The black swan Read Free Page A

it."

    "Only thing I won was a bustin' head. You don't know, then?"
    "Sure I know. I won it."
    Ross's jaw dropped. "Well, I'll be damned!" He gave Tom a hard, appraising stare. "Edmund's not in the habit of losin'. He's gonna have a real blood rush."
    Tom said uncomfortably, "What happened to you last night? You must have had a lot while we were at brag."
    Ross shrugged. "Three, four drinks. Did you slip me a Mickey?"
    "I never did before, did I?"
    "You never won before."
    "Jee-hoshaphat, Ross! Once in my life I do every thin' right—"
    "Cheer up, ol' frien'. Here comes Edmund."
    Edmund, Tom observed, looked peaked. "I see you survived," he said heartily.
    Edmund's smile was bleak. "The carrion crows are welcome to my mouth. Pfaugh!" Tom and Ross laughed. "You're lookin' suspiciously well, Tom."
    Tom braced himself. "That anisette must have cleared my head."
    Edmund's nostrils flared. "Congratulations, Tom!"
    Tom's heart raced as he accepted Edmund's handshake. "Thanks, Edmund. I'll give you a bank draft for that four thousand."
    "Four thousand?" Edmund's eyebrows raised in puzzlement.
    Ross said, "I don't recall you losin' money to Edmund."
    Edmund had never taken his eyes off Tom. "What four thousand?!" -
    "You sold me a house nigger. Sho'ly you recollect that. Ask Jarvis."
    Edmund's face grew pinched and pale.
    Ross laughed softly. "Son of a bitch! You're talkin' about Ullah, aren't you?"
    "Yes," said Tom, smiling. He told Edmund how it had happened. "I kept my end of the bargain."
    "And so shall I." Revanche's eyes glittered.
    Ross said, "We got to toast ol' Tom for outfoxin' everybody."
    They touched glasses just as the laughing crowd came from the parlor.
    Tom took little part in the soiree. His mind was already

    in the future, when the dancing would have grown wearisome. He endured the gala midnight supper and the final gallantries in honor of Carrie Pickett's departure.
    It was one o'clock by the time the three men were seated in Revanche's study. Though Tom was anxious to be with UUah, he talked and joked with Ross and Edmund. "I b'lieve we all had a narrow escape. Miss Carrie looked ready to take up the first proposal."
    Ross laughed. "I nearly made her one myself. And hey, Tom, did you?"
    Edmund Revanche was not listening. Drink in hand, he lounged in a high-backed chair, booted legs crossed. His full-lidded brown eyes roved over the numerous rows of books, bound in finest Moroccan leather. Mentally he approved the meticulously waxed sheen of the Chippendale chairs and the parquetry floor.
    He had made himself a rich man, and he would soon be richer still, with holdings far beyond the South. Already he had begun carving out a foothold in the lucrative North. Not even Tom or Ross knew the extent of his ambition. Edmund believed he saw the weaknesses of the South in a way neither of his friends would. The slave system would not go on forever. One day, Northern fanatics—helped by Southern traitors—would see to it that labor had to be hired.
    He couldn't stop that, but by the time it happened, he'd be well entrenched in Northern manufacturing. It would be Abolitionist money he'd use to pay his Southern hired help. His lands would m6st likely be worked out anyway. He'd still have the best of it. Then he'd take up something else. Politics? Governor Edmund Revanche. That had an impressive ring to it . . .
    Ross Bennett's raucous laughter shattered Edmund's pleasant reverie, jerking him abruptly back to his guests.
    "Hey, Edmund, you heah that? Tom says he is tarred, and wants to go to bed!"
    Revanche, his earlier fury well hidden, joined in the laughter. He said too solicitously, "Hope nothin's wrong, Tom. Not feelin' poorly or anythin', are you?"
    Tom laughed ruefully. "I don't know how you do it, Edmund. It's been a long night—"
    "Now Tom's fixin' to make it a longer night! Pour yourself another drink, Tom boy."

    Grinning broadly, Tom said, "Ross, why don't you go to hell?"
    Edmund's and Ross's eyes met in