Rose admired the way Beauty took charge in Mrs. Pillsbury’s home. Beauty’s cooking was so good that she had a reputation in all the surrounding towns, and she had a quiet confidence from her skills. She told everyone what to do and when to do it, even Mrs. Pillsbury. When Mrs. Pillsbury asked Beauty to delay serving tea until more guests arrived, Beauty told her “I’ll wait five minutes, then I’m serving those cheese puffs. They don’t wait, you know,” and Mrs. Pillsbury just nodded, “Fine, fine then, dear,” and slipped back through the swinging door to the front of the house. Even Happy did whatever Beauty asked when she was in the kitchen, and Rose was surprised by her auntie Happy’s quiet support of Beauty in the Pillsbury kitchen.
Rose enjoyed helping Beauty and was glad she’d be able to see the front of the house when she served tea that Wednesday afternoon. The Carrier women had been cleaning and helping Mrs. Pillsbury decorate for the holidays for several days, and Rose wanted to see how everything looked. She was pleased with the parlor, a bright Christmas tree in the corner, all the furniture dusted and polished.
The women of Sumner, dressed in their best, filled the cozy room. Queen and Rose moved among the guests, offering platters of cheese puffs and small sandwiches. One woman with red hair and an alarmingly real fox stole stopped Rose with a gesture and began pointing to different sandwiches, which Rose placed on her plate with the silver tongs she had polished that morning.
“You surely can let me have Beauty this Saturday,” the red haired woman said to Mrs. Pillsbury. “I must have her, I must. No one else makes that lemon cake, or that smothered chicken, the way she does.”
“Now Martha, I simply can’t. Mr. Pillsbury won’t do without her cooking. It’s the secret to our domestic bliss,” Mrs. Pillsbury, a pale slight blond woman, replied. “He won’t abide my cooking. The first meal I ever made him, he took one bite and said to me, 'The food in prison must be better than this'." She smiled as her guests started to laugh. “Ever since, he’s insisted on a cook, and Beauty’s the best one we’ve had. He can barely stand to do without her on her day off.”
“I just don’t know what to do!” the woman exclaimed. “I can’t find anyone to come!”
“Perhaps if you ask Beauty’s mother, Sarah. One of her other girls might come, her daughter Happy is just as good a cook as her sister.”
“Sarah Carrier!” the woman said, and Rose looked up at the tone of voice with which she spit the words. “I spoke to her yesterday, outside Wright’s store. She told me her girls wouldn’t come for less than two dollars a day. Two dollars! I’ve never paid a colored girl more than fifty cents, and I never will!”
“That old woman and her family, they all think mighty high of themselves,” another woman sneered. “Asking three times as much for good honest labor as it’s worth. It’s just wrong, and something should be done about it.”
“They are mighty proud, I agree,” said another guest as she reached for a puff from Queen’s tray. “Don’t have the time to work, half the time, even if you do go down to Rosewood and ask. I haven’t been able to have them do my wash for weeks, and not even a sorry when I asked.”
A woman in pink sniffed and added, “And that man is worse than his sisters, you ask me.”
“There’s not enough girls to do that sort of work any more,” Mrs. Pillsbury replied, frowning. “So many of them have moved north to work for better wages. I can hardly get the Carriers every time I need help, never mind some other girl. I’d pay double, truth be told, just to keep them working for me. Mr. Pillsbury would let me, if it meant he has Beauty in the kitchen six nights a week. So if you want a cook, Arlene, you’ll have to speak to Sarah.
“Rose, Dear,” she added, and Rose jumped, startled out of her reverie. “This water is getting cold. Take this pot to the kitchen and get a fresh one, please.”
Rose realized she’d been standing, glaring at the red haired woman, and Mrs. Pillsbury had noticed. Her face hot, she slipped through the swinging door into the kitchen.
Beauty was at the counter whipping cream, and when she looked up she saw right away that Rose was upset.
“Oh no, what happened?” she asked, “Did you drop a tray?”
“Those women…” Rose started, and slapped the tray of sandwiches down on the counter.
“What happened?” Beauty asked, and sighed when Rose finished speaking.
“I know you’re from the city, and maybe it’s different, I guess. People not so mean. I doubt it, though. I’ve met plenty of mean women in the city.
“I went to Atlanta for a while, you know,” She told Rose as she rinsed out the teapot and filled it with water from the stove. “That sort of nonsense used to make me so mad. When I’d heard enough I just left one day, made a life there in Atlanta. Sang in a fifty-woman choir at the church. Earned five dollars a day, cooking. Lived with Auntie Pauline, I was getting ready to start college.” She moved to the tray Rose had brought in and filled it with fresh sandwiches, added a sprig of herbs for decoration.
“I missed home so badly, I didn’t last a year. Came back, worked more hours for less money, and here I am, listening to that sort of nonsense all over again. But at least I’m home, with my family,” she said, and smiled at Rose.
“People are mean everywhere you go. Good people, Mrs. Pillsbury and her family, there’s good folks everywhere. Most folks, they spend too much time gossiping and complaining, if you ask me. Just clacking, clucking and pecking at things like a bunch of old hens, Honey, you can’t pay them any mind. Now get this hot water out there,” Beauty ordered, “and come right back for this platter. I have tarts with cream, and that cream won’t wait, you know.”
Rose smiled, a little embarrassed to have to go back out, but Beauty shooed her with her hand so Rose picked up the teapot and turned to go. Queen came bustling in just then, shaking her head.
“Those old biddies, they ate every single one of those puffs,” she complained, “And drank that tea up, and now they want more, and my goodness, don’t they sound just like a bunch of old hens, gossiping about this one and that one. Just like a flock of hens.” She looked puzzled and wanted to ask what was funny when Rose and Beauty both laughed, but she just grabbed the tray of sandwiches and followed Rose to the parlor when Beauty told her to take them out.