Together is All We Need (17 page)

‘‘This ain't my place now any more'n it ever was,'' said her uncle. ‘‘The way I hear it, you been running the place without anyone's help anyway . . . except for that colored girl I read about—what's her name?''

‘‘Mayme,'' said Katie.

‘‘Right . . . where's she at anyway?''

Suddenly Katie's mind filled with new thoughts. Thoughts about me and Emma and Josepha! We had been gone more than an hour, maybe close to two. And she didn't even know where we were!

‘‘Can the others stay too?'' Katie asked excitedly.

‘‘What others?''

‘‘Mayme and the others who were helping us and living here with us!''

‘‘Sure . . . I reckon so . . . where are they?''

‘‘They left. Uncle Burchard made them leave.''

By now most of the townspeople were on their horses and in their buggies and starting back toward town, though still buzzing about the sudden turn of events they had witnessed. And thanks to Mrs. Hammond, the whole community would know about it soon enough. Mr. Sneed and Mr. Clairborne had talked awhile longer on the other side of the house, Mr. Clairborne angrier than a wet hen. Then Mr. Sneed left and Mr. Clairborne and his men started loading up some of the wagons with the stuff they had unloaded earlier.

Seeing what had happened and happy for Katie, Henry and Jeremiah had wandered off with the rest of the people. But now Katie's brain was moving at full tilt.

‘‘Henry . . . Jeremiah!'' she called, running after them while her uncle stood still holding the reins of his horse. ‘‘Stay here, will you . . . until we get back. Jeremiah, would you please go saddle my horse—hurry!''

Jeremiah dashed off toward the barn.

‘‘What you want me ter do, Miz Kathleen?'' asked Henry.

‘‘Nothing, Henry,'' she answered. ‘‘Just stay here and keep a watch out. I don't want to leave Uncle Burchard here all by himself. He's so mad I don't know what he might do. My uncle Ward and I will get back as soon as we can.''

‘‘But, Miz Kathleen, where's you—''

It was too late. Already Katie was running back to where her uncle stood watching her with a look of perplexity on his face.

‘‘Uncle Ward,'' she said hurriedly. ‘‘You've got to come with me—I hope it's all right! It's terribly important. And we've got to ride fast to catch them! I'll be back in a minute with my horse!''

Again Katie ran off and disappeared in the direction of the barn. She ran right past where Mr. Sneed was just climbing into his buggy and her uncle Burchard, still fuming, was standing with two of his men. She was afraid to glance up at him, but heard him yell as she ran past.

‘‘Don't think this is the end of it, Kathleen,'' he said. ‘‘I'll be back with an attorney who's not a spineless woman like Sneed! Then we'll see just how legal that deed of your ma's really is.''

When he next saw Katie a minute later, she was riding out of the door of the barn, leaning low against her horse's neck till she was clear of the overhang, Jeremiah running after her on foot. The instant she was in the yard, she yelled a command and galloped around to where her uncle Ward was waiting.

‘‘Are you ready, Uncle Ward!'' shouted Katie as she rode up.

‘‘I reckon, but I still don't know what for.''

‘‘Just come with me and I'll explain it on the way . . . we've got to catch them! And do you have the deed? You've got to bring the deed.''

‘‘Yeah, it's still safe and sound. But what do you want with that?'' he asked as he mounted his horse.

‘‘Mayme will never believe me if she doesn't see it. She can be stubborn sometimes when she thinks she's acting for my best. And once she's made up her mind about something, we'll never change it unless she sees proof of what we say!''

She galloped off in the direction we'd gone, and her uncle, still more than a little confused, followed her.

‘‘Hey, Kathleen . . . hey—wait,'' he called after her. ‘‘This poor horse of mine's bushed. At least let me give him a drink.''

‘‘There are plenty of streams along the way!'' Katie shouted back over her shoulder. By now she was halfway to the trees, and her uncle dug his heels into his horse's flanks, shouted a couple of commands, and did his best to catch up.

