I Shall Be Near to You(44)

Mrs. Greenhow don’t show any sign she hears him, maybe hoping he’ll move on to some other amusement if she don’t notice him one jot. That’s what I’m hoping too, but Frank and those other boys are making eyes and snorting at his back.

‘I heard you Southern ladies ain’t so proper as y’all like to pretend,’ Hiram drawls, ‘and looks to be true, you landing here in prison and such.’

Everything about Mrs. Greenhow gets somehow thorny looking, but she still don’t move.

Hiram says, ‘I know you know what a man likes, but maybe you’d like to try on something Northern for a change?’

Mrs. Greenhow yelps, jumping to her feet. Somehow Hiram has worked his hand through the wire far enough to pinch the nape of her neck.

‘A little nibble, that’s all I’m after!’ he crows, while the boys behind him roar with laughter.

‘You leave off!’ I shout at Hiram, and I don’t care if Mrs. Greenhow is a spy or not.

‘Come on now, I’m just having fun. You ain’t a Rebel lover, are you?’

‘You ain’t to molest the prisoner!’ I walk right up to the fence, and Mrs. Greenhow scurries to where her daughter sits wide-eyed.

‘Oh, I see. You are a Rebel lover! I bet she’s giving you some sweetness on the side, is that it?’ Hiram leers at me, just like Eli.

‘What I’ve got is decency, that’s all. Didn’t your Mama teach you how to act right?’

‘My Mama ain’t here, in case you didn’t notice.’

I kick the fence where Hiram is standing. He jumps back. ‘That’s right!’ I yell. ‘You move along!’

‘You’re mighty brave on that side of the goddamn fence! Why don’t you come on over here and we’ll see if you’ve got any real fight in you.’ He spits at the ground, the boys behind him silent as he glares at me. I stay put.

‘Shit, that’s what I thought,’ he says, and turns to throw an arm around Frank, slapping his shoulder and laughing loud until he’s got all the others joining in.

When they walk away, I sink down onto the bench myself, spreading my shaking hands across my thighs.

Mrs. Greenhow lets go of her girl, pushing her back toward the hopscotch she’s drawn with a stick in the dirt. She plays there by herself, her short dress bouncing as she jumps. Will moves to where I am, bumping into my shoulder.

‘What got into you?’ he asks, still watching Mrs. Greenhow.

‘Why’s he think he can act like that?’ I ask. ‘What right has he got?’

‘I suppose he thought nobody would mind,’ Will says.

Mrs. Greenhow looks calmly out at the street, but she don’t fool me.

After a bit, she turns, clasps her gloved hands together like praying, and gives me a nod. Then she raises her eyebrows at me and maybe I don’t fool her none either.




‘HEY, ROSS!’ SULLY yells when he comes across the prison yard for supper. ‘You heard how they’ve got a woman prisoner here?’ he says, looking right at me, and I wish Jeremiah weren’t off on his guard duty.

I give him a narrow look. ‘Sure did. We just guarded her.’

‘What was she like?’ Sully asks.

‘Can’t really say. She’s got mourning clothes on, but she don’t seem sad. She’s got a clever look about her too. Acts like you’d think a Southern lady would.’

‘I was guarding with Thomas Stakely and he heard she’s a real saucy thing, got a mouth on her. Kind of like you,’ Sully says. ‘He said how she sings “Dixie” real loud so the guards and anyone on the street can hear.’

‘I didn’t hear one peep out of her,’ I say.

Sully shakes his head, ‘You ever heard of taking your own child along to prison?’

‘Maybe she ain’t got another place to keep that child,’ Will says. ‘Being a widow.’

The bite of sowbelly in my mouth, the whole meal, goes sour. I wonder about Rebel Rose and why she ain’t got any folks who’d take her daughter, if there is anything more alone than a widow. I wonder if Hiram is the only one to heckle her, if any of her guards have done worse. Then I think on the notes she was writing, the way she looked out on the street.

‘What are they going to do with her?’ I ask.

‘Spying is treason,’ Will says.

‘Ain’t that a hanging offense?’ Jimmy asks, and I can’t help but look over at the gallows.

‘Oh, they ain’t hanging no woman for this thing. She’s been passing gossip, is all,’ Henry says.

That gets my dander up, even if what that lady spy done is wrong, like he thinks she ain’t smart enough to do more than gossip. I wonder about that candle Mrs. Greenhow had burning, her sitting there watching the street. I swallow the lump of sowbelly in my mouth quick and say, ‘Seems to me a lady don’t get arrested for gossip if there ain’t something to it.’

Will says, ‘I heard sometimes those guards out on the street see her waving to people, like maybe she’s still passing messages. I never would have thought—’

‘You think a woman can’t fight for her country?’ It comes flying out of my mouth, even as I wonder if I ought to go to Captain with what I saw. Jimmy looks at me, his mouth dropped open.