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Dinner at the St. James

By Sandra Robbins

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May 1878
Outside Willow Bend, Alabama

Tave Spencer, the teacher in the one room school house in Willow Bend, Alabama, sank into the chair behind her desk and blew at a strand of hair that dangled over her forehead. Just minutes before she’d seen her well-behaved, attentive students transformed into a stampeding herd, each one bent on being the first to escape the classroom and begin the school-free days of summer. They’d dashed out the door without a backward glance at the teacher who’d hammered reading, math, and spelling into their heads for the past nine months.
She glanced around the almost empty classroom and smiled at the one student who still remained. Gabby Rinaldi, the six-year-old daughter of Dante and Savannah Rinaldi, sat at her desk on the front row, her attention directed to the book she held.
“Gabby, your mother said she was going to pick you up today. I’m sure she’ll be here any time now.”
The child glanced up, and a smile curled her lips. She tilted her head to one side, her dark eyes sparkling behind the long lashes so much like her mother’s. “She wanted to go into town to see the Montgomery Belle. Poppa says he can’t keep Mama away from the docks when Captain Hawkins’ boat pulls up to the landing. I guess she’s watching them unload.”
Tave chuckled. Everyone in the community knew that when one of the paddle wheelers docked at Willow Bend, Savannah Rinaldi would be somewhere nearby. Picking up her child at school gave her the perfect excuse to stop by the dock.
Tave picked up the books she planned to take home for the summer and nodded. “I’m sure you’re right. Why don’t we sit outside and wait for her?”
Together they walked from the school house, and Tave locked the door behind her. A twinge of sadness gripped her heart as she sat down beside Gabby on the front steps. She thought of the boys and girls she’d taught this past year and the progress they’d made.
She’d come to love every one of them and hated to see the school year draw to a close. Some of them, like Tad Thompson and Johnny Williams, wouldn’t return in the fall. They’d be needed on the farms to help, and their education would come to a halt.
Others like Gabby Rinaldi were just starting their formal schooling and would be back. Tave smiled at Gabby. “When you come back to school in the fall, your brother will get to come with you.”
Gabby nodded, and her dark curls bobbed up and down. “He can already read. Me and Poppa. . .” Her eyes grew wide, and she spread her short fingers over her mouth to stifle a gasp. “I mean, Poppa and I have been teaching him.”
Tave laughed and slipped her arm around the child’s shoulders. “What a good sister you are. And a good student, too.”
Gabby smiled up at her and then directed her gaze down the road that led to Willow Bend. Tave leaned back on the steps, closed her eyes, and lifted her face up to the late May sunshine.
Soon it would be hot along the Alabama River that twisted and turned through the Black Belt of Alabama, so called because of its rich, black soil that covered the area. Tave dreaded the hot days that were before them and the mosquitoes that bred in the vegetation along the edge of the river. After the mild winter they’d had, she suspected the annoying insects would emerge in high numbers.
Tave blinked her eyes open as Gabby jumped to her feet. “Mama’s coming.”
Shading her eyes with her hand, Tave stared in the direction Gabby pointed. Savannah’s buggy came into sight, and Gabby hopped to the bottom of the steps to await her mother. When Savannah pulled the horse to a stop beside them, she flashed an apologetic smile in Tave’s direction.
“I’m sorry. I ran into Martha Thompson in Mr. Perkins store, and I couldn’t get away.” She reached out to pull Gabby into the buggy. Drawing the child close, Savannah planted a kiss on her forehead. “And how was your last day at school?”
“At least I didn’t have to walk home today.” Gabby snuggled next to her mother. “I don’t want to stay home for the summer. I want to come back to school.”
Tave laughed. “I wish all my students felt that way. But don’t worry, you’ll have such a good time at Cottonwood this summer, you’ll hardly think of school.”
Savannah nodded. “And Vance will get to come with you next fall.” She glanced at Tave. “Why don’t you let me drive you home? We can visit on the way.”
“Are you going my way?”
“Yes. The Montgomery Belle still hadn’t arrived when I left town. I thought I’d go back and see if it’s there yet.” Savannah let her gaze drift over the school grounds. “I’ll never understand why the town didn’t build this school right in the middle of Willow Bend. You have quite a walk coming out here every day.”