C
OMING
A
FTER
U
S
30

B
Y THE TIME IT HAD GOT ON TO ELEVEN O'CLOCK
, the sun was high and we were tired. Poor Josepha had been slowing down for a while and was sweating a lot. We'd only just left and I was already getting worried. How we'd ever make fifty miles I couldn't imagine. Emma and William were about tuckered out too. So we walked off the road by where it crossed a good-sized stream, found a nice shady spot under a big oak, and sat down to rest and have something to eat. We all drank our fill from the stream, and after some bread and cheese and another drink, it didn't take long for a few folks to get sleepy. In fact, in about ten minutes both Josepha and William were sound asleep, and Emma and I weren't far behind them. A warm day always seems to put you to sleep.

Katie rode hard. She and the new uncle she'd just met didn't have the chance to talk much as they went, so whatever explanations she'd intended to give him had to wait until later. Whatever he thought, he didn't object too much and kept following, though who could tell what he was thinking.

From what she'd overheard Josepha and me saying, Katie had a pretty good idea which way we'd be going, though once the road north passed the Thurston plantation it went in two directions. The way they went at first didn't happen to be the same way we'd gone, and so they saw nobody, and after about twenty minutes of fast riding Katie was sure we couldn't have gotten that far. They turned around and retraced their way back to where the road split and this time took the other road.

They stopped a couple of times for their horses to drink, though by now Katie's uncle's horse was showing signs of slowing down regardless. But still Katie kept riding at a gentle gallop as hard as the two horses would go.

I don't know how long we slept, probably not too long. It was such a warm day, and with the sound of the stream and a gentle breeze in the oak leaves above us, it was just about as nice and as peaceful as you could imagine. But we had such a long way to go, and we'd never get there if we slept four hours every day. And besides, we had to get far enough away so we wouldn't have to worry about still being in the vicinity of the McSimmons place. So when I woke up and remembered where we were and what we were doing, as peaceful as it was, I knew we had to be getting on our way.

‘‘Emma,'' I said, shaking her gently where she lay next to me. ‘‘We gotta be going . . . Josepha, time to get on our way.''

Slowly we all roused ourselves. As I was coming back from the woods from doing my necessaries, all at once I heard the sound of horses. I listened real intently and realized there was more than one. I ran back to the others.

‘‘Horses coming,'' I said. ‘‘I think there's several. Let's get out of sight behind that shrubbery and everyone keep quiet. Can you keep real still, William?'' I said as I hurried them out of sight of the road.

Ten or fifteen seconds later, the sound of two horses echoed on the wooden bridge over the stream that we'd crossed a while earlier.

We waited till they were by, but then Emma stuck her head up and glanced toward the road.

‘‘Emma!'' I whispered. ‘‘Get down.''

‘‘I jes' wanted ter see who it—''

Suddenly she jumped to her feet. ‘‘It be Miz Katie!'' she cried. ‘‘Look . . . hit's Miz Katie!''

Before I could even think about what she'd said, Emma was off like a shot, running up onto the road and shrieking at the top of her lungs.

I ran after her, and by then Josepha had struggled to her feet too. By the time we reached the road, the two horses were well past us. But Emma was making such a racket that not even the sound of horses' hooves could drown it out. I saw the second rider rein in and look behind him. I didn't know him any more than he knew any of us. A strange look came over his face as he saw two colored girls chasing after him and yelling what he could hardly make out a word of. And when a huge colored woman waddled up out of the brush after them, I can't imagine what he must have thought!

By then Katie had heard something too and realized that her uncle had stopped. She reined in and spun her horse around, and the next instant was galloping back past him and straight up to us.

‘‘Mayme . . . Mayme!'' she cried excitedly. Dust was flying all over and the horse pranced about as she jumped off, not even bothering with the reins. ‘‘You'll never guess what happened!'' she went on as she ran to meet us. ‘‘This is my uncle . . . the uncle I thought was dead, my uncle Ward! He came right when that lawyer was about to turn Rosewood over to Uncle Burchard, and everything stopped and he pulled out the deed to the property. You remember the deed they were looking for but couldn't find . . . Uncle Ward had it! My mama gave it to him . . . Rosewood belonged to my mama not my daddy, and she gave it to Uncle Ward when he gave her the gold . . . and so he owns it . . . and he still owns it, not Uncle Burchard . . . and he said we could stay!''

