Chapter 10
Daisy rose early the next morning energized and optimistic about her new life as a wife and stepmother. She had grown up in the presence of servants cleaning, cooking, and managing her mother’s household. She felt confident that she gleaned enough from being in their presence that she could get her own household in supreme shape. This was the path she had chosen, albeit a hasty path initialized by vengeance, but she intended to make the very best of it.
She cleaned the best she could, using a broom and mop as she’d seen it done before. The floors didn’t shine, but she, at least, cleaned up the tracks of mud leading into and out of the house. The girls’ toys were scattered about even in the most unlikely places: in a kitchen cupboard, in a pile outside near the backdoor, or randomly thrown on the bookshelves.
She set in her mind to get breakfast on the table. Without a woman around, she wondered how long they all had been without proper meals. She entered the chicken coup swelling with bravado. How hard could this be?
The hens were more cantankerous than she expected chickens to ever to be. They squawked and fluttered their wings at her sending up flurries of feathers and dust. She was too afraid to reach her hand near the contemptuous animals. She took a deep breath and slowly edged her hand under one of the hens. With quick methodical jab the beast pecked her wrist sending Daisy flying out of the coup screaming, “Merde!”
Out of breath and perplexed, she looked up to see Silas watching her laughing to himself. “What’s so funny?” Daisy asked brushing down her skirt mortified.
“You need some eggs?” Silas asked.
Daisy bit her tongue and acquiesced, “Yes.”
“I’ll get them for you,” Silas said walking to the coup.
Daisy, momentarily relieved to be unburdened with the dreaded task, decided against helplessness and asked instead, “Can you show me how?”
Silas’s eyes shot up in surprise. “Sure.” Silas showed her how to coo to the birds and gently pet their backs to soothe them. With adeptness, Silas retrieved six eggs in a matter of minutes. “You try.”
With shaking hands, Daisy cooed and pet the hen that originally pecked her. She then reached under and retrieved an egg. She felt pride rise up inside of her for something she once thought was an easy task since others in Charleston had done it for her all her life. There were many things about everyday life that Daisy simply did not know about.
“Thank you,” Daisy said sincerely. Silas nodded and headed out to tend to the cattle.
By the time the girls woke up, Daisy made biscuits and eggs. It was her first attempt of ever cooking food. She loosely followed what she had seen Mamie do in the kitchen substituting ingredients based on what she found in the cupboards. As a girl, she often sat in the kitchen watching Mamie cook. She loved keeping her company in the safe confines of the kitchen, a place her mother never fully entered, only standing from the doorway to speak to Mamie or the other servants. It was where Daisy could talk to Mamie about anything she wanted without her mother around. Mamie, a tall, strong limbed woman from Haiti, spoke French, too. Mamie called Daisy, mon canard, my duck because Daisy quacked all day and all night to her.
If Mamie were there, she would have seen her little duck flailing about the kitchen with smoke billowing from her pan, trying her best to make an edible breakfast. The biscuits were hard as rocks and the eggs were burnt to hard crunchy crisp.
“Bon appetit,” Daisy said to the girls, Henry, and Silas.
Henry scooped the food into his mouth smiling. “Thank you. Tastes great.”
Lilah took a miniscule bite and then instantly spat it out. “Dégueulasse!” she said.
“Je suis vraiment désolé,” Daisy said embarrassed. “I’m not a cook. I’ve never cooked before.”
“Bien sûr!” Lilah said standing up and throwing her hands up in the air.
“Lilah, take your seat please and show some respect,” Henry said. Lilah threw herself back into her chair crossing her arms in defiance.
“It’s a good try for a first ever attempt,” Silas offered knocking the biscuits on the table and examining them like a geologist.
“Merci,” Daisy said looking down feeling like a failure. Possibly that white powdery substance wasn’t the correct powder to use when making biscuits.
“Qu’est-ce que la mère?” Lilah asked.
“Our mama is wonderful cook,” Tallulah explained.
Daisy nodded knowingly suspecting this woman she was supposed to replace was a magnificent cook, mother, wife, seamstress, egg retriever, and house cleaner.
“Your mother was, but she isn’t here. Your mother would want you to respect Miss Daisy,” Henry said sternly.