Tave shook her head and climbed in the buggy. “It’s less than a mile, and I like being so close to the river here. We get to see all the steamboats as they pass by.”
Savannah turned the horse around and headed back to the small settlement. “I’ve always liked to watch them, too. I thought the Montgomery Belle would dock before I left Mr. Perkins’ store, but it still wasn’t there.”
Gabby glanced up at Tave and grinned. “We thought you might be watching them unload, Mama.”
Savannah shook her head. “No, I don’t have time for that today. As soon as we let Miss Spencer out and I see the Montgomery Belle, we need to hurry home. Mamie is watching Vance, and that boy can be a handful.”
Tave scooted back into the leather seat of the buggy. “Thanks for the ride. This last day of school has worn me out. I’m going to fix Poppa and me some supper. Then I think I’ll go to bed early.”
Savannah flicked the reins across the horse’s back. “Are you going to help your father in his practice this summer?”
“Yes. I don’t know how he makes it without someone to help run his office, but he refuses to hire anybody. I help out every chance I get, but I have to admit medicine has never appealed to me. I can’t stand the sight of blood.”
Savannah smiled. “Well, your father is the best doctor I’ve ever known. We’re lucky to have him in Willow Bend.”
“I think he’s pretty wonderful, too.”
Savannah tightened her hands on the reins and cast a sly glance in Tave’s direction. “Is there anyone else around here that you think is wonderful besides your father?”
The question puzzled Tave. Her eyes grew wide, and she sat up straight. “No, not that I can think of.”
“Not even Matthew Chandler?”
Now she understood. Tave’s face warmed, and her breath caught in her throat at the mention of the heir to Winterville Plantation. “What makes you ask about Matthew?”
Savannah took her eyes off the road for a second to cast a knowing grin in Tave’s direction. “Don’t act so shocked. Everybody in Willow Bend knows he’s been calling on you for the past year. That seems like a long time if you’re not interested in him. In a romantic way, I mean. But after the way he teased you when you and your father first moved here, I didn’t think you’d ever like him.”
“I don’t know if I’ve forgiven him or not.” Tave turned in the seat toward Savannah. “Do you remember how he made fun of my name?”
Savannah laughed and nodded. “He did until you punched him in the nose at church one day and told him you were named after your grandmother Octavia and that your mother had shortened it to Tave. Then you held your fist in front of his face and dared him to make fun of your name again. Your father was mortified.”
Tave cast a glance at Gabby to see if she’d overheard, but her student appeared to be asleep. “I was just a child then, but he left me alone after that.” Tave sighed. “And now he shows up at our house quite often.”

Tave wrinkled her forehead in thought about Matthew. It was true Matthew had visited with her and her father many times during the past year. At times she thought he came to argue with her father over their differing opinions concerning the war that had ended thirteen years ago but still produced some of the most heated discussions in west-central Alabama.
Matthew’s face flashed into her mind. Was she interested in him romantically? With his dark hair and flashing eyes, he was undoubtedly the best looking bachelor in the county. And every single young woman she knew prayed to be the recipient of his attention. The fact that he’d picked her from all the available young women thrilled her and yet left her puzzled.
After all, she was the daughter of a country doctor, and Matthew helped his father run one of the largest plantations in all of Alabama. The number of tenant farmers they supported was twice what the Rinaldis had at Cottonwood.
Savannah arched an eyebrow and stared at Tave. “Well, are you going to answer me?”
“I-I don’t know what to say. Matthew is a friend. He hasn’t mentioned anything more than that.” Tave sighed. “I suppose I should be flattered that he likes me. After all, I’m not getting any younger, and there aren’t that many young men my age in Willow Bend.”
Savannah reached out to Gabby who’d drifted off to sleep and turned her so that Gabby’s head rested in her mother’s lap. “Yeah. Twenty years is really old. That was my age when Dante and I married.”
Tave always felt a little envious when she thought of Savannah and Dante’s marriage. She’d often wondered if she would ever experience such great love in her life. She sighed and brushed at some dirt that had billowed up from the road and settled on her skirt. “You’ve told me your and Dante’s romantic love story. Sometimes I think that’s what I want, a handsome young man to sweep me off my feet. My practical side, however, tells me that’s never going to happen. I’ll probably spend the rest of my life taking care of my father and end up an old maid who wants to talk about how life is changing in the South.”
