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“She’s one fine cook,” Lee remarked. “Pork chops, potatoes and gravy, creamed corn and pea salad, with mighty fine bread. Looks like Hattie turned out to be quite a woman. Makes me almost anxious to meet her proper like.”
Joe smiled. “Yes sir, she is.”
“Who planted the cotton this year?” Lee asked.
Joe glanced at him peculiar like. “Why, me and her planted it. Why?”
“How does she think she’s gonna get a fair price? Frank won’t let that happen. He’s already closed her credit at the store from what I heard.” Lee wanted to kno
w.
“Mr. Harvey, he offered to help when the time comes,” Joe answered. “If we can get it ready for market. They would rob her blind, her bein’ a woman.”
“You’re right about that. The Harvey’s are a nice bunch of people. He’s a fair man to deal with, always was,” Lee acknowledged.
“Mr. Harvey and his wife have been good neighbors to her. They like those girls. They got manners and they works right alongside her most the time,” Joe said slowly.
Lee nodded. “They are a cute bunch of kids.”
“The youngest is just a little over three years old, I have to tell you Mr. Lee, I was as surprised as anyone when she showed up, but that woman works hard as any man, and she takes good care of her kids.”
Lee smiled. It was the first real smile in a while and Joe began to relax.
After a long silence, Joe was about to leave and Lee stopped him. “I got an idea. It might just work since she don’t seem to recognize me.”
Joe came up to his side, obviously anxious to hear it as he stood waiting.
“If I’m dead, and better off that way, we’ll leave it at that, for now, ‘til I see for myself about things. But this is my home and I’m not going to just walk off and leave it. So you’re gonna get me hired on as help. My name will have to be changed. I’ll be Luke Sayers…how does that sound? He died in the Battle of Bull Run.”
Joe’s eyes brightened. “Sounds right nice. Mr. Luke. But what if she don’t want to hire you?”
“You’ll see that she does,” Lee threatened.
“But Mr. Lee…”
“Luke, and I’ll work the first month for nothin’ but room and meals. So she’ll see how good I am in the fields,” he informed him. “Besides, with a heart like Hattie’s, how could she refuse to help a one-armed man?”
Joe scratched his chin thoughtfully. “Yes sir, that just might work. You don’t think she’ll recognize you?”
“I looked her straight in the eye in town and she didn’t. So…I’ll go up to the house tomorrow and introduce myself and say you sent me by saying she needed someone.” Lee slapped Joe on the back.
“You gonna cut that hair and beard?” Joe asked with a smirk.
“Nope, not just yet. Don’t want anyone recognizing me. Can’t have that, now, can we?” Lee chuckled.
Joe nodded. “That’s right smart, Mr. Lee, I mean Mr. Luke. But, how you gonna ever take over the place, without tellin’ her who you are?”
“Maybe I won’t take it over. I can be near her, with her, help her, and not cause a speck of trouble,” he explained as though it were brilliant. “Besides, maybe she’s got her eye on some other man somewhere. A Negro man somewhere.”
“The way she talks about men folks, I don’t reckon you’ll marry her off to nobody. She said you was the only decent man she ever knew.”
“She said that?” He smiled and thought about that. Then he looked at Joe. “God help me Joe, I spent a whole war dreaming about us, about maybe making a family…”
Joe stared at him and a slow smile spread over his face. “Good Lord, Mr. Lee, you ain’t gonna be able to keep this from her. Women know these things.”
“Maybe, but at least it will give me some time to figure out how to deal with it.”
Joe nodded slowly. “Ain’t no fittin’ homecomin’ is it?”
