calls for me today—”
Maggie interrupted once again. “Are ye certain he’ll call?”
“Oh, Massa always call for Tempie the day after he dead
drunk,” Aurelia affi rmed.
318 Christine
Blevins
Tempie continued, “When I go to him—”
“No, Tempie.” Maggie placed a hand on the woman’s knee.
“When th’ devil calls, I will be the one who goes to him. Seeing as
how I’m th’ one who benefits, it is only fitting and fair that I shoul-
der the risk. I willna have ye put in any danger on my account. If
we’re caught out, ’twill be me who’s burned at the stake.”
Tempie sat quiet for a moment. She slipped her hand over
Maggie’s and grasped it tight. “All right, chile. When Marse
Cavendish call for me, I’ll send you in my stead.”
“They won’t burn you.” Aurelia wound an arm around Mag-
gie’s shoulders. “They’ll most likely only hang you—you bein’
white an’ all.”
“Aye . . . well . . .” Maggie smiled. “I suppose that’s a comfort
of sorts.”
“We haven’t much time.” Tempie demanded their full atten-
tion. “When Marse Cavendish calls for aid, you’ll go to
him . . .”
“He might send me away. I did draw a knife to him . . .”
Tempie shook her head. “Naw . . . white man desperate
enough t’ call for the nigger doctor don’t rightly care who doses
him. He just want relief. After rapin’ you, he figures you is tame.
If’n he seem suspicious, set him at ease by actin’ contrite, all
meek and mild.”
“Aye, then I’ll dose him.” Maggie relished the thought. “I’ll
put a purge through him that will leave him green-faced and
squirtin’ fire from a red- hot arsehole for days on end.”
Aurelia burst out laughing.
Irritated, Tempie stood and stirred the fire with the poker.
Sending a shower of sparks up the chimney, she tossed the poker
in a clatter, turned to stand before them with hands on hips.
“You are either a fool, Maggie Duncan, or you is lookin’ t’ swing
from the gibbet. Set aside yo’ pride. Set aside yo’ vengeful
thoughts. You got to use yo’ wits.” She drilled her sharp fi ngertip
into Maggie’s temple. “When you answer Massa’s call, you
will