The Wedding Gift Read online

  The Cromwells arrived late Friday night. On Saturday afternoon, after dinner, the gentlemen went to my husband’s office and the ladies to the library.

  “Mrs. Cromwell, this is extremely difficult for me, as a mother….”

  “Yes, Mrs. Allen?”

  “Sometimes our children do not conduct themselves in ways that are consistent with their upbringing. Clarissa and your son, they….”

  “Mama, please, permit me to…Mrs. Cromwell, what Mama is trying to say is that….” Clarissa closed her eyes and dabbed them with her handkerchief.

  “What is it, dear?”

  “I’m so ashamed, Mrs. Cromwell. Julius…he…he took my honor.” Clarissa now cried and put her head down.

  “Oh dear. Are you saying that you and my son…?”

  “We were both at fault, Mrs. Cromwell. I should have insisted on not riding alone with him. But please, please do not punish your future grandson because of what Julius and I did. Please, Mrs. Cromwell.”

  “Oh…you are expecting? So that is why we were invited here, to consent to a much earlier wedding date.”

  “Yes, Mrs. Cromwell,” I said.

  “Come here, you little angel. Of course I agree. I would never permit my grandson to be born out of wedlock.”

  Mrs. Cromwell kissed Clarissa then and they embraced.

  “I am so relieved, Mrs. Cromwell. Clarissa, it is a blessing that you will have Mrs. Cromwell as your mother-in-law.”

  “Thank you, Mrs. Allen. You are gracious. Let us pray that the gentlemen will arrive at the same conclusion.”

  We spoke at length about the wedding and agreed that there would be no honey-month, given that Clarissa was expecting. Mrs. Cromwell reminded us that the new home would not be completed until the following year and that Julius and Clarissa would initially have to live with his parents. Mr. Cromwell, Julius, and Cornelius, who were all smiling, joined us in the library. My husband embraced Clarissa and me.

  “Ladies, all is well with us, and with you?”

  “Yes, with us too,” I said.

  “Then you may go forward with wedding arrangements, for early next month. Gentlemen, join me in the parlor for a well-deserved brandy.”

  The wedding ceremony was held on a Saturday afternoon at our church. Early the next morning, the servants loaded two carriages with Clarissa’s possessions. I promised my darling that her father and I had already spoken with Mrs. Cromwell about visiting them in two months, and that we certainly planned to be there for the baby’s birth.

  The month following Clarissa’s wedding, my sister-in-law wrote that her father was gravely ill and my husband and I traveled to Montgomery. I notified Clarissa and she wrote to me there:

  “Mama, every night, before I fall asleep, I make a pact with myself that, in the morning, as Papa taught me, I will ‘rise and shine’ and ‘seize the day.’ But, after Sarah brings me breakfast and I eat, I cannot leave my bed. She warns me that it is not good for the baby if I do not stretch my limbs, but I do not go outside. Sarah wakes me to dress in the evening, and that is the first time of the day that I venture outside my bedroom. At supper, the gentlemen report on their activities and the women listen. Afterward, I go upstairs to the bedroom. My husband sometimes joins me later. Whether I am asleep or not when he arrives, he does to me what he wants. Sarah says that you should visit soon, as only you will be able to make me change my newly acquired slothful ways.”

  I told my husband about Clarissa’s letter.

  “Write her and tell her to stop behaving like a moronic child.”

  “I would like to see her soon.”

  “No. Stop coddling her. We will visit her when we are able.”

  My father-in-law passed away, and we stayed in Montgomery after the funeral to dispose of estate issues and to comfort my mother-in-law. When we returned home after a month, I asked my husband if we could go to Talladega, but he said that we had been away from the plantation for too long and there was much to be done. Clarissa wrote again, briefly stating that she had lost her appetite and some days did not even rise for supper. I told her father what she said.

  “Well, damn it, tell her to eat. Has she lost all common sense?”

  I wrote Clarissa pleading with her to eat and to take care of herself, but she did not reply. Emmeline and Bessie came to me one afternoon when I did not rise from my own bed.

