Brooklyn Rose Read online

  Downstairs, Mama made us drink hot chocolate and have a biscuit before we opened presents. Daddy lit the candles on the tree, and we all opened gifts. Soon we had to put the candles out because Benjamin wanted to grab them. I got new ice skates from Daddy and Mama and three books. Little Benjamin got lots of play-pretties. My family loved the gifts I gave them.

  Then we all went into the dining room for a hearty Christmas breakfast. Daddy looked at the outside thermometer and said he never remembered it being so cold. At noontime, in the sun, the thermometer read ten degrees. Icicles are hanging from all the outside buildings in back of the house. I took an apple to my horse, Tom Jones, and I put a special blanket over his back. After Christmas dinner I rode him around the plantation, and steam came out of his nostrils.

  We had delicious pound cake and oranges, and I was even allowed a sip of champagne at supper. I felt very grown-up. The cake is the same recipe that Mama and Daddy had for their wedding cake. Mama made it special, and I am going to make it one of these days. Josh Denning came and was in the back parlor with Daddy a long time. I think he was asking for Heppi's hand. He brought presents for all of us, and I wished I had one for him. He gave me a spyglass I have always yearned for. I think he is a lovely catch for Heppi.

  December 31

  THE LAST DAY of 1899. Daddy and Mama had some friends in, and there was much gaiety and gossip. I was allowed to stay up until after midnight and I should be in bed now, but I just had to write down what happened. Mr. Scully, the newspaper editor, told us that he received word today that Sioux Indian chief Spotted Tail died in Paris. He was one of the most famous war chiefs of the Sioux tribe.

  Everyone was wondering what the new century will bring. It's very scary. The turn of the century. Mr. and Mrs. Caper came but not Amelia. She had another party. Mr. Caper didn't look at all as if Daddy owed him money.

  The Capers brought with them a gentleman friend everyone whispered about, who is very handsome and is supposedly French. He is tall. I'll wager over six feet. And he has broad shoulders and a slim waist. He bears himself with grace. His hair is a mixed brown and blond, as is his mustache, and he has a presence about him. He spoke very precise English, and when Daddy was talking to him, he called me over to introduce me.

  I crossed the room, even though I was shaking inside. Just looking at the man made me shaky and excited.

  "This is Mr. Dumarest," Daddy said. "He has business in Charleston."

  I remembered to curtsy as I've been taught. Daddy seemed very proud of me and anxious to show me off. Mr. Dumarest asked me about our horses. His eyes are so blue you could drown in them. His face is strong. There is nothing about him that isn't sure and strong. His voice is masterful.

  The announcement was made tonight. Heppi and Josh will wed on Valentine's Day. Heppi was flustered when Daddy announced it. She even managed to look like a bashful bride. From across the room, I saw Mr. Dumarest watching me, and I felt very uncomfortable.

  Later on, when we were getting ready for bed, Heppi came into my room and asked me to be her maid of honor. I couldn't believe it! Then she hugged me and we sat a long time talking on my bed. She told me how she loved Joshua, how his book of Negro music would soon be published and he was going to dedicate it to her. And how they were going to live in a fine house in Beaufort. She said they were looking at the James Rhett house at 303 Federal Street.

  For the first time, I felt like we were sisters. Then she told me how Mr. Dumarest had offered Daddy some silk for her wedding dress. "He imports silk," she said. "He's offered silk for your dress, too."

  I blushed that he had thought of me and what dress I should wear.

  "He's been doing business with Mr. Caper forever. And Daddy has known him for quite a while," Heppi told me.

  Then she leaned forward and said quietly, "Rose, it's time you knew. Daddy isn't doing so well financially. I've known it for some while. Don't tell him I told you, but he has debts he can't meet."

  The way she said it frightened me. "What has this to do with the silk?" I asked her.

  "You've got to marry soon, Rose. When Daddy has two daughters who are well married, things will be easier for him."

  "Is that why he showed me off to Mr. Dumarest tonight?" I asked.

