by Jana Petken
“Do you ever think about going to find her?” Mercy asked.
“Yep. Charlie promised to take me this summer, but all those plans we made last year might be thrown out the window on account of what’s going on. I ain’t never heard so much hatred spoutin’ from men’s lips. But I don’t reckon we’ll all be shootin’ each other soon.”
“I love Virginia, Lina. I know it almost killed me, but I love it all the same.”
Lina patted Mercy’s knee and said. “While we’re on the subject of love – I know you love Jacob Stone. God knows I do. So take some advice from an old woman who knows about being happy with a man. Life is too short to worry about what you are to him. You might not be his legal wife, but if that man loves you, and you love him like you say you do, it don’t matter a damn.”
“I know, but it seems to matter to everyone else. I want to see him more than anything. I still love him with all my heart – but I have been through so much. How can I go back to Portsmouth knowing that I will be hated by everyone for being his mistress? And what if I see Madame du Pont? I want to kill that woman or destroy her life. I need revenge, and that’s not good – it’s evil. I sometimes think I’ll go mad just thinking and wondering.”
“Child, I believe in fate. It might be good fate or bad fate, but the good Lord knows what we need to be doing and where we need to be when we journey through this life of ours. All I’m saying is that love is more important than reputation, money, and fear of the unknown. If fate gives you love, you grab it. Love, child, will get you by in just about every rotten situation life throws at you. You got a decision to make; there ain’t no more time for you to sit around wondering.”
“I’m scared, Lina. I’m scared she’ll still be there.”
“Don’t you go worrying none about that du Pont woman no more. You hate her all you want. Jacob will protect you.”
“You don’t know her,” Mercy said with bitterness. “She’ll kill Jacob too, if she has her mind set on it.”
“I know enough about her by now to know that you’re tough enough to best her. She’s a bully, but I reckon she ain’t got no power left, not after you got rid of that Eddie you been tellin’ me about. You’re a strong woman. You knows you shoot better than any man. If you see that du Pont woman, you just look her in the eye and tell her she ain’t nothin’ to you now. There ain’t no use in killin’ her, Mercy, but you can best her just by making her feel real small.”
In the ensuing silence, Mercy digested Lina’s words and thought about fate. She didn’t really know the city of Portsmouth. The only memories she had of it were nightmarish flashes of fear. She hated the thought of going back to the street where Eddie abducted her, but she was not the same person now. She was passionate about life. She was stronger in body and mind. She was no longer in a strange country, for life in the backwoods and journeys up the rivers were more familiar to her than anything she’d seen or experienced in the Elephant and Castle. She hadn’t lived there. She had existed.
Her joy at discovering new adventures each day had convinced her that her fateful journey had been necessary. Some of it had been horrific, but it was necessary all the same. She wondered what she would be doing right now had she not crossed the River Thames on that fateful October day. What if she had not ended up in Liverpool? She would never have met Jacob. If Eddie had not abducted her a second time, she would not have met Nelson, Lina, or Charlie. These events had played a pivotal role in her life. She was not afraid anymore. Fate was like a giant invisible hand that lifted her from place to place in order for her to be exactly where she needed to be.
Where she was supposed to be going or what she was supposed to be doing next, she didn’t really know. She knew she loved Jacob. She just didn’t know how to get back to him. Portsmouth was where he lived but it was not where she wanted to live. “I hope fate comes to guide me now.”
“Fate always guides. You just don’t see it doin’ its job.”
Mercy cast these thoughts aside and asked, “Who will meet us at the harbour?”
“Well, if I’m right, it’ll be an old friend of mine. We call him the captain. He’s been on the river for fifty years, and there ain’t nothin’ he don’t know. He’ll take us across to Newport News – always works at night, the old coot. He’s taken countless men and women just like Nelson across to the bay. We call it the Chesapeake Station.”
“Have you been doing this for a long time?”
“I’ve been helping the Underground Railroad for going on twenty years. Did I ever tell you the story of old Harriet Tubman?”
