Chapter 56

Victoria was stunned when Tom handed her a stack of invitations. She looked at the obvious elegance and the neat script and knew that this was the way that society invited people to parties. Tom explained that she should send one to each person that she wanted to invite, and that if a person didn't have an invitation they would not be admitted to the plantation. Victoria saw the simple elegance of the system. She nodded and hurried off to work on her guest list.

The following days were filled with little preparations for the party. Tom had a gazebo built that would hold a group of musicians that he had arranged for. He had long tables built to hold all of the food, and flowers arranged around the grounds. He had even bought three boxes of stoneware dishes at the mercantile.

On Friday afternoon Tom had the steer that he had picked butchered and put on a spit. At six o'clock they lit the hickory fires. He had five three-man teams working three hours each; one tending the fire, one turning the spit and one using a mop to keep sauce on the steer. They would cook the steer until time for the party. Before going to bed Tom checked on the steer. The smell made his mouth water.

On Saturday Tom helped Nana carry the food to the tables, covered with white table linens. He couldn't believe the amount of food that was there; potato salad, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet corn, beans, carrots, peas, breads, and both apple and peach cobbler. It covered two twelve-foot long tables, with stacks of plates at each end. At another table was punch, and other drinks. Tom didn't want wine or any other drinking that might cause somebody to do something stupid.

Just before the party was to start Victoria positioned herself to greet her guests, at Tom's suggestion. She normally sat and let the guests come to her, like she had been told that ladies do. Tom explained that greeting her guests and escorting them to the party area made them feel special. She grinned at him, "Yes, and it lets me show off my new dress to everybody." Tom shook his head as he walked away.

Tom had the warriors positioned around the grounds to keep any trouble from getting out of hand. The party started off slowly as guests arrived. They were surprised to be greeted by their hostess, but enjoyed the attention. The music played softly and the guests mingled, talked and drank. Tom thought that for a bunch of kids that acted pretty grown-up.

The announcement of refreshments, along with the smell of the cooking beef, brought the people in a herd. They stood at the spit and received a slice of beef and then worked their way down the table. By the time that they got to the end Tom thought that he should have been handing out buckets instead of plates. He did enjoy the looks of appreciation that the food brought. He wondered what they usually ate at affairs of this type.

After the food Tom danced with Janet, Mei and Su. Wei flatly refused and Jess said that she couldn't dance. It was all going well until Tom turned and found Randolph standing in front of him. The glove that hit his face almost ended Randolph's life, but Tom recovered quickly. There was a collective gasp before Randolph loudly spoke, "You sir, have offended my honor. You are no gentleman and I don't like the attentions that you are paying my sister. I challenge you to a duel." Once again there was a collective gasp.

Tom saw the sneer on Randolph's face and smiled, "Of course sir, I would be honored to accept. I assume that you have a second? You will be following the code of honor, won't you?" Suddenly Randolph realized that things weren't going as he had expected. He wasn't sure what code of honor Tom was talking about, but he knew that he had to agree to it, but what was a second?

He nodded his head, "Of course I am following the code of honor." That was as much as he got out before another man stepped forward, "I'm Jacob Fenning. I will be his second." Tom smiled, "Excellent. Tom turned to find John almost on top of him and clearly asked, "John, would you be my second?" Tom winked to let him know that he had things in hand. John visibly relaxed, and in a calm voice that would have made Willard proud he said, "Of course sir, I would be honored to be your second."

Tom turned back to Randolph, "Our seconds will arrange the time and place. Since my mere presence offends you, I will have your things sent to the hotel." Randolph was suddenly fuming, "You can't do that, Magnolia House is my home, and after the duel, it will be again." Once again Tom saw the sneer on his face.

Tom smiled, "I'm afraid that won't happen. Even if I lose the duel, I have a will that will sell Magnolia House, and the proceeds will go to your sister. You will get nothing, and from this day Magnolia House is closed to you. Good day sir." Tom watched the information sink into his brain. He saw the realization set in, that he had lost even before the game began. All of his careful plans had just crumbled to dust.

Victoria screamed, "Randolph, what are you doing ruining my party? I can't believe that you would do something like that." Tom saw that the confusion was just about absolute and that Randolph didn't have much of a chance of coming up with an answer.

Tom turned to Victoria and spoke just above a whisper, "Easy there Victoria, he didn't ruin anything. Think how you can use this. Everybody will remember this party forever, how many parties are there that a duel gets set. There won't be any fighting, so just smile and laugh and tell everybody that this is all very exciting. They will all agree and you will have the social event of the year." Tom saw Victoria's eye light up and he knew that he had hit all of her hot spots. He wondered if she would scream in orgasm before she talked to her guests and smiled at the idea.

Tom turned back to Randolph and motioned to Peter. Immediately Robert and Peter were at each side of him. "They will see you out. If you ever return you will be shot on sight." Tom saw Randolph as about to cry and knew that his bad day was just starting. After he was escorted out Janet was at his side fuming. "That little bastard, I can't believe that he would do something like this!" Tom smiled and patted her back.

The rest of the party was just as Tom had predicted, the guests couldn't talk about anything else and Victoria played it for all that she was worth. When the guests started to leave Victoria escorted each of them to their carriage, or horses. She had really learned the hostess game, and Tom wondered if he could start renting her out as a party organizer, now that she had an idea of how a party should be run.

