Uriah and Jedediah Hitt now lived apart in their separate homes, but father and son continued to work together: the corn was in the crib, but there was timber to be cleared, fields to be ploughed and disked down for Spring, and these were tasks best performed together. They more than often ate their midday meal at Uriah�s cabin - Iris served their food and ate on her own afterwards, when the two men had done. She fed them well, and she was certain that Jedediah noted, for he always cleared his plate, though he never gave her any word of approval. But she knew her father-in-law for a hard and cautious man: he was not a man to permit her to drive any kind of wedge between himself and Capitola.
One morning the two men were out working at the still. They turned their sprouting grain, and then broke off to share a cut of tobacco, chewing peaceably for a moment. Then Jedediah spat into the dirt and scratched himself intently. It was a certain sign that he had something on his mind.
�Man come by yesterday, wantin� to put money in ma britches.�
Uriah looked at him quickly.
Jedediah rolled the chaw from left, to right, then back again. There are times when plans must be laid, and decisions reached, and these are not things to be dealt with lightly. He spat again. �Fine thoroughbred horse he were sittin�. Musta cost him a small mint of money.�
He was silent again. Uriah spat in his turn. He knew better than to try and prod his father.
�Joe Wilkes bin� tellin� how he�s gonna flatten us up here.�
Uriah frowned. Sheriff Wilkes had been smashing stills in a circle around Coates for some weeks past with an almost evangelical zeal. He worked out of an office in the county seat, in Gallatin, but kept his home on the ridge above Coates, and there was dark talk in the hollers that wealth lay behind his campaign - he had increased his posse of deputies from two to five, and the posse seemed to lack none for fresh mounts. There were whispers that a man called Henry Gooch wanted to drive small stills out of business, so as to be able to ship whisky in over the state line. There was also talk that Joe Wilkes wanted to run for higher office, and ride proud down Union Street in Nashville, twirling his moustachios, and holding the reins of a spanking fine team. He had been a Galvanized Yankee after the war, riding with the Seventh Cavalry in the Indian wars, and had worked hard to live down the epithet of traitor that some had given him. Now he entertained ambitions to rank as a hero.�
�We kin roll the �shine down the hill, over the state line. He cain�t touch it thar.� The Hitt land was well-sited, running both sides of the Kentucky-Tennessee border, with the still on the Tennessee side a little way up a slope above the line.
Jedediah shook his head. �He come down, we�ll be riskin� buckshot, mebbe worse.�
�He want to flatten us thet bad?�
�So they say.�
Uriah scratched himself, and spat, and scratched himself again. Now he understood his father perfectly. Joe Wilkes was a bad man to cross, with a reputation for being quick to shoot, slow to repent. Uriah had no ambition to find himself laying six feet under, not with a wife so close to making him a proud father.
�What did the man offer?�
Jedediah was silent for a long moment before speaking. �Waal, he offert fifty dollars fer he c�ld haul the still out.�
�And the �shine?�
�He din�t say nuthin�.�
Uriah began to smile. �You got mebbe another fifty bucks, with what we got barreled, �n we brew this lot up quick. More if we let it be known it�s yer last run.�
Jedediah nodded equably. �I figgered thet.�
�I�ll go work on the railroad.�
�I�ll sell him corn.�
Uriah�s eyebrows twitched. �You sed thet?�
�I done tol� him, he tek ma still, he tek ma live-li-hood.� Jedediah strung the word out by syllables, as though enunciating an intellectual achievement. �I sed I gotta wife ter feed.�
�He bought thet?�
�Uh-huh. We fixed a price for this fall, he�ll come collect.�
Uriah got to his feet, and began rummaging for cousin Lem Motlow�s best. There are times for celebrating, and times for rejoicing, and he judged that the angels must have chosen to buy his father out of distilling.
Jedediah�s buyer came for the still a week later whilst Jedediah and Uriah were sawing timber with a big cross-cut saw. He was a tall man, with sandy hair and a neatly-trimmed Van Dyke beard and waxed moustachios, wearing a fine wide-brimmed hat, and dressed in a linen shirt and well-cut breeches, with polished riding boots complete with small rowel spurs, and he came mounted on a thoroughbred with a braided tail, the likes of which Uriah had never seen before. Four men came with him, riding in a spring wagon. Burly men, with hard faces and sullen eyes, and Uriah noticed the man beside the wagon driver held a big Sharpes .50 caliber rifle nestled against his thigh.
