Part 24 (1/2)
”Get back from where?”
”Mamie Estes's. If anybody would know why our great grandmother let that man put his name on her stories, it would be her.”
”But Minda, she's a hundred and two! What makes you think she'll remember?”
”Some things you just don't forget,” I said, and hoped I was right.
As it turned out, I was. I hadn't even called ahead, but took along a jar of strawberry preserves Augusta had made earlier, and took my chances. Augusta went along for company, and seemed quieter than usual, I thought, during the drive to Charlotte. She didn't even tell me to slow down or to mind the other traffic.
”I hope she's not asleep when we get there,” I said as we turned into Mamie's street. And then I had a horrible thought. After all, the woman was 102! ”Ohmygos.h.!.+ What if she's-”
”She's not.”
”Well, I guess you'd know,” I said.
Her daughter-in-law met me at the door. ”Well, my goodness, look at you! Mamie said you'd be coming today! She's waiting for you in the sitting room. Please come in.”
”I see you've brought your friend again today,” Mamie said after the younger Mrs. Estes left the room.
I took her hand and gave her the preserves. She looked frailer than before, paler, as if she were fading away. ”That's right,” I said. ”Her name is Augusta.”
Mamie nodded. ”I know.” I sat beside her and got right down to business. When somebody's 102, you don't dilly-dally.
I told her we had found Lucy's sketches and early ma.n.u.scripts. I didn't tell her about Mildred because I knew she had been part of an awful deception, thinking her friend had drowned, and it might upset her to learn the truth.
”Do you know why my great-grandmother let Fitzhugh Holley take credit for her stories?” I asked. ”Because if you do, I'd like to know.”
Mamie did know, and when she told me, I could understand why the remaining members of the Mystic Six did what they thought they must do.
Chapter Twenty-Eight.
He was a handsome man, such a handsome man! And pleasant, laughed a lot. Everyone loved him-including most of the girls at the academy.” Mamie Estes looked as if she'd swallowed something bitter as she sat there turning the small jar of preserves in her hands. ”Just about everybody had a crush on the professor-I know I did-but that was before we knew.”
I waited for her to continue, not wanting to interrupt, yet I could hardly sit still in my eagerness to hear the rest. I glanced at Augusta, who stood in the background. She wore a frothy white dress today that almost blended with the lace-curtained windows. The angel, hands folded, smiled at me and waited serenely. But she had an eternity; I didn't. And Mamie-well, I didn't even want to think about that.
”He was a fiend!” Mamie said, speaking louder than I would have thought she was capable. ”He never bothered me because I wouldn't give him the chance, but I don't know how many others he... well, he raped them is what he did! Led them to trust him, then forced himself on them-all of them so innocent. We didn't know a lot back then, and the poor girls didn't know what to do.”
”Flora Dennis was one of them, wasn't she?” I asked.
She nodded. ”I don't suppose it would do any harm to tell it now. Yes, Flora was one. She was one of his a.s.sistants, so honored at first, flattered to be asked. Later, I think she tried to warn Annie Rose, but was embarra.s.sed to come out and tell her what had happened, and Annie Rose probably wouldn't have believed her, anyway.” Mamie smiled. ”Girls were as headstrong then as they are now, believe it or not.”
”Why didn't they tell someone-theirparents or a counselor?”
”Dear child, we didn't have counselors back then. Sometimes, if you were lucky, you had an understanding teacher or parent, but people just didn't talk about things like that. The girls were ashamed-and afraid, I guess, that they they would be blamed for what happened to them. That they would be more or less marked as bad girls forever.” would be blamed for what happened to them. That they would be more or less marked as bad girls forever.”
”That's horrible!” I felt anger rising in me, fueled by the helpless frustration of being unable to change something that had happened so many years before.
”You're right. It was was horrible, and once poor Annie Rose told us about her pregnancy, it all came out.” horrible, and once poor Annie Rose told us about her pregnancy, it all came out.”
Tess Estes came in then and asked us if we'd like something hot to drink, but Mamie waved her away. I was glad she didn't want to be interrupted any more than I did.
”I remember when she told us,” Mamie went on after her daughter-in-law left the room. ”We were working on that quilt-the six of us.” She smiled. ”You know about our little group?”
I nodded.
”Annie Rose broke down crying, told us what had happened. She had already missed two periods, she said. Then Flora told us the same thing had happened to her and a couple of other girls, only they were lucky enough not to get in the family way. Professor Holley threatened to ruin their reputations if they said anything, Flora said.”
My eyes grew hot, and I felt the first salty surge of tears. I blinked them back. ”So what did you do then?”
”Lucy went to see Fitzhugh Holley. She wanted him to arrange to send Annie Rose somewhere to have her baby, to protect her from the scandal. And she demanded that he resign. The professor just laughed. He was a married man, you see, already had a little girl. He was respected in the community. 'Who would believe you?' he said to Lucy when she threatened to tell what he'd done.”
”Didn't the professor's wife know what a creep he was?” I said.
”If she did, she didn't let on. Remember, things weren't like they are today. The scandal would've been mortifying.
”Lucy's visit did more harm than good, I'm afraid. Earlier she had let the professor critique her little animal stories, seeking his advice, thinking he might even help her find a market for them, and unknown to Lucy, he had already found a publisher! he had already found a publisher! I don't know if the publisher mistakenly thought he'd written them or if Fitzhugh Holley deliberately put his name on the ma.n.u.script. At any rate, the vile man threatened to spread awful rumors about Annie Rose-Lucy, too-if she didn't keep quiet about the authors.h.i.+p. Said he'd tell everyone he'd seen them in the company of drummers at the Plenty Good Boarding house, where most of the traveling people stayed.” Mamie lowered her voice. ”Proper ladies didn't go near there.” I don't know if the publisher mistakenly thought he'd written them or if Fitzhugh Holley deliberately put his name on the ma.n.u.script. At any rate, the vile man threatened to spread awful rumors about Annie Rose-Lucy, too-if she didn't keep quiet about the authors.h.i.+p. Said he'd tell everyone he'd seen them in the company of drummers at the Plenty Good Boarding house, where most of the traveling people stayed.” Mamie lowered her voice. ”Proper ladies didn't go near there.”
”Drummers?”
Mamie laughed. ”That's what we used to call salesmen-traveling salesmen. At any rate,” she said, ”things went from bad to worse in spite of our good intentions. But I must say the other members of the Six stood behind Annie Rose. We were trying to find a place she might go to have her baby in secret, and Pluma-I think it was Pluma-was waiting to hear from a cousin in Augusta when that poor child took her own life.”
I was tempted to tell her she hadn't, but Augusta gave me the ”Don't you dare!” glare.
We were silent for a moment, and I could see that she had just about used up her strength, and I, my time. ”It's too late for Lucy,” I said at last, ”but there's a good chance the stories will be published this time under the right name, in spite of the late-and despicable-Fitzhugh Holley!”
Mamie Estes gave a feeble wave of her hand. ”Oh, him! Don't you worry about that one. He's just where he ought to be. That's all taken care of.”
”What will you do about the quilt?” Augusta asked during the drive back to Angel Heights.
”It's not up to me to decide, but if it were, I'd destroy it,” I said. ”The secret of what those girls did should end with us, and I think Mildred and Vesta agree.” And except for the few of us who already knew, I didn't think Mildred meant to reveal her true ancestry.
The alma mater my great-grandmother had written and st.i.tched had been found wedged beneath the spare tire in the trunk of Gertrude Whitmire's Lincoln, and Vesta has promised it to me.