Read Online Manroot by Anne J. Steinberg - Free Book Online Page B

free. Mind you watch him. He’s handsome and young enough – who’d think of him as a judge? Yes, you watch him. I dare say you’re lucky none of them men has grabbed you yet and slung you across their bed and had their way with you.”
    “ No, the Judge isn’t like that. He wouldn’t do nothing like that,” Katherine protested.
    “ Oh no? You’ve seen them fancy women he’s brought here – he’s no saint, he’s just like the others. I know about men like him. I was a young girl once, a working maid like you; and I’ve seen enough of them, those fancy men. They don’t need to sling a girl in their beds, oh no. The only weapon they need to ruin you is their golden tongue…it glides smooth as honey.”
    Katherine was surprised at her anger, but Frieda could only remember Anna and know that what she said was true.
    “Not me,” Katherine assured her. “That would never happen to me.”
    Frieda laughed. “You’re a child in a woman’s body…you’ll see. I tell you – mind yourself, and don’t listen to no golden tongue. I suppose your father’s never told you about men?”
    Katherine flushed at the mention of his name. Yes, in a way, Jesse had told her about men.
    That ni ght, the girl could not sleep. She needed to tell someone of the wonder that had been the Judge. She had touched his fingers; he had told her private things; he had kissed her palm. She went over every detail in her mind again and again. ‘Call me William.’ She didn’t dare, but now, alone, she could say it, to hear how it sounded. ‘William…William.’ She whispered his name over and over in the dark. She turned and tossed in her bed. She remembered his words, ‘What do you do when you’re troubled?’
    It was too far, and too late, and too cold for her to walk to The Crossroads and sit by the river, but she could go out and look at the stars.
    She threw the cape over her shoulders and went out into the yard and the clear autumn sky. The cold barely touched her, as her body raged with an unknown fever.
    She walked to the mound, the hay-covered hill, where she lay down and searched the sky. Very faintly, she made out Taurus the Bull, and there were her favorites…the Seven Sisters. She squinted her eyes and saw things; she loved them, that cluster. She imagined these daughters of Atlas to be beautiful girls glittering there in white, running across the dark skies to meet their lovers.
    Her hand touched her breast. She remembered the birthmark. She smoothed her hand near it, caressingly. Would he someday see the birthmark and marvel that hers matched his? The touch of her fingers made her nipple harden and she closed her eyes tightly and conjured up his face, his eyes stark blue and his smile…God, how she loved it. It seemed that her imagination brought him here, and her hand now touching the mound of Venus…it was him…it was her…doing a shameful thing. It was him… Her breath caught in her throat and she ran back into her room, knelt and said three ‘Hail Marys.’

Chapter 6
     
    The violets had started a new interest for Katherine. The patch of earth eight feet by ten outside her window had been a hard, uncared-for, unsightly piece of ground in front of the ash pit. The trash men, always careless, left it littered. With Frieda’s permission, Katherine cleared it, dug it up, fertilized it with leaves, and after planting the first violet, she now spent her free time searching the woods for other wildflowers.
    “ Silly,” Frieda pronounced it, “all that work. Them plants are good for nothing – can’t eat ‘em, nor use ‘em for medicine.” But she watched with interest as the plot was transformed.
    To Katherine, this rectangle of earth was an anchor. In beauty, it connected her to the place. The feel of the rich earth as she dug and planted, gave her happiness. Frieda’s reference to her green thumb made her feel pleased.
    She had created beauty out of nothing. Early in the morning, the garden was the first