The tall man nodded to the two Hitts, and dismounted. �Good day, gentlemen.�
The four burly men stayed in the wagon.
�Can we do business?�
Jedediah gestured towards the door of his cabin. �I�ll get ma woman to mek coffee.�
The three men sat in silence as Capitola busied herself at the stove. Uriah noticed that she washed the coffee pot before brewing, and it was a thing he had never seen his mother do before. She set out three clean cups, which was also a novelty, before retreating.
Then the tall man eyed Uriah. �You must be Jed�s son.�
Uriah assented cautiously.
�I knew your father atimes, back in Natchez.�
Jedediah nodded. �Mr. Gooch and I had some dealin�s.�
�Why, that�s the truth. We did.� The tall man did not smile. �Your father helped me out.� He turned to Jedediah. �Then I heard tell that Joe Wilkes wanted to tan your hide. So I thought maybe I could do you a good turn, by way of return.�
He fumbled in his pocket and took out a small suede purse, to lay it on the table. The purse was secured with a drawstring, and ten coins came tumbling out as he released the string.
Uriah drew in his breath. He had never seen gold five dollar pieces before, but they looked real fine, with the American eagle on one side, and a woman�s head on the other, gleaming dully in the cabin�s half light, each of them perhaps a little smaller than a silver quarter.
�You said you have a track across the state line?�
Jedediah nodded without speaking. The coins plainly exerted the same fascination on him as his son.
�We�ll drive out thataway, then.� The tall man drained his cup and got to his feet. �My men will take the still apart. You might care to ride point for us.�
Uriah watched the spring wagon trundle its way up towards the patch of brush wood concealing the cabin where he and his father had been brewing �shine for upwards of ten years. �Is thet Henry Gooch?�
�The very same, son.�
�But ain�t he trying to close everyone out?�
�Thet�s right.�
�So why he want to give you gold?�
Jedediah was silent for a moment. Then he spat into the dirt. �Man had a knife to him, one time, back in Natchez Under the Hill.�� It would have been a year or two before I took up with yer maw. I had his back in the fight.�
�Yo� saved his life?�
�Purty much.�
Uriah waited, but his father showed no sign of seeking to pursue the conversation. But Jedediah did hold out his right hand, and Uriah felt a circle of hard metal in his palm as he took it.
�Yo� go and buy thangs fer yo�re child, and put the rest in the bank, son. One day yo� may need it.�
Uriah grinned. �Sure will.� He paused, encouragingly. He had never heard his father talk of his youth. Perhaps now was the time. Henry Gooch was reputed a hard man, with precious little concern for his fellow men, and never a mention of gratitude or loyalty. It was a strange thing to meet such a person, out of the blue, and then discover that he and his father had once been close. �Mebbe one day I kin save a life.�
Jedediah�s face hardened. �Never go looking fer trouble, son. One day the knife may come at you.�
Iris rode down to the Hitt cabin on Stonewall, one of Uriah�s two mules, some days later, after the moving of the still. The beast�s name was fitting, because Stonewall was more than ornery, even by the most exacting mule standards - she imagined Jedediah had allowed them the animal for that reason. Uriah walked behind, encouraging Stonewall with a willow switch. She was now a little past midway in her pregnancy, and growing large, and she had already felt her child turn within her. It was a powerful feeling, a presage of approaching motherhood, and Uriah was careful with her. She was in her best� dress, with a bonnet that still looked respectable, despite much patching, with shoes on her feet, though they felt hot and constricting.� At least she was not as constricted as a townswoman, who might lace herself up six ways to Sundays, even when she were carrying. The sun was not properly up, because they needed to reach Coates early, and she carried a basket in front of her, with a dozen fresh eggs and a couple of squares of fresh butter wrapped in cloth, bedded in straw. She breathed in the fresh cool air of dawn, and she felt good. But she was also a little nervous. She would be meeting Capitola again, she expected, and counted on little good coming of the encounter. She certainly set no store by being further abused.
Jedediah was already harnessing his two big geldings up to his spring wagon as they arrived. He had already covered the wagon boards with a thick layer of hay.� He was a shadowy figure in the half light of dawn, touching the brim of his hat to Iris as Stonewall slowed from a reluctant walk to a halt, and it was a good sign. He was dressed in clean bib-alls and a big straw hat, and he had shaved his upper lip and his cheeks to outline his Lincoln beard. Iris noticed a carbine holster laying on the spring wagon�s buckboard.
