The Book of Night Women

26

DECEMBER. WITH NEAR ALL OF THE MILITIA DOWN BY THE harbour and some inlands, few did by the barracks at Up Park Camp that night when fire break out in the mess and spread from one barrack to two. Infantryman in two barrack burn to death — it seem that both barrack was chained up from the outside. Word be that it was the work of Maroons who itchin’ to start another war, but the Maroons quick to deny it. Seventeen new nigger get purchase from Kingston to replace the seventeen old ones, all of them kill by firing squad that very morning.

Robert Quinn thinking of what to take of his belongings. He pace round the home, eye him drapery and saying that coming with him. — No fair chance of that, I’m afraid, he say when Lilith ask if he and the massa can’t let bygones be. He rest him chin in palm and tap him face with him fingers but wince when he tap too close to the black eye.

— I have said the unforgivable and he has done the unforgivable, he say. He ’bout to say more but right then they hear the march of the slave coffle. Quinn go to the window and watch as they pass. Lilith go to her room. Couple minute pass as Lilith hear talking. She hear Quinn voice getting louder and louder.

— This is still my house, so get the feck out, Quinn say.

— I kin do wot I likes, methinks. Gonna be my ’ouse now, yes it will. Gonna be mine, the other man say.

— Not yers yet by any stretch, McClusky.

— Will be in ’alf a mo’, says I. Wot says you? Methinks we’ll be keeping the fair nigger wench as well, that’s wot methinks. I kin make sure of that. How’s ’er arse? Didn’t get very far with ’er poxy cunt, second time around.

— Why, you—

— Careful, guvnuh, don’t want you leaving in a coffin now, does we? Does we have to give you a good taste of my cutlass?

— Leave by yer own choosing or so help me, ye’ll leave in a box, McClusky.

— And who or wot’s gonna make me?

Lilith step in the room to see Robert Quinn standing with him hands on a chair. McClusky, the same man who was on top of her once and try for twice, pointing a cutlass at him. McClusky hear a click. He look at Lilith and jump. Lilith step towards Robert Quinn holding the musket.

— Now, hold on now, dearies, surely ye knows jesting when I plays it.

— Ye know the business with muskets, McClusky, how they always jam and misfire or blow up in one’s face or just plain misses a fair target?

— A-aye, Master Quinn—

— This ain’t one of them. Now fer the last time, get the fuck out.

McClusky look at Robert Quinn still holding on to the chair and Lilith beside him with the gun. He laugh a little but limp away quick. Lilith hand the gun to Robert Quinn but he don’t take it.

— First thing the son of a bitch does, he hires the man I dismissed. Maybe I should’ve let ye shoot the cunt, he say.

Lilith feel the weight in her hand. She know that a bullet in the musket, for she see Robert Quinn load it himself. She could even load the musket herself if she try, she thinking. Robert Quinn out there beating and killing niggers, somebody say. She can’t remember who say he killing and who say he beating. Two saying be one thing and she look at him turning him back to her, a slave with a loaded musket.

— Planning on shooting me as well, lovey?

— N-no, massa.

— Good to know. Lord knows yer the only fair thing left to see in this godforsaken place.

Him back still turn to her. — Make us some lunch, luv. A fine corking one.

Robert Quinn stay home all day. He go outside twice to see if he can see the slaves working from up on him terrace. He watch the smoke rising from the boiling house. Twice or thrice he look over left to the great house and Lilith imagine he get a heaviness in the heart.

— Fine and dandy, Quinn say when he come back in.

After lunch Quinn sit at the table for a long time. He reach for the almanac that Lilith read sometimes when he not there to get better at word knowing. She hear blam! and see him hand still swinging from throwing the book. She wash and cure and cut the chicken in two, then season it with pepper, thyme, sea salt and a powder Quinn get from one of him sailor friend that they call curry. That make the chicken look like gold and spicy, the way he like it. She boiling yam and potatoes and dasheen and roasting breadfruit. Lilith cooking up plenty and she know Robert Quinn watching her.

He at the kitchen table and she feel him all over her. He on her as she walk to the water barrel, he on her as she grab the curtains to take outside, he on her as she sweep the little dust down the step. Lilith find herself wishing he wasn’t there and find that peculiar. Other times when he not there she want him to come home, and she used to find that peculiar too. But now with him here through the day, she don’t feel free. Not slavery-free but woman-free. He step past her in the kitchen and reach for the rum. Robert Quinn take a swig and cough hard. He bowl over and cough so hard that Lilith thinking he coughing him tongue out. Him face blaze red quick-quick. — God feckin’ damn, he say and strike him chest. Lilith laugh.

— Ye laughing at me, lovey?

— No, massa. Not at all, massa. Not at—

Lilith bowl over with laughter again. Robert Quinn look at her queer-like, with one eyebrow raise, and start laugh too. — Is this how it will be? Am I to be your laughingstock? he say but laughing again. He put down the rum bottle and put him arms around Lilith. Lilith see him moving in to kiss her and pull back. He look at her. White man supposed to lie with negro woman, fuck them and even squeeze them. Sometimes they even love them. But no white man supposed to kiss a nigger. That be love things, things for white woman, and proper white woman at that. Robert Quinn hold her firm, close him eye and try to kiss her again. Him eye close but Lilith wide open. Lilith can’t remember what a man lip feel like, so she reason that she never feel a man lip before. Him lip soft, she expect pink lip to be soft, but not so. He sucking her bottom lip, then her top one and Lilith do it too. He pulling her in tighter and they kissing and pecking and licking and sucking. Her eye wide open. Him leaving. Him leaving soon. Can’t she. .? Then Quinn work him tongue into her mouth and she feel like she lose another maidenhead. He feel rough and soft at the same time. She tasting rum and rum sweat and rum tingle and be the most wonderfullest thing. Her eye still open, him eye still close. He cup her face with him hands soft, like he catching a feather. Quinn lean him head left and roll him lips and tongue inside her, then he lean right and roll again. He pull away, kiss her lips flat and work him way back into her mouth. She seek him with her tongue too. Him arms round her back and her arm round him. Lilith finally close her eyes.

Friday, long past midnight. Saturday. Lilith watching Robert Quinn sleep. He beating and killing niggers, a woman say. Maybe she didn’t say it. Maybe Lilith didn’t hear right. Maybe the womens full of evil and want to take ’way a girl happiness. Happiness? Lilith thinking deep. What nigger girl know ’bout happiness? What shape that come in when the skin black like tar and death is a whipping, a chopping, a burning and a hanging away? Lilith more than perplex, Lilith feeling happiness and sadness fighting in her chest and fear coming in like he never did leave. Robert Quinn roll over in the bed like sleeping giant. Man have magic over woman when he don’t even try. Lilith watch him bushy chest rise and fall and hair sticking to him forehead with sweat.

The womens ready. She come back from the meeting in the cave two hours ago, but the voices running in and out of her head like she still there. Nobody do a thing before the abeng blow. In one week be the day. The hataclaps. White man goin’ think is the great tribulation itself, one of the womens say, but Lilith couldn’t remember who. She did trouble enough by how far and how cold Homer thinking. Nobody move before the abeng blow. Then all hell goin’ broke loose.

Lilith watch Robert Quinn as he shift again. She love to watch how him face turn first, then him shoulder and then him thick legs and she giggle when he rub him belly in him sleep. Robert Quinn kissing her now. Signs and wonders is for white woman; nigger must take things as they be and don’t look no deeper. But him hair slide away from him face again and she see something not pretty like Humphrey Wilson but more beautiful nonetheless. Lilith cuss herself, like them word make for nigger to say. She feel herself going back to what she was when she try her very best to hate him. But he leaving. He never goin’ see her again. She too happy that he goin’ to live to be sad that he goin’ be gone. Mayhaps now she can. .

Word from Worthy Park, McIntyre Pen, Ascot and Jackson Lands. They ready, but what’ bout we?

Gorgon be one of them special worker niggers, the only slaves with true business to travel from estate to estate spread the news. Her carriage carry flowers and correspondence and whatever people from one estate want to share with people from another. Homer trust her to be her own mouth on other estate and Gorgon spread the word far, meeting with the other people who plotting from estate to estate. Homer and Callisto meet with other negroes at Sunday market when slave free to shop and correspondence. Gorgon carry message through the week. Over by Ascot a Judas nigger get trample by three horse. Hoof to the head or crowbar, nobody can tell the difference, she say.

