Soul Catcher (42 page)

^{"I ain't hungry," she replied. "My stomach's all jouncy."}

^{"Take some of this then." He offered her the bottle of laudanum he'd just purchased. "It'll settle your stomach."}

^{"That stuff ain't good for the baby," she said.}

^{"Not eating ain't good for the baby, either. At least drink some milk. Babies need milk to grow."}

^{She looked over at him and snorted.}

^{"What you know 'bout babies, Cain?"}

^{In truth, he didn't know much about them.}

^{"I know they need milk."}

^{"What you so worried about me for?" she said, smiling to show her teeth, which were white and straight as piano keys. "'Fraid you won't get that re-ward if'n I get sick?"}

^{"You got to think about your child."}

^{Her smile vanished and her gaze turned solemn and distant. "You don't hafta tell me that. All I been thinkin' 'bout is this here chile."}

^{She conceded finally and drank from the jar in a desultory fashion. She'd barely taken a sip before she was struck by sickness again. Leaning over, she vomited a white, frothy liquid onto the ground. She retched violently several times.}

^{"Can I get you anything?" he asked.}

^{She shook her head. "It'll pass by and by," she replied as another wave of nausea convulsed her. While she was retching, he noticed, for the first time really, how grubby and frayed her clothing was. Her dress ragged and stained, her stockings hanging down around her ankles. He went over to his saddlebags and got a rag. Then he walked over to a water trough and wet it.}

^{"Here," he said, handing her the rag, "use this to clean yourself."}

^{When she glanced up, she appeared pale, and her breathing was labored.}

^{"Morning sickness don't last but a few weeks," she said. "Like it say in the Good Book, 'In sorrow you gonna bring forth children.' "}

^{Soon her breathing leveled out and she took another drink of the milk, a small sip. She swallowed and waited to see how her stomach would react to it.}

^{"Feel better?" he asked.}

^{"Some." After a while, she gazed out over the town, toward the river and beyond to the high cliffs. Looking up, she shielded her eyes against the bright sun. "It's a right fine day."}

^{"That it is," Cain agreed.}

^{"What would you be doin' on a day like this?"}

^{"What do you mean?"}

^{"If'n you wasn't bringin' back a runaway. If you could do what'ere you wanted to."}

^{Cain shrugged. What would he be doing? he wondered.}

^{"When it was nice like this, my momma and me usta do the wash. Stoke up a big fire and boil the water in the kettle. Throw in the lye. Me and her would talk, about this and that, get to laughin' about something. She always said there wasn't nothin' smell better'n new- washed clothes. And she was right. I love the smell of clothes hanging out to dry." Rosetta glanced down at her own soiled garments. "You know what they'd get me to thinkin' of?"}

^"What?"

^"Clouds."

^"Clouds?"

^{"Uh-hm. When I was a little girl and I'd look up at the clouds, all white and fluffy, I thought they must smell so clean, so fresh. That nothin' in the whole wide world could be cleaner than them. So what about you, Cain? If you had all day and nothin' to do."}

^{"I used to like to ride up high somewhere, and set there and read."}

^{"All by your lonesome?"}

^"Yes."

^{"You strike me as somebody likes to be by hisself."}

^{Cain thought of replying, but right then a thin, slump-shouldered man happened to step out of the church. He wore a black preacher's hat, and he carried a satchel like a doctor, and when he saw them sitting there on the church grass he walked over to them.}

^{"Good day, sir," he said to Cain, smiling broadly to show a mouthful of long yellow teeth. "I'm Reverend Covington."}

^{"Good day, Reverend," Cain replied.}

^{"Are you new to town?"}

^{"Just passing through."}

^{"What seems to be the problem?"}

^{"No problem. We're just resting here for a moment."}

^{The man stared at Rosetta, nodding his narrow skull. "Indeed. The evils of drink are indeed pernicious. More so with your Nigro. Despite years of civilizing influence, that inherently wild African blood is unleashed by the corrupting influence of alcohol. I have seen it all too often. As it says in Leviticus--"}

^{But Cain wasn't in the mood for a sermon. "She's not drunk," he corrected. "She's with child."}

^{"I see," the man said, pursing his lips so that they looked like a pair of worms twisted around a fishing hook. He gave Cain a castigating look.}

^{"No, you don't see," Cain snapped at him. He thought of explaining but decided it was pointless.}

^{"There is a Nigro church just down by the river," the man offered.}

^{"She's not fixing to go to church," Cain explained. "Just looking to set a spell."}

^{"I'm afraid she's not allowed on church grounds."}

^{"We'll be moving on directly, Reverend," Cain told him.}

^{"She can't stay here."}

^{Cain looked up at him. "I said, we'll be moving on just as soon as she's able."}

^{"You need to move on now, sir. Or I shall have to notify the constabulary."}

^{Cain stood and took a step toward the man, who fell back nervously when he saw the look in Cain's eyes and the size of the gun that he carried on his hip. "I told you she's sick. We'll be moving on just as soon as she's feeling better."}

