Chapter 5

Thanks for the Reviews! In this chapter we get a glimpse into Pilar's family

Rum was actually manufactuered in CUba during the civil war on the many sugar cane plantations, and many blockade runners hid out in Cuba and used it as a "black market" center of exchanging goods to bring to the states and Europe. In the Carollton uptown of new orleans, the yankess hung out, opened bars and bought rum off the blockade runners, there was actually a mandate that only liquor sold in Benjamin Butler's brother saloon was legal in New Orleans, so I thought it would be a great business for Pilar's family.

The Uptown area of New Orleans had lots of AMerican, Irish, Germans, etc that the French and SPanish creoles didnt accept, many didnt even venture into each others neighborhoods, and Canal street was the border.

Prissy broke into the kitchen, and Cookie looked up with a "what now?" face.

"Miz Scarlett having that lady stay for dinner, she say make another place."

Cookie only nodded, glad it wasn't another tirade from their moody mistress.

Pork served the simple fare, Cookie had been cooking because of Scarlett's lack of appetite. The baked sweet potatoes and sliced ham seemed to be agreeable with her company.

"I'd like to apologize for the simple dinner, but I'm planning to leave in a few days to visit my family at our plantation."

Pilar smiled, "It is quite alright, I am finding the food simpler than New Orleans, but it is palpable."

"So, you are alone in your home as well?" Scarlett asked cutting into her ham steak

"Only for another week, my husband Carson, has older children from his first marriage that still live in Texas."

"Texas?"

"Yes, Carson's father came to America from Germany, they originally had quite a long and confusing name, but after the Mexican War, he shortened it to Lange and settled in Texas."

"So, you met Mr. Lange in Texas?"

"No, I've never been there. My father lived in Lafayette city on the other side of New Orleans, my maiden name is de la Aguila. We had a small house near the River, but my father always kept in touch with his family in Cuba. We came from a very prosperous family, my great grandfather had escaped Saint Domingue, like your grandmother, and settled in Cuba, before moving his family to New Orleans, but the Creoles of the Vieux Carre only kept company with fellow Creoles who had elite ancestry in New Orleans. "

"Yes, people are very critical of new money." Scarlett snapped, remembering how they shunned Rhett and herself.

"Well, my mother wasn't exactly excepted into their circles, she was a free person of color, but you know when people fall in love, they fall in love."

Pilar had said it so casually, it took Scarlett a minute to process it, and then she looked at her. Yes, her skin tone, so much different from hers, and her round soft eyes, Pilar had the same soft tones of Mammy, it must have been her African blood. Scarlett remembered seeing darker women on men's arms in New Orleans, and Rhett had used the term quadroon, but Scarlett never gave any deep thought to the term, everything in New Orleans had different names.

Pilar sensed her friend's pause and asked, "You have heard of a free person of color, yes? If you are familiar with New Orleans, you may have met some?"

Scarlett asked, "When you say "free", did you mean your mother was a slave?"

Pilar looked at her again, she wasn't as worldly as she thought.

"No, she was never a slave, she was born into a legal union between a placage, and her suitor."

"You mean like a mistress?"

"Of sorts, but my mother was adopted by her father's childless sister, after her mother's death. She was raised in the white society, but never quite accepted. But my father, he was raised without all of those Creole ideals growing up around Americans in the Lafayette City. WHen he saw her and fell in love, he had no idea she was a quadroon, you know a fourth black. She looked a lot like me."

Scarlett's mind locked into the understanding, that's what it was a fourth of her blood, and she thought it was her price. Scarlett smiled to herself, she really did need to pay attention more.

Scarlett was smiling, and Pilar was waiting for her to speak.

"So, Pilar, how did you meet your husband?"

"Well that interesting, we meet when he went into business with my father during the blockade to bring in rum from Cuba, at the time I was a novice."

Scarlett dropped her fork and stared at Pilar, a nun.

Pilar laughed, "Yes, hard to believe it, but I wasn't a very good novice."

Scarlett laughed, "This story is getting better by the minute."

"Not really, it's quite boring, ten years ago, I met Carson, and he had just buried his wife who had been married to for twenty-five years, and his first two sons in the war. He was a

an angry drunkard of a man with his youngest son and daughter living with his mother in Texas, and he was running the blockade, almost on a suicide mission."

Scarlett thought to herself, "Same as Rhett."

