Free Dark Chaos (# 4 in the Bregdan Chronicles Historical Fiction Romance Series) by Ginny Dye Page A

mama’s silver-haired petiteness. 
                  “I reckon that sleep be the first good one you done had in a while,” Diedre stated quietly.
                  “I feel that I could sleep forever,” Rose said with a smile, content to continue lying back against her pillow.  “You don’t have to stay here, you know.”
                  Diedre nodded contentedly.  “I don’t plan on movin’ in, but I intends to make sure you don’t go gettin’ stupid on me and try to get up.  I done promised Moses before he left that I’s gonna take care of you.  Don’t figure I wants to face him if you and that baby of yours ain’t fine when he gets here.  I reckon I should’ve done this a while back, but I’d hoped someone as smart as you had some common sense, too.  I reckon I been wrong.”
                  Rose heaved a sigh of contentment.  “You’re just like my mama,” she said fondly.
                  Diedre chuckled; then deep silence fell on the room.  Rose felt her body relax again, and her eyes drooped down tiredly.  A sudden thought caused them to fly back open. 
                  “What’s on your mind, girl?”  Diedre asked instantly.
                  Rose hesitated then decided to ask.  “Do you mind being mulatto?”
                  Diedre peered at her closely.  “What you asking a question like that for?” 
                  Rose was wide awake now.  “My baby might be.  I was just wondering - just wondering what it was like.”             
                  Diedre rose and walked over to settle onto the bed.  “How come you talk that way, girl?  You and Moses both be black.  How you figure you gonna get a mulatto baby out of that?”
                  Now that Rose had decided to talk about it, she was eager to express what she had felt for months.  Instinctively she knew she could talk to Diedre about it.  “I found out a couple of years ago who my real father is.  He was the master of the plantation.”
                  “Ain’t nothing unusual about that,” Diedre stated calmly.  “It happens all the time.  If that’s the way it is, you mulatto, too.  Why you asking me what it’s like?”
                  “Have you always known you were?”  Rose asked.
                  “Kinda hard with skin this light not to know there be white in me somewhere.”
                  “That’s just it,” Rose replied.  “I never knew.  I just always figured I was black.  The only daddy I knew was black, so I thought I was.”
                  “According to the law, you be black,” Diedre observed.  “Takes a lot less black blood in you than what you gots to be considered black around here.  The white part of you don’t seem to matter none.”   She paused and looked at Rose closely.  “The white part of you don’t show up too much.  You got beautiful caramel skin and coal black eyes.  Moses be right dark.  I don’t think that master of your mama’s put too much of him into you.”
                  Rose took a deep breath and decided to tell her everything.  “I have a twin brother.  He was born white.  They sold him when he was only a couple of days old.  He was adopted by a white family later.”
                  “Do tell,” Diedre breathed.  “You ain’t never met him?”
                  “Not yet,” Rose answered.  “But I mean to.  When this war is over, I will find him.”
                  “You reckon that’s a good idea?  That boy been living in the white world for a long time.  He might not take kindly to finding out he’s half black.”
                  “That’s what Moses said,” Rose admitted, remembering back to the night on the plantation when Carrie had found the papers