“At the most, four and a half months; that’s how long we’ve been married.”
“Has mother nature visited you since the wedding?”
“No, ma’am, she has not…”
“Some women, become enceinte the first night- have you began showing yet? If you have, you’re probably four months along.”
“Grandmother, I don’t even know what that means.”
“What! You mean to tell me that your mother did not teach you all about this stuff before you married- that is unheard of!”
“There was not much time once they decided that Thomas and I should marry. She told me very little of what to expect on my wedding night, Allie blushed, “And nothing at all about having a baby. I think everything just happened so fast that maybe she forgot- or took it for granted that I knew.”
“We will …show more content…
Waves lashed the Spitfire with a force comparable to that of the slaver’s whip on a slaves’ back; as the force of a whip would peel the flesh from a man’s back- the rough waves and the heat, siphoned the strength right out of them. Watching two of his men, standing toe to toe, about to try to beat each other to a pulp, Thomas sighed in exasperation; he would be glad when they reached Kingston- maybe then, they would settle down. Most of them had women there- some, even had families.
Jim Jefferies suddenly stepped up and hit one of the men in the back of the head, knocking him unconscious. “If you want the same, then keep on,” he told the other crew member. “Now, I would suggest that you get back to work,” he told him. After the crewman had walked off, Jefferies nodded to Thomas that he had everything under control, before helping the other man to his feet. He then headed him in the direction of the hold. He would lock him up for a couple of hours and let him cool down. Maybe then, he would be in a better mood to …show more content…
Really?” Allie was surprised, but then again, after thinking about it a moment, she was not surprised at all; Addie was light-skinned and had many of the same features her grandmother did - she even had green eyes.
“Don’t tell me you’re surprised- I’m not the least bit surprised,” said Eli.
“After I thought about it a moment, I’m not either. What else did you find?”
“It would seem that the Christopher women kept a running tally of who fathered whom and so on- Addie has a full-blood brother, also fathered by our great-grandfather, that our great-grandmother Christopher was keeping up with; his name is or rather was Julian Christopher. Our great-grandfather Christopher gave him his freedom and sent him to England for an education… He must have cared a great deal for him…”
“I think that is a good thing,” said Allie. “He could have sold him or kept him a slave for the rest of his life.”
“From what I read, this Julian married and fathered children- their children married and so on- now, no one knows they were Negroes.”