Roman, after his supper, went to the cabin he shared with Floyd to dress himself appropriately before joining the other musicians in the hall. Floyd lingered for a while in the stabling barn talking to Plumboy, who would have a long night’s work supervising the care of the horses and carriages of the guests at the ball, although the critical times were naturally those of arrivals and departures which tended to bunch up together. Plumboy had married Myrtis four years ago in the dining room of the main house, and Otis was now one of his helpers, as Lotus was one of her mother’s, along with Sallou and Sharon who still worked in the kitchens and dining room and were married and had small children of their own.

Sugar walked the first team and carriage around the house. It was a large, closed family coach and had brought the Davises from Oaks—Edna and Bruce, Adam, Annabel, Doreen, and James—to the front door, where Otis now waited to take the next carriage to arrive. As Plumboy and Sugar worked quickly together to settle the Davis horses and carriage, Floyd wandered away. Between them, Plumboy and Sugar had a vast knowledge of the carriage horses of the gentry of the county. For no reason they understood, some horses did not like others, and it was prudent to settle them separately. A horse might rear and flash his eyes and shake his head in the air beside one beast, only to be quiet as a lamb beside another.

Floyd’s house was that in which Roscoe Elk had lived with his family, and Roman had taken perverse pleasure in moving back into it when Floyd invited him to. Although Floyd had thought of it himself, it was Sarah who was behind the immediate suggestion and arrangement, for she had seen something inappropriate in Roman’s living in the kitchen wing when he became a man and was the acknowledged schoolmaster of Beulah Land.

On his way home, Floyd went a little out of his way, as he so often did, to visit his father’s grave. Ezra had died less than a year after Floyd’s return, and in spite of his age, both Lovey and Floyd had grieved bitterly. When Leon suggested that he be buried on Beulah Land instead of in the nearby country cemetery where the plantation Negroes were usually buried when they died, Lovey agreed eagerly.

Ezra’s was the only grave on Beulah Land. It was near a big oak tree that shaded the washwomen’s working area; it was covered with a marble slab and boasted both headstone and footstone, so that it was something like a bed in contour. The carved words on it read: EZRA KENDRICK 1760-1839. WIFE LAVERNE. CHILDREN—FLOYD AND PAULINE. EVER LOVED.