Uriah noticed the carbine holster as well. He walked over to his father, speaking to him across the broad back of one of the Belgians. �Yo� countin� on trouble?�
�I�se gonna shift out as much �shine as I kin.� Jedediah hawked and spat into the dirt. �Folks say Joe Wilkes now started talkin� mighty big and fierce. Don Cline reckoned he�s settin� me up fer next.� He nodded towards his barn. �I brung down all the jars we got yester�even, I done a deal with Woodrow to market �em. Joe�s gonna find the coop empty.�
Uriah�s jaw dropped. �Woodrow?�
�Thet�s right, son.� Woodrow came from the barn carrying two big jars. But this was a different Woodrow to the man who had given Iris to Uriah. Stringy and rangy still, but healthier looking, and filled out in his face.
�Well, ain�t thet a thang.� Uriah spoke admiringly as the two men shook hands. �Miz Law bin lookin� after yo� good.�
Woodrow smirked. �I get by.� He took a step towards Iris, and then paused, as though unsure how she would greet him.
Iris beamed. She was her own woman now, and free of his thrall. �Howdy, Paw.�
�Howdy, gal.�
�Yo� kin kiss me, an� ma� husband allows it.�
Uriah frowned. The exchange seemed to be taking an unseemly turn.
Woodrow held back. �Yo� never wanted me ter kiss yo when yo� kep� house fer me.�
Iris smiled. Woodrow had often wanted to kiss her when she had kept house for him, but had also wanted a great deal more. Now she could play with him, and be safe behind her husband. She shrugged. �I ain�t yo�re slave no more.�
Woodrow shifted uneasily, made as though to advance, caught Uriah�s eyes, and backed up. He spat into the dirt to hide his discomfiture, shuffled his feet, and turned away, back towards the barn.
Uriah grinned, but his eyes were hard. �What about Widder Law?�
His father shrugged. �She ain�t no �count on this. We�re gonna ride all we got out to a man in Macon County. We�ll mek two trips, fifty dollars cash, he teks the lot, an� thet way it�s off our hands.�
�Mek sure Joe don�t ketch yo�.�
Jedediah smiled mirthlessly. �Woodrow gotta plan for Sheriff Wilkes.�
Woodrow reappeared, leading a team harnessed to a second wagon. He spat into the dirt. �I went down to Jent�s store, fetch me some baling wire. Coupla good ol� boys down there wanted to pass the time o� day, askin� a deal of questions. They heard tell Uriah an� his wife moved into my cabin, wanted to know if some more �shine might be on its way.�
�Friends of Joe�s?�
�Seemed purty like thet.�
Uriah waited. Woodrow was smirking now.
�We-ell.� He drew the word out for emphasis. �I tol� them the �shine was near to ready, an� a mighty fine batch at thet. Tol� them I�d fetch a wagon load in, coupla days hence.�
�You done tol� them thet?�
�Sure to heaven.�
Uriah stared at Iris� step-father as though he had taken leave of his senses. �Thet�s as good as puttin� it in Joe�s hands.�
�Sure is.� Woodrow grinned. �The fella over in Macon�s gonna give us back enough quart jars to mek a bit of a show. We�ll stop the wagon in front of Jent�s, and look mighty proud of ourselves.�
�But Joe will be waitin�.�
�Sure will. He�ll haul a coupla jars out and smash �em, and then he�ll hold his nose.�
Uriah looked baffled.
�We-ell.� Woodrow beamed. �They�s gonna be jars of fresh pig manure tea.�
Uriah began to laugh. �He�s gonna break up jars of pig shit?�
�Nothin� else.�
Uriah slapped his thigh, bending almost double in his mirth. Then he straightened again, and held out his hand. �Well, ol� man, I never thought yo�d hev that in yo�.�
The three men were silent for a moment, savoring the joys of a promising ambush. Then Uriah looked at his father. He had promised to take Iris into Coates, because he had heard tell that the new Chesapeake & Nashville Railroad manager would be arriving that very day, and might well be looking for good workers. But he was also drawn to stay with Jedediah and Woodrow. Iris could ride on down on her own, and a man needs his son most when trouble threatens to raise its head over the skyline.
�Yo� want me to stay �n help out?�
�No, son.� Jedediah shook his head. �We�ll got it all figgered. We�ll get by.�
Uriah tugged at Stonewall�s bridle. The mule had found a small patch of grass, and was browsing contentedly. It clearly did not want to move. He felt his ire rise, and lashed at the animal. Stonewall bucked, sending Iris flying over its head, and she screamed in alarm.
