The Widow of Rose Hill (The Women of Rose Hill Book 2), стр. 44

They watched a while longer. After Natalie showed them the letter C, the women searched for it. When Harriet was the first to shout that she’d found it, moisture shone in Moses’ eyes.

“Praise the Lawd! Praise the Good Lawd,” he said, unashamedly wiping the wetness away. “I done asked the Lawd to send us some he’p with our letters, and here He done sent Miz Natalie.”

They retreated behind the house.

“I once had a massa who taught me a few letters years ago,” Moses said as they walked back to the barn toward the workshop. “He a preacher man and give’d me his Bible when he passed on. I cain’t read but a word here and there, so it don’t make no sense. I’s askin’ the Lawd just this mornin’ iffen He want me to share the Good News in that book, He gonna have to send me some he’p.” He grinned. “Guess He shore ’nough did.”

Levi watched the man put the tools away. While he knew it was none of his business, he couldn’t keep the question that had bothered him since coming to Rose Hill from slipping past his lips.

“I don’t understand why you and Harriet and Carolina stay here with Mrs. Ellis.” He planted both hands on the workbench. “You are free to go, to leave the place where you were enslaved. Are you so loyal to your former owner that you can’t envision living anywhere else?”

Moses hung a hammer on two nails in the wall. He heaved a sigh and looked at Levi. “I don’t ’spect you to understand, Colonel, suh. You ain’t never been a slave. But best I can explain it, even though I’s a slave here at Rose Hill before freedom come, it still my home. Miz Natalie, she just a little chile when her pappy buys me. It not her fault I’s a slave.”

“But she could have freed you after her husband and father-in-law died.”

“Shore she coulda, but then what? What’s a free Negro gonna do here in Texas? Ain’t no white person gonna hire ’em. Can’t buy land to farm. Weren’t no Union Army to he’p us. Them patterollers just as soon kill a free Negro as they would a slave. Don’t make no never mind to them.”

These were realities Levi had not considered. The problems the free men and women faced today were the same problems they’d have faced before the war started. Perhaps more so, given the facts Moses had just laid out. Simply having freedom handed to them did not mean all their problems would go away.

“I think I’m beginning to understand.” Levi glanced toward the grassy area, but he could no longer hear the happy voices. It was nearly the supper hour, so they’d probably stopped the lessons for today.

“Don’t misunderstand me, Colonel,” Moses said, a solemn expression on his face. “I’s thankful for freedom. Wouldn’t never want to belong to nobody again. My Isaac can grow to be a man and do anythin’ he want to make a livin’. Some o’ them Negroes you brung in to work them fields is fearful the gov’ment gonna change their mind and make us slaves again. That boy with the brands on his face …” Moses shook his head. “He trouble. He say he gonna get hisseff a gun and kill any white man who try to make him a slave again.”

Levi didn’t like the sound of that. “Maybe I should speak to them. Assure them the government will never allow slavery again.” Moses shrugged. “I ’spect it can’t hurt. But you got to understand, we was slaves ’cuz the gov’ment said so. Now we not slaves ’cuz the gov’ment said so. What’s to stop them from changing it back again?”

He could see their point. “Too many men died fighting to end slavery. Our country will never go back to the way things were.”

“That’s good to hear, Colonel, suh.”

Levi followed the big man from the barn, realizing he didn’t know as much about slavery and freedom as he thought he did.

Natalie carried a stack of dirty dishes from the table to the washtub. Behind her, Colonel Maish arm-wrestled Samuel while Isaac and Moses had their own arm-wrestling match at the opposite end of the table. Their laughter, grunts, and groans filled the kitchen.

“Miz Natalie, Lottie here will do them dishes,” Carolina said, carrying a serving dish that now held only traces of the delicious beef stew Harriet had made for supper, along with cornbread and greens from the garden. Colonel Maish, she’d noticed, had enjoyed three helpings of stew, much to Harriet’s satisfaction.

Lottie offered a smile. “I happy to do ’em, Miz Natalie. Since we come to Rose Hill, I been grateful not to have to cook meals for Miz Eunice. I don’t mind cleanin’ up.”

Cousin Eunice had again refused to join them in the kitchen for the evening meal, especially when she learned the colonel would be their guest once more. No one seemed too upset over her absence.

“Thank you, Lottie.” Natalie glanced at the young woman’s protruding belly. “We don’t want you on your feet unnecessarily, though.” She lowered her voice so only the two other women could hear over the ruckus coming from the table. “I remember how my feet would swell in the evenings when I carried Samuel. When is the baby due?”

Lottie smoothed a hand over her big belly. “I ’spect it gettin’ close. Seem like it be ’bout Christmastime when I suspect I’s carryin’ this little one.”

Natalie didn’t ask about the father. Such questions were better left unasked.

“You go on to the porch and sit a spell, Miz Natalie,” Carolina said, tying on an apron to cover her red plaid skirt. She cast a quick glance toward the colonel. “I ’spect the colonel might enjoy sittin’ out yonder in the swing ’fore he has to ride back to Langford Manor.”

The competition between Samuel and the colonel had ended— Samuel won, of course—and the man turned toward