The evening before when Robert Quinn kiss her, he hoist her up on the kitchen counter and kiss her some more. She kiss too. Then he pull away and start spin and dip and Lilith laugh when he claim he dancing. — ’Tis the very latest, I assure ye, he say to her. He pull her to him and show her dance step, telling her, No, this way, and then spin and then curtsy and No. . yes, like that, darlin’, like that. He grab her again and lift her up and say that he should take her to the next Montpelier ball just to see the look on everybody face. Lilith can’t take no more of this, so she say the food about to burn. He put her down. — Of course, of course, he say. That evening the supper sweet him so much he start sing, as be the custom with Irishman when he happy. He start sing some song ’bout a woman who wait so long for her sailor man to come back that even when she dead her ghost still out by the seashore waiting. She ask him why him singing sad song if he happy. — One’s never far from the other, him say. McIntrye Pen, twenty-two white, three hundred black, fifty unsure. Cutlass sharpen and the womens ready. Two o’clock be the hour. Right before the lunch bell. Niggerman of no use if they belly full.

At two o’clock. Right before the lunch bell. Hungry man is angry man, for sure, and Homer want them plenty mad. By two o’clock the slave-driver also at them tiredest after being in the sun for long that they slack off or rest off even though they not supposed to.

— How you expect field nigger to take instruction from house nigger? Lilith ask and watch Gorgon growl.

— They only hate nigger who forget where they come from, she say. They only hate negro who start to think they white too.

— So you tell them that you half white, sister? Lilith say to Gorgon.

— De only white be full white, fool. Whether you mulatto, mustee or octoroon, you still nigger. Some o’ we forget dat, Gorgon say.

— How, with you to remind we all the time? Who remind you, Papa Jack?

Gorgon look ’pon Lilith hard, but Lilith lookin’ at Callisto to see if she watching.

— Is not nothing. Me no talk to him unless him talk to me, Gorgon say to Callisto with her head low. Callisto playing with her knife and waiting for Homer to talk again.

— At the two o’clock hour, the abeng goin’ blow. Then all soul stop work, but keep the hoe and axe and pick and club ready, she say.

— Why in the broad daylight? Why not at night when everybody asleep? Lilith say.

— Night sound smart, yes, but that is what mash up the seventeen sixty revolt. Night help the fighting good, but then day come and the militia have a whole sixteen hour to run down negroes. No, we start in the afternoon and use night to get ’way. By the time the militia reach, this whole county goin’ burn down. Now make we get particular. Some nigger goin’ get shot with the musket them driver carry. But most of the bullet goin’ miss and if one or two get shot, so it go. But we need the field nigger to kill the drivers still in the field. We will deal with the ones who go back to rest. Tell them to run backra down, use the pickaxe or the hoe, no white man must get ’way. Nor Johnny-jumper too. When abeng blow, we all stop work. Nigger from Jackson Lands say best to set fire to they great house first. All wood, burn quick. Poison set for massa, mistress and all nigger who eat from the same pot. Callisto deal with Miss Isobel. Me’ll fix the mistress. After that, they goin’ set fire to Montpelier great house while the field negroes burn the fields and kill the slave-drivers. Atlas and Hyperion goin’ deal with the massa.

— But them two is man, Lilith say.

— Doing the only thing them good for. They won’t know till the time anyway.

— You chère amie lucky. He supposed to leave the estate two day before, Homer say. — Just make sure you not in the carriage with him.

— What me must do? Look like you have everything plan out, Lilith say.

— You comin’ with me, Callisto say. — Sometime you need two hand to kill one, ’specially that Miss Isobel.

— Me sure you can kill her all by you lonesome.

— Not me, baba, you.

— Give her one of you knife, Callisto.

Callisto pull up her dress. Her pussy so bush up that it look like black undergarb. Both thigh have strap and both strap have sheath for knife. Callisto pull a strap and hand everything to Lilith. — Me want it back, she say.

Robert Quinn mumble again and Lilith watch him chest rise and fall. Maybe if she put the pillow over him head, he wouldn’t know. But he bound to wake up and Robert Quinn is a mighty strong man. He goin’ leave two day before, she think to herself, repeating till she settle her spirit. After Coulibre, Lilith tell herself that she not goin’ shed the blood of no more white man. Homer make things seem that if anybody deserve to have they blood shed, is backra. Plenty evil come from they hands, but Homer never kill one yet.

As the clock strike two, we kill whoever in the house. Then we go to the gun closet. Wilkins forget that he keep a key stuck under one of the drawers. Feel for the wax.

Is a hell of thing killing a man, any man, not just a white one. People think that having power over a life make you feel like God and them right. But God have the backbone to deal with how terrible he be, little nigger girl don’t. Perhaps white man have it also, considering how much nigger they kill. Lilith wish the rage would come back so that she would stop with the thinking. She stay up, waiting for the tall dark woman to appear in a corner, the woman who might be a warning or a promise. A warning that Lilith making the same mistake again. Lilith thinking of a white man who goin’ treat her like a white woman and take her out of nigger fate. Robert Quinn turn again. She not no fool, Lilith tell herself. She not a sleeping princess and Robert Quinn is not no king or prince. He just a man with broad shoulders and black hair who call her lovey and she like that more than her own name. She don’t want the man to deliver her, she just want to climb in the bed and feel he wrap himself around her. She whisper something that difficult to say in the daylight. Robert, she say. Robert.

Judas nigger at Worthy Park get press clean through by the cane juice mill. Nobody did present to chop off him arm when it get stuck in the roller. Athena and Chiron, we have to deal with them.

Athena and Chiron. Athena most time deal with the cleaning and Chiron be one of the footmen. They take to pleasing the massa all the time, doing more than they have to and calling the massa to show him that they do it. Chiron report other footmen who lazy or who gather herb from in the swamp land and smoke it. When time a nigger get a nine lash for burnin’ some of the mistress’ silk, is Athena did tell Miss Isobel. Lilith come to know that even though Miss Isobel ask for her over and over, is Athena who by her side of late. Athena clean out her commode and bathe her and wash her hair and tell ever’body in the kitchen how the mistress so beauteous. Athena usually go downstairs to tell Massa Humphrey that Miss Isobel want to see him and stand guard at the door until Miss Isobel ready to receive gentleman company. Lately Athena been watching Homer when she go anywhere or talk to anybody and one time Homer see a little piece of Athena dress behind the door when she was talking to Callisto. Them two be the niggers who love slavery more than free and if they get a free hand, wouldn’t know what to do with it. Lilith think if they don’t act soon, Athena goin’ tell Miss Isobel that the niggers up to something, if she don’t tell her already. Gorgon, tell it to Atlas. Fix Athena. Me will deal with Chiron.

Fix Athena. Lilith close her eyes and see Athena on the floor convulsing and trying to scream but only blood coming out of her mouth, so she coughing and choking. Blood running down her nose and bursting from her head. Lilith mind going backways from end to beginning, from moonrise going back down in the sea to blood sucking and gurgling back into Athena mouth and the right leg unbreaking behind her back and her cracked skull coming back together and her whole body lifting off the rock and her scream push back in her mouth and her fall upwards past the cliff rock that crack her back, right back into the hands of Atlas, who gag her and throw her over the cliff again. Lilith look at her own body and imagine blood bursting from her belly. She look down at her black breasts and her belly and feel the night warmth telling her nothing. What happen when the militia finally arrive, what we goin’ do?

— What they goin’ do with near thousand nigger in revolt? Every able man must head east and make for the Cockpit Country. We goin’ set up we own Maroon town. Watch how the place goin’ be so big and so wide and so full of nigger that they can’t do a thing to stop we. You think infantryman goin’ head into wild bush just to hunt nigger? And even if they do, them not cut out for bush life. We goin’ be ready, Homer say.

— We goin’ starve, Lilith say under her breath, but Callisto look at her like she hear.

— You plan to drive cow, chicken and goat up there with you? Lilith say.

The room look at her.

— We make do with plantin’, huntin’ and thiefin’ if we have to, Homer say. — You don’t come from the Africa, you don’t know. But we goin’ back.

— Now me know you head take you.

— Not in body, you fool. That thickness must come from you white half. We goin’ set things up like in the Africa. Six village in a circle, one to one to one.

— And what about the Maroons? Them niggers in league with backra ever since the treaty. They always turning in runaway nigger, Lilith say. — You know that yourself.

