Additional Duties
Anna admired the pair of shoes on her dressing table as she waited for Mary to return with the hot water. Andrew was downstairs in the parlor listening to Kady play the piano, so now was the perfect time to talk to Mary. Anna had decided that it was time to make Mary part of her ring. She had taken a beating to keep Anna’s activities concealed. If that didn’t earn Mary a place, Anna didn’t know what would. She had been struggling, trying to figure out a way to tell Mary, or even just to bring it up, when the idea of getting Mary the shoes hit her. It was perfect—an icebreaker and initiation gift rolled into one.
Mary entered noiselessly and filled the washbasin with the hot water. Anna stayed at her dressing table as Mary soaked a washcloth and rung it out before crossing the room to Anna’s side. Anna turned to her, picked up the shoes, and announced the obvious.
“I got you a pair of shoes.”
Mary’s face twisted in confusion as she put her hands on her hips, wet cloth and all.
“Those is beat up worse than the ones I’m already wearin’.”
Anna smiled. “Exactly! If I had gotten you brand new shoes, they would have drawn scrutiny, and the last thing we want is for someone to look them over and discover this.”
Anna deftly twisted the shoe and the heel came off in her hand. Mary gasped in horror that Anna had just ruined the shoe, until Anna tilted the heel in her direction so she could see that the heel was hollow. As realization dawned, a smile grew rapidly across Mary’s face.
“Is that so I can carry messages without nobody knowin’ it?”
Anna nodded, handing the shoes to Mary and snatching away the washcloth, which she dropped on the floor. Mary didn’t even notice, her attention fully on her new shoes.
“Do you have a pair of these?” Mary asked.
“I do. As long as you get the heel twisted on securely, they truly feel like a regular pair of shoes.”
“And if you don’t?”
“Well, then you better step carefully, otherwise you might wind up flat on your face.”
Mary laughed nervously at that but didn’t take her eyes away from the shoes. With no help from Anna she figured out how the heel reattached and after several tries was twisting the heel on and off with ease. Anna looked on appreciatively and realized that she was quite proud of how quickly Mary figured it out. Anna let her play with it until the wonder wore off enough for Mary to look up at her to find out what was next.
“Good, you’ve got that down. Next you’ll need to sew little hidden pockets into your skirts, like the ones you added to mine. You won’t always be wearing your shoes, or you might not be in a situation where you can easily access the heel, so you have to have a secondary location to stash a note.”
“I already got those.”
“You what?” Anna was surprised to hear this. Instead of responding, Mary clenched her teeth, fixed her eyes on the floor, and dropped her arms to her sides. “What do you mean you already have hidden pockets sewn into your skirts?”
“I misspoke. I’ll sew some in right away.” Mary remained rigid.
“You just said that your skirts already have hidden pockets. What is wrong? Why are you lying to me?”
“Don’t make me tell you why, ma’am.”
Mary still hadn’t looked up and confusion colored Anna’s face until she noticed that, ever so slightly, Mary had begun to tremble in fear. Anna knew that it was going to take some time for Mary to fully recover from Andrew’s beating. That being said, what in the world could Mary have done to make her fear a reprisal when Andrew wasn’t even in the room? Anna felt her frustration rise. She was supposed to be making things right with Mary, not making them worse.
“Oh, for heaven’s sake! I’m recruiting you to be a spy with me. Do you really think there’s anything that you could say right now that would get you into trouble?”
“It’s bad, ma’am.”
“Have I ever raised a hand to you?”
“No, ma’am.”
“Then tell me. I swear to you there will be no reprisals.”
Mary took a deep breath then let it all come tumbling out at once.
“Before you ever came to the plantation, my mama taught me to sew in those little pockets, so that whenever I’m about the big house and sees something that won’t be missed…” Mary trailed off.
“Yes.”
“I can take it. Nothing big mind you, the pockets is small, but a candy here and there. A thimble. A piece of ribbon or a sugar cube. Every now and again a spare coin. I ain’t never spent none of the money I took, and most of the other things I give away for birthdays or holidays. Or if someone just got a beatin’. It’s amazing how holding onto something that was took from whitefolk can lift your spirits when you feelin’ broken.” Anna was silent, so Mary continued nervously. “I ain’t never took nothin’ a yours, Miss Anna, I swear. You been nothin’ but good to me, and I ain’t never took nothin’ that you didn’t give me.” She paused. “I have taken a few things from Kady though.”
At that, Anna laughed, but Mary remained wary and silent. The more Anna thought about it, the more her merriment grew, and as tears started to roll down her cheeks, she pulled Mary into an embrace and kept laughing until the rigidity left Mary’s body. Mary even let out a small laugh of her own. Anna’s mirth had become contagious. Finally Anna’s merriment began to subside and she wiped her face with the back of her hand.
“Oh, I love you, you dear, sweet woman! You’ve been stealing from Andrew and from Kady.” With that she let out a short bark of a laugh but stifled it before she got carried away again. “You, my dear, are going to be a wonderful spy. You’ve been practicing for years and didn’t even know it.”
This time both Mary and Anna laughed, the relief releasing what was left of the tension in Mary’s body. Anna then showed her how to keep a note tucked up her sleeve and pull it out unseen. Since Mary was a slave it would have to be a travel pass or an order for the butcher, or something equally innocuous. That way, if anybody ever saw Mary slipping a note into one of her secret pockets and demanded that she hand it over, she would be able to secretly pull the piece of paper from her sleeve and produce it instead. Anna was delighted at how quickly Mary picked up the skill.
“You are a natural. I should have recruited you ages ago.”
“Yes, ma’am, I reckon you should have.” Mary smiled broadly at Anna, appreciating her own cheek, but Anna’s face fell into a frown.
“Anna.”
“What’s that, ma’am?”
“No, no ma’am. When it’s the two of us, call me Anna.”
“That wouldn’t be proper, ma’am.”
“Who is to say what is proper and what is not proper? We have never known a time like this, and as such we must adopt actions that we never before would have thought possible. If I’m a spy for the Union, and you’re a spy for the Union, then that puts us on equal ground. So if you’re just Mary, then I’m just Anna.”
“Just Anna.” The name without the title “miss” before it came out awkward, but Mary smiled with satisfaction.
“Now, back to business. See if you can pull the note out of your sleeve and pass it to me as I walk by.”
Anna grinned at her then hurried across the room so Mary could try the maneuver.