New York - The Novel

and asked, “Anything I can do for you, ma’am?”
    “No,” she says, “but you can show me what you got there.”
    “Just some things of mine,” I said. “It ain’t nothing.”
    “Then show me,” she said.
    She can’t surely think I’m stealing from her, I thought, after all this time. I didn’t want to show her that belt, because the Boss had told me to keep it a secret. But she had her hand on the thing, and there wasn’t much I could do. So I started to unwrap it. And for a moment she looked puzzled, but then as she saw what it was, her face grew dark.
    “You give me that,” she said.
    “The Boss told me to take it,” I answered. I didn’t want to tell her where I was going with it, so I let her think he gave it to me.
    “And I’m telling you to give it to me,” she shouted. She had suddenly started to tremble with rage. I had an idea why the sight of that belt made her so angry, but there was nothing I could do about it.
    Well, just then I had to think mighty fast. I knew I must do what I promised the Boss. Also, if I did what he said and gave that belt to MissClara for her son, then no one could say I’d stolen it. And I reckoned that if the Mistress was angry, it didn’t really signify, because I knew I was already free. So instead of obeying her, I turned, and before she could get her hands on it, I ran as fast as I could, and dodged behind some carts, and then made my way to Miss Clara’s house.
    When I got there, I found Miss Clara, and I gave her the message from the Boss, exactly as he’d said, and told her that belt was to be kept by young Dirk and by his sons after him for as long as there was family, because that was what the Boss wanted. Then I explained about the Mistress, and she told me not to worry, and that if there was trouble she’d speak to the Mistress about it. So then I left her, but I waited until early afternoon before I went home, to give the Mistress time to calm down.

    There was no sign of the Mistress when I entered the house. But Hudson told me that Jan and a lawyer had arrived a short while ago and that they were with her in the parlor. So I reckoned they must have come about the will.
    I went into the hallway to see if I could hear anything. The parlor door was closed. But then I heard the Mistress’s voice, very loud.
    “Damn your English will. I don’t care when it was made. I have a good Dutch will.”
    You can imagine I went close to the door after that. I could hear the lawyer speaking, though not what he was saying; but I heard the Mistress shouting back at him clear enough.
    “What do you mean, I may stay here a year? This is my house. I’ll stay here a lifetime if I please.” Then, after the lawyer spoke some more: “Free Hudson? That’s for me to decide. Hudson belongs to me.” I could hear the lawyer’s voice, still very quiet. Then the Mistress exploded again. “I see what’s going on, you traitor. I don’t even believe my husband signed this English will. Show me his signature. Give it to me.”
    There was a pause for a moment. Then I heard Jan shout.
    I had my ear so close to the door now that, when it flew open, I nearly fell into the room. At the same moment, the Mistress burst past me. She was staring straight ahead. I’m not sure she even saw me. She had a document in her hand and she was making for the kitchen. The next thing I knew, I was colliding with Jan, who was rushing after her. By the time I got my balance, she’d already gone through the kitchen door with a bang,and I heard her bolt the door behind her. Jan was too late to catch her. He started shouting and hammering on that door, but it wasn’t any use.
    Hudson was in the kitchen, and he told me what happened next. The Mistress went straight to the kitchen fire, and she threw that will onto the flames and stood there watching it until it was burned to a cinder. Then she took a fire iron and poked it until it was just ashes. Then, quite calm, she opened the kitchen door, where both Jan and the lawyer were standing by now.
    “Where’s the will?” said the lawyer.
    “What will?” she answered. “The only will I know is in a strongbox at my lawyer’s.”
    “You can’t do this,” says Jan. “The will was witnessed. I can take you to court.”
    “Do it,” she said. “But you may not win. And if you don’t, then I’ll see to it that, even though you’re my flesh and blood, you’ll get nothing. I’ll spend it all. In the meantime, until a judge