Chapter 12
Evered walked home, musing on the events of the morning. Huston had bested him, but perhaps also served Coates best. He ate a good lunch,� for Alice had battered up a nice fillet of catfish, frying it to a right tasty crispiness, with creamed potatoes and green beans as side dishes, following through with a big slice of apple pie submerged in fresh cream for dessert, and then smoked a comforting pipe after he finished eating. Alice Evered busied herself with some sewing, glancing at him from time to time, for it is not every day that a railroad agent plays judge and jailer. But Evered puffed away with all the confidence of a man who has done what he deems to be right, and her eyelids began to droop a little, and her sewing fell into her lap, and she dozed off, because she could see that Turner had taken events in his stride.
She woke again as he got to his feet to return to the depot, putting her face up to be kissed. �You must be gentle with that poor man.�
Evered sighed. �I will talk to David, and see if we can�t come up with something that will occupy his mind.�
�Will he have eaten?�
Alice Evered was a comfortable woman, who lived in a simple world, where men needed feeding, and comforting, and generally behaved best when well-fed and comforted.
Evered smiled. �I shall make a point of asking him, m�dear.�
He strolled back to the railroad depot, setting out in his mind a crisp, concise description of his ride to the Hitts� farm, Conover�s death, and Saunders� arrest and death. He would spend the afternoon writing a detailed report, and telegraph it to David Kingman, and also to the railroad�s board of directors. He also needed to speak to Pastor Macdonald. Some clergymen might jib at churching a man into the next world after such a display of witchcraft. But Macdonald was a kind and gentle man, ever eager to please � and one of Evered�s men had brought twenty dollars back from Joe Wilkes� office desk in good American silver. Pastors also have to dine.
That left Uriah. Evered had already formed a picture of the man in his mind, and judged that he might not take kindly to having to fend for himself whilst Iris lay abed being fussed over. But Uriah was strong, and willing, and might benefit from a few days out of Coates, possibly working as a fireman on a lumber train. The Chesapeake & Nashville had enough railroad miles to keep him busy away from home, and he would then come back to find his wife mended, please heaven, and the two of would be able to make a fresh start.
He belched gently as he approached the depot building, well pleased with the idea.. He knew himself to be a good and kindly man, in a world where fortune rewards virtue, and those who are precise in their churchgoing. It may well be that� none but the elect can enter heaven, but good men reap what they merit.
He stopped at the depot building door. Uriah had also broken off to rest for a moment, and was leaning on the handle of his shovel. He looked haggard, and had the air of a man who has worked himself� pretty much into the ground.
Evered walked over to him. �You ought to take a break.�
Uriah shrugged. He was generally black, and stained with coal dust. �I don�t want to stop and think, sir.�
�Have you eaten yet?�
Uriah shook his head.
Evered thought for a moment. He knew that he had pretty much cleaned up� Alice�s kitchen, at least come their next mealtime. But he knew the Kingmans ate later, keeping East Coast dining hours, and counted five adults and three children at table, against just himself and his wife.
�Wait here.�
He strode off towards the Kingmans� new home. It was just a few minutes walk away on this brisk fall afternoon, and he intended doing a good deed.
Franny and her mother welcomed him warmly. They were still both at table, enjoying a leisurely pot of coffee, and discussing all that had happened. But he declined their invitation to join them.
��I�m foraging for Uriah.� He spoke quickly. �He looks like a blackened scarecrow.�
Evelyn Iverson rose to her feet as soon as his words were out of his mouth. �Lalia!� Her voice was peremptory. Eulalia Higgins often tended to nap off after preparing and clearing meals. �Lalia, Mr. Evered needs some food to take down to Iris� husband. I think he will break his fast.�
She felt much relieved as she spoke. She and Franny had been talking about Iris and Uriah over lunch, and had both been much concerned. Uriah had eaten nothing after returning with Iris the previous day, nor that morning, going straight from his cottage to the railroad depot, and Evelyn counted hungry men as potentially dangerous men.
Eulalia jerked into wakefulness. She kept a comfortable rocking chair in one corner of the kitchen for philosophizing in her free moments: she had to sit alone, and the thought rankled a little in her, because Doris declined to be comfortable with a person of color. �I ain�t trucking with no nigra woman�, she had said, and had kept to that.
�She was immediately on her feet.
��Hot vittles or cold, ma�am?�
Evelyn glanced at Evered.
�Cold, I think, ma�am. He is pretty much stained with coal dust, and it�ll take him a moment to clean himself up.�
Eulalia beamed. She also believed in the importance of feeding men well, and she had grieved at the thought of Uriah trying to get by on an empty stomach. �I�se got ham, and some �taters put by, and some �pone left, and I could fetch out a jug of buttermilk to keep the food company.�
Evelyn Iverson glanced at Evered, and he nodded approvingly. �I think that would do very well.�
�Give me five minutes, sah, an� I�ll bear it down to you.� And with that she began to busy herself, because there is nothing a good cook appreciates more than a demanding appetite.