Her cry
bought Capitola running from the cabin. Uriah�s mother bent to sooth Iris, and
then watched as Uriah picked her up in his arms, to set her on the bench in the
cabin porch. Iris did not seem overly hurt, but she was breathing fast.
�Is she
hurt?�
�Not much.�
Capitola prodded Iris a couple of times, and drew back. �She landed on her
shoulder. She�s jes� gonna be sore. I�ll fix her a tisane.�
She
disappeared into the cabin, to return with a small glass filled with a greenish
liquid, and put it to Iris� lips. Iris opened her eyes, looked at her
mother-in-law, and struggled to free herself, spitting out the liquid.
Capitola
scowled. �Yo� ain�t no call to do thet, Missy.�
Iris set her
mouth stubbornly, and the two women glowered at each other.
Uriah touched
Iris� hand. �Maw means well.�
�It�s a
restorative.� Capitola raised the glass to her own lips, and took a sip. �See,
it ain�t poison.�
Iris nodded
reluctantly, and sipped in her turn. The liquid was a little bitter, but not
unpleasant.
�It�ll soothe
your pain.� Capitola hurried back into the cabin and return with a small jar.
�Here, I got me some salve, from smart-weed and goose grease. I�ll smear
some on yer shoulder, Missy.�
She was
already pushing her hand inside the neckline of Iris� dress. Iris made to pull
away, but Uriah held her in place. She did not take to being invaded so
intimately, particularly by a woman she regarded with deep suspicion and
distrust, but there was no way she could escape, short of attempting violence,
and she held herself stiff and rigid with misgiving.
Capitola
smoothed the ointment into her skin, and then stood back, looking pleased with
herself. �There yo� are. That�ll mek yo� feel a sight better.� She inspected
Iris thoughtfully. �I guess yo� still tek against me fer thet rooster of
yourn.�
Iris did not
reply. She did not like her mother-in-law, she was not about to start liking
her mother-in-law, and no placatory words would bring Albert back.
Her
mother-in-law sniffed. �It were only a bird.�
Iris sniffed herself. She had been
attached to Albert. It was something about the fine way in which he held
himself, crowing though the day, as he went about his business with the hens.
She had always been curious about that, before being taken by Uriah. The birds
seemed to treat Albert�s attentions in such a matter-of-fact way. She had
always expected something rather better for herself. Perhaps a brakeman. She
smiled to herself at the thought. It may comfort a woman to have dreams, even
when dreams are only passing fancies.
�Yo�ll be
glad for my help when your time comes.�
Iris did not reply, but she knew within herself that she would let her mother-in-law have no part in her birthing. A couple of women further up the hollow had already offered sisterly support in the event of her needing it, and she had smiled gratefully, and noted their support. The country folk around Coates were quiet people, not given to much socializing. They met on Sunday mornings, on their way out of service, and sometimes at the store in Coates. But they were good people, strong and dependable, and Iris knew she would never lack help.� All she had to do was ask.
Capitola
shrugged. �Hev it yo�re own way, Missy.�
Uriah and
Iris left for Coates some ten minutes later, after Iris had pronounced herself
perfectly fit to continue her journey. The trip took some two hours, traveling
at a leisurely walking speed, and they passed but two other travelers on the
way - a man and a boy driving a couple of sows.
Coates was
not much of a place - a row of clapboard fronts along the Park Street
boardwalk, with the steeples of two chapels, one at each end, giving the fronts
something of a castellated air. Mr. Whiteside�s store, with its two front
rooms, one with a counter and large set of brass scales where he weighed out
his sales, the other stacked high with sacks of sugar and seed corn and
potatoes, stood cheek by jowl with Mr. Jents� general merchandise store
brimming with everything from boots to bonnet patterns. The boardwalk drifted
on past a feed mill, a bank, and a tavern that dignified itself by calling
itself an hotel, the whole facing out onto the rail depot. The depot provided
the town with a reason for being, forming a terminal link for two separate
railroad lines: the Louisville & Nashville, running away to the west of the
state, and the freshly opened Chesapeake & Nashville, linking Coates to the
glories of East Coast advancement. Most of the trains puffing their way in and
out of the depot hauled great loads of lumber, but sometimes passengers climbed
down from Pullman cars to be met by kinfolk or friends in buggies or on
horseback. Some crossed the tracks to the hotel, to take the stages serving
small towns and medicinal hot springs for a score of miles around. Sometimes
lumbermen drank themselves silly in the back room of the hotel, and it was
said, though only in whispers, that Bob Thornton, the tavern owner, allowed a
couple of women to use his other back rooms for purposes beyond decent
imagining. But Coates was pretty much just a wide spot in the road: a handful
of small businesses, a railroad telegrapher tapping out details of expected
trains, and his companion dispatcher organizing departures, two preachers
enthusiastic to save souls, and a sheriff obsessed with smashing stills. The
outside world largely passed the town by, and Coates cared little for the world
outside its narrow borders. It was a place of some good souls, some bad, and a
good many who veered with the wind.
