reached through the bars and took Arthur Stuart's hands. "I can't, Arthur Stuart," she said. "My mother died because I loved Alvin, don't you see? Whenever I think of being with him, it just makes me feel sick and... guilty... and angry and..."
"My mama's dead too, you know," said Arthur Stuart. "My Black mama and my White mama both. They both died to dave me from slavery. I think about that all the time, how if I'd never been born they'd both still be alive."
Peggy shook her head. "I know you think of that, Arthur, but you mustn't. They want you to be happy."
"I know," said Arthur Stuart. "I ain't as smart as you, but I know that. So I do my best to be happy. I'm happy most of the time, too. Why can't you do that?"
Alvin whispered an echo to his words. "Why can't you do that, Margaret?"
Peggy raised her chin, looked around her. "What am I doing here on the floor like this?" She got to her feet. "Since you won't take my help, Alvin Smith, then I've got work to do. There's a war in the future, a war over slavery, and a million boys will die, in America and the Crown Colonies and even New England before it's done. My work is to make sure those boys don't die in vain, to make sure that when it's over the slaves are free. That's what my mother died for, to free one slave. I'm not going to pick just one, I'm going to save them all if I can." She looked fiercely at the men who watched her, wide-eyed. "I've made my last sacrifice for Alvin Smith - he doesn't need my help anymore."
With those words she strode to the outer door.
"I do so," murmured Alvin, but she didn't hear him, and then she wag gone.
"If that don't beat all," said Measure. "I ask you, Alvin, why didn't you just fall in love with a thunderstorm? Why don't you just go propose to a blizzard?"
"I already did," said Alvin.
Verily walked to the door of the cell. "I'm going to interview Ramona tonight in case you change your mind, Alvin," he said.
"I won't," said Alvin.
"I'm quite sure, but other than that there's nothing else I can do." He debated saying the next words, but decided that he might as well. What did he have to lose? Alvin was going to go to prison. And Verily's journey to America was going to turn out to have been in vain. "I must say thalt I think you and Miss Larner are a perfect match. The two of you together must have more than seventy percent of the world's entire store of stupid bullheadedness."
It was Verily's turn to head for the outer door. Behind him as he left, he heard Alvin say to Measure and Arthur: "That's my lawyer." He wasn't sure if Alvin spoke in pride or mockery. Either way, it only added to his despair.
* * *
Billy Hunter's testimony was pretty damaging. It was plain that he liked Alvin well enough and had no desire to make him look bad. But he couldn't change what he saw and had to tell the truth - he'd looked into the jail and them was nowhere Alvin and Vilate could have hidden.
Verily's cross-examination consisted merely of ascertaining that when Vilate entered the cell, Alvin was definitely there, and that the pie she left behind tasted right good. "Alvin didn't want it?" asked Verily.
"No sir. He said... he said he sort of promised it to an ant."
Some laughter.
"But he let you have it anyway," said Verily.
"I guess so, yes."
"Well, I think that shows that Alvin is unreliable indeed, if he can't keep his word to an ant!"
There were some chuckles at Verily's attempt at humor, but that did nothing to ameliorate the fact that the prosecution had cut into Alvin's credibility, and rather deeply at that.
It was Vilate's turn then. Marty Laws laid the groundwork, and then came to the key point. "When Mr. Hunter looked into the jail and failed to see you and Alvin, where were you?"
Vilate made a great show of being reluctant to tell. He was relieved to see, however, that she wasn't quite the actress Amy Sump had been, perhaps because Amy half-believed her own fantasies, while Vilate... well, this was no schoolgirl, and these were no fantasies of love. "I should never have let him talk me into it, but... I've been alone too