The River Widow(34)

Adah remembered nights lying awake by the campfire, dreaming of a different life, a new life, of love, of happiness. What an odd conversation this had turned out to be. “You want me to bare my soul, while you refuse to even call me by my first name.”

“Like I said, this isn’t going to be easy. I need to know who I’m helping and why. You’re asking me for a favor, but you’re leaving me in the dark.”

Neither spoke for long minutes.

She held his eyes until he finally said, “I can’t do it.”

Stunned into silence, Adah sat still while tears gathered behind her eyelids. She had been so close, and she couldn’t fathom this sharp turn, this blunt denial. She nearly choked on her disbelief and anger. “Please tell me why.”

He twitched once. “I just can’t do it.”

She drew in a ragged breath. “I’m disappointed. I’ve been looking for someone to help me for some time now. You have a sense of my quandary—I can tell—and yet . . .” Her bottom lip quivered, and she bit it. “If you aren’t interested, maybe you know someone else who’d be willing to help me quietly and earn some money in the process.”

“No one else will help you.”

Adah wanted to scream. She wanted to shout, Why not? She wished she could tear off this armor and tell him how much this meant to her and Daisy.

But she couldn’t form the words.

Instead she gathered her composure. Grappling, she said, “Why won’t anyone help me? Why?”

“I think you know why. The Branches have a long history, not only with the Ku Klux Klan, but with using people, cheating people in general. I heard that if you hurt them, even in business, they’ll hurt you back double. Isn’t that why you don’t want them to know you’re going to an attorney?”

“I’ll pay more.”

He said, “You insult me by offering me money.”

She blinked hard again. “How do I insult you? I’m offering you a fair business deal.”

His eyebrows, which were heavy and set in a straight line, shifted, but there was no other change in his face.

“This isn’t just about business, is it?” He sighed. “It’s much more than that.”

All the way back home, she admonished herself. She should have left Jack Darby alone. She wished she could take it all back. If only she hadn’t gone. Her steps thumped the dirt road to the same beat that a cacophony built in her head, till she was nearly running and crossed a rare intersection of roads only to realize that she had lurched in front of an oncoming Plymouth pickup truck. She didn’t know the family inside.

“Excuse me,” she mouthed to their astonished faces.





Chapter Twelve

Jack Darby’s dismissal had hit her hard. She tangled with the sheets at night as she tried to think of someone else to ask for help. To whom could she turn next? She had thought Mr. Darby would pave the way, but he had inexplicably shut down that path. How he’d said No one else will help you was another blow.

And now, every day, she watched the Branches anew. It was late March, and the men were mixing the minute tobacco seeds with ash, hand-sowing the seedbeds, and raking and walking the seeds in. Adah helped the men with the final step for the seedbeds, staking and then sheltering them with linen. At the end of the day, Buck and Jesse sometimes disappeared into the old log curing barn, loading crates from it into the truck bed after nightfall and then heading off to God only knew where. There was another secret out there, she knew it.

One night Adah, trying to make her voice as neutral as possible, asked Mabel, “Where are the men off to?”

Adah had just handed over her laundry earnings for the week, keeping a few coins for herself and Daisy, and Mabel had put the money in her pocket as usual without thanking Adah. “They got business in town.”

“This late?”

Mabel froze for a moment, then turned to face the icebox as if about to open the door. “What’s it to you?” she said over her shoulder.

Adah replied to Mabel’s back, “Just curious.”

Mabel finally turned around, never having opened the icebox. She was having trouble meeting Adah’s eyes. “I stay out of their business. You best do the same thing.”

“Alright,” Adah said and relished a tiny victory. Her question had unnerved Mabel, who was gazing away wistfully, and Adah thought she saw something sorrowful and maybe a bit regretful in the woman’s eyes.

“I was wondering,” Adah began, “if I could take Daisy with me when I return the laundry the next time I visit that family with all the redheaded kids. Since it’s getting warm, I think Daisy would benefit from some fresh air.”

Mabel’s face hardened as she stared at Adah. “Daisy can get fresh air right here.”

“I know, but the walk might do her some good. And I don’t get to play with her much anymore since I’m working most of the day. She could play with some other children for a short while. I just thought she’d like it.”

Through her stern mouth, Mabel spat, “That girl is just fine. And you know Buck don’t want you to take her anywheres off this property. So why are you asking me?”

Adah shrugged. “I know you love your granddaughter, Mabel, and I was only thinking of her. What harm could come from it?”