A low-pitched rumble drifted from the direction of town, and Savannah smiled. “There’s the Montgomery Belle. Maybe I’ll get to see Captain Hawkins before I go back to Cottonwood.”
The buildings that made up the small settlement of Willow Bend came into view, and Tave strained to catch a glimpse of the towering smoke stacks of the big paddle wheeler that plied the Alabama River. As their buggy trotted past the livery stable and the feed and grain store on the right, Tave wondered why no one was in sight today.
As they approached the general store, Tave sat up straight and frowned. Mr. Perkins, the elderly owner, shuffled out the front door of the store and followed several men who ran across the street toward the river bank where a crowd had gathered. Their attention appeared riveted on the steamboat that sat moored to the dock at the foot of the bank.
“Something’s happened,” Tave murmured.
Frowning, Savannah pulled the buggy to a stop. She touched Gabby’s shoulder, and the child’s eyes blinked open. “Stay in the buggy until I get back. I’m going to the Montgomery Belle.”
Gabby nodded and closed her eyes.
Tave jumped from the buggy and hurried toward the crowd. She glanced over her shoulder and saw Savannah tie the horse’s reins to the hitching post in front of the store before she followed.
Martha Thompson stood in the middle of the group who peered at the boat, and Tave eased up next to her. If anyone knew what was happening, it would be Martha. She had the reputation of knowing everything that occurred in their community.
“What happened, Martha?”
The wrinkles in the woman’s face deepened. The bonnet that covered Martha’s gray curls wobbled as she shook her head and frowned. “They say it’s bad, Tave. Doc’s on board right now.”
Tave’s eyes widened. Her father was on board the boat? “Is someone hurt?”
Martha shifted the basket she held in one hand to the other and nodded. “Dead most likely. Captain Hawkins caught some fellows in a card game on board, and you know he don’t allow no gambling on his boat. When he tried to break up the group, one of them gamblers pulled a gun. A young man who works on the boat tried to wrestle the gun out of the man’s hand, and he ended up gettin’ shot for tryin’ to help the captain.”
“That’s terrible.” Tave’s worried gaze scanned the big boat from its bow to the stern-mounted paddle wheel at the back, but her father was nowhere to be seen.
Beside her Martha inched closer. “And that ain’t all. They say that in all the commotion after the shooting that gambler ran out of the cabin. Some of the deckhands seen him jump overboard.”
Tave had no idea who they were, but she felt sure Martha had all the facts right. “Do they know what happened to him?”
Martha shook her head. “Last they seen of him, he was swimmin’ to the far side of the river. They don’t know if he made it, though.” Martha shrugged. “So he either drowned or escaped. They don’t know which.”
Tave looked back at the boat, but her father still had not appeared. “And you think the man he shot is dead?”
Martha arched her eyebrows and directed a solemn stare in Tave’s direction. “Now you know I ain’t one to start rumors, but I heard one of the passengers who got off say he doubted if the young man could still be alive.”
Savannah arrived in time to hear Martha’s words. Her eyes grew wide, and she grasped Tave’s arm. “Have you seen your father yet?”
Tave shook her head. “No, I don’t know what part of the boat he’s on.” Her gaze drifted over the sleek vessel that bobbed in the water, its gangway already lowered and resting on the bank.
Movement caught her attention, and her father stepped through a doorway onto the lower deck from what she assumed was one of the cabins. He backed up against the railing and stopped as if waiting for someone to exit.
A man, supporting the weight of a man’s legs, appeared in the doorway, and he eased onto the deck. Captain Hawkins and another man that Tave assumed was a deckhand emerged supporting the injured man’s upper body.
They stopped in front of her father, and he bent down to say something, then straightened. He pointed up the hill toward the small building that housed his office, strode to the lowered gangway, and headed in the direction he’d pointed. He stopped halfway up the hill to survey the slow procession that followed and then resumed his journey.
When he reached the gathered crowd at the top of the bluff, Tave stepped forward. “Poppa, do you need me to help you?”
Relief flickered in his eyes. “I’m glad you’re here. I’m going to have to remove a bullet from this young man, and I need your help. Are you up to it?”
Even after all the years of helping her father, Tave’s stomach churned at the thought of assisting in surgery, but it didn’t matter. If her father needed her assistance, she would help any way she could. Before she could speak, the men carrying the injured sailor passed by her, and she glanced at the face of the young man.
