The land they’d purchased sat on the border of South Carolina and North Carolina. Louella and William’s house was on the South Carolina side.
The house had three bedrooms, a living room, a dining room, and a keeping room. The granite stone fireplace sat in the middle of their keeping room, which was just behind the dining room. The keeping room provided heat to the house. It was bigger than anything Louella had ever lived in. She couldn’t really call the shacks she’d stayed in homes. They were merely structures with thatched roof coverings.
Louella’s mouth hung open as she looked around the room. It wasn’t the granite fireplace that left her in awe. It was the sofa, the matching chair, and the wooden dining table with six wooden chairs. Louella had never had a table that big. What would she do with all those chairs?
“I love it,” Abigail said as she entered the house.
With a hand to the side of her face, Louella turned to her friend. “Where did all of this stuff come from?”
“Joe Freeman and his workers made it.” Abigail gave a mischievous grin. “It was hard keeping the secret from you but well worth seeing the expression on your face.”
Joe Freeman, the wood carver who joined them in Alabama, had been enslaved to a furniture builder and learned the skill well during his years on that plantation.
“Did he make furniture for yours and Femi’s new home as well?”
Abigail shook her head. “Not yet. Your house was first on his list. Reverend William made sure of it.”
“And I’ll make sure there is enough money to have all of our homes furnished,” Louella told her.
Abigail wrapped her arms around Louella and hugged her. “See, that’s why we all love you so much. You’re always thinking of others.”
“What’s our motto?”
Abigail grinned. “All for one and one for all.” She then took Louella’s arm and pulled her toward the front door. “Now come on. Let’s get you ready for the celebration.”
“Where we going? I have to check on Waties and Joshua.” Waties would be turning three in a couple of months and her youngest child, Joshua, was nine months. Louella still thought of Lily and missed her terribly, but her two sons were the blessings she needed.
“Your grandmother said she’ll keep them boys all day if that’s what it takes.” Abigail continued pulling her out of the house and back down the hill toward the small shacks they had lived in while their homes were being built.
This new land was a blessing. Never in all her days had she imagined that she would own land, let alone twenty-five acres. And even though the acreage they currently had wasn’t enough for all of their residents, Louella trusted that they would soon have enough land to bring all of their community up from the lowly shacks some of them were still living in . . . all in good time.
For now, they were set to celebrate almost thirty homes that had been built on their land. Tonight, they were all going to march from the old cabins up the hill to their homes and have a great feast. But Louella didn’t know why Abigail was in such a rush to get her ready. They were only marching up a hill.
When she stepped inside the one-room cabin, she first took notice of the wooden tub in the middle of the floor and the smell of lavender permeating the air. Elmira and Miss Saddie stood next to the tub with water pitchers in their hands. Clara stood behind a chair with a comb and brush in her hand. They were all looking at Louella as if she was the prize goose at the Thanksgiving table. “What kind of tomfoolery are you women about today?”
“None at all.” A devilish grin swept across Clara’s face as she pointed to the chair. “Have a seat.”
Louella looked back at Abigail. “Where did you all get this tub from?” Louella washed by way of the basin in her cabin, and so did the rest of their group.
“Reverend William ordered it for you.”
Confusion clouded Louella’s face. “But why? I don’t understand what’s going on.”
Abigail took her hand and moved her over to the chair. When Louella sat down, Abigail told her, “All will be revealed in due time. Please allow us to do something for you today, okay?”
Clara started undoing Louella’s four big braids. While Clara worked on her hair, Miss Saddie and Elmira kept going outside, filling their pitchers with warm water and then pouring the water in the tub.
“Am I supposed to bathe like a lady in the big house? I already refreshed myself using my water basin this morning.”
“You are a lady, and you will allow us to treat you in that manner,” Elmira told her as she poured more water in the tub and then harrumphed.
“I guess she told me.” Louella laughed and then eased back in the chair. Clara parted her hair down the middle and then stood on the left side while Abigail stood on the right. They both took pieces of her hair and braided it, then sectioned off another piece and braided it. This process continued all the way to the back of her head.
“Whew, Mrs. Louella, you have some long, fine hair. My fingers are cramping,” Abigail complained.
“How many braids are you putting in my hair?”
“Ten,” Clara told her.
“I’ve never had that many braids. I normally do the four big braids and then put my scarf over it.”
“You look lovely in those braids,” Clara assured her. “But we wanted to be able to put your hair in a bun on top of your head, and I think this will do nicely.”
“How’s Gary? I haven’t seen him around much lately,” Louella said.
While on her last braid, Clara told her, “He’s fine. After helping to clear those trees, he and Jimmy have been using our wagon to drive over to Hendersonville and Greenville to sell crops.”
“How very productive of them.” Louella smiled at that. It seemed like someone in their group was always coming up with another way to bring money into their community. She was proud of each and every one of them.
“It was Jimmy’s idea. Gary wouldn’t let him help cut those trees down, so he spent his time growing the corn and the grain. He talked to a few people in Hendersonville and realized we could sell our crops over there.”
“Jimmy loves Hendersonville.” Elmira snickered.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Clara turned and stared at Elmira.
“I’m sure she didn’t mean anything by it,” Louella said. “Jimmy’s a good boy.”
“A good boy who has his eyes on the blacksmith’s daughter down in Hendersonville,” Elmira told them.
“Well, he’ll be twenty in a few weeks. Guess my son is truly growing up,” Clara said.
Miss Saddie poured water in the tub as she said, “We need to get that church built so Jimmy can find himself a good churchgoing woman.”