  She smiled. "Don't tell me you weren't attracted to him."

  "That has nothing to do with it. I felt like a horse at an auction."

  "You could do worse." And she giggled.

  I blushed and thought of his blue eyes, his regal bearing, his confidence. "Don't be silly," I said. "Now go to sleep."

  4

  January 1, 1900

  IT SEEMS SO strange to write "1900." I can't get used to it. A whole new century stretching out in front of us. What will happen? Heppi says it doesn't make any difference, that neither God nor the universe knows it is another century, that only we humans make a fuss over time. But she was having one of her sophisticated moments.

  Amelia's father has a telephone in his house, but we don't have one yet. He is talking about getting a steam generator to have his own electricity in his home. When that happens, Amelia won't be bearable.

  Mr. Dumarest was back today for New Year's dinner. He seems so comfortable at our table, but I was self-conscious, thinking of what Heppi told me. Are Mama and Daddy planning on wedding me to him? Why, he must be in his thirties, at least. And, oh, I couldn't be married. The very thought of it frightens me.

  But I am attracted to him. And I find myself watching him when he doesn't know it. I like to watch the way he moves and holds his head. And when he looks at me, I want to dive under the table.

  Still, everything seemed normal until Daddy asked me, after dinner, to take Mr. Dumarest out to the stables to see the horses. It seems he wants to purchase one.

  So I put on my coat, trembling. Mr. Dumarest helped me with it. He opened doors. He kept the conversation going. He was so gallant. I felt like a clod, like I was blushing all over.

  We ventured out back to the barn. I showed him the paddock where Jimmy and Daddy break the horses. In the barn, Jimmy was there to welcome us.

  He showed Mr. Dumarest the new cotton gin Daddy had bought and the other farm machinery. I showed him all the horses in their stalls. Then I showed him the small office Daddy had off the barn, and the leather books that had all the breeding records. He liked everything, especially the old buggy that used to belong to Grandmother and Grandfather Frampton. "This is the one they left in when you Yankees and General Sherman put them out," I told him.

  Well, that's enough to get anybody talking. His eyes shone with amusement. "I wasn't born yet when that happened," he said. "And, anyway, when I was born it was in France."

  We patted the horses. I noticed he has a way with them. He turned and looked at me. "We ought to go riding someday while I'm here," he said to me.

  I blushed. I could not look into those eyes, because I felt that they saw all of me, all my secret hopes and fears. "Yes, someday we should ride together," I said, which sounded too forward, so then I went mum. Thank heaven for Jimmy's man chatter with him.

  On the way back to the house, we talked more. "I'd love to see the whole place sometime," Mr. Dumarest said. "Perhaps you can take me about when we ride." He spoke with a slight French accent.

  "When did you come to this country?" I asked.

  He smiled. "About five years ago. I came with my brother, Adrian. We're in business together."

  "Is Adrian older?"

  More smile. "Yes."

  "Does he boss you about?"

  "No. We're business partners. We import silk. We have two warehouses, one here and one in New York."

  I gasped. "Oh, tell me about New York! I've always wanted to go there." And then I blushed some more.

  "In five minutes?" he asked.

  "No, of course not," I said demurely. "Some other time, maybe."

  "Yes. When you take me on that ride about the place. Oh, what color silk do you like? I'm to bring some for you and your sister next
time I come."

  "It isn't my choice," I told him. "It's up to Heppi. It's her wedding. Mama says she gets to run the whole thing." But then I told him, "During the War of Secession, my grandmother made a flag of blue silk with a palmetto tree on it for the Saint Helena's Volunteers. We still have it up in the attic. I think it is so pretty."

  "Then I'll ask Heppi if I may bring you blue. In memory of your grandmother," he said.

  Why is it that when we went back into the house I felt as if I had the edge on everyone else, as if I knew him better than anyone in the family? Why did I feel just a little taller? When he left he asked my father if he could come around this week and ride with me. That he had a horse all picked out. My daddy said yes.

  "You have a date," Heppi whispered as we went upstairs to bed.