Katie was nearly out of breath from talking so fast. I had only understood about half of what she'd said, but the expression of happiness on her face told me everything there was to know. By then we were all clustered around, and her uncle had ridden up slowly behind us. I glanced up at him and saw the resemblance between him and my papa right off. I smiled and he smiled back.

‘‘You must be Mayme that Kathleen's been telling me about,'' he said.

I nodded. ‘‘And this is Emma and Josepha,'' I said, pointing to the other two.

‘‘An' William!'' added Emma, because just then William, who'd been suddenly deserted down by the stream, trundled up behind us.

‘‘Well, I must say, Kathleen,'' said Mr. Daniels, ‘‘this is quite a little troop you've got here. Maybe now I understand why your other uncle back there made them leave—they're all colored.''

‘‘Yes, sir,'' said Katie.

‘‘Well, that don't matter none to me. Takes all kinds to make a world, I always say. Heck, I ain't even sure how long I'll be staying myself. I just came for a visit after hearing what had happened.''

Now that the dust had settled, so to speak, although it was still dusty where we were standing, Katie and her uncle had a little more chance to talk about what had happened.

‘‘How did you hear about what was going on, Uncle Ward?'' asked Katie.

‘‘You don't know?''

‘‘What do you mean?''

‘‘I read about the two of you in a paper up north. That's how I found out Richard and Rosalind were dead, and I figured I ought to come down and see if there was any way I could help out, you being kin and all.''

‘‘Did you know about Uncle Burchard's saying Rosewood was his and having a new deed drawn up and everything?''

‘‘There was just a mention of a brother of Richard's in the paper taking over ownership. But I didn't know any more than that till I got to Greens Crossing. I saw a notice up on a signboard and I asked somebody about it. That's when I figured I'd better hightail it out there so I could have a say in the matter.''

‘‘I'm sure glad you did!'' said Katie.

‘‘And just in the nick of time, by all appearances of what was going on,'' he said, now getting down from his horse and walking it to the stream. ‘‘So that was your pa's brother, huh?''

Katie went to get her horse. ‘‘But I still don't understand about the deed, Uncle Ward,'' she said as she led the horse after her uncle and we all followed. ‘‘Why did Mama give it to you and sign it so that Rosewood would be yours?''

‘‘She and Richard were always a mite worried about that Burchard fellow. And then when I got back from California and asked her to keep my gold for me, she figured it was only right to give me something in exchange. I told her she didn't need to, but she insisted. She said it was only fair, something like giving me a note in exchange for the gold, and she wouldn't take no for an answer.''

‘‘I'm sorry about us using up all the gold, Uncle Ward.''

‘‘I already told you, I didn't come back for the gold. But tell me again what happened with it?''

‘‘We used it for Rosewood,'' answered Katie. ‘‘My mama had taken out two loans when my daddy was away at the war, and after they were killed the loans came due. Mayme and I found the gold and paid off the loans.''

‘‘Well, no matter. I'm glad it got put to good use. I came back to see if you were okay and to tell you how sorry I am about your ma. If my hard work in California helped save the place from some banker, well, then, I figure maybe that's worth it.''

‘‘He kin hab dat fifty-five dollars you dun gib me, Miz Katie,'' Josepha now said. ‘‘I don' need it. Lan' sakes, dat's more money den mos' black folks eber see in dere lives!''

Katie and I looked at each other and laughed. Her uncle looked back and forth between us, then started to chuckle too.

‘‘We've got about two hundred dollars between all four of us, Uncle Ward,'' said Katie. ‘‘You can have it if you want. I split up the money between us all before they left, since they helped pick the cotton. It won't make up for the gold, but it's something.''

‘‘You picked cotton too!''

‘‘Yes, we made over four hundred dollars.''

‘‘That's a lot of money! But I don't want your two hundred dollars, Kathleen.—That's just about more money than this white man has ever seen in one place either, ma'am!'' he added to Josepha.