Lilith know that be the one thing that make Homer slip and she do. She pause, not too long for the others to notice but long enough that Lilith do.

— Maroons can go to hell. Them brutal when is one or two but coward like little girl when is many. You think is just three or four nigger running ’way? This be two hundred from here, three hundred from there and three hundred more from five or six estate. How them fi stop we? And if they try me will kill them meself! Pshaw! Saint-Domingue nigger can do it and they be the same nigger we be, that even you be. All it take is some smart thinking. That be why womens do the thinking and plotting, just like woman do in the Africa, Homer say. — You did know say is the woman pick the king in the Africa? The king be always the oldest sister’s boy pickaninny. A woman who give birth to Ashanti man bigger than the man himself.

— Me didn’t grow up in no Africa.

— That be the pity. Mean you still don’t know what freedom be, even if me tell you plain. But you soon know, or God help all o’ we.

Robert Quinn roll over on him back. She like to wait until he sleeping deep and climb in bed and lay down on him chest, with him hair feeling like a cushion. Quinn sleep heavy but he reach for cuddling whenever she touch him. That be the only time when Lilith let go of her being negro and he being backra. Is the only time when he touch her back and don’t flinch. He caress the memory out of her. Sleeping on him back, he is new territory to discover. She can put her hand above him nose and feel him breath or rub her hand on him chest or run circles round him navel. She can even kiss Quinn on the neck or sometimes the lip but ’fraid to wake him up. But now Lilith can’t go in the bed. Now she only watching. Now every time he turn she thinking ’bout something he do or say. Lilith don’t know if she thankful or love-full. Or maybe she do know but niggerwoman must never say them things. What kinda nigger rather be slave to free? Why her mind getting heavy with them kinda question?

Make sure you don’t give the backra no reason to stay.

On the way back from the cave Lilith walking with Homer. That time in Quinn kitchen feel like a long time ago and the womens now walk wide apart. Lilith in front trying to put all the Homers together. But maybe the time too late. There was a time when Homer was somewhere between mother and sister, with the funny nasty talking that friend share with friend, like Dulcimena. But this new Homer nearly make Callisto slit her throat. This new Homer have no lightness ’bout her no more, not even when she make joke. This new Homer counting and planning all the time and talking too much in Africa tongue. This new Homer ask if Robert Quinn like dasheen and she should come in the morning and get some. Lilith want to ask if she plan on fattening him up before she kill him but hold her tongue. — Be wicked if you wish and good if you plan, but stop trying to be both, Lilith say but not to Homer. This strike her as something that Homer would say. A certain Homer anyway.

— And when you kill off the backra and burn down him estate, what next? Lilith say.

— Then we free, Homer say.

— Free? So it easy?

— We have the torch. All we need now is the spark.

— Surely.

— Nigger time now. Time to make we own life.

— And what happen after the militia come? What ’bout tomorrow? The day after that?

Homer stop. — Me done answer question, she say.

— You, who always have answer for everything? What going happen when the guns run out and the militia keep coming? What ’bout the Maroons?

Homer stop.

— We deal with that when we come to that. One thing at a time.

— Tell that to them nigger who don’t know ’bout you. You sending all of them right into Maroon and militia hand. You who know better than anybody how they stay. What ’bout that?

Homer don’t look at her.

— You really don’t know. Jesus, you don’t know.

— Lilith.

— Everybody so hot for blood nobody seeing true. You think you pickneys goin’ come back?

— Quiet you mouth!

— You don’t give damn ’bout no freedom or no black man land, you just want somebody to bleed for you pickney.

— Me say shut up! Or me’ll make you every hole spit up blood before sunrise, you hear me?

— Sick and tired of hearing you.

— Me sure is not me you talking to.

— That make two of we, ’cause me sure is not you me talking to either.

Lilith and Homer still walking, Lilith in front. Both walking through a trail right in the middle of the cane piece.

— You think me is a idiot? Homer say.

Lilith stop and turn around. — Me think you is not you, she say.

— Me don’t know why everybody in this plan but me know why you in it and is not no freedom business. And everybody goin’ get capture or kill.

— You think this is just ’bout me? Mayhaps if you wasn’t living on top of Irishman you’d ask somebody. Why you don’t ask Iphigenia, eh? Why you don’t ask why she always cover up like the time cold? Ask her what happen when them drivers see her by the fence and say she running away. How them tie her up, mash up some burning coal and sprinkle her body with it. Gal so scarred up that the only thing she show now be her finger. Why you think she chat so nasty ’bout fucking all the time? ’Cause she know that not even blind nigger goin’ want her. You ask Callisto ’bout her one eye yet? You ask Hippolyta? She’d love to tell you. She’d love to tell a nigger anything.

— Then why she don’t—

— You say you smart, so use you head. What kind of nigger you be, eh? One man hot up you bush and you change. He did nice when he leave all the mark on you back?

— He didn’t whip me.

— Chile, if that is what you have to think to make the ruttin’ sweeter, carry on.

— This not ’bout me, Homer, no matter what you say.

— It not ’bout me either! Damn fool. You must be the only nigger who not nigger. Besides, too late now. Every estate in the east goin’ rise up. Freedom comin’ whether you ready or not.

— Freedom, or death.

— One and the same in the colonies sometimes. Anything better than this. Negro blood cryin’ out. You of all people, you supposed to hear when blood cry out.

— You know, it take me a long time to see that all you have is goddamn mouth and two Obeah trick.

— Myal.

— Me couldn’t give two shake of a rat’s arse.

— What a way you talk white these days, whiter than alabas—

— Oh, quit you mouth, Homer. ’Bout blood cry out. What you know ’bout blood? Blood don’t nothing but red. Me, me smell them. You ever kill anybody? Me smell them.

— Is you mind.

— You is a right one to talk ’bout mind. Me smell them. Whatever me did want get from the white man, me get it and more. You can’t understand that. You still want you blood. Me get my blood and see me here. Nothing different. Nothing better. Revenge don’t leave me nothing but them burning skin smell that me can’t blow out of me nose nor wash out.

— When we take over the estate, flesh goin’ cook like goose.

— You listening to me?

— When you make sense me will listen to you.

— Of course, Homer. ’Cause everybody listen to you. All of them want to get free so bad them don’t even see that you not making no sense. Not one thing ’bout this rebellion make sense—

— What don’t make sense ’bout it, you damn Judas nigger? If you love slavery so bad then stay.

— Them dead, Homer. Too late now to try be a mother.

Homer try to slap Lilith but Lilith catch her hand. They look at each other for a long time before Lilith let go.

— You think you is woman? Homer say.

— Me think me is Lilith, Lilith say.

— Make sure you know which side you on.

— Is not me, me worried ’bout.

Homer head for the great house and Lilith head for Robert Quinn.

Lilith leave Robert Quinn sleeping and go to her room. The next morning coffee wake her up. She pull on her dress and go in the kitchen to see Robert Quinn pouring himself a mug.

— Morning, luv, he say.

Lilith nod and curtsy little bit, but then feel fool for doing so as soon as she do. Quinn dress himself in a blue shirt and black breeches. Him boots sleeping on the floor with yesterday mud all over. He place a straw hat on the table. — Feeling a wee bit like a peacock, he say. Quinn sit down. Lilith go over to the counter to commence making breakfast.

— I thought we had an understanding, lovey.

— Massa?

— I thought we understood that ye should make my bed yours from now on.

— No, massa, me didn’t understand that.

— Well, I’m sure ye comprehend now.

— Yes, massa.

— Oh, do appear more pleased about it, lass, I’d think ye get no pleasure from lying with me.

— Oh no, massa. Me get plenty pleasing.

— Then condemn me to an empty bed no longer.

Lilith liking how he sounding. He sounding like verse man or singing man by what he saying and how he saying it. She ’bout to smile but a-frown.

— But you soon leave, Massa Robert.

— Aye, that’s a truth that depresses me greatly, lovey. Depresses me greatly. There was at first only one here I held any great affection fer, now there’s two. Two that I’ll leave behind. Unless. . unless. The devil I’ll be. I shall be back before breakfast, he say, kiss her on the cheek and run though the door. Lilith wait on him and tap her toes. In a blink he come back through the door, cussing in Irish. He sit down on the table, pull on him boots, flash a smile at Lilith and go through the door again.

Breakfast didn’t done cook before he come back. Robert Quinn swing open and slam the door into the wall. He stomp inside with him face redder than ever.