  “Ma’am, we’re sorry if you was sleeping and we woke you, but we thought maybe you was sick and need something.”

  “No, I am not ill, but thank you, Bessie.”

  “Ma’am, I beg your pardon, but I need to ask you if you heard anything about Miss Clarissa and my Sarah,” Emmeline said.

  I turned on my other side to look at them. “No, I have not received a letter from Clarissa in quite some time, and I don’t know what to do. I believe, based upon her last letter, that Sarah is well, but not Clarissa.”

  “Ma’am, can’t you go to Talladega?”

  “No, Mr. Allen says that now is not a good time to leave home.”

  That night my husband came to my bedroom. “I understand that you want to go to Talladega to see your daughter.”

  “Yes. Yes, I do.”

  “I don’t believe that it is necessary, but since you have taken to your bed, the servants are worried about you. The coachman will take you in my carriage tomorrow. Bessie and Emmeline may go with you.”

  “Thank you. Thank you. I am truly concerned about Clarissa.”

  “I am certain that she is well and simply wants you to rush to her side.”

  When we arrived at the Cromwell home, a servant sent for Mrs. Cromwell.

  “Mrs. Allen, what a surprise. We did not know you were coming.”

  “Clarissa has not replied to my letters, and my husband and I decided that I should immediately come to see her. I apologize, but I was not able to write in advance. I pray that you understand that this is an unusual circumstance.”

  “Mrs. Allen, you are welcome here at anytime.”

  “Thank you. Please direct me to my daughter.”

  “Please have some refreshments first and your servants may go to their quarters.”

  “No, thank you. I need to see Clarissa straightaway and my servants will accompany me.”

  “Yes, yes, of course. I will show you to her chambers. My husband and son are not here. They are traveling.”

  My dear Clarissa was asleep in a dark room. I asked Bessie to open the draperies. Clarissa’s hair was dirty and her skin jaundiced. Her belly stuck out of her thin frame.

  “Mrs. Cromwell, where is Sarah?”

  “She is in the kitchen.”

  “Why is she there? As Clarissa’s maid, her responsibility is to be with her mistress at all times to care for her.”

  “That is a decision my husband has made. I will send someone for her.” She departed.

  “Clarissa, dearest, your mother is here. Please, puppet, please open your eyes.”

  Her eyelids fluttered. I touched her cheek and she awoke.

  “Mama. Mama. Are you really here, Mama? I’ve called for you many times, but…how silly of me. You couldn’t hear me.”

  “Puppet, Emmeline and Bessie are here too, and oh, here is Sarah.”

  Sarah embraced her mother.

  “Sarah, what has happened to Clarissa?”

  “I asked Mrs. Cromwell to write you a letter saying that Miss Clarissa was sick, but she wouldn’t do it. I would have asked her again, but she told me that if I ever spoke to her again in that manner she would tell her son to put me in my place. And she said there was nothing wrong with Miss Clarissa.”

  “Dear God, why are they mistreating my child? Sarah, did they call a physician for her?”

  “Yes, ma’am. He comes two times a week.”

  “Are you present when he examines her?”

  “No, ma’am, not anymore, only in the beginning when he first started coming. Now, they don’t even let me see her much. They told me that I had to help in the kitchen and
only look after Miss Clarissa in the morning and at night. And they said that I was going to get whipped if I didn’t stop asking to go to my mistress.”

  “Did they hurt you, baby?” Emmeline asked.

  “No, Mama. They didn’t.”

  Emmeline asked Sarah what Clarissa had been eating. “Mama, I try to do the best I can to get her to eat porridge in the morning and meat at night, but I think she only eats when I feed her, ma’am.”

  “Do you know if the doctor bled her?”

  “Oh yes, Mama. I saw him do it, and, ma’am, look.”

  Sarah lifted the sleeves of Clarissa’s nightdress. Clarissa’s forearms were blue and swollen. I wiped the tears from my eyes. “Emmeline….”

