The Wedding Gift by Marlen Suyapa Bodden Read Free Book Online

my brothers, Mama and me think we never go on. But like Mama said, it’s much harder when they take your girl. Belle’s father said to me, ‘If they sell me, I’m going to take care of myself. But not our girl. Do what you got to to keep them from selling her.’
    “When they take your man or your son you know he’s going to get beat. But they ain’t going to do to your man or your boy what they going to do to your girl.” She rocked back and forth for a few minutes.
    “After you was born, I kept going to him, not just because he told me to but because I thought, ‘It going to keep my girls with me.’ But then, he said he wasn’t going to free us and you was so sad when Mrs. Allen said you had to stop going to lessons with Miss Clarissa.
    “Sarah, from now on, you know you can’t be sad when I leave you at night. You understand me? But it’s going to be worse for me this time because I hate him more than I hated him before.”
    She put her arm around me and told me to close my eyes. We knelt.
    “Lord, I don’t know the right way to pray, and I know that a sinner like me got no right asking you for nothing. But, Lord, please keep my girl safe.
    “Lord, wherever she is, please don’t let them hurt her. Lord, bring her back and don’t punish her for my sins. And, Lord, please keep Sarah safe with me. Lord, thank you. Amen.”
    We held each other then, held each other until we fell asleep a few hours before we had to rise to work the next day.

CHAPTER FOUR

     
    THEODORA ALLEN

     
    THEIR CLOTHES, THE BLANKET, AND A PILLOW WERE scattered on the floor. An empty bottle of wine and two glasses were on a table. I could not stop staring at them; his open hand was on the small of her back and his face rested on her shoulder. My husband and Emmeline awoke when I could not hold in a cry. When they realized that I was there, they pulled the linens over their bodies. Emmeline sat up, gripped the sheet close, and bowed her head.
    “Theodora, return to your room. I will see you there shortly,” my husband said.
    I stayed.
    “I said…leave…now.”
    My mind told me to flee, but my feet were stuck to the floor.
    “Theodora, if you do not leave this moment, I will get out of this bed and escort you out.”
    I managed to make my feet move and went to my bedroom, where I dismissed Dottie and sent her for Aunt Lucretia and Eliza. When they arrived I told them what had transpired. Auntie embraced me and made the same comforting noises that Mum had when I was a child and something had caused me pain. Eliza wiped the tears from my face.
    “My sweet, Mr. Allen is only with her to protect you and your child,” my aunt said.
    I said that I wanted to be alone.
    “Are you certain, dear?”
    I got in bed and closed my eyes. An hour later, I heard footsteps and my husband entered.
    “Theodora, darling, look at me.”
    I ignored him.
    “Darling, I regret not having said this to you earlier. My mother lost two children before they were born. I do not want the same to happen to you. I promise you that, when we have our baby and you are healthy, I will return to you.”
    I did not reply.
    “Theodora, you are acting like a child, not like the mistress of a plantation. Please, I beg of you, answer me. Tell me that you know that I’m only doing this for you.”
    I cried and he held me. He smelled of soap and cologne.
    “I was going to your rooms to tell you that I felt pain in my abdomen and that I was bleeding,” I said.
    “What? Did anyone send for Dr. Atlas?”
    “I have sent the overseers instructions to bring the doctor.”
    There was a knock on the door. It was Bessie, who said that Davis had left for town to get Dr. Atlas. My husband dismissed her and told her to sleep on a cot in the adjacent room in the event that I needed her during the night. He closed the door.
    “I will sleep with you until Dr. Atlas arrives,” he said.
    He got in the bed with me.
    “When you are able to travel after the baby is born, we can ask