An Acquaintance with Darkness - Ann Rinaldi [91]
My escapade. I was happy and unhappy. Uncle Valentine would think Marietta had gotten the cadaver of Johnny Collins for him. He would never know that if I hadn't gone it would have been lost to him forever. I'd made up to him for the loss of Addie. But I couldn't let him know it. Isn't that always the way of things? Sometimes our best deeds need to be kept secret. I wondered if there were a lesson anywhere in the Brothers Grimm about that. Surely there must be.
There seemed some sweet sense of justice, though, in the fact that I couldn't tell Uncle Valentine what I'd done. Like I was doing additional penance for the loss of Addie. Johnny Surratt had told me all about Catholic penance. You had to do it or you went to hell for your sins. Addie was going to die because she didn't have her medicine. That was my sin. Certainly additional penance was needed. I'd probably be seeking it out for the rest of my life.
I didn't have time to think about it that morning, though. Uncle Valentine told us at breakfast that he had failed at the White House. President Johnson had refused to see either him or Annie. "He sent us a message," Uncle Valentine said. "He said that Mrs. Surratt kept the nest that hatched the eggs."
A serpent in the breasts of those people, Elizabeth Keckley had said. And what about Ella May? A curse on this street, she'd told me. And even Uncle Valentine had sensed something. Evil is brewing there, he'd told Mama.
"So what will happen now?" I asked him.
"They're going to hang the woman," he said. "There is nothing anybody can do about it."
Robert and I both fell silent. "And Dr. Mudd?" Robert asked.
"He's been sentenced to life. My dear friend. They are taking him to Fort Jefferson military prison in Dry Tortugas."
"Where's that?" I asked.
"It's a hellhole," he said. "A sun-fried island a hundred miles off the coast of Florida."
"Marietta said he won't serve a life sentence," I told him. "She told you that he'd be in prison a while and then be released. And she has powers, you know that, Uncle Valentine."
He looked at me. "Well, we're all going to need all the powers we have to get through this next week. The hanging is on July seventh. We're going to have to stand by Annie."
That afternoon I found myself at loose ends. Maude had the afternoon off. It was Sunday. Uncle Valentine was working in his office on his pamphlet about the need for an Anatomy Act. The house was quiet and cool. Outside, the heat was oppressive and unyielding. I was trying to read, but I had to keep getting up to answer the door clapper.
Messages for Uncle Valentine. Three of them. "Thank you," he said each time I brought one in to him. Then he went back to work.
"What's happening, Uncle Valentine?" I finally asked.
"Not enough, I'm afraid." He smiled bleakly. "Friends informing me that Mrs. Stephen Douglas, wife of the dead senator from Illinois, is going to petition the president this week for Mrs. Surratt's life. Also Thaddeus Stevens, a radical Republican congressman."
"Why are they sending notes around to you?"
"I asked Mrs. Douglas and Stevens to help."
"You never wanted me to live in Mrs. Mary's house," I said.
"Don't let's dwell on that now, Emily."
"Do you believe it was the nest that hatched the eggs?"
"Yes. She opened her doors to them. She gave them comfort. But then, Dr. Mudd opened his doors to Booth, too, and treated him. It doesn't make him guilty."
I nodded. Uncle Valentine was fair. I went back to my reading.
The next time I answered the door clapper, it was Annie. She seemed not to know me, or care. She was dressed neatly now, her hair done up in a bun. She carried a small portmanteau.
"Is Dr. Bransby in?"
I ushered her into the cool dimness of the house. Uncle Valentine got up from his desk, came forward, and took her in his arms. "There is always hope