— The feckin’ sniveling son of a jackal bitch! Consumed with spite he is, that feckin’ bastard. Nothing but goddamn spite!

— Vindictive son of a bitch. Never in all me life seen a man with such malcontent as that whoreson, he say.

Robert Quinn sit down at the table and shuck off one boot, then the other.

— I’m sorry, luv, I’m far too cross to eat.

Lilith set down the plate anyway. He stare at it for a while, then look at her. He pick up a johnnycake, dip it in gravy and eat.

— I tried to buy ye, Robert Quinn say. Lilith nearly drop her plate. — I tried to buy ye, but the bastard said no. No, he says. Just no! Oh, he’s wicked now, him and his whoring wife to be!

— Massa Robert!

— I shall not hold me feckin’ tongue in me own goddamn house! I worked good and hard fer it indeed. He thinks this is the end of it, he’s sadly mistaken. When word gets out about what his future wife does in Kingston, he’ll be sorry he crossed the likes of Robert Quinn, ye can bet on that, lassie, aye! Ye can wager good!

27

MISS ISOBEL RIDE TO KINGSTON LIKE A DEMON CHASING HER. Robert Quinn, for all him riding, was no expert horseman like she. Galloping down the Half Way Tree Road, he didn’t have nothing to guide him but the dust she leave and him own memory of where he go for whorin’ when he and Massa Humphrey set foot in the city. He ride down Orange Street, empty at night, and go to turn back ’cause he think he miss her. But few people up and about at this hour and fewer still on horseback. He sees her. Her horse trottin’ now and she in Massa Humphrey black coat and breeches and her boots shiny. Orange Street is where all the markets be for fruits and liquor and hogs and fowl, but by the three o’clock hour the only thing on the street be rubbish and rats. And the beggars. A white one stagger up to Quinn begging for a quid or a pence, matey, and Quinn slip him foot out of he saddle and kick him away. The man land flat on him arse and just hiss and ask the road for a farthing then, matey.

Miss Isobel turn down a lane. Quinn never got the name but it head west. Save for one or two lantern that hang above an inn or a tavern, the lane did darker than hell. There be nothing but more rubbish and more rats squeaking and scurrying that too dark to see. Quinn think to dismount, but there was no way he was goin’ leave him horse in that place. He ride slow while Miss Isobel trot, mayhaps eighty or a hundred yards ahead of him. Miss Isobel stop at a crossroad and tie off her horse at a building on the corner. As she slip inside, Quinn gallop.

Hog’s Breath Inn and Tavern the sign say, the words under a real boar head. Quinn at the corner of the lane and Oxford Street, the beginning of the west end. Greenwich, the contraband port, not far. Hog’s Breath tower over all of the lane like it be a lighthouse. Quinn go to knock on the door but it push open, and smell rush him like four whore going at him at once. He grab him nose with him left hand and pull out him kerchief with him right. Lantern all over the wall but the room still feel dark and smell of liquor and lustiness and shit. And sawdust and old food and mildew. Four or five mens sprawled by the bar, two of them sleeping on the counter. The barmaid sitting and looking into the dark like she seeing everything and nothing. A big fat man in old infantry clothes stumble away with a whore who was pulling him along by the crotch. They go upstairs and Quinn follow them with him eye. He look around. A negro fiddler off to the side playing like for dead people. He one of the few who not a-snoring or a-groping or a-fuckin’ in the dark. Lantern on the table and lantern on the floor that glow on men’s teeth and hand and ears but hide they eyes. Light glow on women’s legs that man caressing, and petticoats that man lifting, and bosoms that man squeezing but hide they head. Quinn know this bar. A whore, a white woman with dark teeth and cheeks speckle from the pox, come to Quinn and grope him before he could stop her. He push her away and she barrel into two mens, who get up to fight but fall down from drunkenness. Quinn look around but don’t see Miss Isobel. Gone upstairs, she must be.

So much stink fight for space in the inn that a nose would think there be no smell at all. But upstair be more smells, human funk, not liquor like downstairs. There be rumours of a opium den in Kingston but Quinn never would have guess that this is where it be. He push open a room and see white mens, some old, some not so old, and one of them — a short fat man, naked save for him stockings — asking where him wig be, even though it still atop him head. Four or five men in cots, three or four on the floor, Quinn couldn’t say for sure, but they all, save for the man looking for him wig, smoking opium. He hear a sound, a giggle, a titter, he not sure but not a sound that a man make, not even the sorta men that sometime flock these parts.

The voice coming from behind him. Quinn try to walk slow, but him boot thick and heavy and each step is a boom. He push open the door and step right into the blade of a sword.

— When she said she was being followed, I thought it was her knack for storytellin’ actin’ up agin. Seems the bitch was right.

Quinn couldn’t say nothing. The room was blue from a oil lamp in the corner with a blue shade, the wick almost gone. The man scrape the sword right across Quinn’s throat.

— Who are you?

— Robert Quinn. Robert Quinn, sir. A gentleman.

— A gentleman, you say?

— Aye, and what have ye done with her?

— An Irish gentleman? Quite like a virtuous whore, is it not? The man laugh but the blade was still firm at Quinn throat. — Sir, I’m a liar, killer, thief and whoremonger. I have no qualms about slicing your head off.

— So yer also a coward, then, are you? I should—

— You shall do no such thing! Or I—

— So louddddd. Why sooooo loud?

Is then Quinn look at the bed. Is there Miss Isobel be, her yellow hair spread right across the bed like wine spill. Her legs spread too, like scissors one second, then close up. Her hands stretch across the bed and her breasts free. She looking in they direction but don’t notice Quinn. Quinn think she look at him like a blind man would, turning where she hear a sound, but the eyes wet and blank, like she seeing nothing. Her legs scissors open again and stay open. Her pussy bush redder than the wick. She raise one hand to wrap her forehead, then flap back down on the bed like the hand faint from tiredness. Quinn couldn’t say nothing. He think to say a million things but he couldn’t say nothing.

— You have a guest. A friend.

— Fooli-foolishness dat. Only friend me ’ave down the. . down the. . bottom of that bottl — Where the bottle? Where the bottle. . bomboclaat sum’bitch?

— Ye lousy piece of Greenwich pond scum! Defiled her, ye have!

— Defiled, you say? The man move him sword away from Quinn. Quinn go to grab him musket, then remember that when he rush to follow Miss Isobel he didn’t pack it. The man laugh.

— Can I help it if milady hankers for the sweet stuff? Nobody in the room who has no cause to be ’cept you, of course.

Is then Quinn realise that he know the man. He still hard to see in the dark but even in the indoor he still have on the top hat tilt to one side of him head. Him coat on the floor. Quinn thought it was blue but soon see that it purple. The top hat be all he wearing and he stiff.

— Fer Godsakes, man. She’s a grieving woman.

— She’s not grieving tonight. Tonight she’s mad with happiness and tomorrow more so.

— I shall take her. Now!

— Came by her own free will, she did, the man say and lift up his sword. — And by her own free will shall she leave. Now you can either join the play — she hankers for that as well — or get lost.

Miss Isobel start to bellow that she want more. Quinn don’t know what to do. Even though for her him have a monstrous hate, he couldn’t leave her be. Mayhaps she done with crying and take to doing this, but something stop him from going over to her. She be a lady after all. Or no. He don’t know. The man laugh again and climb onto the bed. He wave a mug over her and she grab at it like a greedy pickney. She cuss for him to give it to her. At once. Quinn never hear her speak like a negro before. She and the man who might be white or octoroon.

— Your Irish boy is seeing the ways of the colonies, he say and laugh again. — Is dis you want, raasclaat whore?

Isobel still grabbing for the mug. The man straddle her. He pour some on him fingers and she grab him hand and lap it up so hard he have to yank him hand away. He cup him palm and pour some again and she grab him hand and drink out of it. Then the man look at Quinn. He grab him balls and cock an’ pour the mixture all over it. Quinn stagger backways and dash out of the room. But he didn’t leave the inn. He don’t know why. He don’t know what make him stay. What make him take a chair in the corner by a table where two man was snoring and over by the window a woman was hopping up and down a man lap. He there a long time and almost doze off but one of the snoring mens fall off him stool and crash on the floor. Quinn look around and wish he had at least a knife. He wonder if Miss Isobel still up in the room. He wonder how she know the man with the top hat who he remember now from the Roget funeral. Then she run down the stairs. She try to shove her hair back in her hat and stuff her blouson in her man breeches. She about to stumble and grab on to the banister. She look around and shriek. Then she run and almost drop two time. She push through the tavern doors and out she gone.