^{"It's all right," Rosetta said, wiping her mouth on his old shirt and getting shakily to her feet.}

^{"You're supposed to be a man of God?" Cain said to the minister, clenching his fist.}

^{"Leave it be, Cain," she offered. "It ain't worth it."}

^{He gave the man a last scornful look before turning away. He mounted, then helped her up, and they rode on down the street.}

^{"You sure got you a temper, Cain," Rosetta said to him.}

^{"I don't abide fools and hypocrites."}

^{"That temper gone get you in trouble one day."}

^{When he saw a general store, he stopped. He got out the shackles and secured her to a hitching post. Then he went inside to buy some provisions. He purchased bacon and flour and cornmeal, some oats and sugar for Hermes. While he was paying the clerk, he spotted a dress hanging behind the counter. It was a blue calico garment with long sleeves, buttons down the front, and something frilly at the bodice that caught Cain's fancy. It made him recall the first time he'd seen Rosetta, standing outside of that shop window in Boston, staring in at the dress. The only Negro woman he had ever really known in any substantial way was Lila, and to save his life he could not have described a single article of clothing she'd ever worn. She had clothed herself as they all did, in what he'd thought of simply as "Negro garb," some sort of dull homespun material, sturdy and innocuous. Back then it would not even have entered his mind that a black woman cared a lick for what she put on her back.}

^{"Can I see that?" he asked the man. The clerk got the dress down for him and Cain held it up in front of himself, trying to judge whether it would fit her. The only garment he had ever purchased for a woman was a scarf he'd bought for Eileen McDuffy. He told himself that Eberly wouldn't want her dressed in rags, like some lowly field hand. That she should be looking proper when they rode into Richmond. He figured, too, that Eberly would reimburse him.}

^{"What size is your wife, sir?" the clerk asked.}

^{"Oh, it's . . . I'm not sure," he replied.}

^{"You could have her come in and try it on."}

^{"I don't believe that will be necessary. This looks about right."}

^{Rosetta was tall, broad shouldered, and the dress appeared made for a woman of some height, so he went ahead and bought it, along with a shift and a pair of wool stockings, and another shawl for the cool mountain evenings. The clerk wrapped it all in brown paper and Cain paid him and went outside.}

^{"Here," he said to Rosetta, handing the package to her.}

^{"What's this?"}

^{"I figure you needed some new things to wear."}

^{Impatiently, Hermes nudged Cain's arm, letting him know that he could smell the sugar in the sack. "Here you go, boy," he said, giving him a piece. Then they mounted up, and headed out of town.}

^{They rode all day, stopping briefly in midafternoon to feed and water the horse. Spring was in full bloom. Up among the hills the dogwoods were flowering, a flashy display of pinks and whites and lavenders. The air smelled sweetly of wild grapes and honeysuckle, tulip poplar and mountain ash. The evenings had grown milder, descending on the earth like a soft, dark blanket. At night they could hear the dull whir of crickets, and the North Star, the one the runaways used to lead them to freedom, blazed in the sky behind them like the lone eye of some nocturnal creature. They made camp at a creek beside an abandoned gristmill. Cain lit a fire and began to cook their dinner, bacon and corn pone and coffee. He wasn't much in the way of cooking, but being on his own for so long he'd learned to make do. What he lacked in skill, he more than made up for in meals that filled the belly.}

^{"Why don't you try on your new dress?" he said to Rosetta.}

^{"I thought you were saving it for when we got back."}

^{"Go ahead and try it on now."}

^{She took the package and headed off into the woods to change. He told her not to wander too far off. She was gone for a good long while, and twice he'd called out to her to make sure she was still there.}

^{"Ros--" he began to call again, but stopped when he saw her standing at the edge of the woods. She stood there in her bare feet, her toes digging into the earth, her head angled slightly downward, unsure and awkward as a girl going to her first dance. He was surprised by the transformation the dress had wrought in her. The rigidity with which she confronted the world--the stiffness of her shoulders and spine, the firmness of her mouth--had sloughed off and she looked young suddenly, and soft, a girl whose only thought was the precious feel of the new dress on her skin.}

^{"I didn't know what size you took," he said, for want of something else.}

^{"It fit just fine. It'll need letting out some through the belly shortly," she said, touching the material over her stomach. "Well?" she asked. "How's it look?"}

^{"Turn around," he said.}

^{With her arms outstretched, she pirouetted slowly, as if she were dancing to some music he couldn't hear. For a few seconds they both almost forgot why they were there, forgot that her skin was black, his white. It was as if they were just a man and a woman, and behaving in the quite normally awkward way of two people in such a moment as this. Cain felt something flutter inside of him, as if a butterfly had somehow gotten trapped in his chest.
Why, she looks lovely,
he thought.}