"So, what is it about Marita that you wanted to talk to me about?" Shawn asked impatiently. Josiah heard Shawn, but just stared him down. "Well?" Shawn demanded. "I want you tu know that you been steppin' on my terr-tory, and if you don't stop, I will have to defend my terr-tory. Ya understand?" "Well, honestly I don't understand because I was under the impression that in order for something to be your territory, you have to own it and considering that you own nothing that I'm aware of, then your claim is invalid." Josiah was now getting angry, "Look you 'ken play games all you want banana boy, but hear 'dis and hear it good. M'rita is mine." Shawn just fell out laughing in Josiah's face. "What! you crazy banana boy? What you laughing at?" Josiah asked angrily. "Because, you think that I'm interested in Marita. Well, not that I owe you an explanation, but I'm engaged to someone back home. Marita and I are just friends. She's been helping me study. Now, I don't know everything about Marita, but I do know that she is spoken for by someone back home, and I know that she's not interested in you." Josiah stepped up closer to Shawn to where he was right in his face, "Well, we'll just have to see about that, won't we," Josiah said with a smirk. Shawn's pride came to the forefront, and he wiped the grin off his face and stood up straighter so that Josiah would recognize that his opponent was just as tall and just as strong, "Yes, I suppose we will see, but just to let you know, if you do anything to Marita outside of saying hello and goodbye, you'll have me to deal with, and then I'll report you to the college and they'll have you kicked out for harassment," Shawn said boldly. Josiah was noticeably shocked by Shawn's boldness but recovered quickly with a nervous laugh, "You gots a lotta guts banana boy, and I likes 'dat, but you'll see who 'da real man is." With that, Josiah tipped his hat and went back to his little gang, and Shawn entered the fair to find Marita and Miss Liza. "Hey," Shawn said as he approached Marita. "Hey, what did Josiah want?" Marita asked. "Well, he basically told me to stay away from you, or else," Shawn replied. "I'm just about fed up with that boy. I have no idea how he even got into Boston College, but I'm gonna go talk to the Head Master at the college about him," Miss Liza said. "No, not yet. I wanna see what he does. I told him that if he did anything other than greet you, that he would have to deal with me." "Shawn," Marita gasped, "Why would you tell him something like that. You know how ornery he can be. What if he decides to test you?" "Well that's exactly what I'm hoping for. Josiah needs to be taught a lesson, and I'm just the person to teach him." "Son, I don't like the idea of fightin' and going on, but I kinda agree that that boy needs to be taught a lesson., but at the same time, Shawn I'd sure hate to see your purty face get messed up," Miss Liza said. "Shawn it's really sweet of you to want to do this, but I can't be responsible for the repercussions of this. What if you get expelled?" Marita brings reality to the situation. "Josiah may be a big bully, but he's not a tattler. I wondered how he could even get into this college, considering he doesn't even speak in correct English. I heard the other boys say that he is real smart, naturally smart. Every assignment and test that we have, he gets A's. But as far as fightin' goes, my father hired an Irish prize fighter to teach me how to fight and defend myself. I mean, I won't try to cause any permanent damage, but just enough to teach him a lesson," Shawn continues. Marita's mind has now drifted. Just the mention of the word "Irish" brought Sean back to her memory. She started reminiscing about the times that Shawn had tried to teach her how to fight. Even as a young man, he cared about Marita and wanted her to know how to defend herself just in case someone tried to take advantage of her. She remembered one time in particular where she had to use the skills that Sean had taught her. Marita was 14 and Sean was 16. Sean came in the barn to get a horse, and he stopped when he heard crying. He went behind the stables and found Marita sitting there on the hay crying. "What's wrong Marita?" Sean asked as he knelt down beside her. "Nothing! I just want to be alone." "C'mon Marita, you ain't cryin' for nothin'. Tell me,"Sean insisted. "On my way back from town today, I ran into Tom Joiner, and he asked me if he could walk me home. So, I said yes, but he said that he wanted to stop by the river on the way, and I said that that was okay too. Well, when we got to the river, he kissed me!" Sean interrupted, "And you let him?!" "Well, at first I did," Marita admitted. "Wait a minute. You told me that you didn't like him like that." "Sean, do you wanna know what happened or not?" "Yeah, I wanna know.sorry." "Well, we kissed for a while, then he tried to touch me." "Touch you where?" Sean demanded angrily. "You know where. my chest," Marita admitted. "That's it, I'm gonna go and pound his face in." "No, Sean wait.I already took care of it." "What do you mean you took care of it. He's a man, and a man needs to take care