  She nodded and approached Clarissa. “Miss Clarissa, please wake up. Miss Clarissa?”

  “Is that Emmeline? Where is Mama?”

  “Bessie, please go see if you can find somebody to bring a tea service with three pots and some very hot boiled water. And I’m going to need some clean linen cloths,” Emmeline said.

  “Miss Clarissa, I’m going to need you to try to stay awake, all right, just until I ask you a few things. Can you understand me, Miss Clarissa?”

  “Yes, Emmeline. Emmeline, having you here is like I’m back at home….”

  “Miss Clarissa, the doctor took blood from your arms, right?”

  “Papa. Where is Papa? Is he here?” She closed her eyes and went to sleep.

  “Sarah, do you know if the doctor gave her laudanum?”

  “Yes, Mama, he did. He gives it to her every time he comes.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “I have to clean up after him.”

  “All right, Sarah. I have some other questions for you. Try to remember back to when Miss Clarissa first got sick. Did she have any bleeding?”

  “Yes, Mama. She called me in the middle of the night. She was screaming.”

  “Was it a lot of blood, like during your monthly, when it’s heavy?”

  “No, Mama. It wasn’t that heavy.”

  “Did it get on the bed linen?”

  “No, ma’am. It was only on her undergarments.”

  “Did she say if her belly hurt too?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “And her back, did she say if it hurt?”

  “Yes, ma’am, that too.”

  Bessie returned with the tea service and linen cloths. Emmeline withdrew three dried herbs from her baggage and allowed them to steep in the pots for about ten minutes. She strained the teas and poured them in cups.

  “All right, we’re all going to help to wake Miss Clarissa and sit her up so she can start drinking the teas. Sarah, so you know what to do after we go back home, the teas I made are ginger root to make her stomach feel better and make her want to eat, red raspberry to make her strong, and alfalfa to stop the bleeding. Before it gets dark outside, Sarah, me and you is going to look for dandelion root that you will boil for Miss Clarissa to eat, or at least to drink mixed with beef broth. She’s going to feel better too because she won’t be getting bled or taking laudanum.”

  When Clarissa had finished drinking the ginger tea, we let her rest. In the meantime, Emmeline asked for more hot water, which she used to brew calendula to make poultices to heal the wounds and ease the pain on Clarissa’s arms caused by the physician’s bleeding. We followed Emmeline’s instructions, and the third day after our arrival, Clarissa was markedly improved. Her cheeks were rosy and she spent more time awake. Sarah and Bessie helped Clarissa bathe and washed her hair. The afternoon of the fourth day, the physician arrived, and Mrs. Cromwell took him to Clarissa’s bedroom. I was in the adjoining room with Bessie. Emmeline was with Clarissa, and Sarah was in the kitchen.

  “Ma’am, the doctor is here,” Emmeline alerted me.

  I went to Clarissa’s bedroom.

  “Ma’am, you are looking very well,” he was saying to Clarissa.

  Mrs. Cromwell presented the physician to me. “Yes, Dr. Walker, my daughter is much better because she is eating and taking tonics that my servant has prepared for her, and she is feeling much better because you have not recently bled her and given her laudanum. Because of your mistreatment of my daughter, your services are no longer needed.”

  “Mrs. Allen, Dr. Walker is the physician for all the ladies in Talladega County and has safely delivered all their babies, including my grandchildren.”

  “Thank you, Mrs. Cromwell. I am certain we will rely on Dr. Walker for the delivery, if he agrees that he will stop bleeding my daughter and giving her laudanum.”

  “Mrs. Allen, these are standard medical practices.”

  “They are not effective for my daughter. You will not bleed her or give her laudanum again. Is that understood?”

  “Yes, Mrs. Allen.”

  “When I return to my home, Sarah, my daughter’s maid who lives here with her, will see to all her needs. This is Sarah’s mother, Emmeline. She has learned midwifery and, in fact, assisted the physician who delivered my children. Emmeline has taught Sarah how to care for women who are expecting. You will be available, then, to deliver the child? Or shall I request a physician in Benton County to attend to my daughter?”

