I WAS PLEASED about two things immediately. One, Elizabeth seated me next to herself at the table; two, turtle soup was not on the Nottinghams’ menu.
I’d eaten a skimpy breakfast, expecting the usual six-or seven-course southern exercise in dinnertime excess. Instead I found the food a touch on the dainty side: deviled eggs, shrimp rémoulade, cucumber sandwiches, various cheeses, and a big silver dish of pickles.
My father was also dishing it up: the personification of silver-haired charm, as he could be at those times when he let himself be roped into a social event.
“I really owe you and Elizabeth a debt of gratitude,” he told Nottingham. “If it weren’t for you, who knows if I’d even get to see my son again before he heads home!”
I recognized that as a clear signal. Now that we’d seen each other and been observed acting cordially toward each other, my job was done. I was welcome to go back to Washington anytime.
“Oh, I’m not going home yet, Father,” I said over the back of the settee. I held up my glass of claret. “I’m grateful too, Richard. My father and I don’t get to see each other enough. It’s so rare to see him in such a cheerful and expansive mood.”
My father gave out a little laugh. “Ben is quite a character,” he said. “He’s come down to tell us all where we went wrong. He thinks the South ought to be able to change overnight.”
Richard Nottingham was glancing from my father to me, as if wondering whether this dispute was going to lead to blows among all this expensive china and crystal.
“I’m just hoping for a South that returns to the rule of law,” I said. “I just want a place where the Ku Klux Klan is not hanging black men from every available tree.” I knew that I was treading dangerously here, but I couldn’t help myself.
“Now you’re being plain ignorant,” my father said. “You don’t seem to remember that the Klan was outlawed about forty years ago.”
“I remember it very well,” said Livia Winkler. “My daddy said it was the end of civilization.”
Senator Winkler cleared his throat. “Now, Judge, you know as well as I do that outlawing something does not guarantee that it ceases to exist,” he said. “As a matter of fact, that’s one of the best ways to ensure its continuing existence—to forbid it!”
They glared at each other. It struck me that they’d had this argument before, when I was nowhere around. It also reminded me that there were many good men and women in the South, even here in Eudora.
I was about to say something in support of Winkler when a servant girl walked in bearing a large round cake, frosted white, on a silver platter.
Nottingham brightened. “Why, Lizzie, is that a hummingbird cake?”
“Of course it is. I had them make it just for you. Richard’s going off to Jackson next week. We’ll miss his birthday, but we can all celebrate tonight.”
Something happened then that sent an electrical jolt through my body. It was all I could do to keep from bolting upright in my seat.
As she said these words to her husband, I felt Elizabeth’s hand gently pat the inside of my thigh.
“Ben,” she said, “you must try the cake.”