Furmidable Foes

33

January 26, 1788

Saturday

“How much longer do you think this will last?” Barker O asked DoRe.

“Day or two. I never let my defenses down.” DoRe watched Penny turned out with a few old mares in a field at Cloverfields.

“U-m-m. That mare has good cannon bone. Why doesn’t Mrs. Selisse want her?”

“She’s not elegant enough. Her comment was she’s not riding a horse that should pull a plow.”

Barker O shook his head. “Jeddie!”

“Yes, sir.” Jeddie, who was in the field, trotted to the fence.

“Go find Miss Catherine. Ask her if she has time to look at a horse.”

“Yes, sir.” Jeddie, one hand on the top board, vaulted over the fence in one smooth motion.

Barker O looked at DoRe. “Remember doing that?”

“I do.” DoRe shook his head.

The two friends, driving competitors, leaned on the fence, caught up, talked of their favorite subject, horses.

Shortly, Catherine, a light shawl over her shoulders, joined them, as did Tulli, the little fellow, closing in on his twelfth birthday but looking younger. He kept his mouth shut, as all youngsters should around the adults.

“DoRe, feels like spring,” Catherine said.

He grinned. “Does.”

“What have you?”

DoRe pointed to Penny, contentedly grazing. “Mr. Holloway bought a cart. Penny came with it. Mrs. Selisse Holloway”—he cleared his throat, couldn’t get used to calling her Holloway—“thinks she looks too common.”

Catherine, half-smiling, studied the gentle girl. “Tulli, hop on. Jeddie, help him up.”

“I can do it.” The little fellow rushed out, guided the mare to the fence, climbed up, and slid on while Penny remained still.

“I can see that.” Catherine smiled.

Jeddie, just in case, had moved to the other side of the mare.

“I can make her canter.” Tulli smiled.

“That won’t be necessary, plus you don’t have a bridle.”

“I can do anything.” He puffed out his scrawny chest while Jeddie shook his head.

“All I want you to do is walk the fence line, come back, walk away from me, turn, walk toward me. Walk, Tulli.”

“Yes, Miss Catherine.”

Observing the mare’s stride, Catherine said, “DoRe, she’s good off the shoulder. I don’t see any major flaw. Do you?”

“No. She’ll cover ground. She’s kind.”

“Yes.” Catherine agreed. “DoRe, what does your esteemed mistress want for her?” She drug in “esteemed.”

“She didn’t say. She just said she doesn’t want to feed a horse who doesn’t meet the Rawly standards.”

“Ah—yes. Jeddie, go up to the house. Tell Father I want forty dollars plus ten.”

“Yes, Miss Catherine.”

Tulli ran along with Jeddie, who told him to hurry up. Tulli never wanted to miss anything, so while he tried to keep up with the long-legged nineteen-year-old, he blabbed the entire time.

“If you shut up, you’ll run faster.” Jeddie picked up the pace to torment Tulli.

As the three adults waited, DoRe told them about Sulli and William.

“No sign of Ralston?” Barker O inquired.

“No one said anything. William’s had his hamstring cut. The girl is put with the simpleminded. The men who caught them drove a cart that the Master wanted to study. That’s how we came by this mare.”

A deep breath, then Catherine, voice low, remarked, “I expect William and Sulli’s lives will be unremitting agony.”

DoRe nodded. “The Missus, well, you know.”

“I think I do. Ah, that was quick.”

Jeddie, breathing more heavily than Tulli, handed her the money.

“For the mare.” She then gave DoRe ten dollars. “For coming to me first. Penny will be good for John.” She named her son, who was coming onto three.

“He’s growing, growing, growing. He’ll soon outgrow his pony.” She reached over to pat the mare standing by the fence, seemingly interested in the conversation. “Penny will solve that problem. Thank you, DoRe. By the way, I’ll go write Maureen a letter thanking her, of course, which will give you time to visit Bettina.”

A broad grin revealed his feeling. “Yes, Miss Catherine.”

“She’s in the kitchen. Go in.”

For a man with a limp, he moved fast up toward the house.

Turning to Barker O, a tall man, Catherine remarked, “Sooner or later, I, too, will limp. All horsemen do.”

Barker O smiled. “Not you.”

Jeddie and Tulli listened. Then Tulli piped up. “What about Sweet Potato?”

Barker O gave him a stern look. “What’s the matter with you, boy? You don’t go asking the Missus or any of us questions.”

He hung his head.

“You will ride Sweet Potato and keep John company.”

“Oh, yes, Miss Catherine.” He was thrilled.

“Jeddie, you’ll wind up watching both of them.”

“I’ll do my best.”

As they watched Penny, two old retired “girls” came over. Everyone visited.

DoRe no sooner stuck his head in the kitchen than Bettina hugged and kissed him, putting a moist slice of pound cake in front of him.

“Fresh.”

“Great day.” He took a bite. “Where’s Serena?”

He named her assistant.

“Back pantry.”

He then told her everything about William, Sulli, the slave catchers, and Maureen’s chaining William.

“William was a fool. He’ll probably always be a fool, but I hate to see a man chained by the wrists. He’s been moved to the carriage workshop. Heard now it’s only one leg.”

“Given that he stole a horse, beat Jeddie with his crop after pushing him off, and ran off, then came back to steal more, he’s lucky to be alive.”

“If you call what he’ll be facing for the rest of his days life.” He polished off that pound cake. “Missus Selisse has never been a merciful woman.”

“That’s a nice way to put it.”

DoRe shrugged. “Bettina, if she were a horse, I’d say she broke bad. This all goes back to Sheba and the jewelry.”

Satisfied with the fire level, Bettina sat opposite the man she loved. “You would know better than any of us.”

A flash of fear, quickly conquered, coursed through him. “Why do you say that?”

“You’ve lived at Big Rawly all your life. You’ve known Sheba’s mother, her two crazy brothers, and Sheba. And you all knew Sheba when the Mistress wasn’t around.”

“She was worse than the Missus.” He exhaled loudly.

“She fooled everyone. She escaped with a fortune.”

“Maybe,” he said noncommittedly.

Bettina, eyes narrowed slightly, said not a word, but she realized for the first time that DoRe knew a lot more than he was telling.