“No.”
“She’s a fine woman – famous in my line of work. Born a slave in Dorchester County, up there in Maryland. She escaped her master, but that woman keeps coming back to the South to help niggers. I met her once. She don’t look like much, but she’s got more courage than anyone I ever met. We call her Moses, on account of the number of slaves she takes to freedom.”
Mercy’s eyes brightened with a thought. “Lina, I would like to help you. I want to be involved in the Underground Railroad. I know it’s the right thing to do.”
“I don’t reckon you’ll be good at it, child, on account of you gittin’ lost every five minutes. Ain’t no point in guiding a slave if you can’t you can’t figure out where you’re goin’ yourself.”
Mercy giggled. “That’s not fair. Charlie’s taught me a lot. I know I can find my way around now.”
“Well, don’t matter none. I reckon all this comin’ and going will stop soon. Ain’t no telling now what’s gonna happen round these parts if a war breaks out. I reckon runaways all over the South will be looking for a way out, but war means soldiers, and it ain’t going to be so easy to hide a nigger no more.”
Chapter Sixty-One
The harbour was deserted. One packet boat sat alongside, but there were no lanterns glowing, and as far as Mercy could tell, no one was on board. “Nobody is here,” she whispered to Lina.
“Oh, he’s here all right. The captain sleeps on the damn boat.”
Lina walked up the ramp and stood on deck. A moment later, the figure of a man came out from the shadows. “Captain,” Lina said.
“Well, if it ain’t my Lina. Where have you been hiding all winter?”
“How you do, Cap’n? Me and Charlie been at the cabin. Been a bad winter up there,” Lina told him. “I got one for you. He’s special. Can you take him?”
The captain took off his hat and scratched his head. “You could have given me notice, Lina. Been a few coming and goings here lately. People are gettin’ skittish with all this secession talk. Folks going, coming south. Can you hold him till tomorrow, give me time to make arrangements?”
“No. He has to go now.”
“You coming with him?”
“Yep. We’re going all the way up with this one.”
“I got a couple of boys on board. I guess we could. I can take you to Newport News, but you’ll have to git him up the Peninsular a ways on land. You might find a boat east of Yorktown, but I ain’t promising nothin’.”
“I just need you to get us across. I’ll take it from there.”
“All right, Lina. Seems to me the whole damn country’s going stark ravin’ mad. I reckon I might as well join the craziness. I took seven runaways across last week. Spring brings them out like starvin’ bears. Bring the wagon on. I’ll get my boys up.”
The ropes were freed from the docking post. The boat moved slowly and silently in the calm waters. Mercy sat in the wagon with Lina. Nelson was down below the deck, hidden. “Will the captain get into trouble if he’s caught hiding Nelson?” Mercy asked.
“He will, child. He’ll get a hefty fine – could go to jail. He wouldn’t be the first.”
“That’s terrible. Will he leave us when we get to the other side?”
Lina smiled. “He’s got to. There might be a boat farther up the bay. We’ll head up the Peninsular and hopefully meet it. If it’s there, it’ll more than likely be beached on th
e shoreline. We might be lucky enough to make it up to the narrowest point of Chesapeake Bay, towards the Susquehanna River.”
“Then what?”
“Well, then we pray. We’ll get Nelson back in the wagon and cross land to the Eastern Shore at the Maryland border. That’ll be the hardest part. That’s where most slaves are caught, but Nelson’s got us for cover. He ain’t alone, not like some others before him.”
Lina watched Mercy’s eyes grow wide. “Don’t you fret. I ain’t aiming on gittin’ caught.”
After a long night travelling through wetlands, woods, and narrow muddy roads, Lina finally gave Mercy good news. They had reached the Eastern Shore, from which steamships sailed north on a daily basis. Mercy first saw the sea and steamship as the wagon descended a dirt track at the side of a shallow hill above the jetty. The ship’s lights flickered brightly in a long row of lanterns. On the jetty, Mercy observed the ship’s crew loading loose crates through one entrance and passengers through another.
