Jeff did not eat much supper, Leah noticed, at least not as much as he usually did. That is to say, he ate only two whole baked potatoes, a huge chunk of smoked ham, a medium-sized bowl of butter beans, and four biscuits.
She smiled sweetly and said, “Well, Jeff, I guess you’re too full to eat anything else.”
He leaned back and patted his stomach. “Sure am. You did a good job, Leah.”
“I guess I’ll have to save the apple pie for somebody else.”
Jeff’s eyes flew open. “You’ve got apple pie? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I am telling you. I’ll just have a piece for me, and you could have some, couldn’t you, Eileen?”
Eileen seemed amused by the scene between the two young people. She’d mentioned to Leah that Jeff was rather stiff in his behavior toward her, and that she regretted it for she found him a very handsome and attractive young man—much like his father. “I believe I could have a small piece,” she said demurely.
When Leah got up to get the pie, Eileen reached across and gave Esther a spoonful of peas. “Chew them good,” she said.
“Chew! Peas good!” Esther crowed.
“She certainly is a beautiful child, Jeff. And Leah tells me she looks exactly like your mother with her blonde hair and blue eyes.”
“I guess so,” Jeff grunted, not looking up.
Leah noticed his behavior and slammed down his pie in front of him with more force than was necessary. She was upset with Jeff because he persisted in his mulish behavior. “Well, there it is.”
Jeff glanced at her and then quickly back down at the pie. Picking up his fork, he sliced off a healthy wedge, speared it, then put it in his mouth. “Good,” he mumbled around the huge mouthful. But when he took a sip of coffee made from acorns, he made a face. “I wish the coffee was as good as the pie!”
“If the war doesn’t end pretty soon, some people will forget what real coffee tastes like,” Leah said.
“Guess so,” Jeff muttered.
“Come along, Eileen, it’s time to get you ready,” Leah said. “Jeff, you can wash the dishes. And look after Esther.”
Jeff waited until the two women had left the room, then said under his breath, “Glad to, Leah, now that you have asked me so politely.”
He looked over at Esther, who was grinning at him. He walked around the table, sat beside her, and wiped her face with a damp cloth. “I wish everybody was as sweet and pretty as you are, Esther,” he whispered. “It would be a mighty good world.” Then he put her on the floor, where she played around his feet and generally got in the way as he washed the dishes in the sink.
When he’d finished that chore, he wandered into the sitting room, with Esther padding along beside him. Sitting on the floor, he got out some of her toys and played with her until he heard the sound of a horse and carriage outside.
“That must be Pa,” he said. He got to his feet, and when a knock came at the door, he was there to answer it. “Come on in, Pa. I mean, Colonel.”
“I guess it can be Pa tonight,” Nelson Majors said. “How do you like the new uniform? Absolutely the last one in all Richmond.” He turned around to give Jeff a good look. The uniform he wore was ash-gray, and he had a scarlet sash around his waist. The coat was long, and its brass buttons gleamed in the lamplight. His boots glowed with a bright burnish. The hat he held by his side had a small, black, feathered plume in it.
“Wow, Pa,” Jeff said almost reverently. “You look great. If you drop dead, we won’t have to do a thing to you.”
“Jeff, you have a way of phrasing things that … well … well, thanks anyway for the compliment, if that’s what it was.”
“It was, Pa. You look great! Come on in and let Esther take a look at you in all your glory.”
In the sitting room, Esther ran to him instantly.
The colonel picked her up, tossed her into the air, listened to her squeal, then sat down with her on his lap. “Tell me what you’ve been doing,” he said and listened as, in her babyish prattle, she told of her adventures of the day. After a time he turned to Jeff. “She seems to be happy with her new nurse.”
“I guess so,” Jeff said uncomfortably. He had not said anything to his father about his displeasure, and he was glad he had not.
At that moment, he heard steps coming down the hallway, and both men looked toward the door.
Leah stepped inside, a smile on her face. “And now, I give you the queen of the ball, Mrs. Eileen Fremont!”
She waved her hand, and Eileen came into the room, her cheeks rosy. “What a lot of nonsense,” she said. “Hello, Colonel.”
Nelson stared at her. She was wearing a bright yellow evening gown with a deep-pointed bodice. The short sleeves were hidden under epaulettes of lace and trimmed with small, light pink silk flowers. The overskirt was gathered at the waist and very full, reaching to just above the knees, while the skirt underneath almost touched the floor and was decorated with small lace flounces and more silk flowers. Her hair was brushed back off her face, leaving a few small ringlets at each side, and was ornamented with pale pink flowers. She had on white elbow-length gloves.
“You look lovely, Eileen,” Colonel Majors said.
“Well, if I’m presentable, it’s because Leah’s such a good dressmaker. Actually, you’ve seen this dress before.”
“I have?”
“Yes, it belongs to Sarah,” Leah said. “Don’t you remember? She wore it to a ball once.”
“I guess I’d forgotten. Anyway, you look fine.” He pulled his watch out of his inner pocket and glanced at it. “And I guess we’d better get going if we want to be there for the opening promenade.”
As Eileen joined him at the door, the colonel said, “We may be back late, Jeff. I take it you’re staying. You can ride back to camp with me, of course.”
“All right, Pa.” Jeff waited until the door closed, then shook his head. “I never seen Pa act like that. Why, you’d think he was eighteen years old and was going to his first party.”
“I think your father gets lonesome, Jeff. When a man has a wife, he has company. Your father’s been alone now for three years.”
“Well, anyway, I don’t expect she’ll stay too long. She’ll probably go back to Baton Rouge soon.”
If Leah suspected that Eileen had no such idea, she did not choose to let Jeff know this. “Let’s pop the popcorn,” she said, “and then we’ll make balls. Come on, Esther—I’ll give you your first lesson on how to pop corn.”
