The Moonshiners Part Four

'Go home I guess and do what Dad wants.'

'And what about the Leon boy?'

'Well,' Lotte hesitated, 'He is a decent man. Maybe I will start seeing him again.'

Harriet rose to leave.  Lotte asked. 'I can do some preserving if it would make things easier for you.'

Harriet said 'Well it is hard work doing the putting up for both farms but you will have to do it right. If the seals aren't right on those jars we could go hungry in the winter and besides you can't put too much pressure on that arm.'

'I'll be fine,' Lotte urged. 'It's just that Mr. Hamilton seems angry with me all the time.  I want to show him I can earn my keep.'

'He's worried about Tommy.'

'But Why,' Lotte asked, genuinely bemused.

Harriet shifted uncomfortably on her feet.  'Well you hear tales about you black folks.  That your morals ain't so good, that a lot slackness goes on amongst you people.'

'Mrs. Hamilton I am the daughter of a Baptist minister.  I am as well brought up as you or your family.  I am very fond of Tommy, He saved my life but he is just a sweet boy.  How could you. think I would do anything like that.'  Tears sprang to Lotte's eye's.

'Well now I've got to know you I can see you are a good girl but when Tommy first brought you home it didn't look so good did it and despite what you say Tommy ain't no sweet boy.  He's always been in trouble.  Nobody can make him do anything he doesn't want to do.  He drove Anne crazy.  He would run off and be gone for days when he was as young as six years old.  Ike has whipped him. Nothing makes any difference.  The only place he's happy is high on the mountain with the Calderwood's.  I'll tell you truthfully, I ain't surprised he's killed men so early in his life.  He didn't have to kill em.  He's been told again and again, If your life's in danger leave the whisky and run.'

Lotte shook her head, 'No,  Tommy is a good boy.  He saved my life he treated me with real kindness and brought me home safely when even I didn't think I would make it.'

Harriet said, 'He killed those men because he wanted revenge for Luke's death.  He might have got our family into a lot of trouble and it's not the first time.  Tommy is trouble. He might have got you into a load of trouble, you ever think about that?’

 Harriet moved off the porch and took up the reigns ready to climb onto the buckboard.  She turned.  'You have changed Tommy.  I have never seen him like this.  'Anne was close to Luke.  She couldn't help it.  She just loved that boy.  He threw to the Gray's.  He had their dark good looks.  Even Ike preferred Luke if you ask me.  Anne did what she could for Tommy, he went short of nothing but it always seemed to me that Tommy just accepted he didn't count for much.  Then you come along.  For the first time in his life, he has someone that's all his.'  Harriet climbed into the buck board.  She leant forward, 'Now in a few weeks you will be leaving.  What's going to happen to Tommy then.'  She shook the reigns and the mule moved off.

By the end of the third week, Lotte felt much better.  She could walk without the crutch.  The soreness was leaving her body and the lump on her head was receding.  Her eye was open and her vision had cleared.  However, it was her facial injuries that worried her and a glance in the fly blown mirror reduced her to tears.  She had a slight ptosis of the eyelid and she suspected she would have scar on her lip.  To her relief, she noted that her missing tooth, which was not central, was becoming less noticeable.  In their daily life a routine had evolved.. The men worked in the fields and Lotte worked about the house and garden.  Harriet came more often.  Ostensibly it was about supervising the cooking and preserving but it seemed Harriet was enjoying the female company.  One day, working in the fields the men heard laughter and looking up observed the women on the porch.  Lotte was washing Harriet's hair.  Ike returned to his work with a grunt but Tommy leant on his hoe and watched awhile.

Harriet had assured Ike that Lotte's influence on Tommy was a force for good and he had softened his taciturn stance towards the girl.  She had taken to feeding the chickens and it was a source of amusement to the men that she was regularly attacked by a fierce cockerel that pecked at her legs.  When she arrived on the porch one day and announced that she had christened the bird Egbert, she saw Ike smile for the first time. 

In the evenings they sat on the porch.  Ike silent with a glass of whisky, Tommy talking to Lotte in his even monotone as they prepared vegetables for the following day.  One evening he asked Lotte to sing something for them.  She ran through a few songs but modern music seemed not to be to Ike and Tommy's taste then one evening she sang the hymn Precious Memories.  As soon as she started singing she new she had them.

It was at that time, a comparatively new hymn and she was not too sure of the words but the effect on Ike was profound.  He asked her to sing the song many times over the coming weeks.  She struck

 pay dirt with Tommy when, in an attempt to lighten the proceedings one evening, she sang the Charlie Poole song, I Took My Girl Out Walking.  When she sang the lines,

'If I can't find somebody to make a big fuss over me,

I'll go back to the farm.

I'll milk the cows and the chickens.

I won't give a golly gosh darn.

