Authors: Patricia Hagan
April looked at him, saw glazed desire in his eyes as he looked boldly over her body. The dress was thin. She knew her nipples protruded, and she moved quickly to cover her bosom as best she could with her free arm.
The soldier laughed. “Well, we got us a real lady here, ain’t we? Don’t want nobody seeing her bosoms.” He made a smacking sound with his lips. “How’s about a li’l kiss to say hello, sweet lady? And there ain’t no need in you being shy, ’cause in a little while, when it gets real hot, you’ll peel down and work in the raw like the rest of them hussies—”
With a movement so fast April never saw till he struck, Kaid sent Ellison backward with a vicious blow to the chest. Towering over him as he lay sprawled in the dirt, Kaid cried, “You keep your filthy mouth shut to this one, you hear me? She’s a cut above the rest. She’ll be doing her share in the field, but only in the field. She won’t be doing it in your bed or out in the bushes. Now do you understand me, or do I need to rattle that so-called brain of yours a little?”
Ellison’s eyes narrowed to angry slits. “Yeah,” he drawled as he slowly got to his feet. “No need to get all riled up.”
Kaid did not smile, but there was a gentle note in his voice as he said, “Get to work now. I’m gonna go back and let your dog out. I put him in the barn so he wouldn’t wander off. Don’t worry. I’ll keep an eye on him till he gets used to his surroundings.”
April shook her head, bewildered. He cares about my dog, she thought as she stumbled along behind Private Ellison, and Lucky seems to like him. But why did he lock him in the barn? So he wouldn’t come to my rescue when he heard me screaming? And why is he being nice to him? None of it makes any sense. A man like that, so brutal and callous, caring about a mongrel dog…
“Here. Jewel will show you what to do.”
April turned to look down at a woman kneeling in the dirt. Her face was streaked with grime, as were her hands and arms. Once, April thought, she might have been pretty. Now her skin was baked by the sun, dried and leathery. Her dark hair was dull, lifeless, and pulled haphazardly into a bun on top of her head, damp strands clinging to her perspiration-slicked neck.
She looked up at them with flashing eyes and gave April a look of hate. “What’s the matter? Don’t Miss Hoity-Toity know how to pull weeds? It don’t take no fancy education for this, you know.”
Ellison raised his hand as though to strike her. “Don’t you get sassy, Jewel. I ain’t listening to that smart mouth of yours.”
Jewel did not shrink away but continued to stare at April defiantly, furiously. She smirked. “What’s the matter? Can’t she tell the difference between a weed and a bean plant?” She looked at April. “Are you a Yankee?”
“No, I’m from the South,” she replied quickly, wanting to make friends, for she did not understand the hating way the woman was looking at her. “I’m from Montgomery, Alabama, actually, and it’s a long story how I got here. But I’m not a spy, and—”
“I didn’t ask for the story of your life, bitch. Just get your ass down here and start jerking plants. I’ll bet you lived on a fancy plantation, and your daddy whipped his slaves to work in the fields, and you never had to get those dainty hands of yours dirty.”
“Jewel, I’m warning you!” Ellison took a menacing step forward.
She stared up at him, undaunted. “You don’t scare me, you sonofabitch. And the only reason you brought her over here to work with me is to rub in the fact that Kaid’s got a new sweetie to keep his bed warm for a while. Well, it don’t make any damn difference to me, understand? And if you think I’m going to warm yours for you—”
He swooped down to slap her, but she had seen the blow coming and was ready for it. April gasped and jumped back, but Jewel held herself steady and kept the taunting smirk on her face.
“You’ll do anything I tell you to, you bitch.” Ellison’s face was red with ire. “Now if you want me to strip that worthless hide of yours and tie you up and beat you till you bleed, then you keep running that smart mouth.
“And I’ll tell you something else,” he went on, pointing his finger in her face. “Tonight I’m taking you out to the barn where nobody can hear you scream, and I’m going to fix you good.”
“Oh, shit, Ellison, you ain’t got what it takes to fix no woman good,” she laughed. “Now get out of here, or I’ll go screaming after Kaid and tell him how you’re acting. I might even tell him you’re trying to feel up his new sweetie. You know what would happen then,” she added with a wink.
