An Acquaintance with Darkness - Ann Rinaldi [9]
"You should," Mama said. "But you are wrong this time. You may object to Booth as an actor and therefore not desirable company for young girls, but with Johnny gone, I doubt if Booth will be coming around anymore. You go out of your way to distress me. If there is nothing else you can say to convince me that Emily should not live there, you should hold your tongue. I know you want her to live with you. But I do not wish it. And it distresses me that you would attempt to tarnish the name of my old friend to secure your own ends."
"It distresses me that you are so angry because I want to give your daughter a good home. And try to keep her from having me as her protector, even after you are gone."
I could stand it no longer. "Stop fussing," I said.
They both looked at me as if they'd forgotten I was there.
"I love you both." My voice broke. "I really do love you, Uncle Valentine. In spite of what Mama says. I can't bear to see you arguing all the time. I always wanted a brother. Or a sister. And you two have each other and all you do is fight!"
There was shocked silence. I got up. "I'll fetch your coffee, Uncle Valentine," I said.
"I can't stay for coffee."
"You'll stay!" I almost shouted it. "It's dear. Twenty-one cents a pound! I got it at market yesterday and you'll stay. And stop fussing! Both of you!"
He stayed. I brought out the coffee and some peach cobbler. I'd made it that morning. They didn't argue anymore. Uncle Valentine started telling us how he'd summoned the police, and the sporting men who'd been racing their horses on E Street had been arrested for reckless driving.
I wasn't listening to him. All I was pondering was what he'd said about the Surratts' house. And how evil was going on there. And Ella May's words about there being a curse on the street we were living on. Then that serpent-in-the-bosom business that Elizabeth Keckley had spoken of.
Could all these people be wrong? I shivered, then looked up and saw Mama was failing. "You'll have to go, Uncle Valentine," I said.
He left. I walked him into the hall. He put on his stovepipe hat, his coat and shawl. "You're a good girl, Emily," he said. "A fine girl. You know your mind. I hope you'll sort things out for yourself and not hold against me anything that your mother has said."
"I won't," I promised.
"Are you going back to school soon?"
"Yes. I'd like to go back after everything is over."
"Your mother could linger for weeks."
"Well, I must find someone to come stay with Mama during the day. Ella May up and left, and I'm alone now."
"I'll send over Maude. She can spare the time."
"Thank you, Uncle Valentine."
"If you come and live with me, I'll not be overbearing. I'll not tell you what to do, but I'd be honored to have you. Think on it, Emily."
I said I would, to please him. But I never intended to live with him. Oh, he had a lovely house on a fancy street.... I'd never been inside. Mama had pointed it out to me once. Who would not want to live in a house like that?
"Let me know if your mother worsens," he said.
I promised that, too. He left. I never thanked him for the violet water.
4. Robert
MAMA TOOK TO HER BED the day after Uncle Valentine's visit and never got out again.
It wasn't his fault. He had done what any brother would do, come to visit her. If I had a brother and I were dying, I'd want that.
Mama coughed and coughed so. And got weaker and weaker. Sometimes she lay so still I thought she'd died on me. But then she would start coughing again. Her forehead was hot, her hands clammy, her breath shallow.
I got frightened and ran to the Surratts' to get a servant to take a note to Dr. Dent. He came around, but there was little he could do. He wrote an order for more medicine. Again I went to the Surratts', and got a servant to take the order to Thompson's Drug Store.
Then I waited all afternoon. But Johnny's friend David Herold never delivered the medicine.
I went to the Surratts' a third time. A servant ushered me in. Mrs. Mary was in the parlor.
So was John Wilkes Booth. I stopped short, seeing