Dark Series, The Color of Seven and The Color of Dusk (Books We Love Special Edition) by Gail Roughton Page B

a horse vet. I can’t do that!” He got up and began to pace the grass. “I mean, would you just look at me? Harvard and Edinburgh! And look at him! Same father, same blood. My brother’s goin’ to spend his life shining my boots? Like hell!”
    “Paul. This is Macon. Georgia. Doc’s right, he’s not goin’ to be invited to dinner no matter who his papa and brother are!”
    “No, but damn it, Chloe! They could have done better than that. Papa didn’t even educate him!”
    “Now that’s not true, Paul, be fair!” protested Chloe.
    “Not the way he needs to be educated and not the way he can be educated. He’s a smart boy, he can do anything if somebody’ll give him the chance! He could be a doctor, Chloe! Horse vet, hell! And if Papa won’t do it, I will!”
    “But your father and Sadie—”
    “They passed it to me.”
    “Al l right,” she said quietly.
    “I can teach him so much, and i f you’re willing to help me—he needs French. France is the best country for a black man and if you’ll help with that—”
    “I said al l right!”
    “You did?”
    “I did.”
    “Oh. Sorry.” He gazed at her quietly a moment and reached up to touch her cheek. “Thank you.”
    “As long as you don’t make the same mistake your father did.”
    “Which is?”
    “Joshua might have a few ideas a bout what he wants to do himself. Can you handle that? Paul Everett Devlin III?”
    “I’m a lot like Papa, huh?”
    “Oh, yes.”
    “Well, most of the time that’s al l right.”

 
    Chapter Fifteen
     
     
    The first class of Paul Devlin’s private school went into session as soon as Paul and Chloe settled into the house on Orange after their wedding trip to Savannah. Joshua almost hyperventilated.
    “Never goan do it ! Never! An’ you say you want Miss Chloe teach me to speak French? Mist’ Paul, I can’t even speak English like a white man do!”
    “You can,” declared Chloe emphatically. “You can. You just have to practice.”
    “I can’t!”
    “Josh Devlin,” she declared, hands on her hip, ‘do an you be tellin’ me you can’t do somethin’!” Both Joshua and Paul stood and stared at her as she slipped effortlessly into black speech. “On account o’ you dang well can and I don’t n ever wanta hear no different out t a you! You hear me?”
    Paul grinned and Joshua looked from one of the Devlins to the other as though they had both lost their minds.
    “See?” Chloe dropped the inflection. “I can do it. Because I hear it. Every day. And if I can d o something I hear every day—”
    “So can you,” finished Paul.
    “Uhhhh,” Josh moaned softly . Within weeks, e ven his everyday speech began to change.
    Paul and Chloe were thrilled . Sadie wasn’t. Neither was Doc. He made an unannounced visit one morning and he and Sadie cornered Dr. Devlin the younger in his office.
    “Son, now I know you mean well, but what you ’re doing—”
    Sadie broke in. “Mist’ Paul, you goan give dat boy ideas.”
    “I hope so, that’s certainly my intention.”
    “Paul, now damn it, son! Sadie and I talked about this . All the time, all his life. And we know what’s best for him!”
    “Papa, with all due respect—”
    “Now you listen here! I didn’t ask you to take him with you so you could change every plan we ever made for him!” Everett Devlin’s voice rose as his face took on the red tones generally exhibited in persons with high tempers and higher blood pressures. Paul didn’t have high blood pressure and as things would turn out, never would, but on certain occasions, his temper flare d in flames equal to his father’s.
    “No, you listen here! He’s watched me while I’ve had everything and he’s had nothing!”
    “Nothing! That’s a goddamn lie , Paul, that boy’s always had—”
    “ Nothing! Not in comparison with me ! Now you call that a goddamn lie!”
    Everett stared at hi s son in defeat. Paul was right. He turned on his heel and walked out of the office. He