Stone That the Builder Refused - Madison Smartt Bell [188]
“I ought to get your brother out of it, if I can,” Tocquet said. “And if Toussaint is to protect his family, it would be well if he knew for certain where they are—and that he knew the odds that face him.”
He prodded Mireille’s stomach lightly; the baby gurgled and reached again for his forefinger.
“But not at once,” Tocquet said. “First I will take some soup if I may, and Bazau and Gros-Jean will take soup. I ought to speak to Morisset, and Madame Louverture, and see what they may have here for horses.”
There was a small tavern across the road from Toussaint’s headquarters at Gonaives, and Doctor Hébert took his companions into that establishment to order a midmorning meal. He’d reported as soon as they reached the town, but Toussaint was absent and neither Magny nor Monpoint seemed to know quite what to do with him. The tavern offered stewed chicken, banane pesé, and greens. The doctor nagged at Paul to eat, though the boy was too excited to apply himself to the task. No one could say when they’d next sit down to a hot meal. Fontelle and Paulette worked slowly and diligently at their plates till they were empty. Neither of them spoke while they were eating. Likewise Caco ate in silence. Only Paul kept chattering, asking questions to which the doctor replied distractedly or not at all.
He ordered half a dozen baked yams, and when they were delivered he carried them out to where their donkeys were tethered at the rail to pack them into his saddlebags. That accomplished, he lingered by his mule to check the priming of his pistols and the long gun. Across the mule saddle, he saw Placide and Guiaou come trotting up to the headquarters. Guiaou took the reins of Bel Argent as Placide got down and hurried inside, and led both horses off behind the building.
Toussaint must have returned, the doctor surmised, while they were inside eating. And indeed it was not long before Toussaint himself appeared on the street. Within minutes he had formed up a battalion of grenadiers and a squadron of cavalry; with no more than a glance and a gesture, he beckoned the doctor to a place near the head of the cavalry column, just behind Placide. Magny and Monpoint repeated orders down the line. The troops strode down the block, turned through the square below the church, and soon were marching south from Gonaives along the broad, flat road through the Savane Désolée.
A couple of buzzards appeared in the sky above them as they went on—not unusual in this desert, but the doctor did his best not to look at them. They kept going through the still parching heat of the Savane Désolée until they reached the cactus fence and wooden gates of Habitation Cocherelle. From Placide, the doctor understood that Toussaint’s family was expected to be here, and his own also if everything had gone according to plan, but none of them had yet arrived. He saw a chance to leave Paul in a safer place, for at midafternoon the boy seemed a little weary of the adventure they’d embarked on. Perhaps Caco might remain behind also. If only Paul’s mother and brothers had been there . . . but soon it was clear that Toussaint would not wait. The troops moved out from Cocherelle, crossing the back fields of the plantations Lacroix and Périsse on a trail that diverged from the main road to climb a slow grade toward the mountains.
At dusk they’d reached the gravel shoals at the mouth of Ravine à Couleuvre. The stream bubbled merrily over the pebbles, swollen with the recent rain on the Central Plateau up above. Here Toussaint called a halt for a meal, though he forbade all fire. The men began munching such cold rations as they could discover. Doctor Hébert replenished his waterskin from the stream and passed a piece of cold yam to each member of his group. They ate sitting crosslegged on the gravel, as the darkness thickened around them. Paul finished his portion of yam, licked off his fingers, and settled in his father’s lap, leaning back against his chest, quiet, though his eyes were bright and alert. The doctor felt irrationally