Tall Tail

Monday, April 18, 1785

Bumbee awoke with a start. She looked to Ailee’s cot, but the woman wasn’t there. Half asleep, she carried her blanket and walked down the stairs, ready to stir the embers of the fire, throw on some logs to warm up the place. The cold steps on her bare feet roused her. At the bottom she saw Ailee hanging from the top railing of the stairway to the loft. She’d twisted her sheet to make a noose.

Dropping her blanket, barefooted, Bumbee rushed out into the cold. Father Gabe’s cabin was the closest. She pounded on his door. Already awake, the old fellow opened it.

“Father, Ailee’s dead.”

After Bumbee told him what she’d found, Father Gabe gathered a few men. They cut the poor woman down, wrapping her in the sheet with which she’d hung herself just as Bettina and Serena hurried in.

Bettina touched the sheet. “Oh, child, what have you done?”

“Let’s bury her now,” Father Gabe ordered. “No laying out.”

So the straggly group shortly found themselves standing over a deep open grave, into which the wrapped body of Ailee was placed.

The light frost still made digging the grave difficult.

Bettina recited the benediction instead of the service for the dead. “May the Lord bless thee and keep thee, may the Lord make His face shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee.”

Bettina stopped at Ruth’s cabin, which rested on the north side of the row, closer to the main house. She knocked on the door, opened it to find Ruth nursing the two babies, hers and Ailee’s, with a two-year-old at Ruth’s feet, the fire warming them all.

“Ruth, the babe’s an orphan.”

Ruth looked into Bettina’s eyes. “Ailee wasn’t strong, poor thing.”

“She’d seen enough.” Bettina dropped into a handmade wooden chair next to Ruth. “I will talk to the Missus.”

Ruth nodded. “And I will pray.”

Bettina reached over to stroke the newborn’s cheek. “So much pain, so much pain.” Then she smiled. “But like a little cricket you’ll be happy and hop around. All your sadness came early.”

“Amen.” Ruth patted the baby’s cheek, as well.

Shawl wrapped around her, Bettina, always erect, slowly walked to the main house. Serena fell in beside her.

Serena felt dreadful. “If only we’d known how she felt. We could have talked to her.”

“Honey chile, if someone has a mind to leave this earth, you can’t stop them. They’ll find a way. Ailee’s with Jesus now, her sins are washed away. She was far more sinned against than sinning.”

“But to take your own life.” Serena gasped.

“A sin, yes, but she will be forgiven. Christ died for our sins. The Old Missus and I would talk of such things.”

“I barely remember her.”

“Her girls shine like she did. We will find out just how much today.”

“Oh, Bettina, they won’t cast out the little one.” Serena clasped her hands together as though in prayer.

“No, they won’t, but I have an idea.” That was all the formidable woman would say.

After making Ewing’s breakfast, hearing him prattle on about buckwheat versus old-time red clover, she and Serena washed up the dishes, stoked the kitchen fireplace. Then Bettina walked to the stable, where she knew she’d find Catherine.

“Jeddie, where’s the Missus?”

“Back paddock.” Jeddie pointed in that direction. “Serenissima’s paddock.”

Bettina found Catherine leaning over the fence, watching the pregnant mare walk.

“Morning, Bettina.”

“Miss Catherine, Ailee had her baby. Will you come with me and see?”

Such an unusual request alerted Catherine. She walked next to Bettina to Ruth’s cabin. Bettina said nothing. She knocked on Ruth’s door.

“ ’Min,” Ruth shortened. “Come in.”

Seeing Catherine, Ruth stood up, the two cradles in front of her and the two-year-old asleep on his small pallet.

Bettina slightly lifted the patched cradle blanket. “Born last night.”

Catherine leaned over. “She’s beautiful.” Then it struck her, the child was white. Ailee was light-skinned, but the child was white.

“Ailee hung herself this morning,” Bettina quietly informed Catherine.

The beautiful woman’s hands flew to her heart. “Dear God. Oh, Bettina, how could she? How could she leave this tiny little thing?”

“I don’t know.” Bettina shook her head. “I reckon when she saw the baby, she knew it was Francisco’s and she didn’t want it. She hoped it would be Moses’s baby.”

“Did she ever speak?”

“Never.”

Catherine sank into the handmade chair as Bettina sat on a sturdy bench and Ruth sat also. “Ruth, you are kind to nurse the child.”

“She can’t help how she came into this world. She will never know her mother’s love.”