She did a little impromptu Charleston dance and Tommy actually laughed, 'You can't milk chickens,' He chuckled, then went on, 'You sure are a good singer Lotte.'  Lotte noted, with some concern, the boy's growing affection for her.  It shone in his eyes.  She taught Tommy the words and he sang the song.  He stood to attention, A grin on his face, Fists clenched, The veins in his neck standing out with the effort of singing.  'Why can't you relax when you sing Tommy?' Lotte asked but he couldn't.  It was the way Mr. Rainsford had taught him to sing at Sunday school before he had expelled him for fighting.

As lotte's leg improved,  She and Tommy took to walking during the evening to a place where the mountain stream widened into a pool.  It was a beautiful tranquil spot.  'Ma and Luke liked coming here,' Tommy remarked.  'Luke called it lake Hamilton.'

'Did you cry when your Ma died?' Lotte asked.  Tommy shook his head.  'I used to want to sit by her bed but I caused her aggravation.  One day she got real sick.  She told me to fetch Luke, Pa was over at uncle Franks.  Luke went in to her. I just stayed on the porch.  Then Luke came out and said she'd died.'

'But you do believe that your Ma and Luke are in heaven?'  Lotte asked.

'Sure.'  'As if to change the subject Tommy went on, 'You should practice firing the thirty eight.'

'Why?' Lotte was alarmed,

'It handles different to the forty four,' Tommy pointed out.  'If we are going after the men that hurt you, It's best you know how to use it real good.'

After a pause Lotte said, 'Tommy, when I shot that man in the woods, it was the first time I have ever handled a gun and I never want to hold one again.'

Tommy was astounded, 'Is that the God's honest truth?'

Lotte nodded, 'And I don't want to go after the men who hurt me.  You must forget about that.  We are Christians.  We must forgive.'

'Chuck says that's not true,' Tommy replied.  'I listened to Mr. Rainsford our preacher, talking about Gentle Jesus meek and mild and how he takes care of us but if we had just got down and prayed, Gagan would have killed us.  Chuck says you respect God's works.  You don't go wild catting for oil.  You don't chop all the tree's down and you don't dig mines and pollute rivers.  Then all you have to pray for is a good aim.'

'But don't you ever think about the men we killed?' Lotte reasoned.

Tommy shook his head.  'I'll kill anything that threatens me and you Lotte.'  He spoke evenly.

Lotte found the remark chilling.  In a flash of insight she saw that this boy to whom she owed her life, would kill without compunction and for the first time, wondered if it had been necessary to kill the men in the woods.  With animals he was different.  He could quieten the most fractious mule, putting the harness on almost gently.  When he killed an animal, a chicken or a rabbit, he calmed it first then killed quickly and efficiently.  When he skinned and cleaned a dead animal he worked reverently, with a kind of respect but with people he was different.  He had an innate hostility.  She feared that if Tommy ever did find love the possessive intensity of his feelings would drive people away and felt sorry for him.  She felt a sense of foreboding. It was as if he was already a lost boy.  She asked, 'Why are you and your Dad so grumpy with each other?'

Tommy shrugged.  'A family called the Royles started saying bad things about me and Luke having injun blood because Ma was a Gray and they have Cherokee in em.  Uncle Frank and Jim went after them.  A family called the Kays came in on the Royle side then the Calderwoods came in on our side.  Old Mat Calderwood, Chuck and his brother’s shot up the Royle place.  We ain't had no trouble from the Royle's since.  Pa took no part, but he should have, considering it was his wife they were insulting.'

'What about the Kays?' Lotte asked.

Tommy shrugged again, 'Left.  Gone West I heard.'  He went on, 'I wish you would stay here awhile.

'I would look after you.  I would get most anything you could want.'

Lotte turned and surveyed the boy.  He looked directly at her.  She said, 'I have to go back to my family Tommy.'  She noted that his shirt collar was badly frayed and gently put her hand on it.  She said, 'That shirt collar is frayed.  Take it off when we get home and I will turn it for you.'

She saw that Tommy was moved by her touch and wondered if he had been touched by a woman at all since his mother died.  'As they walked home Lotte asked, 'What about your cousins, Abe and Lou are you friendly with them?'

Tommy shook his head, 'I guess Aunt Harriet told them to stay away from me, That injun blood.  I'm too much trouble.'  He smiled at her.  On the rare occasions that Tommy's face did break into a smile it was a pleasant smile, Lotte observed.

