Taking Liberty by Ann Rinaldi

Author:Ann Rinaldi
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Published: 2003-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Spring 1789

I was going to New York. I was leaving Mount Vernon in the company of Lady Washington.

The general had been elected president. It was a new word for us all. Nobody knew what a president was. In the house the servants had to learn how to say the word. Just like they had to learn how to say “United States of America.”

Or “American.”

“We are now American,” Nathan said to me one day in the kitchen.

“Are we?” Christopher asked. “Are we Negroes American?”

“Yes,” Nathan answered, but the answer was weak. It had no legs. It could not walk. It just lay there.

Christopher was just a year or two older than me, straight, with a ready smile and a way of making you feel better, just being around him.

He was acting in Billy Lee’s stead as body servant for the general. Billy Lee had started drinking after breaking another leg last year. Now he could scarce walk.

But he’d begged to be taken to New York when the general left with his aides and servants in April.

Everyone knew Billy was in pain as he rode next to the carriage. He got as far as Philadelphia, but there his legs gave out. A note came to Lady Washington from Mr. Biddle in Philadelphia: “I have advised your husband to have Billy Lee sent back to Mount Vernon, but that rascally Billy refuses. I have had Dr. Smith examine him. A steel brace has been made to strengthen his knee. I write to advise you today, madam, that he has made his way to New York to rejoin his master.”

All the house servants shook their heads. All knew that if Billy Lee was returned, he would start up with his drinking again.

Now, five weeks after the general had left, Lady Washington was leaving to join him.

It was the last day of May. The plantation was in fine fettle under Mr. George Augustine, the general’s nephew. No more Mr. Lund. He and his wife had moved to their own place a short distance away.

For all her praying, they had lost a third child. I wondered: If God wasn’t kind to those who prayed on their knees to Him every day, how could He be kind to the rest of us?

No sense wondering about God, though. There were too many people I didn’t understand who had to be worried about first.

But why worry on a beautiful spring morning? I had four new dresses, half a dozen new neckerchiefs, three new mobcaps, two pairs of shoes, and my very own cloak of purple wool.

We would leave tomorrow. The general’s nephew Bob Lewis was escorting us. I was on my way to the quarters to say good-bye to Old Sinda and to my mama.

First person I met on my way there was Christopher. He darted out from behind the greenhouse. “Psst, Oney.”

“What are you sneaking up on me for, Christopher?”

“We gotta talk.”

I stopped on the lane to the quarters. He stood in front of me, a head taller.

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