He sucked in his breath, straightened. It was obvious her threats had registered. He gave April a rough shove and sent her sprawling down beside Jewel. “Just get to work,” he said between gritted teeth. “I’ll take care of you later. You can believe that, bitch.”
Jewel threw back her head and laughed, long and loud and shrill, but April could tell that it was only an act. She could see the glimmer of unshed tears in the woman’s eyes.
When he was out of hearing range, she told her, “I’m sorry, Jewel. He shouldn’t have hit you like that—”
“Don’t worry about it,” she snapped. Pointing to a yellowish green plant nearby, she said, “That’s a weed. We have to crawl all over this damn field and pull them up. They’ve got stickers on them, and they’ll really prick your fingers. So try to be careful.”
“My name is April Jennings.” She held out her hand and smiled wanly. “I hope we can be friends. It can’t be very pleasant here, and if we get along—”
She gasped as Jewel slapped her hand away, then pointed an accusing finger. “Let’s get something straight. You and me ain’t never gonna be friends, ’cause I ain’t got no friends here, see? I do my job, and I keep my mouth shut, and I leave everybody alone. The only reason that bastard brought you over here to work with me was to goad me, to let me know Kaid’s got somebody else to lay with and won’t be calling me to his bed.
“But that won’t last long,” she rushed on. “It never does, ’cause there ain’t nobody else can satisfy him like I can, ’cause I understand him. He’s a good man. But you and the prissy little sluts like you think he’s just an ugly old creep without a heart. I know different. And if I ever catch you flirting with him or leading him on, I’ll kill you with my bare hands. You understand me?”
April could not believe what she was hearing. She fell back on her knees staring, openmouthed, as the woman’s tirade continued.
“I got sent here because I was a spy for the Union. I’d do it again. But as long as I’m in this hellhole, I’m going to make the best of things, and that includes claiming Kaid Blackmon for my man. Sure, he may fool around with the rest of you once in a while, but ask any of them, and they’ll tell you it’s
me
he really likes to do it with.
“I get the best of the food, and I get just about the best of anything that’s to be had around here, because it’s
me
he cares about. You’re pretty. No doubt about that. But just don’t think you’re going to move in and take over, ’cause you ain’t.”
Ellison quickly walked back down the row. “You just won’t learn to shut up when I tell you to, will you, Jewel?” he cried, reaching to scoop her up roughly by her elbow and slap her once again. She tried to fight back, but he quickly twisted her arms behind her back with one hand, fastening his other hand in her hair. “I’m gonna teach you a lesson. In front of everybody. Now let’s just go over to that tree yonder and tie you up good, and then I’m gonna take off my belt and beat your worthless hide.”
“No!” April clambered to her feet and began tugging at his arms. “Don’t do it! She wasn’t doing anything. You can’t!”
He turned on her viciously. “You better stay out of this, woman, or you’ll get a beatin’, too. Now you get back to work.”
“No, I won’t. She wasn’t doing anything.” She reached to grab a handful of his hair and jerk as hard as she could. With a cry of pain, he released Jewel and struck out to knock April away from him.
“You’re gonna get it now, you slut—” He stepped toward her as she and Jewel backed away together.
“No, she isn’t, Ellison.”
April recognized Selma. She still looked pale and wan, but she was approaching, a shovel in her hand. “You aren’t going to do a thing to April, because if you do, Sergeant Blackmon will have
your
hide trussed up and beaten, and you know it. So why don’t you forget the whole thing and everybody get back to work?”
He looked at them, red-faced, chest heaving. At last he took a deep breath and said hoarsely, “All right. Just get back to work. All of you.” He pointed a finger at Jewel. “I know you’re just upset about having a new girl around, so I’ll let you go this time. But you sass me again, bitch, and I’ll beat you so bad Blackmon won’t want to touch you for a month.”
“Oh, go to hell!” Jewel dropped to her knees and began plucking at the weeds. This time she was unable to hold back the tears, and they began to stream down her face, mingling with the grime to make crooked muddy paths along her cheeks.
