I spend the day cleaning up the bush, cutting it back to make a path down to the river while they all out riding. When Massa, Mistress Margaret and the cousin them come back, I lead the horses away to graze. Help the servants put out all the food and drink on a lilywhite tablecloth under the shade of a big old silk-cotton tree. Sit watching and waiting for lunch to finish hoping I can get a little something from what leave-over.

And it come like the old days, when I was a pickney and would listen in on all the stories, run them round and round in me mind, storing them high up in the old breadfruit tree.

‘The girl who helps Melon in the kitchen? That’s Mary,’ I hear Massa say, answering Mistress Caroline question bout who every body is. ‘She scrubs the pots and pans. Feeds the dogs, but sometimes forgets and Mother has to scold her.’

‘Oh, Cargill,’ Mistress Margaret say, tapping Massa shoulder with her fan. ‘She’s just a little slow in the head, that’s all. She used to sing. She’d sing all the time,’ she say, before holding up the pitcher and asking, ‘More ginger beer?’

Me and the servants look plenty hopeful at that pitcher of ginger beer.

‘It’s so very refreshing, I insist you have another glass,’ Mistress Margaret say, and she go ahead fill them cousin glasses to the brim. ‘We grow it ourselves, you know. Melon grates the ginger, makes it fresh. I’ve instructed her to teach Mary. Melon’s tried and tried, but poor Mary. All she’s good for is pot scrubbing,’ Mistress Margaret say, shrugging her shoulders. The cousin them nod and smile. Take a little sip before quickly helping themselves to more claret. ‘She does have a sweet voice, though. We have her sing for us on special occasions, when we have visitors.’ Leaning in close like she sharing a secret. ‘Special visitors. We’ll make her sing for you tonight.’

What wrong with Mistress Margaret? Must be that ginger beer. Sometimes Melon put a splash of rum in it. Maybe she put a little too much this time.

‘Gave birth to a healthy baby boy, though. We called him Thomas, after my dear departed brother.’ Then Mistress Margaret fan herself with her kerchief, look like she going cry. ‘Diphtheria. Lost him very quickly.’

Baby Tom-Tom is what we call him. Too many of us been named after this long-dead brother. How come Mistress Margaret don’t tell the cousins bout how Mary get used by Massa men friend, and nobody know which one is the father. How it take a long time before she start sing again. And some days, not a sound pass her lips. Problem is, Mary love baby Tom-Tom too much. Is going be plenty trouble when him grow a little bigger and she have to give him up. Start him life of slavery.