  "Don't be silly," I said. "He's way too old for me. He's got to be thirty, at least. I'm just helping Daddy sell a horse."

  January 4

  MR. DUMAREST purchased from Daddy a light sorrel mare with a star on her forehead. Since she was not named as yet, he asked me to help him think of a name for her. But first he took her out riding.

  I thought that Mama would insist we take Heppi along for a chaperone, but she did no such thing. And Daddy did not insist, either. He knows me too well. He knows I would never suffer mistreatment from a man. And he knows Rene, too, I suppose.

  Rene said I was to call him that. By his first name. "If we're going to be friends, I insist," he told me.

  Daddy had half his people picking cotton and the other half gathering wood. Rene had never seen cotton being picked, so I took him by those fields first, then we rode to the water. The day was a bit warmer, with bright sun. I explained to him how when the moon is in its first and third quarters, the tides rise six to eight feet around Saint Helena's Island. These are called neap tides.

  "When the moon is new or full, the water rises eight to ten feet. And those are spring tides," I explained.

  He listened carefully, nodding.

  "Saint Helena's is fifteen miles long and three to five miles wide. It protects the mainland from the sea."

  "You've learned your school lessons well," he said.

  "Those aren't school lessons. School is dull," I told him. "I've learned these other things just from living around here."

  He asked me if I liked living here, and I said yes. Then he asked if I would ever leave. The way he said it, with those blue eyes of his looking so intently at me, I couldn't answer. "I don't know," I finally said. "It would depend."

  "On what?"

  "On why I was leaving." I felt bold saying it. He did not reply.

  Then we rode on farther. I took him through salt marshes, up dunes. I showed him massive oak trees, twisted cedars and crooked pines, and palmettos with leaves that rattled in the wind like the drums of the Yamasee Indians.

  We got back in time for afternoon tea. I was red faced from the wind. Rene's tawny hair was mussed. He told Daddy he'd like to go fishing with him sometime. And Daddy said yes.

  January 8

  BACK TO school after the winter break. Amelia Caper was waiting for me with a wide smile on her face. "Your daddy told mine that you went riding with Mr. Dumarest," she said.

  "Rene and I are just friends," I said.

  But when I called him Rene instead of Mr. Dumarest, her grin got sly. "He's looking for a wife, you know," she said smugly.

  "Well then," I told her, "you ought to get in line. I understand half the girls between here and Charleston are lying in wait for him."

  "And you've got him."

  "I've got nobody, Amelia. I don't want anybody. Why, he's older than Josh Denning, and he's twenty-four."

  I wouldn't hear any more about it. Amelia thinks she is so smart because of her daddy the banker. I hate being back in school. Before he was eight years old, Daddy was sent to school 150 miles from home. To Richland. Sometimes, when people annoy me, I wish I could go 150 miles from here and from everyone. Other times I don't want to leave home at all.

  Daddy went to the trial of skill with his rifle company today so was not home for supper. It's been very windy all day. Wind has whipped the sand in all our faces. Mama and Heppi and I had supper alone and discussed the wedding. All Heppi wants to do is talk about the wedding. She says blue silk is all right for my dress, and Mama said she'd send a note around to Mr. Dumarest. I have not told them yet that I call him Rene.

  5

  January 10

  I HAVE BEEN getting teased in school about Rene. It seems Amelia Caper has told everyone about him taking me riding. My daddy told her daddy. I am so sick of this school and have asked Daddy if I can go to Normal School in Beaufort. Or the Female Institute. He always said he wanted me to go to one of them to get a better education before I go to any female institute up north. But when we talk about it, he never pursues the subject. He lets it lie like a dead fish between us. I think it is likely that he does not have the money. I am beginning to wonder if he is more in debt than he allows.

  January 14

  RENE HAS sent around the silk for Heppi's wedding gown and it is absolutely gorgeous. Mama cried when she saw it. So is the blue for my dress. And I fear it is of a more expensive quality than Daddy can afford, but he said nothing.

