Page 29 of Mail Order Meeting
“You told me enough to answer my question,” he replied.“Not enough to tell me the truth.”
She looked up at him then.“Iamtelling you the truth,” she said.
“Part of it,” he said.He leaned back slightly, his gaze steady.“I told you before.I don’t care about anything that happened before this.Not truly.But I do care if you feel like you have to hide it from me.”
Lula’s fingers tightened around the edge of the table.“It would change things,” she said.
“Maybe,” he answered.
“It would,” she said more firmly.
He studied her face.“Then let it,” he said.“If it needs to.”
She shook her head.“You don’t understand.”
“Then help me understand.”
She looked down at her hands, fighting to find the words to explain everything.Just say it.Her throat tightened.
“It wasn’t just that my parents didn’t approve of Bill,” she said slowly.
“I gathered that much,” Sebastian replied.
She swallowed.“He worked for my family,” she said.“His parents did too.His father was the gardener.His mother was my mother’s maid.”
Sebastian didn’t interrupt.He simply waited.
Lula’s hands began to tremble, just slightly.“And that wasn’t what they cared about most,” she went on.“Not truly.”
She lifted her head and met his eyes.“He was a negro,” she said.
The words were loud in the quiet room.For a moment, Sebastian didn’t move.Didn’t speak.
Lula watched him closely, her heart beating hard enough that she was sure he could hear it.This was it.This was the moment their marriage would end.And it happened just as she was developing real feelings for him.
“I see,” he said finally.His voice was calm.Too calm.
Lula’s stomach twisted.“That’s why they turned me out,” she said quickly, her words coming faster now.“That’s why no one would accept our marriage.That’s why he was killed.”Her breath caught slightly.“I couldn’t prove it, but I know that’s why.”
Sebastian’s expression shifted then—not to anger, but to something sharper.
“Your parents killed him?”
“No, not my parents.I believe it was people who disapproved of us.I wasn’t even allowed to shop in town.No one would do business with me.I had to walk miles to the next town so I could purchase what I needed.”
The room went quiet again.He looked down at the table for a moment, his jaw tightening as he thought.Then he looked back at her.
“And you think I would mind,” he said.It wasn’t a question.
Lula didn’t answer right away.“You don’t know what it was like,” she said instead.“What people said.How they looked at us.How quickly everything changed.We weren’t even allowed to go to church.”
“I can imagine some of it,” he said.
“No,” she said, shaking her head.“You can’t.”
Her voice was stronger now, steadier.“Everyone cared.Everyone.It didn’t matter who he was as a person.It didn’t matter that he was good, or kind, or that I loved him.That was all they saw—a dark-skinned man with a white woman.”
Sebastian held her gaze.“I’m not everyone,” he said.The words were simple.
