Leon Uris (15 page)

“But it was still difficult for you to keep Willow?”

“It may be hard for you to understand. There are no black people in the Marine Corps,” she said.

“I tried to sort some of that out going into all those contrary villages in New York. Once the suspicion of difference is overcome—it has to come about or otherwise we’re just replanting warring countries in America.”

“Then you can understand that we are like sisters, and I love her.”

“And there were times today, you wished she was with us.”

“I am very happy about who I was with today.” She pulled back from him, now only touching by voice. “I want to be able to take Willow to Chesapeake Park, just once before we’re very old.”

“Tell me about it, Amanda.”

She felt for his hand again, and it felt so good to be touched by him and to say words to him that she had always kept secret.

•
14
•

War drums along the Potomac became yet louder. The industrial establishment knew that war was going to happen and set forth to feather their nests.

Horace Kerr had already relieved his father and older brothers, Malcolm and Donald, of the ranking positions in the family shipyard. They were too rooted in the past. Their shares of stock would see them and their heirs through life with great wealth, and the family members magnanimously continued to speak to one another, realizing Horace held the keys to the vault.

Horace had grandiose plans to expand the facility at Dutchman’s Hook fivefold and placed his bet on the Union in the event of war.

Baltimore’s first banking family, the Blantons, fit the bill. In the beginning, the Blantons’ hearts leaned toward the Confederacy, but never their money. The Blanton bank also sought investments
that would reap a golden harvest from a war. Horace Kerr filled that order.

Daisy Blanton’s marriage to Horace Kerr sealed the loan. Inverness was still in a building stage when Daisy moved in, bringing her personal slave, Laveda Fancy. Laveda’s husband, Matthew, a top-notch household slave, was thrown into the bargain.

Daisy and Laveda were both twenty years of age, arriving at Inverness with forty steamer trunks belonging to Daisy and one belonging to Laveda. The new Mrs. Kerr became heavily dependent on her slave. All of the building taking place and the staff and management of a fifty-three-room mansion were beyond Daisy’s capabilities.

That was fine with Horace. Daisy was lovely to behold and a social wizard, well tutored in the arts, and with a great eye for quality. There was also her mighty family. She’d grow into her other responsibilities, budgets, personnel, and such. For now, Daisy was a fabulous hostess and charmer.

Mr. and Mrs. Howard Leamington were imported from England as majordomo and head housekeeper, positions they had held for the late Earl of Harlingham. Professional and polished, proper speck-of-dust hunters, they were a class act who knew their place.

Yet . . .

Daisy soon realized that the Leamingtons would run Inverness
their way
and was uncomfortable with them from the outset.

Inverness was largely staffed by slaves, not typical fieldhands but well selected and slightly elevated household, grounds, and stable workers. None was employed in a supervisory capacity, although some held rank and privileges, such as the chefs and horse trainers.

The Leamingtons did not find them near the caliber of English and Irish servants. Their manner was curt and authoritative.

The Fancy couple annoyed the Leamingtons the most. Matthew had been an all-around assistant to the managers of the Blanton estates. He had learned numbers, could count, add, and subtract, and recognized a hundred or so written words on sight. He was also an unofficial liaison between slaves and supervisors.

Laveda’s position was the major threat to the Leamingtons’ authority, for she had the ear of Daisy Kerr. Inverness glided along smoothly but with no sense of joy. The Leamingtons’ noses were constantly sniffing and the distant sounds of spirituals from the Negroes’ cottages became more mournful.

True to their professional skills, the majordomo and his scratchy wife played up to Mr. Kerr and deftly insulated him from household problems. Horace remained oblivious of the mounting tension. He was too consumed with his business and those other things a man of his station needed to be consumed by.

When he entered his home, all he wished to see was serenity, efficiency, and sparkling banisters, and he prided himself on his brilliant move of bringing the Leamingtons over from England!

Daisy dared not complain in light of her husband’s satisfaction with the British couple. She was masterfully cowed by them and often left their presence trembling in Laveda’s arms.

Leamington was unable to enlist Matthew Fancy as an informer. Intrigue was whispered through the Inverness corridors, past the closet doors. As enemy camps formed, Daisy became more dependent on the Fancys.

So, there it was, one big happy Inverness, with crisply cut lawns, highly polished silver, magnificent horses, prize roses, and impeccable service, all sailing on whispers.

Down the ways into the bay at Dutchman’s Hook, the Kerr shipyard sent hulls as fast as they could be pegged together. Horace’s wealth was becoming immense.

Horace was able to pay off his loans early to the Blanton bank. While things looked nearly perfect, a damned crisis was brewing in Baltimore. Although Maryland would probably remain in the Union, it had a nasty mix of sympathies. From a dead-on practical point of view, Maryland had the largest number of slaves, aside from Virginia. Maryland’s tobacco fields required as much hand and stoop labor as the cotton fields farther on down south and were as backbreaking to keep up as the sugarcane plantations in the Deep South.

A fair number of Baltimore public places had begun having separate entrances for Northerners and Southerners, and a good part of the press railed against Lincoln.

Horace came under pressure from the Washington establishment and particularly from his Republican Party to make a bold, clear statement to help keep Baltimore and Maryland loyal.

