War's End,1865
Copyright© 2026 by happyhugo
Chapter 2
“Good, I think they are as anxious to get home as I am. I’ll go up to the house to see if Maybelle is here. Follow along, and I’ll introduce you.”
“Okay. It looks like Miz Maybelle has a good business here.”
“Sis was always this well organized, so for me it isn’t unexpected.”
The house was a low, ranged house, showing it hadn’t been built all at the same time. I observed, “Someday, Sis plans to build a house that befits her. That was the plan when she married her husband. They had the plans made, and then the war broke out. Someday, she will marry again, and whoever she marries will build it for her. She has been a widow now for over three years.”
“I’ll have to tell her I’m sorry for her loss.”
“She’d appreciate that.”
I walked across a yard laid with flat stone and up one step of stone to a door of planks. There was a simple thumb latch. There was a metal knocker, but I didn’t bother with it. I opened the door and walked in. Bill, behind me, hesitated, giving me time to draw attention to myself being here. Maybelle rose from a desk, and she was as beautiful now as when I had last seen her. She had on a hickory-colored shirt and loose men’s pants of the same material and color. “Maybelle?”
“Brother!” My sister ran into my arms. I swept her off her feet, hugging her to me. Tears of happiness were running down both our faces. Bill had stepped inside, now standing looking out the door we had just entered. Words of gladness tumbled from our lips. Finally, I grasped my sister’s face and planted a kiss on each cheek.
“Maybelle, I’d like you to meet a man with whom I have become friends.”
“Oh yes, the Blue Belly Major. I’ve been told you are a good person. Welcome to my home. You’ll be staying here tonight while Jim goes home to meet his wife.”
“Madam, I wouldn’t mind at all. I do have to ask what report about me, and how did it reach you?”
“Oh, that is easily answered. I’ve been scouring the rosters of both the blue and gray companies quartered in this area. I knew my brother was on his way, even though he had sent word weeks ago that he was coming. I looked at the men under your command, discovering that five of our boys were getting out and when. I understand they are with you and being mustered out this afternoon?”
“Madam, is there anything you are not aware of?”
“I should hope not. I run a freight and transport business and need to know. My husband set it up early, before we met. He taught me much of it, and I’ve continued even though he isn’t with me.”
“About that, I’m sincerely sorry for your loss, and my condolences.”
“Thank you. I appreciate your thoughtfulness. I’ve learned to live with the loss. I’ve kept busy, and the loneliness retreats if I try hard enough. Different subject, I have lunch prepared. We’ll eat, and Jim and I can talk about our family business. Bill, I’ll give you a tour of my business and operation. Anytime this afternoon, you can pay your detail, and they can make it home and sleep with their families. Jim, what are you going to do with the other five formerly free saves you brought here?”
“They are single and all going to work on the Plantation. Some are from estates that were destroyed and are looking for work. They are experienced in this kind of work. I understand Gaylord doesn’t have any young bucks working?”
“Actually, Gaylord isn’t doing anything as far as the Plantation is concerned. It is just you, me, and Muriel running the place. Now that you are home, I’ll return to just operating the business my husband left me. The plantation operation is all yours and Muriel’s. Gaylord draws a salary and entertains himself.”
Bill spoke, “Why don’t we have lunch if it is okay with you? I’ll go out and leave you two to talk about your plans. It just isn’t a need to know for me.”
“Thank you, Bill, you are very understanding.” Sis led us into a dining room. It was rough ... a working person’s household. She spoke at the kitchen door, “Please bring in the sandwiches now, Cora, and I imagine the men will have beer.”
We sat, I across from my sister. “Are the men being fed, Maybelle?”
“Yes, in the Mess hall. I have a new bunkhouse for the men since you were last here.”
Bill, making conversation, asked, “Did you keep slaves in your business before Lincoln freed them?”
“No, my husband only hired free blacks. If he needed someone with a special qualification and was a slave, he bought him and manumitted him. “My father died enslaving people, and Gaylord, who inherited the Plantation in name, refused to free them. Jim and I argued against him, but together we only own 49% of the property. When Lincoln freed the slaves, Jim impressed on me to make sure the slaves knew they were free, no matter what. Gaylord has tried to keep the edict from going into force.”
