Chapter 20 #3
Susanna did her best to ignore his bitterly sarcastic tone as she unwrapped the package, revealing a red velvet box, and then opened the lid. She gasped softly. She had never seen such an exquisite ring, the filigreed gold and square-cut emerald at its center reflecting brilliantly in the sun.
“Oh, Adam, it’s beautiful.” With trembling fingers, she removed the twisted bed-curtain ring and replaced it with her new wedding band. It fits perfectly. Look!”
But he had moved to the sloping edge of the pond, his back to her.
Hurt filled her that he would so pointedly refuse to share in her happiness, and sudden tears stung her eyes.
She forced them back, reminding herself miserably that only time could change this impasse between them. Time and her continued patience.
After setting the curtain ring carefully in the box, as she wanted to keep the iron strip for sentimental reasons, she shut the lid and began to gather together the refuse from their picnic. She sensed he was in no mood either to eat or swim…
“I don’t want you to help Prue in the kitchen ever again.”
“What?” she asked, raising her head from her task to find him glaring at her.
“You are now a planter’s wife, and planters’ wives manage their households from a proper distance, which means they do not participate in their servants’ work. Do you understand?”
Her temper flaring, Susanna nonetheless tried to keep it under control. “What do you propose I do with my time, then? I don’t know how to do needlepoint, and I’m all thumbs with a needle and thread anyway. I’m not at all musical—”
“You can learn, can’t you? You’ve grasped well enough how to act the part of a lady, wielding a fan and performing the niceties of proper society.
The music room is full of fine instruments gathering dust. I’ll hire you a music teacher, and I’ll order enough stitchery materials from Yorktown to keep you busy for months. ”
“But I don’t like to sew, Adam. I hate it, in fact. To me, it’s a waste of time when I could be making myself useful around the house—”
“I don’t care what you like or don’t like,” he broke in with harsh vehemence, approaching to stand only a few feet from her.
“Planters’ wives work embroidery, play the harpsichord, entertain guests, discreetly direct the house servants’ activities, and care for their husbands’ and children’s needs. Do I make myself clear?”
Susanna stared at him sullenly. Her anger at his insensitivity quickly overcame her excited thoughts of the family they might have together.
“Good God, woman, if you continue baking bread and toiling in the kitchen, Ertha will suspect all the more that you are not her precious Camille!”
“Oh, Adam!” Susanna blurted without thinking, completely exasperated with him. “That doesn’t matter anymore! She already knows.”
It was too late to clap a hand over her mouth.
As Adam’s expression of utter incredulity quickly became one of darkening rage, she inwardly cursed her heedless tongue.
She had planned to tell Adam what she had done sometime during the next few days, but she had hoped to introduce the topic gently, to prepare him first. So much for that.
“What do you mean, she already knows?”
“I—I told her the truth…yesterday morning after you left for Williamsburg. She’d been staring at me so strangely all week, watching my every move, and I just couldn’t bear it anymore—”
“You couldn’t bear it anymore?” he shouted, grabbing her shoulders and hauling her to her feet. “Heaven help you, woman, do you know what you’ve done?”
“Of course I do!” Susanna retorted as his fingers bit cruelly into her flesh.
Her words tumbled from her mouth in a nervous flood.
“I explained everything to her and, though she was understandably shaken to hear about Camille’s death she was relieved to know the truth.
Poor Ertha had thought she might be going crazy since she saw that portrait.
Anyway, she swore not to say a word to anyone.
She knows that if Briarwood were ever sold, those servants who aren’t free would find themselves on the auction block.
They’re like her family, Adam, you know that.
She promised not to do anything to jeopardize them, and I believe her.
Besides, Briarwood is the only home she’s ever known. She would have no place to go—”
“I’ll tell you where you’re going to go,” he muttered ominously, sweeping her suddenly into his arms and carrying her to her horse, where he hoisted her unceremoniously into the saddle.
“You’re going to leave right now and ride straight for home before I do something I might regret!
” Flinging the reins into her hands, he ordered harshly, “Get out of here!”
When she only stared at him stupidly, too stunned to speak, Adam slapped her mare’s rump. “Go, damn you! Now!”
Susanna held on to the reins for dear life as her startled mount shot out from beneath the willow tree into the full glare of the afternoon sun.
She didn’t look back. She kept her tear-blinded eyes fixed straight ahead as she raced for home, her heart thundering as furiously as her mare’s flying hooves.