Page 49 of Earl of Excess
Walking out of his door, he met Bethany.
“I was fetching you for breakfast. Johnny stopped by, his cane pole in hand, and asked about you this morning. He is anxious to meet you.”
“This is the little boy that lives in one of the small houses on the adjacent property, right?”
“Yes, his father and mother are sharecroppers—well, more than that, really. They provide food for Mr. Duplantis and his family. His father also brings goods back from the city for them.”
His stomach growledagain.
Bethany heard it and laughed. “We need to get you fed! I had some oatmeal earlier. Grandmère made oatmeal and laid out some dried pork and biscuits.”
“It’s about time you joined us, Colonel,” Grandmère teased when they sat at the table. They heard laughter coming from the front parlor and Johnny emerged, tossing a small ball in the air while Dandie jumped up and down, trying to reach it.
“Look!” he exclaimed. “She walks on her hind legs fer the ball.”
“She is talented,” Bethany agreed, selecting a piece of pork. “Come join us, Johnny.” The little boy nodded and stood behind Matthew and waited to get food.
“Johnny, this is Colonel Matthew Romney, the man I wanted you to meet earlier.”
“I heard you were sick with the fever. I got it, too, but not near’s bad as you,” the young boy said.
Matthew glanced at the little boy with amusement. “I am very glad to meet you, Johnny,” he said as he filled a bowl with oatmeal and took some pork before sitting down. “Bethany said you brought your cane pole. Are you ready to fish?
“Yassir!” Johnny said in a serious voice. “Pa left yesterday for New Orleans. It’s up to me to catch dinner.”
“That’s a lot of responsibility,” Matthew observed, giving the little boy his full attention.
They dissolved into a discussion about fishing and the best spots, finally deciding the dock in front of the Duplantis’ house was the best.
A half-hour later, the three of them left, with Dandie in tow.
*
The three ofthem sat side by side and passed the afternoon quietly on the dock, laughing and fishing. Johnny had forgotten his bucket, so the boy ran back to the house to borrow one of Grandmère’s larger ones with a handle. He measured each fish, spreading out his fingers to determine the length. It was obvious the child knew what he was doing. Besides the crabs that continually grabbed their lines, they brought in a dozen fish.
Earlier, Bethany had heard Grandmère mention the need to empty the crab bucket and have a shrimp and crab boil that evening, so she encouraged Johnny to take all the fish he wanted.
“Miss Bethany, it’s just me, my Ma and my sister, right now, it is. We can spare you some. If’n Pa was home, we might need all of them, though,” he said with a grin.
“If memory serves, your pa loves catfish the best,” Bethany said.
“Sure does!” the little boy hooted and pulled his line up to check his bait.
Bethany noticed Matthew was quiet. He appeared to be looking everywhere around—everywhere but where his line was hanging. “You have fished, haven’t you, Matthew?”
He turned to her and amusement glinted in his eyes. “I confess I haven’t in years. I would only want to fish when I was in the country during the summer. I was sitting here trying to remember the last time, and it was when I was the same age as Johnny, here.” He reached over and scratched the boy’s head. As he spoke, his eyes stayed fixed on the overhang of cypress tree limbs across the water.
Bethany scanned the area across from them. She noticed light reflecting off something, but nothing out of the ordinary. Trying not to raise suspicion, she leaned closer and squinted her eyes, but still nothing.
Matthew brought his pole out of the water and caught the line. The bait had gone. While he re-baited the hook, he whispered to her. “I wish I could count on my vision. I would have sworn when the wind blew and the limbs parted, I saw a person on the shore, watching. But I cannot be sure. Things still look blurry, but it looked like a person.”
“I’ve been looking,” she said in a whisper, “but I have seen nothing unusual, except the reflection.” Bethany looked over at Dandie and noticed she was also studying the area.
Bethany found herself content to fish until she felt a growl in her stomach. “Is anyone else’s body alerting them it’s time to eat?” She glanced at the almost full pail of fish and motioned with her head to Johnny.
He had already pulled his line up and was hooking it to the bottom of the pole. “I got all I need. I’ll leave some fer tomorrow in case you need to eat,” he said with a grin.
Dandie barked her approval.