of him," Sean insisted. "Remember what you taught me, to kick a man where it hurts. Well, I kicked him and I kicked him good." Sean laughed aloud, "Good, well I bet he won't try that with anyone again. So, was that why you were crying?" "No. After I kicked him, he started jumping around and cursing. Then he said that I wasn't even worth kissing because I wasn't good at it and I wasn't worth touching because my chest was too small, and that he was going to make sure that every colored man in Lexington knew that and that I would be an stubborn, old maid" "Wow, that does sound pretty bad, but you don't believe him do you? "Sean, It doesn't matter what I believe. Lexington is such a small town, This could follow me forever. When I turn 16, every possible gentleman caller will already know about me, and they won't want anything to do with me," Marita started crying again. "Oh come on Marita. That's not true." "Yes it is." Sean's tone grew softer and more serious. "Any gentleman caller that's a real gentleman wouldn't even think twice about what Tom Joiner said." "How do you know that?" "Because I'm a man, I still want to kiss you I've always wanted to kiss you." With that, Sean kissed Marita. He barely brushed her lips. He looked into her eyes. She didn't flinch or move, so he tried again. This time slower and longer. They kissed for several long seconds before Isaac came in, "Sean you in here?" Isaac yelled. Sean and Marita didn't say a word, hoping that Isaac would go away. Isaac called for Sean again and then assumed that he wasn't there and left. "That was close," Marita said. "Yeab, I better get back. You okay now?" Sean asked. "Yeah, thanks, I better get back too," Marita answered. Sean helped Marita get up. When he got up and looked down at his pants, and then looked back at Marita. His face turned all red and flushed.

"What's wrong?" Marita asked "Nothing," Sean said pushing Marita ahead of him, praying that she wouldn't see the effect of their kiss, but it was too late because Marita had already seen the bulging mass before he did. "Marita, honey you've got to quit doing that?" Miss Liza ended Marita's reverie. "Stop doing what?" Marita asked. "Stop daydreaming.and don't try to deny it because I see you doing it all the time." Marita couldn't deny it; so she just smiled. That was the only way that she could get through the days sometimes, just dreaming about Sean. "Yeah Miss Daydream, aren't we enough fun for you?" Shawn put in his two cents. "Ya'll are great, I just miss my family." "I have a hankerin' that she misses more that her family," Miss Liza said as she nudged Sean. Marita, Sean, and Miss Liza walked around the fair for the rest of the evening. At the auction, Miss Liza bid on a handmade quilt and won. She paid way too much for it, but it was very unique. It had a beautiful, intricate pattern with contrasting bright ivory baroque satin with chocolate and tan satin shapes. Miss Liza said that she would never use such a beautiful item for daily use, but since all the money raised went to the church's missionary fund, it was a good cause. Shawn bought a hand embroidered hankie for Sadie, and Marita bought something for almost everyone. She bought a bonnets for both Lexy and Alice, suspenders for Clay and Jeremy, a pipe and some Boston tobacco for Ned and Isaac, but she still hadn't found anything for Sean. When the fair began to wind down, the trio decided to head back. On the way back, Marita saw some of the other girls coupled off, giggling with some of the boys. Marita only thought more of Sean, but she realized that even if she was with him, she wouldn't be able to be out in public like that with him. Deep down in her heart, sometimes she felt that she deserved more than being Sean's "backdoor secret," especially in small town like Lexington. Although she had to admit, things were getting better. People like the Logan's made it better. Everyone knew that she worked for Ned, so whenever she went into the local businesses, they welcomed her and Isaac and served her like any other customers. The local business owners knew that Mr. Logan could be a great friend and an even greater enemy, and if word got back to him that Marita or Isaac had been treated badly, then Mr. Logan would turn his business away from them. But, because of Ned's influence, Lexingtonians began to see that colored people weren't so bad. Some were actually smart and useful. But, Marita knew that Sean loved her, but it was very difficult for Marita, when she would go into town and run into someone she knew. They would always question why a girl as pretty and as smart as she, was not married or at least had a beau. Some of them, even told her that she should go back and try to find Henry. She would always tell them that it would happen when the time was right. Everyone knew that she and Sean were close, like brother and sister kind of close, but some suspected that there was more to it, but they thought it best just not to open that can of worms. There were plenty of other rich white men who still had rendezvous' with colored women, resulting in many of them having children by these women. But when the woman's