IT WAS ON that ride that I knew Ma was right all along. The Devil was wagering for Roseanna’s soul. And he was winning.
What made me know this was Clothilda. She was old. Aunt Betty’s children had grown up riding her. These days Aunt Betty rode her into Stringtown, at a slow and easy gait, and that was all the exercise she got. Otherwise she just lounged around in the pasture, limping.
On that ride, Clothilda was like a demon. She never held back through the ravines. She was sure-footed over rocks and fallen trees. She plowed through thickets of briars, she never got afeared of the path ahead. It was as if she knew the path, though she’d never been on it before. And all the while my sister was leaning low over her, whispering in her ears.
Might be it was Ro who was the demon. Don’t think I didn’t ponder that, much as I had a chance to ponder anything sitting behind Ro and holding on to her for dear life. It was a wild cold ride, through hidden secret places. Not the way Tolbert had taken me at all.
We came to the river finally, the Tug at Matewan. That old Clothilda never spooked, just splashed right in. Oh, the water felt so good on my legs even though it was cold, because they were scratched and burning from the underbrush. The Tug was low. Somebody was with us on that. Ma would say God. I say it was the Devil. And the reason I know it was him was because his henchman was along with us on the ride, too.
Yeller Thing. I saw him and I smelled him as Clothilda dashed through that water, splashing white foam up all around us. I saw him through the foam. He was in the water, too, keeping up with us, growling and egging Clothilda on. I screamed. “Ro! Look!”
But she didn’t look, and like as not, if she had she wouldn’t have seen. Only I saw Yeller Thing, ever. Only I felt the terror of him. I knew by now that he was my terror alone and nobody else’s.
SOON ENOUGH WE were up the embankment and on West Virginia soil. More riding, though this time the way was not so harsh. And then through a path in the woods to Devil Anse’s place. Dogs yowled, chickens fled as Ro pulled back on the petticoat reins and slid off Clothilda’s back. “Get her some water,” she said, and she ran through the yard to the house.
I sat on Clothilda, holding the petticoat reins, looking around, feeling as last time that eyes were watching me. I looked around for Yeller Thing, but all I saw at first were red-and-gold leaves, purple flowers, and pumpkins and squash in the garden.
And then I saw the people in the distance. Men. Lots of them at the far end of the road that led to the barn. Men eating at makeshift tables under the trees. And women serving them. I smelled the new timbered wood at the same time and saw it piled all around. Devil Anse was adding on to his barn and those must be his kin, helping.
My sister saw them at the same time, ran from the porch, down the lane, crying, “Help me, help me!”
“Child, what is it?” Mrs. Devil Anse, or Levicy, as they called her, came down the lane, heavy with child, to embrace my sister.
I turned my head away, jumped down from Clothilda, and went about the business of drawing a bucket of water from the well for her. No sooner did I have it up on the rim of the well than Robert E. Lee came around a corner of the house. He was so pale! His face almost as white as the hair that hung over his pale eyes.
“Howdy,” he said.
I nodded and brought the water to Clothilda. I stood there while she drank it.
“Y’all got trouble?”
I shrugged. “My brother arrested yours.”
“What for?”
“Seduction.” I stared into his pale eyes. “I don’t even know what that is, do you?”
He nodded slowly, understanding, but he didn’t say. “Y’all picked a good day fer a fight. My pa’s got all his kin here. Guess I better fetch my gun.” And he ran into the house.
A fight? What did he mean? Was that all these people ever paid mind to? Mrs. Devil Anse was coming toward me, her arm around Roseanna. She was clucking and hovering over Ro like she was her mother. She saw me then and held out her hand. “Child, child, come on into the house and I’ll give you some warm milk and gingerbread and put some salve on those legs,” she said. And just then Robert E. Lee came bounding out of the house, gun in hand.
“I’d as lief stay out here,” I said.
“Fanny, you come along now. Don’t be rude. Come on, I say!” Ro never ordered me around, and she really wasn’t now. But she held out her hand to me and I couldn’t refuse her. So I followed them into the house and allowed myself to be sat down at the table in the kitchen and drink warm milk and eat gingerbread without shame that it was Devil Anse’s milk and gingerbread. I watched Mrs. Devil Anse put salve on Ro’s scratches and a cold rag to her head, and heard my sister pour out her heart about the matter to this woman about whom I’d been told since I was a knee baby had horns on top of her head.
She didn’t, of course. She was as nice as my ma, if not nicer. At least she didn’t rant and rave about tribulation or the vengeance of the Lord. Or run outside to put a pebble by the name of Johnse on the side of the damned on a praying rock. She comforted Ro best as she could, and when she was done made her lie down on a couch nearby. Then she attended to me.
“I told him and told him,” she said to Ro as she knelt and took each of my legs at a time and applied her decoction of salve, “to let you two wed. But no. I declare these men of ourn, they have a mournful need for war. And if there’s no more Blue Bellies to shoot at, why they’ll just make up some!”
I decided that I liked Levicy Hatfield. She had a round, pleasant face, her kitchen smelled good, her gingerbread was the best I ever tasted, and she had common sense. I was so torn with guilt about liking her I could scarce swallow.
A minute later, when the whole parcel of men rode out, she stepped out onto the porch and yelled, “Robert E. Lee, where you think you’re going?”
I heard the reply, through the tramping of horses’ feet as the men left, then I saw her go off the porch through the dust and grab the reins of the pony Robert E. Lee was riding.
“Ma!” he protested. “I’m huntin’ McCoys!”
But she pulled him from the pony and dragged him by the ear into the house. “Thirteen years old,” she said, “and a bigger vexation to me than any of them! The only thing you’re hunting is rabbits! Now get out there and cut some wood for the stove!”
I liked her even better now. And my guilt vanished.
We sat awhile until Ro was rested. Levicy took off Ro’s skirt and dried it by the fire. I sat and dried mine. I was getting worried again. I’d seen as many as forty men ride off with Devil Arise to find my pa and Jim. When we got ready to leave, Ro saw my discomfort. “I won’t tell Pa you were here with me,” she promised.
I hugged her as we rode back to Aunt Betty’s. “What if they ask?”
“Then you lie to Pa. It’s the only way to survive. Haven’t you learned that yet?”
I was learning. The ride back wasn’t half as bad, maybe because we took our time, and maybe because all I could think of was what would happen to Pa and Jim when all those Hatfields caught up with them. I was crazy with worry about it. But then, by the time we got to Aunt Betty’s, it was late. She wanted to give me supper, but I said no, I’d best get home.
“You all right, child?” she asked.
“All right as I can be in West Virginia,” I said.
“What’s the matter with you, Fanny?” Ro asked sharply. “You’re back in Kentucky now, and you know it. If you’re feverish I’ll not let you go home, but stay the night.”
I told them I was fine and started off. I knew I was in Kentucky all right. Did they think I was teched? But I also knew I was broken off from the family now, like West Virginia had broken from the Confederacy. I’d made my stand. And it was with my sister and against my family. I felt the break inside me already and knew it would mean trouble.
I suppose I was ready for it. A body had to be, if they made a stand. Wasn’t my family always saying such? Only thing that plagued me was I still didn’t know the meaning of the word seduction.