  On the weekend, Mama and Heppi and I had meetings with the dressmaker in Beaufort. We stayed at the hotel. I know Mama was half distracted wondering after little Benjamin, but Lilly and Opal do a wonderful job with him. I missed him, too.

  On Saturday evening Rene came to town and took the three of us to supper. He told us all about the silk-importing business. He owns a fifteen-ton schooner called Elizabeth. He paid mind mostly to Mama, because she was really the prettiest of us there. My mama is really beautiful. We have a portrait of her in the front hallway and she is painted in profile. Her hair is piled on top of her head and her shoulders are bare and the gown puffs around them.

  Still, Heppi flirted with him like mad. It is just her way. She made me so angry I wanted to cry. She placed herself right across the table from him so he could look directly at her and monopolized all the conversation. But several times I saw Rene sneaking looks at me. And I blushed. I wonder: Why is he paying all this attention to us? Heppi is spoken for and Mama is nobody's flirt.

  We came home this evening. Rene is invited to the wedding, of course.

  January 16

  A VERY NICE day with almost springlike weather. Daddy's people planted Irish potatoes today, and finished ginning the cotton. Little Benjamin is very cranky. I just discovered that we are invited to go with Heppi and Josh to the Eckelses' on Saturday night for a program of sacred music. Rene is calling to take Mama and me. Daddy has a dinner at his club. I don't know if I am pleased or not. It seems that all kinds of things are being done to throw me and Rene together, and I wonder, sometimes, just what Amelia Caper knows. Somehow I feel that she knows something.

  January 21

  WELL, WE WENT to the Eckelses' and Rene couldn't have been nicer. He fussed over Mama just as much as he fussed over me. I am starting to look at him differently, though. I am asking myself very stern questions, like, "Is he acting like a suitor?" and, "What am I supposed to act like?" and, "I must put a stop to this. But how can I?" I wouldn't want to hurt him, and somehow I think I'd be hurting Mama and Daddy, too, because by now I know they want him for me.

  Next week Rene is going hunting on one of the other islands with Daddy. Josh was pleased with the Negro music at the Eckelses'. Daddy sent a load of cotton to Beaufort for sale. The boat was piled high with cotton.

  Two of the two-year-olds have been broken to the saddle and bridle by Jimmy. I watched. He is so good with the horses. I told Daddy he has to have Jimmy teach somebody else, though, in case he ever decides to leave. Daddy just laughed. "My people never leave," he said. "I treat them too good."

  Of course, I know it is unthinkable, but I have watched Jimmy in the paddock with the horses so much that I know I could break a two-year-old if push came to shove.
Only, I would never say it to either Daddy or Mama. They think I'm enough of a hoyden the way it is.

  February 5

  MAMA IS ALL upset because a steamer arrived in San Francisco and there are forty-one deaths from the plague on it. These things upset Mama terribly. She worries so. I suppose the city officials in San Francisco were upset, too, because to stop the spread of the disease they burned down a whole block in Chinatown and the fire got out of control.

  Went to Beaufort with Mama for a final fitting of our gowns. I declare, Heppi is acting like a five-year-old now, who has just been given candy. All she talks about is her wedding. She wanted to have it in church, but Daddy and Mama want it in our front parlor. Mama says she always dreamed of her daughter marrying in that room, because it faces the rising sun and that is good luck.

  Well, much discussion about this. Church or home? Home, of course. What other way? Mama says. This is tradition. So now Mama is directing the help (or Opal is letting her think she is directing) in cleaning and polishing and shining and washing everything in sight. The house is turned upside down. I hate it.

  February 7

  DADDY AND RENE never did take their hunting trip. Everything seemed to interfere. The Elizabeth dropped anchor in Charleston waters with a new load of silk and Rene couldn't get away. One of Daddy's workhorses came down with distemper and had to be nursed. So they are going when they both have time. Probably not until after Heppi's wedding now. I wish I could go, not to be with Rene but because I've never been on a hunting trip with Daddy.

  Why do I have the feeling that something is about to happen?