Come Juneteenth by Ann Rinaldi Read Free Book Online Page B

rail where I come from in Virginia. I know all about your brothers. Met Gabriel once. I almost talked him into riding with Jeb Stuart, but he said no. As for sisters, I have four. You remind me of my sister Mary. She's always been the rebel in the family. Moving out and spending her time elsewhere while my other two sisters care for my sick mama."
    He talked a terrible lot for a man. But I sensed it was because he was nervous. Nervous? I smiled to myself. Unhorsed and rendered unconscious at South Mountain. Shot in the leg at Brandy Station. "I thought you had four sisters," I said.
    He grew sober. "We lost Annie to typhoid near two years ago now."
    "Oh, I'm so sorry." I was. This was precisely what
Mama hadn't wanted from me. What she meant when she said, "Be kind to him."

    "My sister Annie gave my parents a run for their money, too. Blinded herself in one eye with a scissor when she was just six. As for Boo, Pa came upon him in camp one time when he had no coat but a Yankee one. He was in rags. Pa had to rustle clothing up for him. Yes, sir, I'm afraid we've, none of us, been easy for our parents."
    "I think you have a wonderful family, Mister Rooney. Everyone reverences your father as a great man."
    He drew in his horse and we did likewise. "I'm not in any rush to get back to Glen Eden. Your Uncle Garland has a slave trader visiting this day."
    And he looked at Sis Goose. Then at me. "May I be candid?"
    "Yes," I said.
    He took off his gloves, and I saw the bitten-off fingers on his right hand. He ran that hand through his beard. "If I were in your shoes, Miss Rose, I'd plead a headache when I got there. No one thinks more of your aunt and uncle, but I'd make any excuse not to appear for supper. The slave trader will be at the table."
    "Why's he here when his market will soon be gone?" I asked. Then realized I'd raised the wrong question in front of Sis Goose. The market was already gone, but I had to soften it, wrap it in the end of the war.
    Rooney Lee sighed and plucked at his beard. "He has dear friends who could never have a child. They want a
daughter and a companion. They're willing to put out money to buy one beautiful and accomplished and one they can educate in the best schools and make part of the family. The slave trader remembered Sis Goose from a past visit."

    We all fell silent for a minute. Birds went from branch to branch in the trees above us, doing whatever it was they had to do to make a home. Rooney Lee picked up his reins and pressed his legs into his horse's sides. "Now let's get back," he said. And as I rode beside him I thought I heard him cuss under his breath, and say, "Ugly business."

    B UT IT WAS all too late, the warning. When we rode up the road and dismounted our horses and watched the stable boys take them away, I saw that the slave trader was right there on the front piazza with Uncle Garland and Aunt Sophie, sipping late-afternoon drinks.
    "I'll handle this," Rooney Lee whispered to me. "Go and pay your respects."
    We went up the few stairs to where they were sitting. "Well, it's about time," Uncle Garland said, getting out of his chair. "Jim," and he turned to the short, fat, balding man with the face and eyes of a ferret, "this is my niece Luli and the girl I was telling you about. Her name is Sis Goose. I told you she was a beauty, didn't I?"
    I curtsied, but it went unnoticed by the ferret. He had eyes only for Sis Goose, and they went over her as one would appraise a horse. I expected, at any moment, that
he would ask her to open her mouth so he could see her teeth or do some other horrid thing.

    I hugged Aunt Sophie and so did Sis Goose.
    "What household duties can she perform?" the slave trader asked.
    At that moment Rooney Lee stepped forward. "The girl isn't feeling well, ma'am. I told her that you would excuse her from supper, knowing your capacity for understanding and sympathy."
    Aunt Sophie immediately called a servant and had her take Sis Goose to her room upstairs. I