Uriah halted the mule in front of
Mr. Whiteside�s store, and tied the mule�s reins to the wooden hitching rail
separating the boardwalk from the dirt street. Then he helped Iris dismount. He
watched her closely, noting the stiffness in her movements.
�How �re yo�
now?�
Iris winced.
�I�ll get by.�
�I reckon I
shouldn�t�a �hit Stonewall.�
Iris
shrugged. �I guess yo� won�t do it again.�
�Reckon not.�
She smiled
slightly. The world might hold worse men than Uriah, maybe better. But he was
reasonably sober and hard-working. She was glad he had not stayed with
Jedediah and Woodrow to move whisky. Sheriff Wilkes was not a man to fool
around with, and she had a feeling he might well seek revenge, were he publicly
humiliated.
The
Chesapeake and Nashville logger huffed and puffed its way into the depot as she
was settling with Mr. Whiteside, announcing its arrival with three piercing
blasts of its whistle. Uriah was standing between Iris and the store� open
door, watching the newly arrived train, and he stiffened. He could see two
Pullman cars attached to the end of the logger. One was just an normal car, in
the C&N livery, but the other definitely looked smarter, and he guessed
that the new railroad manager had arrived, and might be about to disembark. It
seemed the right time for him to go and pay his respects, and ask about his
chances of being hired.
He looked at Iris quickly. �Wife, I�ll leave you here in the store fer a moment.�
Iris nodded.
Uriah was always a problem in Coates, always watching her closely, and puffing
himself up like an angry turkey cock if any man so much as looked at
her. A few moments on her own would grant her some peace.
Tom
Whiteside, the proprietor of Whiteside�s Store and General Emporium, watched
him leave, and then beamed at her. He was a good man, balding and well-fed in
his starched white apron, with tortoiseshell-rimmed half glasses that gave him
something of an owlish air. �I asked Mrs. Whiteside to put together some baby
clothes, if she could. I thought they might be handy.�
Iris blushed,
and he turned to call into the back room.
�Cornelia, we
got Miz Hitt here. Come on out and say howdy.�
�Mrs. Whiteside came bustling out into the
store. She was a comfortable, motherly sort of soul, with a spotless white
apron over her blue Mother Hubbard dress. Her black hair was turning a little
gray now, but she was still very sprightly.
She beamed,
and stood back to admire Iris. �Why, ain�t yo�all jest as purty as a pup in a
pansy bed.� She looked her up and down with a practiced air, for she had raised
quite a brood of little Whitesides, not to mention a few handfuls of
grand-children besides. �Yo� look to be right near yo�re time.�
Iris smiled the smile of a proud expectant mother. �Maybe a while yet.�
Cornelia
Whiteside paused for a moment. �Um-hum. Ol� Miz Hitt gonna help yo� through
it?� She had spoken to the elder Mrs. Hitt once or twice, during her visits to
Coates, and was not sure she greatly cared for her. She had also heard a deal
of unkind gossip about the woman, and nothing good - for all the gossip in the
county came to rest on the counter of the Whitesides� store.
Iris shrugged
neutrally. But she knew she would keep Capitola as far from her child as she
could. �They�s a granny woman right by our place who�d be easier to get
to, did I need her.�
Cornelia
nodded approvingly. �We-ell, I got some thangs together fer you. Wait here.�
She returned a moment later with a
large basket holding quite a collection of little bonnets and robes and
diapers, and Iris murmured her admiration as she held up each little garment.
Then she looked serious. �What do I owe you?�
Cornelia
Whiteside waved the question away. �They�re fer you, m�dear, and you don�t pay
me nuthin�.�
Iris touched
her hand. She was not a woman for kissing, but she was mightily tempted to hug
this motherly soul. �I�ll bake something good fer yo�.�
Cornelia Whiteside covered her hand with both her own. �I�ll share it with Mr. Whiteside, m�dear, and we�ll eat it with pleasure.