When Robert Quinn tell Lilith all of this he look like he expecting her to cuss or laugh or wish more evil ’pon the woman. But Lilith didn’t do nothing. Nothing at all. That make Robert Quinn hang down him face and she feel queer-like that it matter to him what she think. They was in the kitchen, Quinn at the table where he usually be, watching her cook. Lilith feel he smiling behind her when he tell her.

— I’d near think ye pity the bitch, he say.

— Yes, yes, massa. It sad, though.

— What cause for melancholy does she give ye? Bitch does what she wants, as women do in the colonies. That Humphrey is engaged to her, that’s what sad. Feckin’ grievous.

— If you say so, massa.

— Do ye have any idea how I’ve grown to despise that word? Reminds me of Humphrey.

— Is not plenty word that slave had to call white people, massa. That be the one word you give we.

— Lilith, lovey, there’s no other man, not a living soul, in this kitchen but yerself and I.

Robert Quinn get up and move over to her. He wrap him arms around her waist and pull her in tight. — My given name is Robert. Some have even been known to call me Robby.

Lilith feel like she can’t breathe. White people and black people have a understanding. A code and neither side must break it or there will soon be hell to pay. A white man don’t break it if he sexing a nigger, but he break it if mouth and mouth or mind and mind come together.

— Robert, he whisper. Robert.

Lilith start to tremble. She close her eyes and feel him hands traveling up and down her belly, like he looking for an entrance to push through and touch her heart. He kiss her neck and ears and Lilith stiffen. Her hand grip the knife hard. She can’t cut no turnip or carrot. She slip ’way from him and go into her room. In the room she hear him coming.

— Luv, I’m distressed that I’m leaving as well. He open him mouth to say something more but he don’t. He look like he about to enter the room but he don’t. Robert turn and go away. Lilith feeling shudders come over her like wave. She think of Robert Quinn trying to get her to call him like a man instead of a massa. Like she and he be combolo. She keep feeling that some spirit somewhere, perhaps the skinny dark woman, goin’ call it wrong and tap her chest seven time. She know the spirit would be right and that white man can come in close to her all he wish, for he is white man. But it not so easy anymore calling him white and she black and that be that. And her mind going tired at saying the same thing over and over. It supposed to mean something that he white and she black, he massa and she slave, and she can’t just think that he be man and she be woman and leave that be. But Quinn be the only living soul to look at her as just that, a woman. Not the niggers, not even Homer, who look ’pon her like she be the angel that kilt all them pickney in Bible chapter Exodus. Her mind weary from thinking about Robert Quinn, so Lilith switch to what Miss Isobel doing in Kingston. Now Lilith remembering the smell of Miss Isobel man clothes whenever she come back from riding at night. Between tobacco and rum there was still another smell that perplex her and now she know what. Something that only the mad or the debauched man who haunted with devil supposed to take.

Lilith think that Miss Isobel trying to get back what Lilith take ’way. But people make they own bed and is they fault when they lie in it. Do she mean she or Miss Isobel? Lilith don’t know. Maybe both, maybe neither. Lilith want to believe what white people say ’bout black people, that black people thinking be so simple and fool that they don’t really think. But her thinking not be simple. Right there, she want white man to be right. She want white man to be right so bad. Lilith hear boots stomp into the house.

— Robby? she hear.

— Robert?

She know the voice. Lilith wipe her face and compose herself. She go to move and stop, wondering if she should just make him call and call until he leave. She go out to the kitchen.

— He not here, massa, she say.

Massa Humphrey nod but don’t say nothing. He dress in new dark blue coat with tails and him cravat tie tight. She never see him in cream breeches before and him boots well shine. He put the hat on and turn to leave. But then he turn round sudden and Lilith jump. She think she shriek but don’t know. A look flash in him eye for a second, the thing, the spirit, the what-she-don’t-know that Lilith see before when he strike her and was ready to do more. He by the door, she by the room, fifteen to eighteen feet between them, but Lilith feel Massa Humphrey hands round her neck. She touch her neck and look away.

— So you’re the one who’s bedeviled my overseer, he say. Lilith don’t say nothing.

— Be sure to inform Mr. Quinn that I seek him, he say and leave. Lilith feel the boots stomping on the floor. She still rubbing her neck when the horse whinny and gallop away.

Crop-time sun beating down negro and white man too. Robert Quinn be the man that keep things in order but he not there and order fall ’pon the other white drivers, most of whom don’t know nothing ’bout overseeing and would usually be occupied with sighting out which nigger girl they taking to bed that night. One slave put down her bundle to go tie the next and the white driver ask if she skylarking. She say, No, massa, no, that is where the bundle to go and he say she drop it ’cause she lazy. The driver put down him rum flask and go over to her and whip her with the cowskin till her screaming stop the whole coffle in that part of the cane piece. Three other driver who was off by a tree see the whipping and start laugh, saying if he use too much of that whip on her she’ll be no use tonight when he using him other whip. But then they see that the other negroes stop work and start watch. When nigger gang working they is one, but when them stop they is sixty. Sixty tall mens and womens. Thirty-seven mens who shoulder wide like tree trunk, twenty-three womens who strong leg can kick down cow. Sixty negro eye times two. Sixty hoe, sixty pickaxe, sixty cutlass, sixty ways to shed blood and just four backra. Two of four by the tree run into the deep field and start whipping nigger to get back to work, and shouting for the lazy Johnny-jumpers. A driver shout to the one whipping the girl to quit. They strike four nigger and move quick through the field, from one to the other, whipping careless and missing most of the time. The Johnny-jumpers join in. Some of the slaves stay still. The white mens start to shout out for other white mens to come over to this section. They whip again and some of the niggermen turn back to work, but some still stand straight. The white mens start to back away. The womens go to the mens and whisper and they finally go back to work. Callisto and Iphigenia work in the field.

— I just tell one woman to whisper to one man and send it down the field, Callisto tell Homer when she recalling what happen. Homer outside the kitchen getting water from the well. Lilith by the well too with her bucket. Both watching the afternoon. Homer cuss.

— That’s why me can’t abide by niggerman, you know, that why they have no damn use, the lot o’ them, she say.

— How we fi rebel without the mens? No them have the strength? Lilith say.

— Yes, they strong in arm and strong in leg, but they head weak. They don’t have the bearing for planning and thinking and waiting, ’specially waiting. That be woman work. If you did—

— If me did come from the Africa me would know. Me hear that the last ten time you tell me. Well, this not be the Africa, Homer.

— Don’t me know it. No, this be nigger hell, but we soon turn it into nigger heaven. Just like Saint-Domingue. Me have word from the massa himself. He get letter from Barbados hearing that the Saint-Domingue nigger trying to unite the island. You hear that? They going call it a republic. Me hear that, me almost want cry.

— You? You so dry you can’t even spit.

— Watch you mouth. But you right. Me all cry out, me no have no crying left in me. What a way you have sass when you deh with nigger. Round white man you can barely talk, unless him singing Irish shanty.

Callisto laugh.

— Massa Humphrey estate getting restless ’cause he dismiss Robert Quinn, Homer say.

— Nigger ’fraid they not goin’ be no Christmas this year, Callisto say.

— Nigger have bigger thing to worry ’bout than no damn backra day. The fruit ripe and in three day we pluck it.

Callisto laugh again and say she have to sneak back to the field.

— The way them whitey stupid and careless, me all catch forty wink yesterday, she say and run.

— And the mens? Lilith say.

— Set a dog loose only when you need he to run.

— Massa Humphrey was looking for Robert.

— Looking for him?

— Yes. Me don’t know why.

— Maybe he checking if he pack and ready. Quinn wasn’t there?

— Robert did gone.

— Oh.

Homer pause for a long, long bit. — Don’t make a white man work you again, Lilith. You is not them and them is not you, no matter how soft he touch you these days.

— No man working me.

— Stop the lying, chile. The man work himself right through you bed and now he working right through you head.

— Me say me not—

— You just call the damn man Robert! Two time, fool! Two time! Me just hear you.

— Me. . me. .

— From me was ten year, me be slave. Me never ask for it and no man have the right to give it to me. If white man want to fuck you, there nothin’ you can do ’bout that, but don’t make him fool you, that be your business.

— He not like the other mens.

