Free Embrace the Day by Susan Wiggs Page A

show of bravado. Genevieve Culpeper would succeed. Her farm was small, negligible by Virginia standards, but even a modest crop could be sold for a tidy profit in the markets he knew so well.
    He dipped his quill and scratched out a hasty note. Pushing it across to Genevieve, he said, "Take this to Norris Wilmingham. He's two doors down from Flowerdewe and Norton. He'll give you everything you need."
    Not until Genevieve was out in the road did she allow herself to believe Digby Firth was actually going to help her. But looking down at his note, she realized he'd been more than generous. Her whoop of joy startled several passers-by, who turned in surprise to watch the pretty dark-haired woman skipping down the street.
    As she was passing a warehouse, a man sprawled out into the street in front of her, so close she almost tripped over him. A derisive laugh issued from the warehouse.
    "We'll have no niggers doing a white man's work," someone said. "Get back to the fields where your kind belongs."
    At first, Genevieve thought the man was a drunken brawler being ejected from the warehouse. But looking into his coffee-brown face with its clear, bright mahogany eyes, she realized he was quite sober.
    "Excuse me, ma'am," he said, getting to his feet.
    Genevieve picked up his battered tricorn and handed it to him. "Are you all right?"
    The man nodded, replacing his hat.
    "What was that all about, sir?"
    He shrugged. "I was just trying to hire myself on for an honest day's work."
    "Why didn't they hire you?"
    He looked incredulous. "Didn't you hear the man? I'm not fit to do a white man's work." Shaking his head, he muttered, "Waited forty-five years for my freedom. I guess the price for that is watching my family starve. Better I stayed a slave."
    Genevieve moved her eyes over the man. He was gaunt and wiry, his cheeks hollow and creased by deep lines.
    "You mustn't talk like that, sir," she said quickly.
    "I guess not," he said, brushing off his clothes.
    She put out her hand. "I'm Genevieve Culpeper, of Dancer's Meadow in Albemarle County."
    Slightly taken aback, he shook her hand. "Joshua Greenleaf. Lately of Greenleaf Plantation, in King and Queen County. My master freed me in his will. At the time, I thought he was doing me a favor, but…"
    "What do you know of growing tobacco, Mr. Greenleaf?"
    "All that the better part of my life has taught me, ma'am."
    "How badly do you want to work?"
    "I got a wife and six young'uns, ma'am."
    An audacious grin brightened Genevieve's face. As they walked together toward Wilmingham's, they struck an agreement. Genevieve told Joshua right off that she had little money to pay him, but that he'd share in any profits they made. His wife and four sons and two daughters would have a roof over their heads, if they didn't mind the work of converting the barn on her place into a home.
    Genevieve listened carefully as Joshua Greenleaf presented his family to her. Mimsy, his wife, was a stout, cheerful-looking woman with a smile as wide as Chesapeake Bay. Calvin, a boy of eighteen, was as tall and lean as his father, with the same glint of intelligence in his eyes. He was the only member of the family who wasn't smiling; he regarded Genevieve with hostile skepticism. The other three boys, Curtis, Phillip, and Eustis, were scruffy and playful looking, but they paid their respects in a mannerly way. The girls, Caroline and Rose, gawked at Genevieve, openly curious. She knew they'd inundate their father with questions as soon as her back was turned.
    Quickly, Joshua sketched out Genevieve's plan. Calvin turned away with a snort.
    "Slaves again," he said darkly, "and this time she gets us without bidding at the auction house."
    "That's not what I offered," Genevieve said firmly. "I'm talking about a partnership, Calvin. Your father and I will be equals."
    "So we all starve together."
    "No, we all get rich together," Genevieve insisted.
    "That's just what I mean to happen," Joshua added.
    At that, Mimsy