tummy began to show, they would just send her away to another town. When they arrived back at the hotel, Miss Liza thanked Marita for inviting her and thanked Shawn for making her laugh so hard. She excused herself and went to her room. None of the other girls had made it home yet, so Shawn asked Marita if he could stay awhile. Not that she really wanted him to stay, but she knew that if she were alone right now that she'd just end up going upstairs and crying because she missed Sean so much. It was about eight o'clock in the evening, there were only a two lanterns on in the sitting room. Shawn and Marita talked for a while. Well, Shawn talked, and Marita listened. "I bet you can't wait to get back to Lexington, huh?" Shawn asked. "Yeah, I'm really ready to go home." "Well, we only have two more weeks," Shawn said as he reclined back into the large chair. "Then I can go home and marry Sadie." "That's right!" Marita exclaimed. "Have you all set a date?" "Not formally, but it will be no longer than a few weeks after I get back. I'm really ready to start my life with her. I have a teaching job there waiting for me, and my father has already built a house there for us. It has everything that we could ever want in it." "Wow, I wish that things were that easy for me," Marita accidentally let that slip. "What do you mean Marita?" Sean asked as he sat up to pay attention. "Nothing, I just meant that I have other things to consider." "Like what.C'mon tell me. I tell you everything, but you don't tell me anything." "It's nothing really, but we just don't have a lot of money to build our house, so that's delaying our plans," Marita lied. "Oh well, maybe when you start teaching."

"Yeah maybe, but I already had a great job that I really loved, and I already spoke to the teacher at the colored school and she said that her class was too big and when I finished here that she would separate the young children so that I could teach them for half a day." "So what does.Marita! You never even told me his name," Shawn realized. "His name." Marita thought quickly. She didn't want to tell him his real name. "It's Sal - his name is Sal," Marita lied again. Sal is Sean's initial's, Sean Aaron Logan. "Two lies in less than 30 minutes, I'm really gonna have to repent," Marita thought to herself. "So what does Sal do for a living?" "He's a field-worker on a farm.a tobacco farm," Marita said, "See that was only a half lie." "Really well why can't he afford to build a house?" Shawn asked. "Because he just can't, that's all," Marita snapped. "Alright alright, don't get mad at me," Shawn's voice turned serious, "Your Sal just doesn't sound like he really deserves you. If I were him," Shawn spoke slowly and looked Marita straight in the eyes, "I would do whatever it took to make sure that you didn't get away, and I." Shawn was interrupted by some of the girls coming in the room laughing. Marita couldn't believe what Shawn said. Is he flirting with me? No, he's in love with Sadie. Marita acted like he didn't even say it. "Well, I guess that I better head up to bed. I have my last week at the school." "Yeah I better get going too," Shawn said light-heartedly. "Night Marita." "Goodnight." When Marita got into her room. She put on Seans' shirt and ring and crawled into bed. Since she had been there, she had only received one letter from Sean. She had sent him three letters. Maybe he was busy.He had better be really busy, she thought.

Setting: Winter's estate. Vivian sat at her desk reading quietly to herself. "I can't believe the things he says to her. 'Ohh Marita, you're my best friend.I miss you so much.blah blah blah.' I thought that Sean learned more about letter- writing from me. Doesn't he know that anyone can get a hold to these letters? These letters could really hurt the Logan's if they got into the wrong hands, but we're not gonna let that happen. No not a chance. Because what hurts the Logan's, hurts me, especially since I'm a soon-to-be Logan. On the other hand, if Sean's precious little best friend Marita hurts him, then that'll turn the whole family against her and her father. And of course, Sean's gonna need good friend." Vivian went on conversing with herself. "Now let's see what we can do about these letters. I already know that I can forge Sean's handwriting, but let's see about Marita's. Her handwriting is actually pretty good for a servant, but she uses those dreadful little hooks all over the place. "Hmmm, lets see." Vivian purred as she practiced Marita's handwriting. After a few minutes, "Not too bad, oh well, it'll have to do. Sean's been anxiously waiting for a letter from his sweethea-.I mean, servant, for weeks now," Vivian re- wrote the letters. One from Sean to Marita and one from Marita to Sean. Then she placed them back into the original envelopes and sealed them. "Well now that our work for the day is done, what shall I do?" I guess that I could work on the wedding plans for me and Sean's wedding. This time, we're not going to waste our time with a time-consuming engagement party. Hmmm, I wonder if he still has the plans for the house he was gonna build for us?"

More to come.Stay tuned..