Leigh Ann's Civil War (20 page)

And then, just before supper, when I was upstairs washing up and Viola and Carol were napping, a carriage pulled up in front, a fancy carriage.

Mother's carriage.

Her footman opened the door. She got out, came up the verandah steps, and pounded the door knocker.

Cannice answered.

I stood at the top of the stairs.

"I have come to see my son," she said. "Is he here?"

"He's in his study, ma'am," Cannice said.

Mother pushed her way into the hall and into Teddy's study. She did not bother closing the door all the way.

I crept downstairs and listened outside.

"What's this I hear about you sending around a note to Garrard asking him to let Viola go along on the march?"

"If it's any of your business, she wants to go to look after Leigh Ann."

"I told him you were sending her because she's pregnant. And not married. And a disgrace to the family. So he's going to let her go."

I could see through the door, which was ajar, Teddy standing behind his desk holding an open newspaper. And Mother holding her riding whip.

"How dare you say such," Teddy said with contempt.

"I'll say what I please."

"
You
were in the family way with Louis a few months before you married Pa, I'm given to understand. How could you demean your daughter so?"

"She's not your concern!" Mother screamed at him.

Teddy said she was, as much as I was, especially now that she'd taken up with that Garrard popinjay who was addicted to liquor and women.

She called Teddy a no-count rogue.

He called her a Northern witch.

At which juncture she raised her riding crop and swung it expertly.

It hit his shoulder, ripping his shirt, then continued on its journey to the side of his face, slashing it.

He laughed, though it made his shoulder and face bleed.

At that point I burst through the door and ran toward her. "Don't you
dare,
" I screamed. I took her unawares and, doing so, wrested the riding crop from her and threw it across the room. "Don't you dare come in here and treat Teddy like that. You have no right. You left us! You don't care about any of us! You have no right!"

I was bawling, unashamedly. I began to hit her with both my hands.

"Leigh Ann!" Teddy came out from behind his desk and seized me. I fought him, but he got both my hands behind me and secured my wrists until they hurt.

I was sobbing.

Mother held her face where I'd hit her. "So this is the kind of child you're raising. The kind that hits her mother."

Still holding my wrists, Teddy said, "Apologize to your mother."

"I won't."

He gave me a couple of shakes. "Do as I
say,
for God's sake." There was pleading in his voice, even a hint of desperation.

I knew I had to, for his sake. But by all the gods above, I did not want to.

"I'm sorry," I said.

Teddy released me. "Now go. Get out of here."

"Can I just say one thing? Please?"

Teddy closed his eyes. That was my answer.

"Viola is married," I told my mother. "Her husband was killed at Richmond. And Major McCoy knows it. It's in his records. And if he knows it, General Garrard knows it."

I looked at Teddy. He nodded his head approvingly. His face was bleeding. I curtsied to my mother and left the room.

***

That night I'd just put myself to bed when there was a knock on my door and Teddy came in.

"Get dressed in your boys' clothes and come out back," he said. That was all.

I did so, quickly. What was going on?
Anything,,
I told myself.
Anything might be going on.
Was he going to sneak me away?

The house was quiet, and something warned me to be quiet, too. I sneaked out the back door, deciding whether to take one of the many lanterns that were at the ready there. But I did not need one. The moon was full and cast a light as clear as day.

Sure enough, a distance away from the house, down by the grape arbor, there were two figures waiting. I crept through the already dew-wet grass toward them.

Viola and Teddy.

Teddy held a lantern. He had a plaster on his face where Mother had hit him.

Viola held a pair of scissors and a comb in one hand and a hand mirror in the other.

Between them was a chair.

I stopped a few feet from them. "No," I said. "No, Teddy, please. I'm sorry I've been naughty. I'm sorry I hit Mother."

"Sit down in the chair, please," he said quietly. "Viola is tired and needs to go to bed."

I stood rigid.

He came over and took me gently by the arm and sat me down in the chair.

