Antebellum BK 1 (32 page)

“
O’ course I understood.” He took her arm and started toward the exit. “Eye-talian is nothin’ but convoluted Spanish. I understand Spanish; I just don’t talk it so good as I talk English.”

She looked up at him. “Were you wiping tears off your face during Gilda’s death scene?”

“
Me? No. That’d be plumb sissified.”

She squeezed his arm and put her head on his shoulder. “Of all the men I’ve ever known, you’re the most complicated, Josiah.”

He kissed her hair. “Yer flat wrong about that, Marina. I’m surely the simplest man you’ve ever knowed.”

She straightened up. “Tomorrow we’ll see Edwin Booth as
Richard III. They say he’s wonderful. I saw his brother John Wilkes Booth in Washington, but I’ve never seen Edwin.”

“
It’s my turn to pick tomorrow and we’re gonna see Lola Montez do her spider dance.”

“
The Tarantella?” Marina asked with a giggle. “You know that the stories about her dancing without underwear are just falsehoods to attract dirty old men like you to her show, don’t you?”

“
There was a fella at the racetrack last Sunday who told me he could see – everything.”

“
We can go back to the hotel and I’ll show you the same ‘everything’ that Lola Montez has under her dress.”

“
It ain’t really the same, Marina.”

“
Okay then. We’ll go look at Lola Montez’s tarantula tomorrow night. But we’re going to see Richard III the next night.”

They reached the exit and turned toward the business district. The largest cotton crop ever produced was being shipped from the port, sugar prices were at an all-time high and there were no threats of secession from Louisiana as there were from the neighboring States. New Orleans was booming.

Josiah pointed to a placard in front of a theater they were passing. “Who’s this Louis Agassiz fella?”

“
He’s a professor of zoology and geology at Harvard.”

“
And people pay to listen to him lecture?”

She shrugged. “His theory that Negroes aren’t human is very popular in the South.”

Josiah chuckled. “If they ain’t human, what are they?”

“
He says that they’re another species which justifies owning them and using them as we do other domesticated animals.”

“
Do you suppose he ever took the time to have a conversation with a colored man and then tried the same thing with a horse?”

Marina laughed.

“
What’s funny?”

“
You have a way of boiling the most complex issue down to something simple.”

“
I keep tellin’ you that I’m a simple man, Marina.”

“
What would you think about staying here, Josiah?”

“
Like permanent?”

“
More like semi-permanent.”

“
Wherever you are is plumb perfect for me.”

“
I’m serious.”

“
Me too.”

“
Okay then. Shall we look at apartments tomorrow?”

“
What for? Livin’ in a hotel is a lot less work.”

“
It’s a lot more expensive too.”

“
Yer right. Why didn’t I think o’ that?”

She looked up at him. “Well, it
is
more expensive. You can’t deny that.”

“
I ain’t denyin’ it. Yer right as rain. If we keep livin’ in the hotel and keep spendin’ like we been spendin’ we’ll run plumb out o’ money – in about two hundred years.”

She laughed. “Let’s stop by the telegraph office so I can tell my children that we won’t be coming to visit as soon as we’d promised.”

May 7, 1853

Washington, D.C.

V
arina Davis excused herself from the group of women and crossed the crowded floor to where Anna Van Buskirk was talking animatedly to Senator Samuel P. Rucker. “May I have a moment please, Mrs. Van Buskirk?” Her Mississippi accent was turned up to high.

“
Oh, hello, Mrs. Davis. Happy birthday.” Anna was doing her best to hide her annoyance.

“
Thank you,” Mrs. Davis replied. She looked expectantly at Rucker, who, seeing an opportunity to escape from Anna’s wrath, backed away into the crowd. “You and the senator looked as if you might come to blows so I thought it might be best if I interrupted,” Mrs. Davis said sweetly.

“
The senator and I do not agree on the issue of slavery,” Anna said, “but we were far from becoming physical. In the way you implied, that is.”

Mrs. Davis ignored the innuendo. “Discussions of slavery have ruined many a Washington party of late.”

“
Not to mention millions of lives.”

Mrs. Davis scowled. “Do you think all parties are frivolous? Or is it just my having a birthday party – at my advanced age?”

“
Your advanced age?” Anna giggled and shook her head. “You’re what? Twenty-five?”