When they got home, Lotte asked Ike if there was any sewing equipment.  Ike was happy to oblige

and he pulled a box from under his bed and told her to take what she needed.  It was Anne's box.  There were clothes in there, clean and neatly folded.  Hair brushes and a small mirror and lower down, Knitting and sewing needles.  Right at the bottom she found some pamphlets of sheet music. The Last Rose Of Summer, Roses in Picardy, The Kerry Pipers and The Skye Boat Song.  Beneath the music lay a small bible with a rose pressed amongst it's. Pages.  Lotte recognised the rose.  It was in flower in a sheltered part of the garden, choked with weeds but still surviving.  Lotte decided to cut some stems and place them on the table in the house as a tribute to Anne.  Last of all she found two photographs, one of the Gray Family and one of Anne, Ike and the boys stood outside a small church.  Anne was stood next to Ike with Luke beside her.  Tommy stood at the other side of his father.  They were in their Sunday best, staring sombrely at the camera except for Tommy who was squinting child like against the sun.  She studied the photographs before putting them carefully away.  Luke was very good looking she noted and very much a Gray..Tommy on the other hand was all Hamilton.  She felt she would have liked to have known Anne. Hamilton.

The following morning Lotte was sat on the porch shelling peas when she saw Tommy running towards the house with Ike limping behind him.  Tommy burst onto the porch and said, 'Up stairs and hide Lotte, there's men coming.'  Ike said, 'Don't show yourself now Lotte.'  Lotte hid herself in the loft.  Through a chink in the wall she saw three horsemen arriving.  She could hear the conversation as Tommy quietened the barking Pearl.

'Morning Ike.'

Sheriff Joe Milner, a heavily built man in his late forties, shifted his position in the saddle.  'These two men are Mr. Traynor and Mr. Hutchison.  They work for the Revenue.  We are here to ask you a few questions.'

Traynor and Hutchison looked distinctly uncomfortable as they eyed the rifle leant against the house wall.  'So,' Milner went on, 'You seen anybody around here in the last couple of weeks or so, strangers maybe?'

'No,' Ike replied.

'Nobody at all?'

'Chuck Caldwell was here a week or so ago.'

'Just visiting?'

'Come to say goodbye to Tommy.  He's going to work in town for Jim.'

'You don't say.'

After a pause, the man Traynor said, 'Three men who worked for us on occasion have gone missing.  There could be a reward for any information concerning their whereabouts.'

There was silence.  Hutchison asked.  'Are there any trails through here that would take you up to the old wagon road?’

'No,' Ike replied, ‘leastways no trails you could take a horse through.'

'Mind if they take a look?' The sheriff asked.

Ike shrugged.  Milner nodded to the two men and they turned their horses and rode across the field.

'Fancy a little nip?' Ike asked.

'Why not.'  Joe Milner climbed down from his horse and lowered himself down onto the swing.

Ike nodded to Tommy who quickly left the porch and returned with two glasses of whisky.  'Thanks the sheriff said.  Ike sat in the rocking chair.  Tommy leant against a porch post watching the progress of the two revenue officers.  Joe Milner did love a glass of whisky and he knew the importance of whisky to mountain life and the mountain economy.  He was prepared to overlook low level distilling for personal use as long as he got a bottle now and again but large scale production and the possible abduction or murder of revenue officials, That was a different matter.  'Had em on your hands long?'  Ike asked.

'Three days, seems longer.  They have shut down a lot of stills though.' He went on, 'They are after the Calderwood's.

Tommy smiled, the Calderwood's still was situated on a spring high on the mountain.  It was protected by a hundred yard layer of tangled laurel. The only way in was through tunnels made by marauding bears.  The Calderwood's would see the revenue men coming.  They could easily go up and over the top of the mountain, and down a narrow path to safety that only a mountain man could traverse.

Joe Milner asked, 'Something funny Tommy?'

Tommy shook his head.  They sat enjoying the whisky, watching the progress of the revenue men, who were riding down the tree line, occasionally standing in their stirrups to gaze across the stream into the tangle of woodland.  Milner tilted his hat over his eyes, 'Here they come,' he said.'

The revenue men had given up their search and were riding back.  Milner got to his feet saying, 'I'll head them off.'  He stepped into the house to put his glass upon the table then stopped, staring in disbelief.  He put the glass down and stepped back onto the porch.  'Flowers!!

'I brung em,' Tommy said.

'You!’

Ike cut in, 'It's Harriet, she's took to doing the place up a bit.'

The sheriff stood for a few moments then stepped off the porch and mounted his horse.  He looked at Ike.  'It's going to be hard for you, when the boy goes.  Managing the farm all on your own with that bad leg of yours.'

'It will be hard,' Ike acknowledged.  'Abe and Lou are going to come over to help out.'

Milner nodded, He leaned forward, 'Folks around here shouldn't underestimate Traynor and Hutchison.  They are good agents.  They now all about everybody's family connections.  If they find bodies, this turns into a murder investigation and they will pursue it until they get a conviction.'  If they offer a reward, people with old scores to settle might talk.'  He turned his horse and rode away.