“No, but she can know love. Ruth, I will pay you twenty dollars a month to feed the baby.” As this was a large sum, Ruth drew in her breath. “You will have anything you need for her, your baby and son. Don’t show her to too many people yet. I need to talk to my sister and to our husbands.”

Bettina’s eyes focused intently on Catherine. “Missus?”

“Bettina, how do you fight a scandal? If you deny it, nobody believes you. Not that anyone would think who this baby’s father is, nor that we harbored the mother. We will never speak of that.”

Feeling Catherine’s eyes upon them, the two women agreed. It wasn’t difficult to agree. That knowledge would be too dangerous.

“You all tell our people never, ever speak of Ailee or Moses,” said Catherine. “And we will never tell the baby.”

Ruth rocked both cradles with her feet, as her husband built them with rockers on the bottom. “Miss Catherine, what are you going to do?”

“Pull the wool over my father’s eyes. I hate to lie to my father, but there’s no other way. If I’m successful, I’ll tell you how to handle this and him. If I’m not, I don’t know exactly what will happen. You see, if I am right, she won’t be raised as a slave. She’ll be free. She’ll pass.”

Bettina sat up straight. “Lord, Miss Catherine!”

“What is gained by another woman being a slave? This little baby has a chance.” Catherine’s eyes shone brightly.

Ruth, smiling, looked down at the sleeping newborn. “Then we must all help her.”

—

One hour later, Catherine and Piglet had herded John into Charles and Rachel’s house. Working on his drawings, Charles reluctantly stopped, but he wasn’t peevish about it.

Catherine explained everything that had just happened.

A long silence followed.

“What can we do?” Charles was dumbfounded.

“We fight a scandal with a scandal,” said Catherine. “First, we tell Father that this is the illegitimate child of a townswoman. We feel we must not reveal her name to protect her, but I rashly promised to take the child.”

Rachel smiled at her sister. “Better I do that. You never do anything rash. You’re too logical.”

“Well, one of us has to do it. All right. All right.” Catherine pushed on. “We take the baby up to him, put her in his arms. We all four ask him to protect the child, to allow you two to raise her as your own.”

“That’s the scandal?” John wondered.

“The beginning. The next time there is a gathering, we take the baby. Naturally, everyone will buzz, and we tell them this is our cousin’s child and she was unable to raise it. They won’t believe it. They know we haven’t had children, but they’ll believe we’re protecting our cousin with a lie. We do have Mother’s cousins down in Charleston. Won’t be long before the rumors fly. And yes, people will know she’s illegitimate, but we will deny that, hotly deny it.”

Piglet barked.

“You, too,” Catherine said, breaking the tension.

“Is Ailee in an unmarked grave?” John asked.

Surprised, Catherine answered, “She is.”

“That doesn’t seem right,” he somberly replied.

“It doesn’t, but we can’t put her name on anything,” Catherine said.

“We can place slate over her grave. She’s in the servant’s graveyard with the others, right?” Rachel asked.

“That’s where Bettina said they buried her. We’ve all promised never to speak of Ailee or Moses or any of this. I know of no other way.”

“Well, let’s do it, then,” Charles resolutely said. “Ewing’s had his lunch now and is smoking his second pipe of the day.”

Ewing looked up from the broadsheet he was reading. Bettina had been informed when Catherine walked through the back door. Bettina sent Serena to fetch Ruth.

The four sat down with Ewing, who was aghast at the sordid story. Why should they take this baby? The girls pleaded. He thought it highly irregular. Someone else can raise an illegitimate child. They also told him they’ll use the cousin tale to protect the townswoman so close to home.

Ruth came in with the girl. She held the baby for Ewing to see, and at that very moment, the baby girl opened her eyes, appearing to look directly into Ewing’s. She managed a tiny smile. He smiled back. Then he held out his arms. Ruth put the baby in his arms. Ewing Garth had fallen in love at first sight.

That sundown, Ewing visited his wife’s grave. He told her everything.

“I don’t know if I did the right thing, but, my love, is not life the most precious thing?”

As he spoke, a great blue heron flew overhead, looked down at him, uttering his croaking call. Ewing believed his wife had answered him.

Within six weeks of Rachel and Charles taking in the baby, Ruth being the wetnurse, Rachel became pregnant. It took Catherine and John a bit longer, but Ewing’s dream of having a house filled with grandchildren came true.

Marcia West, as Rachel and Charles named the adopted baby, grew into a unique beauty, famed for her cat eyes. She lived a fabled life, bequeathing to her own offspring two things: high intelligence and a physical weakness impossible to control.