  “I will be available for the delivery.”

  “Thank you, Dr. Walker.”

  “Should I examine Mrs. Cromwell today?”

  “That will not be necessary.”

  We remained in Talladega for three weeks, until Clarissa was able to sit and to take short walks in the garden. She and I joined Mrs. Cromwell and her guests at supper several times. The Cromwell gentlemen returned from their travels two days before we departed for home. The evening before we left, Mrs. Cromwell asked to speak with me privately.

  “My husband asked me to discuss a delicate matter with you. He believes that a gentleman should not have this conversation with a lady. I told him that you objected that Sarah works in the kitchen. He said that I should explain to you that he had to send four of the servants that your husband gave to my son to the fields. He asked whether you and your husband would consider giving my son an advance on the twenty field hands that are promised to him upon the birth of the child.”

  “Mrs. Cromwell, my husband does not involve me in any aspect of his financial matters. As mistress of my household, my only concerns are domestic.”

  “I see. Well, this is a domestic concern. How shall I say this? Mrs. Allen, I have a sister who married into a family in Montgomery. Perhaps you know them? The Andersons? My sister informed me that, months ago, while my son was courting Clarissa, she frequently visited another young gentleman in Montgomery.”

  “Clarissa’s paternal extended family lives in Montgomery, and that is who she was visiting. Your sister should not have repeated such a baseless allegation.”

  “Mrs. Allen, one cannot characterize this knowledge as baseless when your daughter was expecting a child on her wedding day. And please understand that I am not trying to be callous.”

  “That may not have been your intent, but it is the result.”

  “I apologize to you. But you do understand my son’s predicament? He will be expected to acknowledge a child that may not be his.”

  “Mrs. Cromwell, you may tell your husband and son this: Your son did not merely take my daughter’s honor but forced her to surrender it. No amount of unsubstantiated claims concerning my daughter’s visits to her grandparents will negate your son’s unlawful conduct. You may also tell them that my husband read law at the University of Virginia and has informed me that, once a child is born in wedlock, he is presumed to be legitimate and the child of the mother’s husband. The only reason my husband consented to the financial arrangement whereby your son will receive twenty field hands is because he did not want you and your family to spread lies about our daughter and destroy our name, but if that is what you nevertheless plan to do, I am certain that my husband will retract his offer.”

  “No, no, Mrs. Allen, I assure you that this conversation is only between us. I will t
ell my husband your reply immediately. Please wait for me here. I won’t be long.”

  She returned in about five minutes. “My husband apologizes for our misunderstanding. He did not know that Clarissa was visiting her grandparents when she went to Montgomery. Please, let us forget this conversation, shall we? There is no need for Mr. Allen to hear of this, do you think?”

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  SARAH CAMPBELL

  OUR CABIN ON THE CROMWELL PLANTATION WAS near the stables and smelled like horse manure. There was no garden. Isaac replaced a piece of wood that was missing from the shutters, and he put more nails on the walls so that we could hang our clothes. Isaac’s first uniform belonged to a prior coachman. The length of the trousers fit Isaac, but the other man apparently was wider and heavier. I asked the overseer whether a carpenter could make repairs in my cabin and build us furniture, but he said that he could not spare someone until Mr. Cromwell’s house was completed. When we had been in Talladega about a week, I asked him for maid’s uniforms, but he said I would not need those, as I was going to spend most of the time in the kitchen.

  “Sir, I beg your pardon, but I am Mrs. Clarissa Cromwell’s maid.”

  “I have instructions from Mrs. Cromwell, the mistress of this household that, as of this coming Monday, you will work in the kitchen during the day. You can attend to Mrs. Clarissa in the morning and evening.”

  “But I also have to clean Mr. and Mrs. Julius Cromwell’s quarters and do their washing and ironing.”

  “And?”

  I found Clarissa in the garden. She was alone.

  “Miss Clarissa, I need to speak with you.”

  “We may speak here. Just keep your voice low.”