Russell stepped into the moonlight too. A gash above his eye leaked blood, as did one on his jaw. “Charges? What kind of charges? Millie is my fiancée, and what I do to her or with her is none of your goddamn business.”
“She’s not your property yet,” Gardiner said, his voice low. “Now, get out of my sight. And I warn you, if you lay hands on her or try to force yourself on her again that way, I’ll leave the law out of it and take care of you the way people down here handle things.”
“You don’t have the balls,” Russell taunted.
Gardiner turned and walked away. Varina shrank back into the shrubbery and watched as he skirted the house and the veranda. She glanced up at the sky. Clouds rolled past and obscured the moon. The temperature had dropped, and the wind had picked up. Rain was coming. She needed to hurry home or her dress and shoes would be ruined. She would have to leave the way Gardiner had gone. But quietly.
She took a step in that direction, and her shoe landed squarely on a dried twig that snapped loudly.
“Who’s there?” Russell called.
Varina scurried back into the boxwood hedge and stepped on another twig.
The big man was at her side in an instant, reaching through the tangle of underbrush, grabbing her by the arm. Thorns snagged on her silk dress, scratching the bare skin on her arms and legs. Varina clung helplessly to a branch of the shrub, but it broke off in her hand, and a moment later, he’d hauled her onto the walkway.
“Who are you? Were you spying on us just now?”
She was so terrified she was unable to speak. He slapped her face so hard she felt her ears ringing.
“Damn it, girl, who are you?”
“N-n-nobody,” she stammered. “I didn’t see anything. I was just walking home.”
“What are you doing up here?” he demanded.
“I was working at the party,” Varina whispered. “In the kitchen. Mrs. Dorris, she said I could go home, so that’s what I was doing.”
His eyes narrowed as he looked her over, up and down, the way you’d look at a horse or a mule you were sizing up to buy.
“Where’d a servant girl get an expensive dress like this?” He ran his hand down her shoulder and over her chest, right over her breast. He flicked the pearl pin with one finger.
“I know this pin. It belongs to my fiancée. Did you sneak upstairs in the house and steal this pin? And that dress? What else did you steal, girl?”
At first, Varina was too terrified to speak.
“Nothin’,” she finally managed. “I didn’t steal nothin’, I swear. Miss Josephine gave me this dress as a present. And Miss Millie gave me the pin.”
“Liar,” he spat. He pinched her nipple so hard she screamed, and he clamped his hand over her mouth.
“Millie never gave jewelry to a colored girl. You stole these things. I know you did. That’s why you were hiding out here. Like a thief.”
Varina couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t speak. Finally, he moved his hand. She exhaled and began sobbing.
“I’m not a thief. You can ask Miss Josephine. I’m not. I was just going home. I got to get home now. My daddy will be looking for me.”
“Your daddy will just have to wait,” Russell said. He jerked her arm so hard she thought it would pull from its socket. “You’re coming with me. I think the two of us will have our own private party.”
15
Felicia Shaddix leaned in close to Varina. “Now, Auntie, you knew that old lady had cancer. Louette told you. I told you.”
Varina nodded and dabbed at her eyes with a crochet-edged handkerchief. “Cancer, yes. But nobody said nothin’ about dying.” She looked over at Brooke. “You sure you got that right?”
“Josephine told me herself.”
“I should go see her. Take her some of my soup. She always loved my beef consommé. Mrs. Dorris showed me how to make it so that it was clear as could be. You could see the bottom of the bowl,” Varina said. She turned to Felicia. “I used to make that consommé for all you children when you were sick. Remember?”
“We were your family,” Felicia said coldly. “You took care of all of us, Auntie. And now I’m taking care of you. But Josephine Warrick is not your family. What did she ever give you besides some old clothes she didn’t want anymore?”
“Josephine is my friend,” Varina said. “She’s got her ways, that’s true. But she is my friend. I told you she would do right by us, didn’t I? And that’s what this lady lawyer is going to see about.” She gave Brooke a warm smile. “Isn’t that right?”
“Yes,” Brooke said.
“We’ll see.” Felicia looked around the office at the stained, fraying carpet, secondhand furniture, and single bank of file cabinets. She stared at Brooke’s framed college degrees.
“Emory Law, huh?”
“That’s right,” Brooke said.
“Felicia went to Emory University too,” Varina said proudly. “They gave her a full scholarship. And she graduated first in her class.”
“Undergrad,” Felicia said. She turned back to Brooke, crossed and recrossed her slender legs. “You know, my aunt asked Josephine, only a few months ago, if she would consider deeding over the land at Oyster Bluff to our family. And Josephine refused. Threw us out. It was really ugly.”
“So I heard,” Brooke said. “If it’s any consolation, I think she now regrets the way that meeting ended. And that’s why I wanted to talk to your aunt. Josephine has authorized me to start the process of returning the property at Oyster Bluff to the people who live there.”
“See there?” Varina said. “I knew she’d make things right. Didn’t I tell you?”
“I’ll believe it when I see it,” Felicia said. “Louette told me the state wants to make Josephine sell them all the rest of Talisa, for the state park. How’s she going to give twenty acres to our people with the state breathing down her neck? How would that work?”
“I’m not sure yet,” Brooke admitted. “I was just hired last week, and I haven’t had time to start my research. I can tell you that Josephine intends to fight the state to prevent them from taking her land. And in the meantime, she’d like to immediately begin the process of deeding over Oyster Bluff to the families who still live there.”
“About time,” Felicia said. “You know what she paid for my folks’ house over there? Did she tell you? If not, I will. She paid my widowed mother $1,500. For the house and more than an acre of land. I think Louette’s daddy got even less than that when he sold to her.”
“Now, Felicia, honey,” Varina said gently. “You know as well as I do those houses was in bad shape. Josephine fixed your mama’s house up real nice for her after your daddy passed. And Louette’s daddy, well, he was my cousin, and I don’t like to speak ill of the dead, but Gerald was bad to drink and didn’t care nothin’ about patching a leaky roof or painting a porch. That house of his wasn’t fit for chickens by the time he died.”
Felicia rolled her eyes but didn’t argue with her great-aunt.
Brooke sighed. “I can’t speak to the fairness of the real estate transactions. It’s my job, now, to get a list of the surviving Oyster Bluff families who sold their land to Josephine. My assistant can do some of that research in the courthouse, but it would be great if you and your aunt could give me names and addresses.”
“We can do that,” Felicia said. “Right, Auntie?”
“She’s really gonna give back Oyster Bluff?” Varina said. “All of it? The church too? The graveyard where my mama and daddy and brothers are buried?”
“Yes,” Brooke said. “All of it.”
“Praise Jesus,” Varina said. She dabbed at her eyes again and sniffed. “I guess we can go on home now, Felicia.”
Felicia stood up and helped the old woman from her chair. She looked around the room again. “Auntie, would you like to visit the bathroom before we get on the road back to Jacksonville?”
“That would be real nice.”