Uriah accepted the food with dignity, but ate like only a famished man can eat. He felt lost and abandoned, and needed to be back in his own home, under his own roof, with his own wife preparing his meals, not taking a charity plate from a servant. He would work out his day, and go back to take Iris out of where she was lying. He reckoned she must be mending well now, after a full day abed, for he had seen sows give birth to still born piglets and then walk away as though they had merely cleared themselves. He would lie with her again in the night, both of them trying to put what had happened behind them, and he would be shielded from the demons lurking at the edges of his consciousness.
Meanwhile Evelyn Iverson had gone to sit on a chair at the side of Iris� bed, and was talking to her gently. �You mustn�t grieve too much, honey.� She was holding Iris� hand, and Franny sat in an armchair a little way distant, for it was said that consumption might be infectious around the ailing.
Iris lay back on her pillows with a drained, vacant look in her wild iris-blue eyes. She had lost a dream for which she had been living through the long summer months, ever since she had first known herself with child, and providence was imposing a singularly hard kind of acceptance.
�We�ll build you up good and strong again.� Franny spoke for the first time. She was now markedly more pale and wasted looking, even since her arrival in Coates, She broke off to cough into her handkerchief, and her mother noted in alarm that the linen had stained pink again.
�We�ll have you look after the children. Would you like that?�
Iris smiled weakly. Harriet, Jemma and Ellen Kingman had already visited her that morning, bringing three small gifts of sweets, a posy of flowers from the garden outside, and a little book of children�s tales, and had smiled at her reassuringly before standing on tiptoe at her bedside to kiss her. She had been touched, and would have wept, but she had been too weak for tears.
�You�ll be able to help them with their schooling.�
Evelyn paused. She realised from a quick gleam of alarm in Iris� eyes that the girl in bed might not possess much schooling herself. She smiled reassuringly, patting Iris� hand. �You�ll find it no burden.�
Evelyn Iverson believed firmly in the power of positive thinking. Doris was already growing sulky, and talking about nothing but policemen in Baltimore, and Franny�s three little girls would soon need someone new to care for them. She had already decided some time since that she liked the look of Iris, for the girl had borne all her grief and pain without a murmur, and she had also seen, in washing her, that she was well-made and strong, and glimpsed something in her violet-blue eyes that suggested intelligence and determination. Harriet, Jemma and Ellen would teach Iris to read and write as Iris taught them, and their need for maternal love might help assuage some of the pain of her loss � for Evelyn nursed no illusions about Franny�s prospects. She knew her daughter was now dying, with time the only variable.
Iris closed her eyes, and her lashes glistened a little. She had never known any warmth in her life � Woodrow had beaten her, and Uriah had first raped her, and then used her, in a use that had grown companionable in its familiarity. But nobody had ever given to her freely, except perhaps a brakeman, back in the dreamtime of her memory.
Evelyn got to her feet. �We�d better let her sleep some.� She smiled down at Iris fondly. �I think she�s already mending.�
Franny stopped as she closed the bedroom door. �You like her, mama, don�t you?�
Evelyn nodded. She was a kindly woman with green eyes and auburn hair piled up in a bun, somewhat stockier than her golden-haired daughter, now grown appallingly thin and waif-like from her illness, and a good judge of people.
�I think she�s a fine girl.�
Franny sighed, and her sigh was the sound of a woman who knows that she is not much longer for this world. �You said the same of David, mama, when I first brought him to you and papa. You called him �a fine young man�.�
Evelyn touched her daughter�s hand. �The Lord decides for us all, honey, and we must trust in him.�
�� David Kingman returned later that afternoon, and listened intently as Turner Evered quickly outlined the circumstances of the deaths of Jedediah Hitt and Floyd Conover, Capitola�s attack on Iris, and Benton�s quarrel with his wife and subsequent detention and demise.
�I see you�ve been busy whilst I was away.� He paused. �How is Uriah taking his wife being in bed in my house?�
Evered made a face. �I don�t think he much likes it.�
�You mean he might not stand for it for long?�
The railroad agent nodded.
�What do you suggest we do?�
Evered was silent for a moment before speaking. �I think we should try and send him away for a few days.�
Kingman nodded. He had done good business in Nashville, for the Louisville and Nashville directors had agreed to combine with the Chesapeake and Nashville to run a joint service all the way from the Atlantic to the Mississippi, with each line providing alternate trains. Round trips might take upwards of several days, and would need double crews, one working whilst the other slept, to keep freight moving through steadily.
�He could be a fireman.�
�I was thinking the same.� Evered looked thoughtful. �He�d be out of the way, in every possible way.�
�You�re thinking of Judge Pelligrin?�
Evered took a deep breath. �Harry and I are good friends. I don�t think he�ll need to call Uriah, if I present sworn affidavits from myself, Brent, Harriman and Macdonald. He can put Saunders away for a while. I doubt that we�ll catch Wilkes.�
Kingman smiled for the first time. �Some say he has a soft spot for Mrs. Wilkes.�
The railroad agent laughed shortly. �Some say she has a soft spot for him.�
Kingman worked for a little while longer, catching up on paperwork, and then he and Evered walked back to his house. They found Uriah waiting on the dirt road in front. He tipped his hat in respect, but did not speak. He had washed his face and hands, but was still wearing his coal-heavy railroad overalls, and still had the same haggard look about him that Evered had seen earlier.
