He should have found, and probably would have found, interest and employment on Beulah Land which, after all, would be his one day, but for the fact that Deborah and Roscoe Elk were too jealous of the management of the plantation to allow him any scope there. A young man of firmer character might have forced his way, made demands to assure himself a place, but it was Leon’s amiability again more than weakness that kept him from asserting himself with his mother and her overseer. Deborah complained that he took no interest in the estate at the same time she denied him opportunity.

And with Roscoe, Leon had a special and peculiar relationship. Roscoe had relieved an embarrassing and potentially scandalous situation when he married Clovis and became in name at least father of the child who, when born, had obviously been fathered by a white man. It would be ingratitude to use the man on that occasion, and to withdraw the position he held as a direct result of it, now that Leon was of an age to assume his responsibilities.

Like many other strong people Deborah wanted things both ways. She wanted Leon to interest himself in the plantation, while keeping her own powerful position and continuing to use Roscoe Elk for her convenience and the prosperity of Beulah Land. The fact that the situation was largely, although not entirely, one of her own making did not prevent her complaining that Leon, if he did not change his ways, would become a wastrel.

Her scheme to nurture a future match between Leon and one of Penelope Pennington’s nieces had not come to anything. Soon after his arrival in Savannah, Leon had dutifully called upon Miss Pennington in her house on Broughton Street to make her acquaintance and that of the Misses Lauretta and Sarah. Lauretta had quite taken his fancy, but there was no way for him to get ahead with her. Miss Penelope and Sarah were always there. Lauretta was attracted to the handsome young man and used him to practice her flirting, but nothing serious grew out of it, because Miss Penelope was so very insistent on keeping the tone one of “family.” Leon was the son of her old school friend; therefore, he was treated like a nephew, and Lauretta and Sarah were encouraged to look on him as a cousin.