It was just after six o-clock when Lucy’s carriage arrived at the gate. It had taken me all day to haul and heat water enough for a bath and to iron a dress and petticoat. In Marsh Station, I had to do everything myself. I’d worked on my hands: oiled them, cleaned and reshaped my nails. I was ready for a festive evening.
Lucy’s carriage and driver meandered through the small dusty town of Marsh Station then pulled up a hill where a twisting path wound up to the Talbot plantation. There the sky opened up to the green rolling hills and beyond to the river, tinted pink by the setting sun. It was a luscious spring evening, Virginia’s best. I lighted from the carriage while birds chattered in the trees with their last conversations of the day, reminding me that the challenges of war did not remove all familiar aspects of everyday life. However, I wasn’t quite prepared for the surprise that the war would offer up as I entered Lucy’s party.
Cut dogwood branches encircled the front doorway and I was greeted by a doorman at the entrance to the grand foyer. A quartet was warming up towards the back of the house sending strains of unconnected notes forward. Half a dozen slaves were occupied, lighting scores of thick candles and oil lamps throughout the hallways and dining area, casting light about like so many stars.
Welcomed by Lucy’s butler, I was led into a parlor where a small fire had been started in the hearth and guests crowded around a man seated in a wing chair off to one side of it. The intimate group turned to welcome me, their newest guest, while the seated man whom I assumed must be Samuel, stayed put, not standing like the other gentlemen. Before I could even reverse my thoughts on his rudeness, I saw why he couldn’t easily stand to greet me. His leg had been removed at the top of the knee and a bandaged stump was visible.
Lucy jumped up from her seat next to her husband. “Annie, you’ve arrived my dear. Do come in.” After the formal introductions offered all around, Lucy pulled me aside as if to guide me out of the room, and then spoke over her shoulder to her husband.
“One moment Samuel darling, would you mind if I ask Annie into the kitchen to taste the soup? She is a fine cook and I just need her opinion on the seasoning.”
With her at my side I saw what Lucy had tried to cover up; her eyes were swollen and puffy from crying all day since Samuel’s arrival home.
Poor Lucy. She had to be in shock herself. She clutched my elbow firmly and led me away form the other guests. Finding a hiding spot in the butler’s pantry just off the main dining room, we stood facing one another. For no apparent reason she trusted me implicitly.
Lucy began. “Oh Annie, I knew I could talk to you. I’ve wanted to run over to your house all day but with the party, and oh …I couldn’t run out with poor Samuel having just arrived…Annie, I had no idea. He wrote in his letters that he had been wounded and in the hospital for some weeks, but I never guessed… He never told me he’d lost a leg. When he said that he was coming home, I thought he had fully recovered from whatever wound he’d had.” With that Lucy’s voice broke and I held onto her and stroked her back.
“Oh, you poor thing, what a terrible shock for you, shhh,” I replied. “War has its way of surprising us over and over again doesn’t it? There now Lucy dear, there’s nothing you can do that you aren’t doing already.” Lucy sobbed on my shoulder and then I held her at arms length by her shoulders. Lucy looked at me eye to eye.
“We mustn’t let the hostess go to pieces just now, though don’t you feel better, getting it out?”
“Yes, I do,” Lucy replied. “But what about our future, how will we manage? Will we ever be able to have a family and care for them too?”
“Lucy Talbot, you’ll have to be strong. And fortunately my friend you are very strong. Now listen to me. Your husband had most of a leg removed. Last I knew men didn’t make babies with their legs.”
Lucy stopped. She wiped her swollen eyes, looked up at me and laughed. Her eyes glistened with tears but I detected a glint and even a sparkle as she smiled back at me.
I continued. “Answers will come in time and right now with Richmond about to fall, none of us are sure what those answers will be. But have faith you, they will come. Right now Sam needs your strength… and your love. You’ve made a handsome party for him.”
Handing her a napkin from the top of a stack of freshly pressed linens I added, “Here dry yourself a bit, and we’ll head back so that you may welcome your newest guests.”
Lucy, finally composed for the time being, slipped out into the formal dining room and headed back towards the parlor.
Leaving the tea services and china of the butler’s pantry, I paused there for a moment to take in the ambiance of the room. With the chandelier lit and the table set, fine china and crystal goblets sat poised waiting for the superb meal to begin. Silver place settings caught the candlelight where based on each setting, I could foresee a feast of at least five courses. Quietly stepping around the table, I found my place card at the far end of the table, close to Lucy’s. Just beside it and to the left was another place card set above the finger bowl. Its announcement rang echoes in my head: “Captain Warren Dodd,” I said to myself.