By the Wind's Will by Nat Burns

Author:Nat Burns [Burns, Nat]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781619293762
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

THE NEXT MORNING, Maggie awoke from a restless sleep when Cleo entered her bedchamber. The maid carried a tray laden with a pot of hot tea and a sweet roll. She set the tray securely on the bedside commode and turned to open the drapes, flooding the room with early morning sunlight. Maggie squinted, sat up and tried to blink the clouds of sleep from her eyes. “Oh Cleo, must you?”

The maid emitted a wicked grunt of satisfaction and came to arrange the tray before her mistress. When it was in place, she puttered about the room gathering up the clothing Maggie had discarded the night before.

“’Bout time you was up, don’ you think? Doan wanna be no triflin’ wife fo’ Mistress Foxy. I’m shore she be needin’ a spry wife to take care of her what works so hard, don’ you?”

Maggie let out a dramatic moan and rolled her eyes. Sinking down into the bed, she glared daggers at the maid’s back while sipping the tea. “Wife, huh. Weird to think of being another woman’s wife. It can’t be legal, you know. We’d be drummed out of town if we presented at the courthouse.”

Cleo nodded. “Our peoples jist jump the broom. Doan matter dey two dams or two bucks, it’s all the same.”

“I’m just glad we’ll be having a little ceremony here in the chapel. Do you think God approves of our union?”

Cleo stood still and looked at Maggie with a discerning gaze. “Well, wadn’t the good Lord the one who done made the both of you? Just how you is?”

Maggie’s face lit and she lifted her cup in salute to the maid. “That’s exactly how we see it,” she said.

Later, after everything was ready, Cleo helped Maggie wash and dress. “What you gwine do today, Mistress Maggie? Ain’t got no mo’ fittin’s so’s you can have de whole day to yo’ self.” She pinned tawny ringlets away from Maggie’s face.

Maggie waited until she was through and then with a mischievous giggle, rose from her vanity to open the bedroom door. Glancing back over her shoulder, she spoke impishly to her maid. “I’m going to go swimming in the creek, of course, what did you think?” Letting out a peal of youthful laughter, she shut the door on Cleo’s angry face.

Maggie wondered what she was going to do as she descended the stairs. She needed something to occupy her day. Walking aimlessly from room to room, she finally came upon her mother and Sarah in her father’s study. Margaret had on one of her oldest gowns, a scarf around her pretty hair and a dust cloth in one hand. Sarah was similarly attired and she tottered about on her chubby legs laying the cloth upon everything she encountered. Maggie had to grin at the sight but entering the room she chided her mother. “Mama! How many times have I told you? We have the servants to do this sort of thing. Why do you insist on doing it

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