She’d never seen anyone so pale before. He must have lost a lot of blood. His wheat-colored hair tumbled over his forehead, and a grimace of pain covered his face. His eyes appeared to be clenched shut, and his teeth bit into his lower lip. A low moan rumbled in his throat.
Tave nodded to her father. “I’ll be right there.” Turning to Savannah, she clasped her friend’s hand. “I have to go. Thanks for the ride.”
A worried expression crossed Savannah’s face. “I’ll be praying that your father can save this young man.”
Tave turned and ran past the men carrying the injured sailor as she hurried toward her father’s office, her mind in a whirl of what awaited her. She dashed through the front door and was already rolling up her sleeves when the men arrived carrying the patient.
Her father took command of the situation right away. He pointed to the other room. “Bring him in here and put him on this table.”
Tave reached for the apron that hung on a hook by the wall, tied it around her waist, and ran to stoke the fire in the stove. Lots of hot water would be needed in the next few hours. She had just set the big pot on the stove’s eye when her father called out.
“Tave, I need you.”
Captain Hawkins and the other two men stood opposite her father beside the surgery table when she walked into the room. She stopped beside her father who had his fingers clamped on the patient’s wrist and his gaze directed to the pocket watch he held. When he finished, he glanced at her. “Pulse 114. I don’t like that.”
Captain Hawkins stared at them. Sorrow lined his face, and his chin quivered. “Dr. Spencer, this boy’s name is Daniel Luckett. He saved my life. Take care of him, and I’ll pay you whatever it costs.”
Her father nodded. “We’ll do what we can, but there’s no telling what kind of internal damage has been done. And he’s lost a lot of blood. How long are you going to be in Willow Bend?”
“We’ll be leaving for our upriver trip to Montgomery within the hour, but I’ll check on him when we come back downriver.” Captain Hawkins placed his hand on the injured man’s shoulder and squeezed. “Tell him for me that I’m sorry the man who shot him escaped. I’ll tell the sheriff when we dock at Selma, and I’ll pass the word along to the other ship captains to keep a look out for him. But I doubt if that gambler will ever show his face on the Alabama River again.”
Captain Hawkins and his men turned and left the room, her father following. He called over his shoulder. “I’ll be ready to operate on Mr. Luckett in a few minutes, Tave. I’ll be right back to get him ready. In the meantime, it might make him feel better if you’d bathe his face with some cool cloths.”
Tave hurried to the pitcher on a table against the wall and grabbed a clean cloth from the drawer underneath. Holding the cloth over the washbowl, she poured water over the cloth and rung it out.
When she stepped back beside the injured man, she glanced down at Daniel Luckett again. Even with the evidence of pain, she realized he had a handsome face. He was young, perhaps about her age, maybe a few years older. She wondered what had made him take a job on a paddle wheeler. Perhaps if he lived, he would tell her.
She touched his forehead with the wet cloth and began to move it gently across his skin. Her fingers moved to his cheeks and across his mouth that puckered with pain. She rewet the cloth and wiped at his mouth and across the lower part of his face. A groan rolled from his throat, and his head twitched.
Without warning, his eyes blinked open, and she stared down into the bluest eyes she had ever seen. They glazed as if trying to focus, and his forehead wrinkled. He tried to push up, but she restrained him with her hand on his chest.
“Don’t move. You’ve been hurt, but we’re going to help you.”
He frowned and struggled to speak. “H-h-hurt?”
“Yes, you’ve been shot, but you’re going to be all right.” She bit her lip after the words were out. Should she have said that? Her father said he was hurt badly.
Daniel stared up at her for a moment, then closed his eyes, and his body relaxed. Terrified that he had died, she leaned over him to see if she could detect breathing. His body jerked, and his eyes blinked open. He stared at her with eyes that held the wild look of one lost in another world. He tried to raise his arm, but it fell back to his side.
He thrashed his head from side to side on the pillow. “Mama! Where are you, Mama?”
Tears flooded Tave’s eyes, and she glanced over her shoulder at her father reentering the room. “He’s calling for his mother.”
Her father nodded. “I’ve heard ninety-year-old men call for their mother when they’re dying. I suppose one never gets too old to want the comfort a mother can give.” He sighed and glanced down at his patient. “Well, let’s see if we can save this boy for his mother.”

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