"This could save your life, honey," Viola told me. "We have to do it. It isn't on account of anything you did. Teddy wouldn't punish you this way. It'll grow back, prettier than ever. Sometimes, especially in this heat, I wish I could cut mine."

I sat in a daze. Viola undid the braid that I put my hair in at night and combed out my long, curly hair. Tears came quietly down my face.

Teddy stood next to her with the lantern so she would have good light.

Inside, my heart was breaking as Viola combed and snipped and combed and snipped. I could feel rather than see the hair falling to the ground.

My hair.
It had always been my vanity! It reached well below my shoulders and was naturally curly. I usually wore it pulled high off my forehead and tied with a ribbon on top, with some of it falling down on the sides of my face. Everyone said that with such hair, my upturned nose, my large brown eyes, and the dimple in my chin, I was a beautiful child.

Teddy worried about me being a beautiful child. I think that was why he was so strict with me.

By now Viola was cutting up to my cheekbones. She stopped and looked at Teddy. "Lots of boys wear it to about here," she told him. "Especially ruffians. They don't bother cutting their hair."

He considered that. He put his hand under my chin and turned my face to look at him. Did I look enough of a boy to please him? Enough of a boy not to be a beautiful child anymore?

He released me. "All right," he said, "that's good. Thank you, Viola. You'd best get to bed now."

Viola stood in front of me with the hand mirror. "You look kind of saucy. You want to see?"

"No," I said.

She kissed me on the forehead. "Don't be angry with me. You'll be glad we did this, you'll see. Now come on, let's go to bed."

I started to get out of the chair, but Teddy put his hand on my shoulder and held me back. "You go on, Viola. We have something else to attend to."

She looked from him to me. "Is everything all right?"

"It's fine," he assured her. "I just want to show Leigh Ann a few moves to protect herself if she has to."

Viola nodded and started toward the house.

Teddy extinguished the lantern, set it on the ground, then turned and gestured that I should follow.

I did.
What now?
I followed him across the grass. What was this damned crocodile of a brother of mine about now?

Of a sudden he halted and turned around. "Now," he said in not so friendly a tone, "I'm going to teach you how to defend yourself in case they discover you're a girl and some man comes at you with devious intentions. Do you know what I mean by devious intentions?"

"Yes," I said in an equally unfriendly tone. "If he can't control himself and wants to touch me in all kinds of ways. And maybe do more." I said it with satisfaction. "Louis explained all that to me."

He nodded, a little surprised. "All right. I'm coming at you now. I'm going to grab your arm. Fight me off. Hit me, kick me, do anything you can to defend yourself."

I stood staring at him, uncertain.

"Come on. I mean it. You can do it. Have at it. I know you're angry with me. Get it out. I give you permission."

He came forward and grabbed my arm roughly and pulled me toward him.

I did the only thing I knew how to do. The thing that Viola had once told me to do.

I lifted one leg swiftly, and with my heavy, laced-up brogan, I kicked him in the groin.

There,
I thought,
that's for cutting off my hair.

He yelled and crumpled to his knees, clutching himself.

I stood there, paralyzed with fear.
Oh God,
I thought,
what have I done? Oh, God, he'll kill me now.

"Where"—his breath was coming in short gasps—"where in hell did you learn to do that?"

"Viola taught me. She said that would stop any man."

He was breathing heavily.
What should I do?

"Yeah, well, she's right."

"Do you need help? You want me to get somebody?"

"You do and I'll skin you alive. You tell anybody about this and I'll..."

More heavy breathing. He was leaning over, like he was going to throw up.

"Go in the house," he ordered. "Now."

I ran. Inside the back door I turned and looked.

He was throwing up.
Well,
I decided,
that does it. He'll never speak to me again. As of now, we are definitely finished.

But the next morning it was as if nothing had happened to him. He was bright-eyed, vigorous, cleanshaven, and immaculately dressed as usual, and attending to a dozen things all at once. The last of which was meeting with Primus in his study to talk about plantation matters while the rest of us sipped tea and waited for him to come into the dining room to start breakfast.