Eileen Fremont had not been to a party since before the Battle of Shiloh early in the war. As she moved around the ballroom floor to a waltz, she was very conscious of this. Somehow she felt vaguely guilty about coming and said so.
“I really shouldn’t be doing this, Colonel.”
Nelson Majors looked down at her. “Why in the world not? It’s innocent enough. There won’t be many more balls like this in the Confederacy, I think.”
“I don’t know why. I just sometimes think that I’m still married, even though my husband has been dead for two years.”
He maneuvered her in a sweeping curve and looked out over the ballroom. The women’s red, yellow, green, and blue dresses made a colorful sight amid the officers’ gray uniforms, glittering brass buttons, and polished black boots. He listened to the band playing, then said, “I know. I feel the same way. I suppose when you’re married to someone that you love, you think it can never end. But it does.”
“Well,” she said brightly, apparently trying to lighten the conversation, “I’ve danced three dances straight with you. Are we going to have every dance?”
“No, the general over there has warned me he’ll have me court-martialed if he doesn’t get the next one.”
“Oh, we mustn’t let that happen! But right now, tell me some more about what you did in Kentucky.”
When the ball ended, Nelson was shocked at how late it was. He said so as he helped Eileen into the carriage. “Why, it’s after one o’clock. We won’t get you back to the house until one thirty!”
“Everybody may be asleep,” she said. She waited until he got inside and picked up the lines, and then, as the carriage moved off, began talking about the officers of the regiment. “They all seem very young.”
“Most of the older ones haven’t made it this far,” Nelson said. He quickly amended his statement. “I didn’t mean to say that.”
“It’s all right, Colonel.”
Nelson looked at her and said, “Look, when you call me colonel I feel as old as Methuselah. You think you could use my name for the rest of the evening?”
“Of course, Nelson, if you think it’s proper for a housekeeper to address the master by his first name.”
They passed a street lamp, and the light fell across her face. He had never seen a woman more calm, which surprised him. “When you first came storming into my office,” he said, “I thought you had a temper like musket fire, but you don’t, really.”
“Yes, I do—when things go wrong. I like to have my own way.” She smiled at him, and he smiled back. “I suppose most of us want our own way, but few of us get it.”
They chatted amiably as the horse plodded on down the road. He talked mostly of Kentucky and his life there. “I had a nice farm, and it was good. I had to sell it when we came to Richmond.”
“You never know. Maybe you can go back there when the war’s over.”
“I wouldn’t be very welcome, I’m afraid,” he said soberly. “Most of the people in that area are for the Union. They wouldn’t want a Rebel back in the midst of them. I’d like to go back, though. And Jeff and Tom loved it there.”
When they got to the house and Nelson pulled up the horse, he said, “Great guns! I’ve never talked so much in my whole life. I’ve bored you to death, Eileen.”
“I haven’t been bored.” Her voice was quiet.
They sat listening as an owl crossed the sky, making a lonely cry.
“It’s a beautiful evening,” she said. “I love the full moon.” She looked up at the huge, silver disk and added, “Look, you can even see the pockmarks on it!” She turned to him. “I used to look to see the man in the moon, but I never saw him.”
“Neither did I! He’d be a pretty old fellow by this time, I think.” Nelson admired the stars that dotted the heavens and said, “I wish I knew the names of all those. The Bible says God calls them all by name.”
“That’s a nice thought—that He named all the stars.”
“I find a lot of comfort in the Bible,” he said. “I miss my church back in Kentucky, although we’ve had some good chaplains. There’s just something about taking your family and going into a church, sitting down, looking at people, listening to the sermon, singing together. I miss that a lot.”
“I’m sure you do. I love church too.”
The two sat in the buggy talking until finally Eileen said, “Well, it’s very late …”
“Of course it is.” He wrapped the lines tightly, jumped out, then walked around to her side and helped her to the ground. They stood facing each other. “I can’t tell you what this has meant to me, Eileen. I’ve been, to tell the truth, a little bit lonely.”
“I guess we’ve both been lonely. It’s been nice for me too.”
He did not want the moment to end. He took her hand. “I guess I’ll never know how to thank you for the way you’ve come to take care of Esther for me.” He bent over and kissed her hand and smiled. “Thank you very much, Mrs. Fremont.”
“You’re very welcome, Nelson. And I … I wish you didn’t have to go into battle.”
Something in her voice touched the colonel. Without planning to, he took her in his arms and kissed her. When he stepped back, he said, “I can’t apologize for that.”
“I don’t think you have to.”
Inside the house, Jeff peered through the front window. He saw his father kiss Eileen Fremont, and at once he straightened up.
Leah, standing at his side, touched his arm. She understood. “Don’t let it bother you, Jeff.”
He did not answer, however, and when the colonel and Eileen came in and his father said, “Well, we had a great time. How about you folks?” Jeff said nothing.
Leah spoke up quickly. “Oh, we had a good time here too. We made popcorn balls for you to take back to some of the officers.”
“That’ll be fine, Leah. Thank you. Well, let’s get back to camp, Jeff. Thanks again for the lovely evening, Eileen.”
“It was a pleasure, Colonel.”
As soon as the two men left, Eileen turned to Leah. “Jeff was angry, wasn’t he?”
“He saw his father kiss you. I think he’s very upset.”
“That often happens when young people lose their mothers. They’re bound to feel some resentment toward anyone who tries to take their place. I’m sorry for it.”
“He’ll be all right. Jeff gets like that sometimes.” Leah hesitated, then said, “I get that way myself. Sort of bullheaded.” She put her arms around the older woman. “Now, come along. I want to hear all about the ball …”