"Huh?  I no yeddy."

      "How old is Isaac?"

      "Oh, dis year he be sixteen summers."

      "Will oonah stay in Charleston until after the big Saturday night ball?"

      "Yeah, I stay to run and fetch last minute stuff.  Den, Missus says I take oonah back to Tiffany de day atter de ball."

      Bianca smiled as she reflected on how cleverly she had dropped her question about Isaac in the middle of a different conversation topic.  She continued.  "What do oonah think dey really want me to do?"

      "Oh, Chile, I don't know.  My guess is dey want oonah to do more'n chop food and hep in the kitchen."

      Bianca was puzzled.  "Like what?"

      "Oonah a comely lass.  I guess oonah be servin' ‘mongest the guests at de ball.  Dat give the Tiffany family som' braggin' rights.  Dem and the Aikens allus tryin' som' clever way to out do one another."  Luke added a small knowing laugh.

      "Well, thanks, Mister Luke.  But, that can't be the reason Missus sent for me.  Why, oonah said yesterday that an Aiken servant just gave birth and I'm to replace her."

      "Yeah, dat be Dorcas.  And, Missus latched on dat chance to slip you in wid an offer o' catfish and rice to show off Tiffany hepin' out the Aiken family.  O'course when oonah gets down to it, the Aikens don't need no hep from nobody.  But, dat way Missus Margaret can show guests how close friends she be to Missus Harriet.  Oh, I kin heah it now."  Luke laughed and raised his voice into a falsetto.   "In front o'dey friends, Missus Margaret say, ‘Chile, you know dat cute little negress in the tasteful uniform over dere was trained at Tiffany.'  Den, Missus Harriet say, ‛Oh, isn't she marvelous!  And, she so clever and moves wid sich grace!'"

      Bianca doubled over laughing at Luke's imitation.  Luke laughed and slapped his knee.  The horse on the left flinched.

      "Who is Missus Harriet?"

      "Oh, dat be Gobernor Aiken's wife."

      "How is Gobernor Aiken de gobernor when all ‘e do is sell de rice we African's grow?"

      "Chile, ‘e ain't de gobernor no mo'.  He was gobernor back in de middle‘40s when oonah was a babe."

      "Well, how cum peoples still call'im ‘gobernor?'"

     Luke turned east on Mary Street and stopped at two tall wooden gates mounted on taller brick columns.  He pulled a chain that rang a bell in the masonry built livery.  The livery building was a part of the outer wall on the Elizabeth Street side of the Aiken's urban plantation where its first level served as quarters for horses and coaches.  In the upper level, coachmen and drivers lived in small dormitory rooms facing the garden and courtyard that were accessed by a narrow wooden spiral stair case.  On one side of the second level, hay was stored for horses, which was dropped through chutes into feeding troughs below.

      The gates opened and they were greeted by a coachman named Charles Jackson.  Bianca saw before her a short avenue, brick paved between the kitchen house and the mansion, and flanked by five magnificent magnolias with brilliant white blossoms on each side.  Brown-red chickens and white chickens scratched about and pecked in the dirt of the courtyard.  Between the magnolias and the Elizabeth Street wall stood two cows eating hay in a small brick shed.  On the opposite wall were a brick chicken coop and a small spice and vegetable garden.  Ahead on the left was a two story masonry kitchen house.  The kitchen was on the first level in the end closest to the main house, with a laundry sharing the remaining space.  The Aiken's domestic enslaved families occupied the second level, living in one room apartments, each equipped with a fireplace.

* * *

      From her position in the first parlor by the door to the piazza, Bianca saw guests arriving at the top of the marble stairs from the grand entrance on the Elizabeth Street side of the house.  The butler announced the arrival of each guest.  Every family name Luke had mentioned during their tour of the city and more were announced, some several times, including Alston, Ball, DeSaussure, Drayton, Grimball, Heyward, Huger, Jenkins, Laurens, Manigault, Middleton, Pringle, Ravenel, Rutledge, Tiffany, and Vanderhorst.  There was a stir among the guest when applause erupted upon the arrival of General Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard, the hero of the Battle of Bull Run, who had, five weeks prior, successfully defeated an attempt by the Union to capture Charleston.

      Bianca was surprised by the youthful appearance of General Beauregard, splendid in a perfectly tailored gray tunic festooned with eighteen brass buttons arranged in two columns and a high priest-like collar bearing the stars of his rank.  She smiled as she thought, "It won't be difficult to find him again."

      * * *

      On a signal from Henrietta, the Aikens' daughter, the orchestra struck Robert Alexander Schumann's Piano Quintet in E flat, major. A hush fell in the first parlor and all eyes followed Henrietta to the stairs from the living quarters on the third floor.  Slowly descending the stair was her mother, Harriet.  The assembled guest gasped, and then applauded.  Harriet wore a serene smile as she fairly floated from the stair into the parlor.  Diamonds on the front of her blue brocade full length dress were attached to silver threads woven into the fabric.  Harriet's dress left her shoulders bare and was form-fitting down to her knees, so that it flattered her almost perfect figure.  Below her knees were black mesh covered slits on each side and a pleated train that trailed behind her.  Light from twenty four candles in the ornate candelabra suspended from the sixteen foot ceiling was reflected in all directions by Harriet's diamonds.  Gilded floor to ceiling mirrors flanking the ten foot wide passage between the double parlors accented the effect by multiplying the light reflected by Harriet.  Dark haired ‘Heart', as close relatives and friends called Harriet, moved through the adoring throng like a queen.                               

      Bianca watched Heart's triumphant entry in silent awe from a perch beside a plant on the front wall almost as tall as she.  "Dese folk are richer dan I thought.  How did dey git so much when most peoples haves so lil'?"

* * *