Cannice and Careen complimented me on my new hair fashion. So did Carol, to my surprise.

I could not get accustomed to the feeling of no hair on my neck and shoulders, but I was more concerned with meeting Teddy's eyes. Or would he not look at me at all?

And here I was, leaving tomorrow.

Someone knocked on the front door. My heart fell and I saw Viola bite her lip and Carol almost choke on her tea. It was the way we all reacted these days when someone knocked on the front door. You'd think it was the Angel of Death come calling.

Cannice answered. "Massa Teddy?" she called.

Bad,
I thought,
bad, when she called him like that.

He came out of his study, saying some last-minute words to Primus, who went out through the kitchen. We heard voices, low, in the hallway. Then Teddy's: "What the hell!"

Viola put her elbow on the table and covered her eyes with her hand. Carol closed her eyes. Pa just sat there, oblivious. Andrew continued holding Pa's cup and spooning tea into his mouth. I started to tremble.

"Sorry, sir," the voice answered, "but those are the orders. She's to report with the others to the town square first thing in the morning. Oh, and some good news. They won't be walking to Marietta. General Garrard has got wagons, dozens of them. They will ride. Some of the women have already been driven off this morning."

"That's
good news?
" Teddy asked. "That's like telling me their destination has been changed to hell, but the good news is that the temperature has been lowered ten degrees! I want to see Garrard!"

"I'm sorry, sir. He has an interview with a correspondent from the
Louisville Journal
this morning. And after that the
Nashville Dispatch"

"Just tell me," Teddy asked wearily, "what has my wife done to be connected with the mill?"

I gasped and covered my mouth with my hands.

Carol burst into tears. Viola, sitting next to her, put her arms around her sister-in-law.

"It says right on the arrest notice, sir. She taught school for the mill children. See? It says so, right there."

Silence.

"My mother did this," Teddy mumbled.

"Pardon me, sir? I don't quite understand."

"Neither do I, sergeant. Neither do I."

"Would you sign this paper, sir, acknowledging that you have received the arrest notice and will comply with the order?"

"And if I don't?"

"Sir, the general told me to inform you that if you do not sign and comply, he is going to send a contingent of men from company H of the 3rd Ohio around to take her forcible. They are, how shall I say, excellent soldiers, sir, intent on obeying orders. It won't be pretty. The general also said I should tell you that if he has to resort to such tactics, your wife and your two sisters might find the trip considerable dangerous and uncomfortable. But if you do comply, your wife and your two sisters will find the trip—how shall I put it?—agreeable and safe. Do we understand each other, sir?"

Before Teddy could answer, Carol got up out of her chair and went into the hall, and we heard her say, "I will go along on the trip, Teddy. Tell the ... lieutenant, is it?"

"Sergeant, ma'am."

"Tell the sergeant that we comply."

"Carol." The pain in Teddy's voice could not be described. How there could be so much pain in just the saying of a name, I did not know.

"It's all right, Teddy. If my going keeps your sisters from harm and perhaps more, I shall go."

Viola and I looked at each other in disbelief. Was this
Carol
talking?

There was silence again in the hall. Teddy likely signed the paper. Then we heard the door close and a horse ride off. But Teddy and Carol did not come into the dining room for a long minute.

"They're kissing," I whispered.

"It takes something like this," Viola whispered back.

When they did come in, Carol looked as if she'd been crying. Teddy looked stoic. Sometimes I think he had as much of that Indian quality in him as Louis had.

"You heard?" he asked us.

We both nodded yes.

Careen came in and served breakfast.

"Leave us, Andrew," Teddy ordered. "Take Pa into the kitchen and feed him." He waited until Andrew did as he said, and then he told us.

"It's my fault. Mother did this to punish me because Leigh Ann chose to take her chances and go on the trip as a bummer and make her way back to me rather than go on to that boarding school in New York and return to her."

He sipped his coffee. "She told me she had one more card to play and I would be sorry. Well, she's played it. She took my wife."