Lilah flew to her feet slamming her hands on the table making the flatware clink. “You don’t know my mother and what she would want!” she hurled at Henry. She stormed out of the kitchen with heavy determined steps. Tallulah dutifully stood, gave Daisy a wave, and ran after her sister.
Daisy crossed her arms and leaned back on the counter heaving a hefty sigh. “You don’t have to eat that,” she said to Henry and Silas.
“Muchas gracias,” Silas said gulping water down to get the burnt aftertaste out his mouth.
Henry stood and put his arms around Daisy. “You’re doing great.” Daisy leaned her head against his shoulder. She doubted that.
Daisy cleaned up the failed breakfast and cleared the table for the girls’ lessons. She looked through bookcase and found “Little Women,” a book she knew many girls raved over after its publication a few years before. She was curious about the book herself and thought this would be a good start to their lessons together.
Henry went into town for an errand of some kind; he didn’t elaborate much about it. He assured her again that she was doing a fine job, and he couldn’t have asked for a better wife. Daisy didn’t want to let him down or the girls, since they surely missed their mother and needed as much love as possible.
“Lilah! Tallulah!” she called for them searching every room, which wasn’t that difficult in such a small house.
On the front porch, she called out to Silas. “Have you seen the girls?”
“They usually camp out in the stables with the horses. I’ll go get them,” Silas offered.
“Thank you,” Daisy said to him relieved.
Silas led the girls into the house. Lilah dragged her feet while Tallulah tramped up to Daisy and promptly sat at the table.
Lilah whined to Silas, “Queremos quedarnos contigo.”
Silas answered as he left, “After lessons, you can come back out and we’ll groom the horses.”
Lilah and Tallulah’s eyes widened with excitement. “Si!” they both exclaimed.
“You speak Spanish?” Daisy asked.
“Silas has been teaching us. He speaks that in Mexico. Did you know Mexico is a country?” Tallulah answered. “I do. Silas told us.”
Lilah’s eyes burned as she said to Daisy, “Si, pero no hablas español.”
Daisy and Lilah stared at each other long time in a silent stand off before Daisy said, “I suspect you said something about me not being able to speak Spanish. True, I don’t. I also suspect that the two of you are quite clever, able to speak several languages, and able to drive people away with your wiles.” Lilah shifted in her chair and stared out the window. “I don’t want to be your mother. I want to be your friend.” Daisy held up “Little Women.” “We can read together as friends. I haven’t read this book yet.”
Lilah rolled her eyes. Tallulah piped, “We’ve read it bunches. I mean: Mama read it to us.” Tallulah then looked down and said, “Lilah reads it to me now that Mama is gone.”
“Wonderful! Then you can read it to me,” Daisy said eagerly handing the book to Lilah.
Lilah stood rebelliously and said, “I don’t need any friends. On n’est jamais trahi qu par les siens.” (We are always betrayed by someone close to us.) She held out her hand to her little sister. Tallulah hopped off the chair and grabbed her hand. Daisy stood in the kitchen alone again feeling great pity for the little girls, especially Lilah, who fortified her heart out of grief. Lilah left the book on the table. Daisy sat and began to read about the March sisters.
The postman arrived, interrupting Daisy’s reading, with a letter. She knew the handwriting at first glance and remembered her hastened letter sent to Charleston. She tucked the letter into her undergarment drawer without opening it. She had to focus on her urgent tasks at hand. There was no time to waste.
Compelled by the March sisters’ gumption, Daisy refused to make today a complete failure. She walked to the stables emboldened with determination. Trying her best to ignore the girls who were shocked by her appearance in their sacred space asked Silas, “Which horse can I ride?”
“You ride?”
“Bien sûr!” Daisy confirmed. Silas pointed to a nearby black horse. “Muchas gracias,” Daisy said in the best Spanish accent she could manage. Atop the horse, she saw the girls gape as she galloped away; their faces stunned by Daisy’s ability to ride and aptitude to pick up a small bit of Silas’s language already. They ran out from the stables to watch her sprint away.
Lilah smiled impishly. “Au revoir!”
Tallulah twirled around with her arms flung out, head back, and eyes closed. Lilah watched her sister dizzy herself senselessly. Tallulah tumbled down into the dirt laughing. “Au revoir!” she said waving at Daisy’s figure getting smaller and smaller in the distance.