Clara used a ribbon to tie Louella’s hair into a bun on top of her head. “Okay. My work is done.” She handed her a bar of soap and a rag. “Time for your bath.”
“But we need to line up so we can all march up the hill. I don’t want to hold everybody up.”
Abigail took her hand and moved her over to the tub. “Relax. No one is going anywhere without you. We made a fire outside and warmed the water. Take as long as you need.”
Lavender petals floated in the water. They were doing all of this for her? Why?
“Get undressed and take a dip. We’ll wait outside. Let me know when you’re ready. Got another surprise for you,” Miss Saddie told her with a wink.
Another surprise? They’d done her hair and prepared her bath, all to march up a hill? What more could they have done? Louella had on a brown dress that had been worn so many times it was losing some of its stitching. Dust sprinkled the air as she dropped it to the floor.
She stepped into the tub and allowed the warm water to caress her skin as she sank down in it. “Ahhh.”
She’d never imagined how good and relaxing it might be to lounge in a tub like this. Louella looked to heaven. Teardrops glided down her face like the flow of a river. “Thank You, Lord, for being a good God.”
Those words made her cry even more. She still remembered days when she wondered why God wasn’t being good to them—why He’d left them in the hands of people who misused them for so long. Days when she doubted God cared about them at all.
She lathered her hands, thoroughly soaping her body. When she touched her back, her hand traced the welts that were a forever reminder of what she had endured. The pain of that day lingered. She wanted to drown it out, cleanse her mind of the past. She put her face in the water and held her breath.
The swish of the water, the warmth surrounding her, the smell of lavender—all served to remind her that things were different.
She turned over and over in the water. As she turned, splashes of water wet her hair as her mind was being emptied of the pain . . . emptied of what once was . . . if only for a moment in time. A laugh bubbled inside her. Fun. She was having fun. Louella wanted to put Waties and Joshua in this tub so they could experience the complete abandon of such a luxury.
Twirling one more time, she put her hands on the tub and lifted herself up. “Okay. I’m ready!” she shouted.
Miss Saddie opened the door and came back in carrying a thin blanket. Louella wrapped it around herself and got out of the tub. “Ooh, the water is still warm. I hate to leave it, but we have a celebration to get to.”
“Remember all the times we had to dip in those cold river streams to get the stink off us?” Miss Saddie said.
“Don’t remind me.” Louella shook her head. “The journey was hard, but we’re home now.”
Louella dried herself off and then reached for her old brown dress, but Miss Saddie snatched her dress off the floor and threw it against the back wall. “We’ve got something much better for you today.”
Putting a hand over her mouth, Louella shivered with delight. “I should have known a dress was involved in all of this. Why else would you be in here?”
“Sooni and I have worked for months on your gown for the celebration, and I am honored to help you into it.”
Miss Saddie handed her a shift. “I didn’t forget this time. Put this on first.”
Louella smiled. There had been no shift for the wedding dress Miss Saddie had made her when they were on the Montgomery Plantation.
Being careful not to disturb the bun on top, Louella pulled the shift over her head. Then Abigail entered the house again. She was carrying a pair of silk over-the-knee stockings. The kind that fine ladies wore.
“Your stockings, Lady Louella.” Abigail curtsied in front of her as she held out the stockings.
“What’s with this lady stuff?” Louella giggled, sat down, and put the stockings on.
Abigail used ribbons to tie the stockings below Louella’s knees. “I would have tied them above your knees, but I have a feeling you’re going to be dancing tonight.”
The door opened, and Elmira entered carrying a dickey petticoat and a stay. The knee-length, white linen petticoat was worn underneath the outer petticoat for warmth and modesty. Louella stepped into it, and then it was tied around her waist.
The stay was a stiff piece of layered linen. It raised the bosom and narrowed the waist. Louella stretched her arms in front of her. Elmira slid the stay on and then began tying it in the back. Louella sucked her breath in at the jolt of the tightening. She had never had such a luxury in her whole life.
Abigail then put the stomacher on her and pinned it to the stay. The fabric of the stomacher was blue silk with gold lace.
Touching the fabric, Louella turned questioning eyes toward Miss Saddie. “You made this . . . for me?”
Miss Saddie tsked. “Of course we did. And stop looking as if someone’s gon’ bust open the door and tear these clothes off you. They’re yours . . . bought and paid for.”
Louella lowered her head. She hadn’t forgotten Mary accusing her of thievery the last time she wore a dress that wasn’t clothes for an enslaved person. She loved everything they were doing for her, but why did she need such finery? She wondered what Serepta and Sarah would say when they got a look at her in clothes that were fit for the lady of the manor—the big house.
“Stop it, Louella. You deserve everything that’s coming your way,” Clara told her as she stepped into the house carrying a beautiful blue and gold gown and petticoat.
Louella’s hand went to her mouth. She looked to heaven. “Am I dreaming? Am I about to wake up and still be in my brown dress?”
“No!” Miss Saddie scrunched her nose. “I’m throwing that dress away. I’ve already made you a few other dresses to choose from after tonight’s celebration.”
This moment was too perfect—too beautiful—for her to allow Mary Montgomery any more space in her mind. She would not allow that woman to destroy another special moment in her life. She dismissed thoughts of Mary and leaned into everything that was taking place.
The smile on Louella’s face couldn’t be destroyed. She was walking on clouds . . . dancing with the angels. “Okay. Put this dress on me, and let’s march up this hill.”