�You better come in and talk to your wife.� Kingman spoke gently.
�I�ve come to fetch her back to me, sir.�
�Has Doctor Carter been to see her again?�
Uriah did not answer. He did not understand the question. He had come to fetch his wife back to her rightful place and obligations, and nobody could gainsay her duty.
Kingman eyed his blackened overalls doubtfully. �You wait here for a moment with Mr. Evered.�
He found Franny sitting in the drawingroom reading to their daughters, with Evelyn sitting sewing by a window, and beamed happily as his family rushed to embrace him. He had presents for each and every one of them, three small dolls for the three girls, a pretty small brooch set with diamonds and pearls for Franny, and a set of curious golden hatpins for his mother-in-law, and there was much comparing and congratulating. But after a moment he drew Franny to one side.
�Uriah is waiting outside. He wants to take Iris with him.�
Franny frowned, and David felt a knife pierce his heart, for she had grown markedly paler in his brief absence. �I think Doctor Carter wants her to stay here for at least another day.�
�You better come out and tell him.�
Evelyn stepped in front of her. �No, I will. �Lalia can make him something to eat, and he can go and talk to Iris for a while.� She paused. �Is he clean?�
David shook his head.
�Then I�ll tell him to get some clean clothes on first.�
Franny smiled. �Mama has decided to take Iris under her wing.� She coughed, and blood stained the lace-edged handkerchief she pressed to her lips. �She thinks Iris is a fine young girl.�
David saw a tear brim on her eyelashes before she brushed at it quickly, and he squeezed her hand. �You will get better, my love.�
His wife shook her head sadly. Now she was fighting to hold her tears back and keep control of herself in front of her children. �No, David, I won�t.� She stepped up close to him, putting her mouth close to his ear, and her voice was little more than a whisper. �Doctor Carter has told me to prepare myself for my passage to the other side, and I think it will not be long delayed.�
David swallowed hard. It is not often that a man has to hear his wife tell him that she has not long to live, and it is a doubly painful blow when he loves her deeply and depends on her for the care of his children. He turned away, lest his three little girls see both their mother and father in tears, squeezing Franny�s hand again, and left the room quickly.
He found Turner Evered standing alone in the hall. �Your mother-in-law has taken him to the kitchen to clean up.�
�Did he go freely?�
Evered smiled wryly. �Mrs. Iverson has a persuasive tongue.�
The two men found Eulalia on her own, busy preparing a meal. She looked up, beaming. �Miz Evelyn done gone took him to wash hisself good, and put on clean overalls. Then I�se gonna feed him.�
Both men looked doubtful.
Eulalia�s big black face creased in a broad grin. She had lived in northern Tennessee long enough to know the ways of small farmers and similar folk. There might not be much open prejudice, but there was precious little tolerance of any kind. �I ain�t gonna set with him, �cos a man like him wouldn�t set with no person of color. I�ll just set the food on his plate, and plenty of it.�
Uriah ate heartily, watched with interest by Doris, who was sure she had never seen such a bear of a man. Then he followed the Kingman�s maid awkwardly up the house�s broad flight of stairs to the room where Iris lay sleeping, for Evelyn Iverson had taken the precaution of� dosing her with laudanum whilst he was at table. He would not sit, but stood looking down on his sleeping wife with a gaze that mixed anguish and proprietorship, and possibly even a little caring � though he would not have understood the word had it been offered him.
But he did not speak, and let himself be led away by David Kingman after an hour, following the railroad manager down the stairs like an obedient animal.
Kingman stopped at the door. �You�ve been through a bad time.�
Uriah assented neutrally. �Thet I hev, sir.�
�You could do with getting away for a few days.�
Uriah did not reply. He did not want to get away for a few days, but just go back in time a few days, to a moment when none of what had taken place had been a possibility. He wanted time to unravel, and retreat, and he knew that such a thing could not be.
�I could send you out as a fireman. The money would be better.�
Uriah shrugged. He needed no money.
�You�d get away from here, for maybe a week, and Iris would be back with you on your return.�
The words caught Uriah�s attention, and he seemed to swim back up to the surface of the lake that trapped him. �Somewhere real far?�
Kingman smiled. �You�ll work your way from the Mississippi to the Atlantic and back.�
Uriah�s eyes gleamed faintly. �I c�ld do with thet, sir.�
Kingman held out his hand. �Pastor Macdonald will ride up with us first thing in the morning, and help your father pass better into the next world. Then you can go as fireman on the freight out of here up to Baltimore.�
Uriah was silent, and Kingman stared at him, their hands locked. �Do you think Iris will want to be there? She�s not yet fully mended.�
Uriah did not speak for a long moment, and then shook his head. �No, sir. I don�t figger she�ll seek to go back. Thet farm weren�t good to her.�
�Then we shall be four to ride up there: you, myself, Pastor Macdonald, and Mr. Evered.�
The two men shook on Kingman�s words, and the matter was settled.