The ship was nothing like the Carrabelle, Mercy noted. Its white two-storey decks with windows from bow to stern were impressive. On the top deck, a fat, tall funnel was already smoking, signalling that the ship would set sail soon. Halfway along its length was a giant wheel, motionless for the moment. Mercy was worried. There were too many people waiting to board and too many crew members for her liking.
“It’s gonna be tricky,” Lina said, clearly thinking as Mercy was. “Not all captains are abolitionists. Some will report a runaway in a heartbeat. We just gotta find a way to get him on board with us. We need to put him in a crate now, before we get down to the jetty. If we succeed, the steamship will take us right up the Delaware River and into Pennsylvania. That’s much better than trying to get there by land. We gotta take the chance, Mercy.”
“Lina, if this goes wrong, I will take all the blame. Nelson’s my responsibility. I don’t want you getting into any trouble,” Mercy said.
“Child, we both in this together. Ain’t no one takin’ all the blame. You should have worn a dress like I asked. I’m tired of seeing you in breeches and wearing that stupid hat. You could charm your way out of anything if you’d just taken my advice and looked like a woman for once.”
Mercy touched her hat. It had become a habit. Eddie’s hat had meaning. It meant victory in the face of defeat, and she needed a victory.
Chapter Sixty-Two
The sun was rising. Lina ordered Mercy to remove her hat and allow her hair to flow down her back. Her blood raced through her veins. She had never been this far north. She felt her senses heighten with a mixture of fear and excitement. But she also felt the weight of responsibility on her shoulders.
“Child, all you got to do is distract every man you think might be taking too much notice of my three crates. The men who’ll get the crates on board for us have to be thinking about you and your charms, not about the possibility of a runaway slave who’s inside one of them.”
Mercy took off her hat and undid her top three buttons, exposing just the right amount of bosom to gain the crew’s interest. She pinched her cheeks and bit her lips to bring some colour into them. Lina was right – she should have worn a dress.
After securing Nelson in the crate, Lina drove the wagon the rest of the way down the hill. At the jetty, Mercy’s job was to find someone willing to look after the horses and wagon until their return later in the day. This was attended to without too much difficulty, for many travellers left behind their horses in the care of men who earned their living at the harbour stables.
The crates sat on the jetty, looking perfectly normal among hundreds of other crates. Nelson was inside the second crate, marked margaret mallory. destination: pennsylvania. Packed solid around Nelson were furs and skins to stop his body moving when the crate was lifted. There was nothing else to do but wait, Mercy thought, waiting in line.
She was not overly worried at all now. The crew were not paying much attention to the cargo, save looking briefly at the destinations marked on the crates’ lids.
Mercy chatted to the men pulling the crates, which had been placed on a wooden pallet. As they pulled the ropes attached to the pallet, she insisted they tell her about Pennsylvania. Every few minutes, she produced a silly giggle and patted their arms. She was in the way and was being a bother. She could tell by the impatient expressions on their faces that they couldn’t wait to get rid of her. No matter, she thought, continuing to giggle like a silly girl. This was exactly what Lina had ordered her to do, and she was doing it well.
Finally, the two women boarded. They stood by the rails as the ship moved slowly away from the dock, and simultaneously, sighed with relief.
“When Nelson gets out of that crate, he’ll be in a slave-free state,” Lina said. “It’ll be up to you to get him his papers when we get to Chester. I promise you that we won’t leave him till he’s a free man.”
The steamship left and made its way up the Delaware River, making landfall just inside the Pennsylvania border. When Lina’s crates had been deposited on the jetty, Lina left, returning an hour later with a horse, cart, and driver.
Their destination now was the nearest border town of Chester. After being on the road for ten minutes or so, Lina told the driver to stop. The crate hiding Nelson was opened. Nelson stuck his head out, breathing in fresh air after having only small slits to breathe through inside the crate. He stepped out of the crate and stretched his limbs in the back of the cart. “I ain’t never doin’ that again,” he told Mercy.
