“Why don't those two just get married and make babies?” said Arthur Stuart. “Pa said that.”
Her face stony, Peggy turned away from them. “It has to be on your terms, doesn't it, Alvin. Everything on your terms.”
“My terms?” said Alvin. “It wasn't my terms to say these things to you in front of others, though at least it's my friends and not strangers who have to hear them. I love you, Miss Larner. I love you, Margaret. I don't want you in that courtroom, I want you in my arms, in my life, in all my dreams and works for all time to come.”
Peggy clung to the bars of the jail, her face averted from the others.
Arthur Stuart walked around to the outside of the cell and looked guilelessly up into her face. “Why don't you just marry him instead of crying like that? Don't you love him? You're real pretty and he's a good-looking man. You'd have damn cute babies. Pa said that.”
“Hush, Arthur Stuart,” said Measure.
Peggy slid down until she was kneeling, and then she reached through the bars and took Arthur Stuart's hands. “I can't, Arthur Stuart,” she said. “My mother died because I loved Alvin, don't you see? Whenever I think of being with him, it just makes me feel sick and… guilty… and angry and…”
“My mama's dead too, you know,” said Arthur Stuart. “My Black mama and my White mama both. They both died to dave me from slavery. I think about that all the time, how if I'd never been born they'd both still be alive.”
Peggy shook her head. “I know you think of that, Arthur, but you mustn't. They want you to be happy.”
“I know,” said Arthur Stuart. “I ain't as smart as you, but I know that. So I do my best to be happy. I'm happy most of the time, too. Why can't you do that?”
Alvin whispered an echo to his words. “Why can't you do that, Margaret?”
Peggy raised her chin, looked around her. “What am I doing here on the floor like this?” She got to her feet. “Since you won't take my help, Alvin Smith, then I've got work to do. There's a war in the future, a war over slavery, and a million boys will die, in America and the Crown Colonies and even New England before it's done. My work is to make sure those boys don't die in vain, to make sure that when it's over the slaves are free. That's what my mother died for, to free one slave. I'm not going to pick just one, I'm going to save them all if I can.” She looked fiercely at the men who watched her, wide-eyed. “I've made my last sacrifice for Alvin Smith– he doesn't need my help anymore.”
With those words she strode to the outer door.
“I do so,” murmured Alvin, but she didn't hear him, and then she wag gone.
“If that don't beat all,” said Measure. “I ask you, Alvin, why didn't you just fall in love with a thunderstorm? Why don't you just go propose to a blizzard?”
“I already did,” said Alvin.
Verily walked to the door of the cell. “I'm going to interview Ramona tonight in case you change your mind, Alvin,” he said.
“I won't,” said Alvin.
“I'm quite sure, but other than that there's nothing else I can do.” He debated saying the next words, but decided that he might as well. What did he have to lose? Alvin was going to go to prison. And Verily's journey to America was going to turn out to have been in vain. “I must say thalt I think you and Miss Larner are a perfect match. The two of you together must have more than seventy percent of the world's entire store of stupid bullheadedness.”
It was Verily's turn to head for the outer door. Behind him as he left, he heard Alvin say to Measure and Arthur: “That's my lawyer.” He wasn't sure if Alvin spoke in pride or mockery. Either way, it only added to his despair.
Billy Hunter's testimony was pretty damaging. It was plain that he liked Alvin well enough and had no desire to make him look bad. But he couldn't change what he saw and had to tell the truth– he'd looked into the jail and them was nowhere Alvin and Vilate could have hidden.
Verily's cross-examination consisted merely of ascertaining that when Vilate entered the cell, Alvin was definitely there, and that the pie she left behind tasted right good. “Alvin didn't want it?” asked Verily.
“No sir. He said… he said he sort of promised it to an ant.”
Some laughter.
“But he let you have it anyway,” said Verily.
“I guess so, yes.”
“Well, I think that shows that Alvin is unreliable indeed, if he can't keep his word to an ant!”
There were some chuckles at Verily's attempt at humor, but that did nothing to ameliorate the fact that the prosecution had cut into Alvin's credibility, and rather deeply at that.
It was Vilate's turn then. Marty Laws laid the groundwork, and then came to the key point. “When Mr. Hunter looked into the jail and failed to see you and Alvin, where were you?”
Vilate made a great show of being reluctant to tell. He was relieved to see, however, that she wasn't quite the actress Amy Sump had been, perhaps because Amy half-believed her own fantasies, while Vilate… well, this was no schoolgirl, and these were no fantasies of love. “I should never have let him talk me into it, but… I've been alone too long.”
“Just answer the question, please,” asked Laws.
“He took me through the wall of the jail. We passed through the wall. I held his hand.”
“And where did you go?”
“Fast as the wind we went– I felt as though we were flying. For a time I ran beside him, taking strength from his hand as he held mine and led me along; but then it became too much for me, and I, fainting, could not go on. He sensed this in that way of his and gathered me into his arms. I was quite swept away.”
“Where did you go?”
“To a place where I've never been.”
There were some titters at that, which seemed to fluster her a little. Apparently she was not aware of her own double entendre– or perhaps she was a better actress than Verily thought.
“By a lake, Not a large one, I suppose– I could see the far shore. Waterbirds were skimming the lake, but on the grassy bank where we… reclined… we were the only living things. This beautiful young man and I. He was so full of promises and talk of love and…”
“Can we say he took advantage of you?” asked Marty.
“Your Honor, he's leading the witness.”
“He did not take advantage of me,” Vilate said. “I was a willing participant in all that happened. The fact that I regret it now does not change the fact that he did not force me in any way. Of course, if I had known then how he had said the same things, done the same things with that girl from Vigor Church…”
“Your Honor, she has no pergonal knowledge of–”
“Sustained,” said the judge. “Please limit your responses to the questions asked.”
Verily had to admire her skill. She managed to sound as if she were defending Alvin rather than trying to destroy him. As if she loved him.
Chapter 16 – Truth
When it came Verily's turn to question Vilate, he sat for a moment contemplating her. She was the picture of complacent confidence, with her head just slightly cocked to the left, as if she were somewhat– but not very– curious to hear what he would ask of her.
“Miss Franker, I wonder if you can tell me– when you passed through the wall from the jail, how did you get up to ground level?”
She looked momentarily confused, “Oh, is the jail below ground? Well, I suppose when we went through the wall, we– no, of course we didn't. The jail is on the second floor of the courthouse, and it's about a ten-foot drop to the ground. That was mean of you, to try to trick me.”
“My question still stands,” said Verily. “That must have been quite a drop, coming through the wall into nothing.”
“We handled it gently. We… floated to the ground. It was part of the remarkable experience. If I had known you wanted so much detail, I'd have said so from the start.”