“
Twenty-seven.”

Anna chuckled. “Was that your feeble attempt to point out how much younger you are than I? You really shouldn’t try subtle insults, Varina. You’re simply not smart enough.”

Mrs. Davis set her jaw. “What is it about me that you so dislike, Mrs. Van Buskirk?”

“
I cannot think of anything in particular, Mrs. Davis, unless it is the fact that you continually gossip about me behind my back and omit me from your guest lists.”

“
My failure to invite you does not seem to prevent you from attending.”

“
No, but it does cause me to go in search of a married man who is on your guest list and whose wife is indisposed or otherwise.”

“
Fortunately for you there seems to be an endless supply of men who are willing to leave their wives at home for the favors of other women.”

“
Fortunately,” Anna agreed.

Mrs. Davis looked away momentarily, then took a deep breath and faced Anna. “I wonder if we might just call a truce?”

Anna shrugged. “Why? Aren’t we having fun?”

“
Are you aware that we are cousins on the Howell side?” Mrs. Davis asked.

“
I am cousin to half the population of New York and New Jersey. What is this truce that you are proposing?”

“
If I were to include you on my guest list would you stop attacking the President in your newspaper column?”

“
No. The President is a pinhead who is, without a doubt, the worst president in American history.”

“
Well you could at least say something complimentary upon occasion.”

“
I could not say anything complimentary about him unless it was an outright lie.”

“
Is there any truth to the rumor that you and Nancy Vreeland are lovers?” Mrs. Davis asked. Her eyes sparkled with the challenge.

“
Yes. You cannot blackmail me with that, Varina. Nancy and I have been lovers since we were girls.”

Mrs. Davis looked shocked. “Really? I actually thought Senator Rucker was your lover.”

Anna nodded. “I have many lovers. My eye is currently on your husband, by the way. I think him quite handsome. Is he good in bed? Does he make love to you in the French way? If not, I could teach him for you.”

A vivid pink blush that began on the ample chest of Mrs. Davis climbed to her neck and spread to her cheeks. “Well…” she sputtered angrily. “Well.”

“
You would be wise not to duel with me, Varina,” Anna said in a warning tone. “Your weapons are too flimsy and your constitution is too weak. Continue on your current course and I will bury you.”

“
I will not be… That is…”

Anna stepped closer. “I know everything about you, Varina,” Anna whispered. “Everything. And I have a newspaper with nation-wide circulation in which to tell all that I know.”

“
Well…” The anger was fading from the face of Mrs. Davis and fear was taking its place.

“
Shoo.” Anna waved her hand and Mrs. Davis obediently hurried across the room.

Nancy Vreeland had been watching the exchange and crossed the room to join Anna. “Varina looked ill. Did you poison her when I wasn’t looking?”

Anna smiled. “Varina has a dark secret and she thinks I know it.”

“
Would you like to
really
know it?”

“
Of course.”

“
When she was seventeen she went to live on the Davis plantation. Her family was penniless at the time, but soon after Varina moved in with the Davis family, Varina’s father mysteriously came into money.”

Anna giggled. “How do you know that?”

Nancy smiled. “I might tell you some day, but I think I’ll keep that secret for now.”

“
Speaking of telling. I told Varina that you and I are lovers.”

“
Ugh.” Nancy made a face. “That’s disgusting.”

Anna giggled. “You chose to be a lesbian, not me.”

Nancy’s smile faded. “It wasn’t a choice, Anna. It was the way God made me.”

“
Oh please.” Anna shook her head. “It was a rational decision. I remember the process you followed to make it. First, you decided that you didn’t like facial hair. Then you decided that you didn’t want children. Finally, you met Alice Fenton and discovered that you could have sex without facial hair or risking pregnancy. Shall I list the men who followed Alice?”

“
We had better change the subject before I lose my temper,” Nancy said.

Anna looked at Nancy for a moment, then looked away. “Very well.”

“
I can’t change who I am, Anna.”

“
I’ve never asked you to change, Nancy. I love you just the way you are. But I have to admit that I really don’t understand you at all, and I don’t think you understand yourself.”

“
Let’s go home, Anna. I’m tired and we’ve got a long trip ahead of us tomorrow.”

May
8, 1853

Jersey City, New Jersey