The Kerr fortune and future would depend on a Union victory. He pondered the question of what to do. His decision was suddenly hastened, in the middle of the night, when Daisy sat up in bed, weeping.

Oh, good Lord, what the hell? he wondered.

Daisy had been a loving bride who was quickly being molded to fit into his scheme of things. He was totally unaware that she faced her first, crushing defeat in life when she realized she could not manage Inverness.

Daisy had cooed her way through with Horace. But she was still a Blanton and the Blantons were mighty, and an heiress of her stripe was entitled to a tantrum.

“Why are you crying?” he asked.

“I’m pregnant!”

“What news! Oh, my precious girl. Weep no more. You’ve made me tremendously happy!”

The sky opened. “I hate the Leamingtons!” Daisy shrieked.

He was unable to reason with her or console her. He calmed her enough to lie back on her pillow, and she sobbed softly while he put on a dressing gown, lit a cigar, and paced the floor.

First the secretary of war, then the Republican Party, now this! Well, truth be known, he really didn’t like the Leamingtons either. So, then, now a pregnant wife and Inverness still being completed.

“Horace,” she called, “please put out your cigar. It is making me very nauseous.”

“Sorry, dear.”

He patted her to sleep, then repaired to his office and concentrated.

First problem. The Union had to win the war, outright. The
Confederacy had revealed its strategy: the South could never win it on the battlefield so they had to keep their army intact, bleed the Union, and suck their will until the enemy allowed the Confederate States to establish their own nation at the conference table.

This condition would change only when Lincoln found the generals who would take the casualties necessary to smash the Southern army.

He was stuck with the Union.

Problem number two, Baltimore and Maryland. The Republicans, through Kerr, had to make a bold move to support the North. What?

Problem three, getting rid of the fucking Leamingtons. They had an ironclad contract and probably were not above blackmail, through cunning innuendo and lies about Inverness. Above all things, Horace Kerr could never take a threat to his social station.

At that moment he was struck by an epiphany!

The next evening Matthew and Laveda Fancy were summoned to the master’s apartment, where Horace and Daisy awaited them.

One and all agreed that they were pleased that Daisy was with child. Horace started to light a cigar, broke into a smile, and deferred gallantly to his wife’s condition.

“Today, I have spoken to my legal staff and they are going to prepare documents,” he said, leaning forward, “to grant freedom to all people in servitude at Inverness.”

The Kerrs were puzzled by the lack of reaction. There was a weird expression on Matthew’s face, and his eyes were like stony agates flashing out, piercing them.

Horace immediately got the drift.

“I never have fully reconciled myself to the institution of slavery,” Horace blurted, “but if you are living in a system, you go along with it. Good riddance, I say.”

The Fancys seemed unmoved.

“I’ve never used field slaves,” Horace continued. “It’s always been a household matter. Even so, I admit slavery is flawed.” His words skidded to a stop before their wall of silence.

“You don’t seem overjoyed,” Daisy said.

“Darling,” Horace retorted, “this is a sudden and imposing moment for the Fancys. I’m certain that Laveda and Matthew are simply overwhelmed and speechless.”

“We accept our freedom,” Matthew said.

“Good,” Horace said, racing on. “Before we call all our . . . workers together and inform them, there is a separate matter that the four of us should try to remedy, a problem with the Leamingtons. Will you shed some light on it for me?”

Another nonanswer. This was not going so easily.

“Laveda knows my feelings toward them,” Daisy said.

“We’d like to be able to go on our way,” Matthew said.

“My God!” Daisy cried. “We’ve just given you your freedom. You can’t just up and leave.”

“I go with my husband,” Laveda answered.

“In my condition?” Daisy asked.

Horace jumped in quickly. “Even though everyone will be freed, they will have their jobs here and their housing and a salary to boot. You all can come and go to Baltimore as you wish, carrying proper identification papers.”

“You said we would be free. Just how free is free?” Matthew asked.

“You and Laveda will be promoted to very good positions here.”

The Fancys still remained unmoved.

Horace understood that he was losing the day. Daisy’s face was bloodless. Something was happening here, now, that was going to change the way life was lived. Horace needed to be astute with his answers, perhaps even drop the slave-and-master banter.

“I would like to have a serious talk with Matthew. Would you mind, Daisy? Laveda?”

Matthew’s wife looked to her man for an answer. He wavered for a moment. “All right, Laveda,” Matthew said to his wife.

“See that Miss Daisy lies down and gets some rest,” Horace added.

They left haltingly.

“Let us talk, man-to-man,” Horace began.

“May I sit down?” Matthew asked.

Horace’s face reddened. Something was happening! He held his arm open to a chair never before sat in by a black person and he unpeeled a cigar.

“Cigar?”

“Thank you, no.”

“This is a damned good one.”

“I worked the tobacco fields for one of the Blantons in Virginia when I was a boy. Spending my whole life around tobacco seems to make it hard for me to breathe right.”

Horace lit up, alone. “Feel completely free to speak, even though I might not like it.”

No answer.

“Look, speak up. What you say will never leave this room.”

“What do you want me to say?”

“I’m granting you freedom. What’s on your mind?”

Matthew spoke quite softly. “I tread now carefully, but I do not believe you can bring yourself to say ‘I need you’ to a black man and his wife.”