Stone That the Builder Refused - Madison Smartt Bell [87]
An officer of the municipal guard was just coming out of the Cigny house as the doctor arrived. Arnaud was waiting on the ground floor, just within the double doors, coatless, with his loose sleeves pushed back past his elbows.
“What news?” the doctor said, glancing at the withdrawing guardsman as he stepped into the shade. Michau remained outdoors, arms folded, his black face slightly glossy with sweat, impassive under the full sun.
“There is to be a bucket brigade,” Arnaud said. “In case Christophe does fire the town. Cigny is already gone down to the Fontaine d’Estaing, and I was only waiting for you.”
“Yes,” said the doctor, raising one finger. “I’ll just have a word with Isabelle first.” Arnaud nodded and the doctor moved to the stairs.
“Maman,” Robert was saying, as the doctor tapped on the frame of the parlor door. Isabelle, distracted, didn’t notice his knock.
“Oui, chéri?” she said.
“Will the black soldiers be coming to burn down our house again?”
The doctor was struck by the polite neutrality of the boy’s question. But a wave ran over Isabelle’s features, before she composed herself to reply.
“Nonsense!” she said. “No such thing—did you not hear the man who has just left? The mayor himself, Monsieur Télémaque, assures us that nothing of the kind will happen—”
With that she saw the doctor and ran tripping across the room to catch his hands and draw him out onto the landing.
“Have you been to Government House?” she said.
“Yes, but I learned nothing there,” the doctor said. “I have been shutting up the hospital. I suppose I ought to go with Arnaud, to join your husband. But it may be that you should not be left alone in the house, with all the uncertainty of the day.”
“No, no,” Isabelle said hurriedly. “You must certainly go and make yourself useful. I have my coachman here, and a footman too—” She glanced back into the parlor, giving his hands a little squeeze. “I do wish you would take Robert with you. If he stays here with nothing to occupy him, he will upset his sister with his fancies.”
Fancies? the doctor thought. “You ought to make ready to leave,” he told Isabelle. “Just—”
“I won’t hear of it,” Isabelle snapped, and lowered her voice at once. “Télémaque has assured everyone that nothing will happen.”
“As you wish,” the doctor said, and beckoned to the boy.
Robert was yet too small to do any heavy lifting, but he made no trouble as the grown men set about the work. He was quiet and seemed abstracted, scanning the harbor’s mouth. His company made the doctor wish for Paul. Often enough he followed the direction of Robert’s gaze, looking for the sail of a French warship, but for the moment the skyline was vacant, the water calm.
Through the rest of the afternoon they were busy, collecting buckets and barrels and troughs, setting depots of water at the principal corners, and organizing for the passage of water from the Fontaine d’Estaing at the port and from two other fountains higher up in the town. Télémaque appeared briefly at every station, and the men of the municipal guard were industrious, along with all of the white citizens who had not thought it better to depart. All the while small squads of soldiers were also moving through the streets. The soldiers did not interfere with the water haulers, but they were in charge of a parallel movement of tar barrels and lances à feu.
By the time the sun had begun to redden and drop toward the heights of Morne du Cap behind the town, a water station had been set up on the corner of the Cignys’ block. Accompanied by Michau and Arnaud, the doctor brought Robert back to his mother. Isabelle was preparing a supper of cold chicken and fruit, but the doctor excused himself, saying he would go to secure his sister’s house.
With Michau, he set out in that direction. At the opposite end of the Cignys’ block, a squad from the Second had installed itself, with a tar barrel and lances à feu. A couple of the men were holding lit torches. Without a word, with their eyes averted, they drew back to let the doctor pass.
Elise