— True indeed, your man special. He so special he goin’ married you quick. That must be it, he goin’ married a nigger gal — pardon me, mulatto gal — and breed up plenty quadroon pickney. Then you goin’ have pretty house and you goin’ even get you own slave to whip. Just like he still be whipping and killing nigger.

— Stop it.

— You stop it. Look down the well, gal, look in this bucket, you know what you seeing? A nigger who not going be a woman till she take womanhood for herself. And you goin’ have to shed blood to do it. There be four nigger on this estate that we can’t trust. Four nigger who getting them business fix tonight. Don’t make it be five.

— Me not ’fraid of you. And me not ’fraid of death either.

— You think so?

— You is the one who say me have the darkness in me.

Homer silent. — Look, you and me not got no cause to disagree, she say. Lilith grab her bucket and turn to walk away.

— You ever hear them talk ’bout Venice?

Lilith stop.

— One, two time, she say.

— Right. And they talk ’bout it like they not supposed to talk ’bout it.

— Yeah.

— Come with me.

Homer take Lilith inside the great house, through the kitchen, turning right down the hallway. They pass the sitting room first, then the conservatory. Further down near the end be the library, where Massa Humphrey is most of the time when he not sleeping. Lilith don’t remember it. She go inside and see a dim, dusty room with shelf and shelf of book that pile so high that they near touch the roof. The shelves swing right round the room and stop at the wide windowsill that look out to the Blue Mountain. That be where Massa Humphrey put him desk. Homer look outside through the window. Then she go back to the door and look left, then right.

— Miss Isobel upstairs, Homer say. — She and the dressmaker trying to figure how to make the wedding dress hide the belly.

Homer go behind the desk and start look through books on the shelf to the right. She run over the books with her finger and stop. Then she run over again. She pull one out and cuss, then pull out the one right beside it.

— Ah! Homer say and put her lips to the top like she goin’ kiss it. She blow and dust scatter like smoke. She open couple page and run across the page with her finger.

— This be the book, the very one here, she say and put the book down on the desk. Lilith move over.

— Me can’t read write-up word, she say. Homer hiss and pick up the book.

Entry the____

I’ve lost track of days and dates and time is a monster to me. Venice! Quinn impressed on me that pantaloons were quite common and knee breeches the mark of a true gentleman. I asked him how would he have known and this remark seemed to have wounded him greatly. I apologised and such was his good, cheery nature that he let bygones be. He makes me think of the West Indies and what it would be like. Maybe the Irish do have more fire in their chests. Ah, Venice, the Madonna of whores, the whore of Madonnas. The Piazzetta is enough to make Virgils or Blakes out of the most common of men. Alas, it is Carnevale and I venture forth to meet my destiny. Let her be pleasing in bosom and bawdy in speech, for this is Sodom. Onward!

Entry the____

Two days in Venice. Sodom AND Gomorrah.

Entry the____

Encountered a few of the fairer sex last night. Fairer than our Prince Regent’s own mistress, I daresay. But do I call them fair? They seemed ripe for the plucking, for the man with a fat purse, of course. One in particular strikes me, but alas I am not as bold as Quinn.

— Enough of this shit, Homer say and turn five more page, then backwards two. — See it deh! This one, she say, and poke the book twice.

Entry the_____

The most despicable of villains is better than I. Oh, the malcontent that resides in this poor, poor flesh. I regret that grief brings me to verse and makes a mockery of it. But how was I led? Oh God, but that this poor flesh. . None of this was my intention, but one day God will lord his judgement over me. The night was young and already filled with young men with the devil in their hearts and blackness in their souls. I will try to be curt. We came upon ladies of the night, women of the oldest profession, who spoke a smattering of English. One I took fancy to and I daresay it was mutual. She carried her fan in the right hand, across her face when she looked at me and I know the ways of Venice. I knew an arrangement was to be had. Then she placed the fan in her left hand and opened it. That confirmed her intentions, surely that must have been so! She led me to her boudoir. Quinn, out of magnanimity, took her friend, who was rather unfed and not as fair. She reached for my sword, so daring was she! and I, I will not repeat such things here, for they are best left out. But she was a thief and she played me for a fool. Thinking I was asleep she rummaged through my things until I made a noise and startled her. She ran for the door but I was swift and I caught her. She had a little knife. It felt like but a little prick but the little knife was deep in my shoulder. Maybe it was the sight of my own blood that made the devil possess me. I forgot all that was intelligent, decent and manly. She grabbed my face and scratched me. This made me even more furious and less sensible. My hands were the devil’s and they worked her. Quinn rushed in and used all of that Irish strength to pull me away. I would not be denied. I started to fight him as well, but he overpowered me. The woman cursed and cursed, saying that she will go for a magistrate for she knows we are British. Then go, you filthy whore, Quinn says and brushed her away. I’m no whore says she in English, sputtering, I remember. And right there both myself and Quinn realised that this lady, if she can be called that, knew or was perhaps accustomed to far beyond her station. A woman seeking her own pleasure was she, perhaps no different from us young men who come to Venice Carnevale with too much blood in our constitutions. There was no question that against two Britons this woman would be listened to. Oh, she went on about how she would tell how she was dragged from her lodgings and ravished, she a poor young lady of the city. And how these men were from the British Isles who were at war with their cousins the French. Quinn grabbed her by the hand and dragged her out the door. I was not listening for it, so the first clubbing sound shocked me to the very bone. Two more came hence. I looked towards the doorway and there was Quinn, wiping his cane and telling me that we must leave Venice that very night. He would arrange it. I try not to think of it. This demon within me. I had not been so furious, so bereft of good sense since I divested Thomas Thistlewood of his front teeth and punched his eye shut at that tavern in the East End. Quinn stopped me there as well. I remember that is how we met. Now he comes along, I daresay to save me from my own madness. Now resides inside me the hope that this will never be known and the fear that one day it will.

— That be how them two work. Massa Humphrey make the mess and Massa Quinn clean it up. You was him last mess, if me memory right. You still think he be angel? Well, angel soon bawl for him tea, so take you bucket and go, Homer say.

— Is what Massa Robert do to that woman?

— What wrong with you? First you can’t read, now you can’t hear?

— What he do to that woman?

— What you think, girl chile? You born fool? He quiet her.

— What that mean?

— Don’t try me patience, gal. She cussing-cussing one minute, then Robert Quinn take her out, then three blow and all the cussing stop. He quiet her the same way them nearly quiet you. Them same two.

— That don’t—

— Don’t what? You must be horse, ’cause them blinkers ’pon you tight. Whatever story you want to make up so you can still make him tea and get sweet fuckin’ is your business. But don’t say you didn’t see for yourself.

Lilith leave her.

— Where’ve ye been? he say. Lilith jump. Robert Quinn in the kitchen waiting for her. Him eyes heavy. Lilith wonder if him still keep that cane in a safe place. Lilith step inside so slow that one foot knock the other foot. She know he looking at her and she can’t look at him. Between what she hear ’bout Quinn and what she see is what she know, and Lilith don’t know what that is. Then he jump up from him seat and knock it over. He jump at her and Lilith shriek. He didn’t hear. He grab her by the waist and wrap him arm round her. He squeeze tight and lift her up, then he bury him face in her bosom and wiggle him head around and laugh out loud.

— By God, I think Humphrey has come to his senses, lovey! He’s asked me to stay!

28

SO IT COME TO PASS THAT NOBODY COULD FIND ATHENA. LILITH know what happen. Or at least she know what Homer know. Lilith wondering if Athena actually guilty, for Homer looking lately like she who would do something terrible just over what somebody might do. Sometimes Homer talk to her dead pickneys, telling them that they going back to the baba-pla as soon as they can rest in peace. The rest she say in Africa-speak and Lilith stop trying to figure out what she mean. Most time, Homer do this early in the morning when she alone in the kitchen and Lilith by the door outside, listening for what Homer saying to herself. Sometimes Homer chant, sometimes she very silent save for sniffling and moaning. Whenever she do that Lilith try to imagine what her children used to look like, if they was skinny and grey like Homer.