The driver faced Lina and Mercy with an angry scowl. “I didn’t sign up for no runaway! What do you two think you’re playing at? I ain’t taking you no farther, so you can git them crates off my cart and take your chances with the law. I want no part in this.”
Mercy panicked. Lina stared the man down.
“Sir, I have to insist you take us. We don’t have much time to debate this with you,” Mercy said.
“You’ll git off the cart now,” the man ordered again.
Mercy went for her holster, drew her Colt, cocked it, and pointed it at the driver. Dear God, what the hell am I doing? she thought, panicking.
Surprise and anger crossed the driver’s face. He stared at the gun and then at Mercy, who was trying her best to look menacing. “What you gonna do with that, little lady?” he asked angrily.
“I’m not going to do anything with it as long as you take us to Chester, where this slave – who is not a runaway, by the way – will get his freedom papers. He’s my slave, and I have the papers to prove it.”
“If he’s your damn slave, why was he in a crate?”
“That’s my business, but if you must know, the last time I took him on a ship, we were both thrown off. I didn’t want to be left behind this morning. I have a very important appointment, and I need my slave with me.”
“Show me his papers.”
Mercy took the ownership papers from her breeches pocket and thrust them towards the driver. “I am Mrs Margaret Mallory, and if you can read, you will see that Nelson Stuart belongs to me.”
“How do I know you are who you say you are? How do I know he’s not on the run?”
“I am no other. This is my name, and I’m proud of it. If he were on the run, he’d be running, wouldn’t he? He wouldn’t be daft enough to stand here beside his rightful owner. Now are you going to take us or not?”
The driver looked at Mercy and then Lina. “Well, I reckon I ain’t gonna argue with no gun. You damn Southern woman are all kinds of crazy. If you were a man, I’d have your hide for sticking a gun in my face. But seeing as how you’re just a girl, who more than likely can’t shoot for shit, I reckon I’ll let this go. I ain’t no lover of slavery anyhow.”
Chester was a small town. Mercy went straight to a haberdashery with Nelson, whilst Lina went to a store that bought furs and sold supplies to trappers. When Nelson was suitably clothed, Mercy took him to the sheriff and asked where she could get Nelson his legal papers. The sheriff directed her to the courthous
e, which was situated at the end of the street. Her heart was thumping so hard that she could feel it pulsate. This was what she had been waiting for. This was her dream coming true.
After three hours, the judge arrived. He sat with his feet on his desk. Mercy sat in front of him, Nelson standing hat in hand behind her. The judge looked over the ownership papers and then at Mercy. He looked puzzled.
“Wait. You came here from Portsmouth, Virginia, to free your slave?”
“I did, Judge. But this isn’t the only reason I’m here. I’m doing some business in your lovely town. I needed my Negro to carry my cargo and drive the wagon – so I just thought whilst I was here, I’d give him the freedom I promised him awhile back. He’s getting old and of no use to me now. You see, I’m moving to the city.”
“Well, all right, then. I ain’t done this in a while. We don’t get much call to free slaves. Those Southern slavers are too busy tryin’ to hold on to their niggers.”
The judge signed the document and read to Mercy and Nelson the words written on it. “Nelson Stuart is hereby granted status as a free man and a citizen of the United States of America.”
Tears streamed down Mercy’s cheeks as she paid the legal fees.
Outside, they met up with Lina. Nelson held his papers in shaking hands. His eyes were bright and wet. For once, he was lost for words.
Mercy kissed him on the cheek. The time had come for Nelson to find his own way.
Lina held Nelson’s hands and squeezed his fingers gently. “You have money. Get as far north as possible,” she told him. “Do like Miss Mercy said and take yourself to Boston. You keep them papers real safe – and don’t you go with any man you don’t think you can trust. There are good people, Nelson, but there are also bad men who’ll abduct you and sell you in a heartbeat.” She kissed him on the cheek and stepped back, releasing his hands. “I’ll let you say goodbye to Mercy before she fills the sidewalk with her tears.”