After the last of the guests had left Tom called Millie to join them. Millie was walking very slowly and looking nervous. Tom smiled at her, "Millie, now that the party is over I think that it is time to get things going for real." She looked confused at him and he grinned as she put his arm around her shoulders. He led her over to the roasted beef. "Think that you can find me some people that might like to have a little roasted beef. We have some other things left over, but I'm sure that we don't have enough to feed all of the workers. Maybe you should just let the little ones eat off the table, except for the bread. Millie suddenly understood what Tom was talking about and she was stunned, "You really mean that Massa Tom? You's gonna let us eat all this fine food?" Tom grinned at her, "I don't think that even all of you can pick this steer clean, but I'm sure that you'll give it try."

Tom lightly swatted her ass as he walked away, and Millie squeaked when she felt it. She turned and shouted, "Massa Tom, you keep yo hands offin my old butt." Ton looked back at her, but she didn't look upset, he thought that she looked pretty pleased with herself. Tom grinned and blew her a kiss. She squeaked again and he watched her run away. He knew that she was going to bring back the other slaves. While the white folks moved up to the house, Tom sat on the porch and watched the slaves descend on the party area. He saw old Millie standing guard on the steer and the tables. Tom noticed that all of the children got a pass at the table, and then some of the young teens got to work on what was left. Nana had a steady stream of hot bread heading out to the table.

Tom noticed a few makeshift musical instruments come out and they started to play. Tom watched as it turned into a party again. They were drinking the punch, talking and dancing. Tom suspected that Nana was refilling the punch, and thought it was a good idea. When he looked, he was sure that he saw her dancing with a big man that was so black that if he wasn't smiling you would lose sight of him. Tom shook his head and headed inside.

John was waiting for him. "The time and place are set." Tom looked at him enquiringly and John continued, "Tomorrow afternoon, up on the hill just outside Magnolia House." Tom thought for a minute and then nodded his head. "At least two hours before the duel I want Peter to go over the whole area and then find a nice quiet place to watch from. Tell him to make sure that we don't have any visitors that we don't know about." John nodded and left him to his thoughts.

When Tom got to his bedroom he found all of his women, and a couple more. He wondered what Victoria and Jess were doing there. He looked around and saw that there wasn't a piece of cloth bigger than a handkerchief between all of them. He smiled at the scene.

Janet was still stomping around, and blowing off steam and Victoria looked like she was going to be sick, with Jess comforting her. Mei, Su and Wei looked calm, but he could see that they were tense. He shook his head, "What has all of you stirred up?"

Janet turned on him. "That little snot of a brother of mine is going to try and kill you, and you ask what has us stirred up?" Tom grinned at her, "Relax sweetheart, he lost as soon as he opened his mouth." All of the women looked at him with concern, and Tom just shrugged. "Now, I want all of you out of here tonight."

They immediately started to protest, but Tom just shook his head firmly, "No, if all of you stayed I would be so tired tomorrow that I probably wouldn't be able to lift my arms. With the duel tomorrow afternoon, at the top of the hill just outside Magnolia House, I want to have a good night's rest." Tom watched the information sink in and knew that there wouldn't be one of them that wouldn't find someplace that they could watch from. He opened the door and repeated, "Now, everybody out."

Jess bit her lip before she asked, "Do you want us all together, or alone?" Tom smiled at her, "whatever you want is fine with me. I imagine that you could comfort each other, and it would make all of you feel better." Tom saw that Jess was happy and pulled Victoria off toward her room. Wei looked at the others and motioned to her room with Jess, and Tom watched the whole group reluctantly move off in the same direction. Janet stopped to kiss him before she left, and the others followed suit. When the last one left, Tom closed the door with a sigh of relief. There were times that he enjoyed being alone.

When he woke he immediately noticed that that he was not alone. He knew how lightly he slept and was surprised to find a pussy pile in the bed around him. His four women were two deep on each side. He was just happy that Victoria and Jess weren't there, too. He eased himself out of the bed and headed down for coffee.

Nana, and her helpers were moving kind of slow this morning and Tom wondered if they had been in the corn liquor. Nana snorted at the idea and said that the party had gone on until the short hours of the night. Tom grinned at her and reminded her that owls don't get the early morning worms. She nodded her head and said, "No sir, but just like us, they feast throughout the night." Tom laughed and drank his coffee.

Tom and Robert walked around and examined that growing crops. Every man took off his hat and bobbed his head and greeted them warmly. All of the women giggled and curtsied and smiled warmly, or offered their best wishes. The kids just ran up and hugged him, that got a gasp, or two, but Tom just patted them on the head and sent them back to their parents. There were more than a few sighs of relief, but Tom just smiled at everyone.

Millie was in the bathing house with a small army scrubbing down everything. They had put curtains on the windows and Tom noticed that the floors had been sanded in places. When Millie saw them she came over to Tom, "Massa Tom, we had the best time last night. I don't think that there was a man, woman or child that didn't go to bed with his stomach close to bustin. We ain't never had a feast like that afore." Tom grinned and told her that he was glad that he could make everybody happy.