Lilith up early in the morning because her mind heavy again. Homer and Miss Isobel. Seem death pull and pull away at woman until all she have left is her common sense. But then death pull that away too. One woman drinking laudanum and the other want to drink blood. Lilith don’t want to go inside the kitchen to talk to Homer, so she go back to Robert Quinn quarters. On the way back she pass by the greenhouse. That early in the morning Lilith don’t expect nobody but as she pass by she hear a voice. Gorgon, she think, either talking in her sleep or getting rut by some dirty little niggerman. Lilith think about this and can’t picture any man rutting that midget. This make Lilith curiouser. Lilith hear the voice again, rough and gruff, like a little man, like Gorgon, but she hear another voice too, a sharp whisper that both loud and quiet. Callisto. The third voice she can’t reckon. But she know that she know it. She know well enough to not like that voice at all. Lilith push herself up to the window and look inside. There beyond row and row and shelf and pot of hibiscus and rose and tulip and bougainvillea, they whispering and talking: Gorgon, Callisto and Iphigenia. Gorgon excitable as usual, swinging her hands up and down and jabbing as if she stabbing cow. Callisto shake her head and touch Gorgon shoulder. Gorgon push her off. Callisto slap Gorgon shoulder and Gorgon yelp. She go to rush Callisto but Iphigenia jump in the way and hold her back, saying something that Lilith can’t hear. Then Iphigenia say something, looking first at Gorgon and then at Callisto. Both hold they head down low until Iphigenia done talk. Then they quiet. Then Callisto say something and Gorgon nod. Iphigenia smile and go to say something but she look up suddenly. Lilith stoop down quick and wonder if she get catch. Gorgon she could outrun and Iphigenia, but not Callisto. She hear they voices again and look up slow. Iphigenia again doing the talking. Callisto finger on her mouth as she nod yes. Gorgon mouth say something that look like now. Lilith sure. Then they set to leave and Lilith jump. She look left and right and have nowhere to go. The doorway in her direction. Lilith rush to the side of the greenhouse, moving round the side as they coming, almost step for step. She hide by the side as they leave.

— Bitch have it coming, Gorgon say.

Lilith wait until they out of earshot. There be only one nigger on this estate that Gorgon, Callisto and Iphigenia all hate.

She run back to Robert Quinn quarters. Lilith all sweaty and trembling and she touch her chest trying to calm herself. Gorgon, Iphigenia and Callisto all plotting ’gainst her. But how she to know? As much as they can’t stand Lilith, she don’t give none of them niggers reason to fix her business. Lilith can’t imagine what she do. She start to think that she reading two meaning out of one word, that she becoming Homer. Then she remember that most of them did angry that Homer did break the six and add on a seven again, ’specially since the last number seven was that bitch Circe. But Circe not a turncoat at all, just not the monster nigger that Homer want. Lilith look round for the biggest, sharpest knife in the kitchen. A hand grab her by the waist and she scream. Robert Quinn laugh as he lift her up.

— Lord, lassie, ’tis only me. Wasn’t going to trouble ye, but since yer up, fix us some breakfast, luv, he say.

Robert Quinn gone off to the field and Lilith figuring that since Callisto and Iphigenia work outdoors, she don’t have need to fear them two. That leave Gorgon. Lilith think about Callisto and Gorgon and hate them more, especially Gorgon because she just add one more thing to make her mind heavy. Maybe is heaviness that driving Homer to talk to her dead pickney, cooing like they be baby one minute and chanting like they be African spirit the other. But Gorgon is a coward, Lilith come to see, and she not goin’ act alone. At least so she hope. Lilith start to wonder if there be anywhere that she goin’ have a little peace. And the only person that make her smile is a white devil that used to whip her. She want to hate him for taking her into the room of white woman feelings because a nigger know that sooner or later something or someone goin’ remind her that she black. Maybe Callisto. Maybe Quinn. Now that he staying, one more weight get put on her back and she can’t stand it. Sometimes she wish the great God would come and flood out everybody again. The field, the estate and the county. The country and the world. Maybe everybody start again and slave is free and free is slave. She chuckle.

Lilith in the kitchen trying to get Homer alone. No sign of Athena. Miss Isobel come down and ask where she be and Homer say that she sickly bad and confine to her hut. Miss Isobel ask to see her and Homer say that she too sickly ma’am, with the flux, a lady like you the flux will kill for sure. At first Miss Isobel screw up her face. Lilith remember that Miss Isobel know nigger ways and nobody fool her about bloody flux the last time. Lilith feel her heart beating but Homer still like a tree. Then Miss Isobel turn to go back upstairs, the flask sticking through her dress like a third titty.

— Pigskin bitch. You can smell it ’pon her a mile away, Homer whisper to Lilith.

— Pig smell?

— Paregoric. What, you is the only nigger that don’t smell it too?

— Not paregoric, laudanum, Lilith say, but not to Homer.

Homer mixing batter in a bowl for cake.

— Soon come the mistress birthday, Homer say. — Cake coming today, present coming tomorrow.

Lilith wonder if that was Homer talking like Homer.

— We need to have words, Lilith whisper.

— We need to have words, eh? Me don’t think you have nothing me need.

— Eehi? You think so, how about you needing me to keep quiet?

Homer mixing the batter but she look up a Lilith. Her eyes red but pale. Lilith look at Homer brows and her hair getting whiter.

— What evil deh ’pon you now? Homer say.

— Me’d tell you but wall have ears and floor love chat, Lilith say, looking at Pallas.

— Didi.

— Dido they call me. Get the name right one time, the little girl say.

— Dido, dodo, doo-doo, go on mix this till you can’t see no more grain, Homer say as she hand over the batter to a girl that Lilith not sure she see before. Outside they commence to walking but not so far that a driver would ask what business they have outside of the house.

— What happen to the old girl?

Homer laugh. — You in Massa Quinn bed too long, she say.

— And you too. . You know what? I can’t bother.

— The old girl is a no-girl now. Some uncanniness happen where Miss Isobel clothes all cover in mud and stink with liquor and whatever and the mistress say is the girl thief out her clothes to parade around and do nastiness and then try to put it back in her room when the mistress catch her.

— What?

— What is right. Thieving is serious business on this estate. Johnny-jumpers deal with her quick.

— All this happen and me never know?

— That be the way with you of late. Anyway, me have cake to bake so talk you talk.

— Where Athena be?

— Athena be where she can best help the struggle. This is what you call me out for, woman?

— What you do to her?

— Look around you, chile. How you think this goin’ end? Anyway, you don’t seem to have no reason for taking up me time so me gone—

— Callisto and Gorgon plotting something.

— Eehi.

— Callisto, Gorgon and Iphigenia.

— Surely.

— Me see for meself. This morning in the planthouse.

— You see them plotting.

— That is what me say.

Homer pause for a long while. Then she turn and go. Lilith go after her.

— That is it? That is all you have to say? Me say they plotting.

— And me hear you.

— How you know they not plotting they own thing? Against you?

— Well, Homer say and pause. — We all soon know what we know.

Homer go to leave but Lilith grab her hand. — Put a end to it, Homer. This getting out of hand.

— For why? All you care ’bout is Mr. Irish.

— And all you care ’bout is dead pickney. As soon as you hear them dead, you dead too.

— Leggo me bloodcloth hand if you know what good for you.

Lilith let go and Homer continue to walk. Then she stop. — Besides, that ship sail off already. Nothing we can do ’bout it now, she say. You goin’ tell the estates and tell the niggers to forget free? You think any nigger want to spend they days under white man but you? Lilith watch her go back to the kitchen. She remember a Homer who use to walk so fast that she almost fly and had a back so straight that she seem like her own wall. Not this Homer now.

Lilith go back to her house. She go the door and hear somebody rummaging through the cupboard. She smile.

— If massa not hungry for one thing, he hungry for anoth—

Gorgon jump. She drop a knife. Homer say it before but she didn’t notice it, how Gorgon ’fraid of her since she come back.

— What you want?

— Me no want nothing from you. Me gone to Worthy Park Estate since dem don’t know how fi grow flower. Homer say to tell you—

— Me just see Homer.

— Homer say—

— You deaf, midget? Me say me just see her. Anything she need to tell me she can tell me her damn self.

— You goin’ want to know when next we meet.

— Two day hence.

— No. Tonight.

Night promising to come and Lilith dreading. Not even Robert Quinn latest mission, to teach her how to read this John Donne, can take her mind off the dread. Perhaps Quinn sense something or not, but he don’t say. He go to sleep with Lilith resting on him chest. She wait until he start to snore.