Pilar continued between bites, "Well, he came to make plans to get some rum in town for the Jankees that were running saloon in Carollton, and I had been at the house visiting, and he saw me. Carson told me later that my smile had soothed his angry soul. And he came to dinner every night that I was visiting, just to see me, and as a novice, I wanted to help him with his grief, and we fell in love."

"My sister joined a convent, was it very hard to leave?"

Pilar threw her head back laughing, "No, no, my dear. The Mother SUperior practically packed my bags."

SCarlett couldn't help but giggle, Pilar was so honest when she spoke, so much like her.

Scarlett said bitterly, "Maybe my sister could do the same, if the right man came along."

Pilar got serious, "No, I didn't leave because I lusted after Carson. In my heart, I felt that Carson needed me, and that would be my vocation as a wife and mother to this family in trouble."

Scarlett corrected her, "I didn't mean it that way. I just don't understand how my sister could just hide in a convent because her beaux died in the war."

"Every novice has their reasons for being there. I was there because it was drilled into me at an early age that we should be humble and serve God. I went there because I never thought anybody would love me like Carson does, but that was the wrong reasons. I was so unhappy, the quiet, monotony drove me crazy, and I would just lash out at all those girls. Most of them were so self righteous, you think they were all competing for Sainthood."

Scarlett nodded her head, "In my case, all the girls were aspiring to catch a husband, and I thought it was such a bunch of nonsense. Rhett just loved me, for myself."

As she said it, her throat tightened, and tears burned her eyes, but she shook them off.

Pilar's eyes softened, "Oh, you miss him. Don't let those women at the market get to you."

Scarlett just shook her head and wiped her eyes, "I really don't care about them, I'm used to it. Eventually, I just stopped caring about the gossip."

Scarlett called for Pork to clear the table, and the two retired to the library.

Pilar smiled, and said, "You told me you had another husband, tell me about this female war you have created here."

Scarlett bit her lip, and sighed, "I've had three husbands."

Pilar's eyes grew huge, "Three? Well of course, someone as pretty as you would gather men's attention."

Scarlett blushed at her flattery, but secretly feared her history would turn her friend against her, so she asked, "Well, you never did say why the women in Atlanta dislike you?"

Pilar shook her head,"They don't feel I'm equal. I am a daughter of a free person of color, therefore I am no better than their cook or housemaid."

Scarlett looked at her, and anger flared, "How do they know, they telegraphed New Orleans for your credentials?"

"No, the Picards know my family."

Scarlett's brow furrowed, "Oh, that old buffalo Mrs. Merriweather, really?"

Pilar nodded, "Her son in law, saw my husband, and informed his wife and her sewing circles, that I possess an eighth of African blood."

"Well, that is just terrible, but it doesn't surprise me."

Pilar wanted to change the subject, "So, tell me about your three husbands, I have only had the luck of catching one, and it was when I was well passed twenty five."

Scarlett told her about the unremarkable marriage to Charles that in her mind didn't even count because he left with his regimine directly after their wedding dinner, and died of measles a month later. Scarlett didn't know how to approach Frank, but she told it was delicately as she could.

"You see I came into town to borrow the money, and Frank Kennedy was so tired of waiting for my sister, he immediately proposed, and he wouldn't let me leave, so I was forced into my second marriage."

"Was he happy with you? You gave him any sons?" Pilar asked.

"I guess he was happy, we created a thriving business and he was very prosperous with my support before he died in a shooting accident, but we never had children."

"A young woman like you? I can't believe you haven't had more children."

Scarlett blushed, "With Frank, it wasn't me. He had health problems, so we were close, but not close enough to have children."

Pilar gasped, "WHat? You were married twice, and you never had relations until-"

"Yes, Rhett and I had Bonnie. And then it was my foolish vanity, I didn't want more children."

"Well, how does the "greyhound's" brother figure into this history?"

"I have been in love with him since I was fourteen years old, and I have just recently realized how foolish I've been."

Pilar sighed, "You have been through quite an ordeal, haven't you?"

Before Scarlett could answer the clock chimed eight o'clock, and Pilar stood up to leave.

"Well, if you would call for my driver to come around, I'm going to get along home. This has been quite an evening. Maybe when you return, we could have tea by my house."

Scarlett smiled, "Yes, I should be home after the New Year. I'll write you."

Pilar gathered her hands and kissed her cheek on both sides, "I will look forward to hearing from you, my friend."