“I suggested that the able men should leave and join the Union cause. They would know then what it was to live free. I must say, Jim and I have never treated our people as slaves. We demanded that they work, and we retired their older family members who were no longer able to work. They then took on the duties of watching and training the young. We never had a slave escape or ever wanted to. That goes back to when my father first took over from our grandparents.”
“So in other words, you have never had any trouble with your slaves?”
“Oh, we had to handle a lot of domestic disputes among our people, but the older people whose blood has cooled from age are right there to back us up. We used our authority to lay down the law.”
Sis and I could see that Bill was trying to get what she said straight in his mind. “So the slavery system has worked for you for many years?”
“It did, but every enslaver treated his people differently. There are laws governing their treatment, but they are often ignored. Dad, Jim, and I never tried to argue against the system nd maybe that was wrong. Some cruel people in our class treated their own people terribly. It will be for the future to see how this works out. Education will help. You just heard me refer to class, so even I who have embraced the new order, know there will be problems.”
Lunch finished, Maybelle shouted out the door for a boy to come. A giant appeared. He must have been 6 ft 4” in with huge arms. “Bill, this is Peter. Peter, show the gentleman around. He can look at our whole operation. And Peter, this is my brother, Jim. He will be putting the Plantation back into full production.”
Peter turned away without saying anything. Maybelle and I went into a room with comfortable stuffed chairs. “This is new.”
“Yeah, I bought the furniture at auction a year ago. I keep my eye out for bargains. I have some farming equipment stored here that is almost new and more modern than what is up home.” She laughed, “Up home, I haven’t lived there for eight years. Down here, it seems as if I’m always in a rush. Jim, I have some things to tell you, you aren’t going to like.”
“Jack told me some of it.”
“He doesn’t know it all. What happened after you left when you were home for those two weeks happened again. I took a whip to Gaylord that time. Christ, our own brother doing that to family.”
“Another child?”
“Yeah, a boy this time. Jim, what are you going to do with Gaylord? You must have some plan since Jack told you about Muriel having the first baby.”
“I could always shoot him. The second child bothers me more than having one child.”
“Jim, both were from the rape of Muriel, and I would swear that in court if I have to. Talk to Sukie, the maid. She was raped too at different times. I hate for this to come out. Everyone down in the slave quarters knows what happened because Muriel and Sukie stayed down there at night after Muriel was abused the second time.”
“Is she still sleeping down there now?”
“No, I made other arrangements almost immediately. Gaylord has the cabin at the end of the row now, down in the quarters.”
“That has to be quite a comedown for him. I’ll bet he is raping many of our women who live in the quarters.”
“No, he isn’t. I heard about a woman from Haiti, and I engaged her to live with Gaylord and stop him from raping black or white women on the Plantation. Gaylord is thirty-six, and he has been contained since Tante Marie was engaged to see to Gaylord behaving himself.”
“That’s hard to believe.”
“She is a strange one. When you meet this woman, you won’t be that surprised. She is a beautiful woman in body, but has black piercing eyes. I was told by someone before I met her that she was a Gypsy. She has long black hair and dark skin, but it is a different dark than our coloreds’. I think she is more East Indian, or maybe from the steppes East of Europe. That’s why I mentioned her eyes. You’ll meet her tonight at dinner, and you can make up your own mind about her.”
“Gaylord has dinner in the big house?”
“Of course, Muriel has done well to keep up appearances that all is well on the Plantation until you get home, and then it is your responsibility. First of all, Muriel loves you, and she hopes you can figure out how to explain this away to the public. It needs to be settled without anyone being humiliated by what happened. People have talked, those who need a scandal to talk about and promote, but we say you did get home occasionally.”
“I thought some about this on the ride up here in the last four days. I could declare the first child was conceived by me when I came back for a day and two nights on my way marching north to meet the enemy. I didn’t know that our coming together had produced a child. I was away from my unit with my company commander’s permission. At the time, I was only a Second Lieutenant. My company commander was understanding, and I was so close to home. He was killed during our first major battle.
“I guess that would work. How about when the boy was conceived?”
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