Selma patted April on the back and murmured, “Come on over here and work with me. Jewel likes to keep to herself.”
Jewel’s head whipped up, eyes flashing once more. “You’re damn right I do, and you just remember what I told you, woman. I catch you trying to play Kaid for a fool, and I’ll claw your goddamned eyes out.”
“I…I wouldn’t…” April stammered helplessly.
“Oh, come on. No point in arguing with her.” Selma led April away. When they had reached the far side of the field, she bent down and started jerking at the weeds, showing April how to do it.
They heard a long, low whistle from a guard and looked up to see one of the women taking off her dress. Naked, she continued with her work, oblivious to the taunting remarks.
April was aghast. “How can she?”
Selma laughed softly, bitterly. “You got a lot to learn, honey. When the sun beats down and your skin sticks to your dress, you’re glad to come out of it. Besides, these guards have seen everything we got, anyway. It don’t matter.”
“It…it does to me,” April cried, frightened.
“It won’t after you’ve been here awhile. You get to the point where nothing matters and you don’t even give a damn if you wake up in the morning. Welcome to Hell, honey, ’cause if this ain’t it, then there ain’t one.”
Incredulously, April glanced around and saw several other women prisoners giving in to the torturous rays of the sun. They, too, stepped out of their clothing.
“How can the Confederate government allow this?” she whispered in anguish.
“The government don’t know the conditions here,” Selma answered. “They think Tarboro prison is a nice little agricultural farm for women prisoners. They’d have Blackmouth’s head on a platter if they knew the shit that goes on here. Why do you think he keeps a guard posted on that road out of here? It sure ain’t ’cause he worries that one of us is going to escape. He wants to make sure he gets warned if a surprise visitor shows up.
“Things are different when there’s a visitor, you can bet on that. All of a sudden we get our undies back, and suddenly everything becomes pleasant. The visitors see a happy bunch of women doing easy little chores and living good. And we know better than to let them know otherwise, because the sergeant would see anybody dead that squealed on him.
“You see,” she went on, yanking at the weeds as she talked, seemingly oblivious to the blood oozing from her hands as the thorns pricked her flesh, “Blackmouth has it made, and he knows it. He lives pretty easy, and he’s got a woman any time he wants one. As ugly as he is, you know he has a hard time finding one on the outside. He’s also out of the fighting, and he don’t have to worry about getting his guts blown to hell on a battlefield. The soldiers under him know they’ve got a nice setup, too.”
“But the…the women,” April stuttered, still astonished. “What about when their time is up? Don’t they report him then?”
Selma laughed harshly. “Now who do you think they’d believe? A respected Confederate officer or an ex-prisoner? Besides, not too many ever get out of here. If Blackmouth figures he can’t trust somebody, they just disappear.”
“Oh, God.” April fell forward on her hands, shaking her head from side to side. “You…you’re talking about murder.”
“That’s strong language, honey. I’m talking about ‘accidents,’ you know? Like falling in quicksand or getting bit by a moccasin. Those things
do
happen.”
“But what if a woman…you know…gets in the
family way
? Wouldn’t the government wonder how she got that way here?”
Selma shrugged. “It happens. They just keep her tucked away till she has the baby. Then they take the baby away someplace. There are lots of women who’ve never been able to have their own, and they’re glad to get one.”
She jerked her head toward a soldier who was approaching them, a scowl on his face. “Look, we’re doing too much talking. They
do
beat your hide around here for not working, so let’s get busy. We’ll have all the time in the world for talking later, honey, ’cause believe me, you ain’t going nowhere.”
April forced her trembling hands to reach out and grab at the weeds, pausing now and then to swat at the gnats that swarmed her face, or to brush at the sweat that dripped from her forehead to sting her eyes.
Welcome to Hell, she thought in anguish, for surely she had died and been sucked into the very pits of Hades.
Chapter Twenty-Five
April lay on the rough canvas cot, tossing and turning now and then as the relentless humidity of the night caused her to itch and prickle. Now and then a mosquito’s incessant whine would cause her to slap out wildly in the darkness.