An Undisturbed Peace by Mary Glickman

Author:Mary Glickman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Open Road Media
Published: 2015-08-04T19:14:07+00:00

Lord Geoffrey, Lulu, and Billy Rupert

You want to know about the olden days, do you, when the chief was alive and livin’ like the king of England, yes? I can tell you things was different then. His big house was nothin’ like the one you settin’ in right t’here. This one’d be the slave common house back then. His big house was the biggest house anyone’d ever seen or slept in and that includes the white folks thereabouts. Had to be grand for those parties a his. He called it politickin’. All the white folk from miles around come visitin’ time to time and we made banquets for ’em. Oh, yes, squash soups and bean cakes, corn puddin’, roast turkeys stuffed with chestnuts, and venison on a spit. The chief never had a lick of liquor himself, more’s the pity, maybe things’d gone better for him if he had. But at them banquets, wines and bourbon and brandies came from spigots like mountain water does from the well. There was dancin’ too, fiddlers, flutes, and mandolins in every room. Oncet Mr. Crockett came. Another time, Joseph Vann. You know those men?”

Daniella finished her sherry in one go, then put forward her glass for more. Abe refilled it, thinking he’d landed in a pot of good luck, finding a woman who liked to talk and a bottle to coat her tongue, make it good and slick, all at the same time.

“Crockett I know of, he’s that representative from Tennessee railed against the Removal Act. Vann? I’ve heard his name here and there. Has a shipping line, no?”

“Oh my Lord, well, he’s just about the richest Cherokee anyone’s ever seen. Only one I know of richer than the chief used to be. Got plantations and steamboats and over two hundred slaves at his command. Mean as can be too, lemme tell you. Meaner than his daddy, James, and that daddy a his was one devil of a man. But Joseph Vann. Why, he’d string you up for a rebellious glance. When I was a girl, the kitchen boss used to say, ‘You gals don’ behave youselves, I’m gonna sell you to Rich Joe Vann.’ And oh my, didn’ we straighten up then. Truth is, though, he’s mostly white. But for alla that, Mr. Vann, even he come callin’ to Chief Redhand with his hat off, that’s how my lady’s old husband did do.”

She leaned forward, crooking a finger that Abe would come close and incline his ear to her. He did so. She looked right, looked left, then whispered.

“I’ll tell you a secret. The chief never was comfy bein’ that way. He’d smile and shake the hand what come to him, nod his head at the business talk. But soon as all the world gone home and there’s quiet in his room, it’s off with his fancy pants and he’s into his leggin’s and long shirt, callin’ for his pipe to puff a li’l thanksgivin’ into the air that the bloody thing was over.

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