The Kitchen House

Belle is happy to be on the plantation, and she commits to caring for Lavinia, who is distraught after Campbell’s death. Belle admits that her main problem is Lucy, Ben’s wife. Lucy is a “big girl, shy with everybody, but always giving me the up and down. She knows that Ben still has his eye on me, and she knows that I got my eye on him” (144). It’s obvious to everyone that Ben and Belle have feelings for one another.

Lavinia and the twins turn 12. Lavinia is now “more sure of myself and […] more outgoing. Yet an underlying anxiety always stayed with me. As a result, I was careful to please and quick to obey” (147). She keeps busy with caring for Miss Martha and Sukey.

Will has transformed the plantation into a joyful place. He gives the slaves plentiful food, time off, and he takes them to church on Sundays. The routine of attending Sunday services with Will allows Lavinia to develop feelings for him: “I stopped wanting Belle to join us when I began to develop a liking for Will Stephens that soon, on my part, developed into young love” (149). The two joke that one day they will get married.

At church, Lavinia sits with the white congregants while the slaves sit in the back, and this is the first time she’s really seen the societal division between herself and the slaves, whom she considers family. Marshall returns to the plantation for a visit, and Lavinia feels a “strange sense of foreboding” at his presence.

Marshall rapes Belle while Rankin watches. She begs Mama not to tell anyone, and she agrees not to.

Belle acts distant and strange, but Lavinia doesn’t know why. She learns that Belle is pregnant and guesses that Will is the father, “as he had become a frequent visitor to the kitchen” (159). This makes Lavinia jealous, and she confronts Belle. Belle is angry and doesn’t want to talk, which Lavinia thinks confirm her suspicions. Lavinia helps deliver Belle’s baby, Jamie Pyke. 

When Jamie is four months old, James requests to see him. He asks who the father is, and Uncle says “It plain to see who the daddy be! […] And Belle don’t have no say in the matter” (163). James says that he’ll give Belle and Jamie free papers, but they must leave immediately. She agrees, but James dies before he can have the papers drawn up by the lawyer. Ben and Belle sleep together. 

After James’s funeral, Martha’s sister and brother-in-law, the Maddens, come to settle the estate. Martha and Lavinia are to return to Williamsburg with the Maddens. There, Martha will go to a psychiatric hospital, while Lavinia will live with the Maddens and receive an education alongside their daughter, Meg. Hearing this news, the slaves throw Lavinia a going-away party.

Belle misses Lavinia after she leaves but admits, “I don’t have time to think about this too long. Even though everybody in the big house is gone, I got my hands full with the gardens and Jamie and Sukey” (172). She and Ben continue to sleep together, unbeknownst to Lucy. 

Although Lavinia misses her family back on the plantation, she adjusts to life at the Madden’s house. They have an inviting home, and she gets her own beautifully furnished room. She and Meg Madden are only one year apart in age, and they quickly become inseparable friends. At first, Lavinia was only supposed to take two classes with Meg and do chores the rest of the day, but Meg begs her parents to let Lavinia stay by her side all day. Meg’s mother agrees, and Lavinia soon receives the same education as Meg.

Marshall, who has grown into “a handsome young man,” (182) comes on Saturdays to teach the girls Latin. Seeing Marshall makes Lavinia feel connected to her past, so she looks forward to his visits. One day, Mrs. Madden begs Marshall to visit his mother. He obliges, but the visit becomes a disaster when Martha leaps onto Marshall and kisses him, mistaking him for James. Lavinia overhears Mrs. Madden telling Mr. Madden that “before we could make our exit, she [Martha] lifted her skirts and…urinated” (183). After this event, Marshall gets blackout drunk and gets into a fight. Lavinia helps Mrs. Madden nurse him back to health. It’s during this time that Lavinia begins to feel “a rush of tenderness toward him that I had only known with Sukey and Campbell” (185).

Lavinia sneaks to the psychiatric hospital to see Martha sitting in the courtyard. Lavinia calls her over, and Martha calls her Isabelle. Martha touches Lavinia’s face and starts screaming. Lavinia is terrified by her reaction, but she continues to visit her throughout the years, observing her from a distance.

Belle continues her relationship with Ben. Lucy gets pregnant, which means that Ben is sleeping with both women at the same time. He loves Belle but defends his relationship with Lucy, saying, “That girl know ‘bout you, but she don’t say nothin’. She already got it hard, workin’ in the fields. And she a good mama to my boy. I don’t send her back down like she some dirt. She stayin’ and that be that” (192).