In the kitchen, Lilith grab a knife. She swing and dash and jab and cut in the dark. Then she imagine jumping a woman, grabbing her hair and slashing her throat. But Lilith know there is nothing she can do about six womens. And who knows, maybe they after somebody else. Maybe they after Homer. And even if is Lilith, she kill plenty people already so they better watch out. Lilith make the badness push her out the door, but fear was making her slower. She step one foot then the next in the grass. A owl fly past with a big rat in her claws. Lilith put the knife in her apron and set out for the cave.

By Lilith own reckoning, seven people dead because of her. Eight when she count the poor nigger girl who get lynched for what she do. Maybe she sick with murderer madness, she think. Lilith curse her mind that give her the madness to kill, then leave her with nothing to live with being a killer. The number stop her as she walk. She look at her hand and don’t see no monster. Don’t every niggerwoman have blood on they hands? Mayhaps that be the nigger way. This colony always one step away from bloodshed anyway and mayhaps she not different, no better, no worse than any other soul. Then another Lilith raise her voice, a Lilith that silent for the most part, to say that it is evil whitey who dead, a son of a bitch like Massa Roget and a plain bitch like Mistress Roget, and a dead whitey can’t hurt nobody. And them two boys would have just grow up to become monsters raping and killing negroes, as be the desire of every white man in the colony.

But the other Lilith say, You stupid nigger, memory tricking you. Is not seven or eight, is nine. Lilith remember the eye first, then the nose and the mouth and even her pussy and arse spitting blood on her little daughter. Andromeda, who dead over nothing but a dress that Lilith get whip and rape by white man for. Maybe she be not the child of Jack Wilkins but Satan himself. Seven souls, she thinking. Nine souls. What kind of woman can walk right after killing seven souls? Nine souls. And what about Bessy, the old nigger woman from Coulibre? Was she nine or ten? And what about that jumper nigger the first time? The sound of numbers run around her head and Lilith in the darkness and can’t remember if she set the fire because McClusky dingus go up in her pussy or the Massa Roget finger, or if the mistress whip her or Miss Isobel. Homer said this ’bout the girl who they think burn down the house: you can’t kill so many people and don’t kill a part of yourself too. Homer said that once, but not to Lilith.

At the mouth of the cave Lilith feel for the knife in her apron. A weak light flickering inside, light from one candle. Lilith don’t hear no voice. Perhaps an ambush waiting in the cave. She feel for the knife again, thinking that she should take the thing out or at least grab the handle.

— Move, a voice say.

— If you know wha’ good fi you, say another.

Gorgon. Gorgon behind Callisto so her mouth free. Lilith grip the handle of the knife tighter as she step into the cave and move towards the light. She feel other people behind her and wish she could run. She think to draw the knife but the blade might glint even in the weak light and give her away too quick. Lilith wonder if this is justice, if God finally decide to deal with her. If dead niggerwoman and broke-neck white woman and drowning white man and burnin’ pickneys all laughing and waiting for her to come knocking at hell gateway. Lilith stop and somebody push her down.

— Well, look who decide to finally join we, Homer say.

Lilith move over to the side and make sure her back to the rock.

— Worthy Park nigger let loose that plot afoot in Montego Bay. Most of the militia heading west, Callisto say.

— Good.

— Not so good. Word also spreading ’bout Montpelier, that we might frig things up.

— Who the raas say that?

— Nobody have to say nothing. Me not sure me hear one straight plan from you yet, other than to do what everybody doin’, Callisto say. Nothing but silence follow her. — Who we killing first, massa or mistress? Where we setting fire to, east or west? Cane field or ratoon? What we goin do ’bout the other Montpelier turncoat niggers? Where everybody heading when they flee, through the river or over the Blue Mountain? You do anything but tell we nigger verse?

Homer look ’pon Callisto for a long time. Lilith trying to read her face but it lost in the dark. Pallas looking on the ground and Gorgon look up and down and sideway.

— Tell Worthy Park—

— Mayhaps you tell them youself.

— Oh. Is so it go. Everybody bright and uppity nowadays. Is you plan this whole bloodclaat thing or is me? Is you bring everybody here or is me? Is you make you hungry for free or is me?

— Cool yourself, Homer. We don’t—

— Don’t tell me to cool meself! Me be the head nigger here! Me!

Everybody quiet and looking round at each other. Lilith watching from the side, trying to pick Homer out in the dim light. Homer stop pace.

— Worthy Park nigger got no call to talk ’bout me, no damn call! Them same damn fool go tell white man the plan last year. White man! Take two nigger to fix that backra business and one more to make it look like mishap.

Homer start to laugh.

— Backra won’t know what clock a-strike when we cut him throat, Homer say.

— Eehi? Callisto say. — Maybe backra laughing already.

— Enough with you, Homer say.

— Pallas, some people here so chummy with white people dat dey tongue loose. Loose like dey mouth turn whore, Callisto say, but Pallas don’t say nothing.

Lilith feel for the knife in her apron and grab the handle. She push herself further back into the rock. Pallas fidget, Iphigenia start chuckle and Hippolyta stand off by the light. Lilith feel her heart about to burst through her bosom.

— Somebody here done love slave life so much that nobody can come between her and backra loving.

— Callisto, chat you chat and stop trying to be Homer, Pallas say.

— Eehi. Seem Homer perfect picking not so perfect. A Judas nigger in here. Right in here wid we.

Homer not saying nothing.

— Who? Pallas say.

— She, Gorgon say and point.

Lilith jump. She scream and Callisto appear from the dark behind Iphigenia, grab her by the hair and pull back, then slice right cross her throat. Blood splash on Pallas. Callisto let go and Iphigenia clutch her throat, stagger right into the rock and drop to the ground.

Homer jump too. — Jesus Christ! What the bloodcloth you doing? What the bloodcloth unu doing!

— The woman was a turncoat, fool, Callisto say.

— What you just call me? Homer say.

— Fool me just call you, you fool, Callisto say. — You same one don’t know when clock a-strike. You know how long this bitch betraying we? From you bring her in. Every week she send word to Judas nigger in Jackson Lands to pass on to the massa. She thinking massa goin’ give her reward for all that she know. Only that Judas nigger wasn’t no Judas. She play one that so we can see who the betrayers be. See her there. Iphigenia. Damn fool. Last night we tell her say is Hippolyta we coming for.

Hippolyta jump.

—’Cause of that she think she safe. Then the bitch run to the fence to tell Jackson Lands nigger everything. Gorgon go that estate today and the nigger tell her everything Iphigenia tell she.

Iphigenia still shaking on the ground, garbling blood and trying to clutch her throat, but blood flow past her fingers like flood. Her blood black in the dim light. Her head strike the ground. Homer stiff like a wall. She walk straight over to Gorgon and slap her. Gorgon dash after her like a wild dog but Pallas get in the way. Gorgon push her off and go after Homer, who stand still.

— Cool you bloodcloth foot! Callisto say. Gorgon stop. Lilith gripping the knife hard.

— The river. The river down by the end of that trail. Put a rock in her petticoat and tie up the ends. Then throw her in the water, Homer say. She trying to be calm but her voice seesaw. Homer sit down on the chair and say nothing else. She stare off in the dark and look at Lilith once.

— Me don’t take orders from you, Callisto say. Gorgon bark like dog but leave the biting to Callisto. Lilith thinking this make sense. If there was somebody to be killed, then Callisto would do the killing. She look at the one-eye woman in the dimness and wonder if Callisto is the one she is most of a sister to. Lilith remember the fear she feel when she kill Massa Roget. And something else. Something that higher than when Robert Quinn love her. Something higher than the breeze that rush across the back of her neck when she think of the Ogun that she not to say. Something higher than feeling white. Something that she can’t name or call.

Homer still not saying nothing.

— You think anybody waitin’ on word from you? Niggers on five estate know you mind dead. And you don’t have no use. Better for we if you go live with you dead pickney now. Cho! If people didn’t still ’fraid o’ you me’d arrange that meself. Come, Gorgon.

Callisto and Gorgon grab Iphigenia, Callisto the foots and Gorgon the hands. They drag the body down the passage Homer point to.

— Make sure, Homer say weakly. — Make sure you put rock in her dress so that… six tell six tell six…

Homer words get cut short by a splash. Hippolyta hiss and run. She hold her head down and look at her hands. Lilith still by the wall and still holding her knife. Lilith don’t know if Homer whispering, whimpering or counting. She just then seeing that Pallas crying. Pallas get up and leave, walking first, then running away. Lilith and Homer alone in the cave with the candlelight and shadow dancing round them.

— Me son never lie to me once, Homer say.