by Lee Strauss
OVER A WEEK HAD GONE BY. Shadows and lines of fatigue drew heavily on Nate’s expression. He worked the farm with Willie and that awful Cobbs, and I knew it wasn’t fun. It was cold hard labor, but I had to give him credit. He rose to the challenge. He said if I could take it, meaning life in the nineteenth century, then he could, too. The farm chores didn’t stop just because it was winter. Cows didn’t take time off of milking for the holidays. The house, obviously, lacked central heating; a good deal of energy was spent on keeping all the fireplaces lit.
I was in the kitchen stirring the massive pot of oatmeal when the door opened, flooding the heated room with a cold blast of air. Nate's head popped through, then Samuel's.
“Look who I found in the yard,” Nate said with a smile. He slammed the door shut against the frigid draft.
“Samuel!” I felt like giving him a big hug, but held back. He removed his cap and nodded at me.
“Miss Cassandra.” There was an uncomfortable moment, especially since the last time we had seen Samuel, he had been beaten up. Thankfully, Sara entered the kitchen and cut in.
“Samuel,” Sara said after greeting him, “you're shivering. Come stand by the stove.” Then she ordered her sister Josephine to add an extra plate to the table. Cobbs arrived shortly afterward and his greeting, as usual, was anything but warm. Any tension his presence might have caused was drowned out by the buzz of children's voices and Mrs. Watson's shrill attempt to calm them down.
Nate leaned in towards Samuel. “So, what’ve you been up to?” Samuel took a sip of coffee. “This and that. Just trying to find work and keep warm.”
“Did you find your brother? Jonah?” I asked hopefully.
He shook his head. “Still can’t find the youngster.”
Cobbs fidgeted more than usual, his eyes darting to Samuel. The deep grimace on his face irked me. He didn’t even try to hide his prejudice. He excused himself abruptly the moment his bowl had been licked clean. We all ignored his rudeness.
“Did you sleep in the loft last night?” Nate asked. I'd wondered the same thing.
“It’s better for someone like me to keep moving around.”
We nodded. Cobbs could cause him trouble. Plus there was that little problem of the Fugitive Act.
“Well, we're glad to have extra hands today,” Sara added. “Willie had to leave early this morning for Worcester. I'm sure Nate will be happy to have your help today.” After the guys left, I helped Sara clean up. Mrs. Watson buzzed around with little Daniel strapped to her chest, instructing the maid, Missy, who had just arrived, and me on which chores to attend to and when. Sara had the younger kids in the study, for school lessons.
“Why don’t the kids go to school?” I asked Missy when Mrs. Watson had left the room.
“Too cold.” Missy said with a sharp accent. “Too far for the young’uns to walk. ‘Sides, Miz Sara is a far better teacher than that old oaf they hired.”
“Old oaf, as in a man?” I inquired. “I thought teaching jobs went to women.”
Missy shrugged. “Only if there isn’t a man to do the job first.”
Sara brought the children in for a mid morning snack, just as the door blew open. Nate stormed in out of breath, his eyes bright with concern. “Someone’s taken Samuel!”
“What?” Sara and I said together.
“I can’t be sure. One moment he was there and then next thing I know, he's nowhere to be found. I was scouting around the lake when I saw a man riding off in the distance. He was squat and heavy, like Cobbs, who also happens to be missing.”Nate's face flushed as he told the story, his words, quick and intense. “Another man was strapped over the back of Cobbs’ horse. His hands were tied behind his back. I’m sure it was Samuel. They headed toward Boston.”
“Do you think Cobbs took him for reward money?” I said, nervous tension swelling up in my gut. “What if someone is there to claim him?”
“Oh no.” Sara’s jaw tightened. “And Willie won't return from Worcester until later this afternoon.”
“Can you ride a horse?” I asked Nate. Sara looked at me sharply. First, if he was my brother, wouldn’t I know that, and second, everyone around here knows how to ride a horse. I attempted to cover. “I mean, can you ride a horse, you know, since your accident?” Oh brother, another lie to remember.
Nate stared at me queerly. “Yes, I learned in Canada.” Now he'd screwed up. We’d already told the Watson’s we’d never been to Canada.
“You mean the horse we got from Canada.”
Sara had enough of our foolishness. “Nate, take a horse and follow him.” I grabbed a coat and ran after Nate.
“What are you doing?” Nate’s forehead wrinkled in annoyance.
“I’m going with you.”
“No you're not,” he said, without looking back.
I caught up to him, pulling on his arm. “Yes, I am.”
His lips formed a stiff line. “No, it could be dangerous.”
“NATE!”
This was my life, not his. He was a guest on my loop. He must have seen the furor in my eyes because he stopped briefly.
“I'm the one who's supposed to be here, Nate, not you. I'm coming.”
We both knew we didn't have time to waste arguing about it. We raced to the barn, and I helped Nate saddle up the closest mare. I lifted my skirt, stuck my foot in the stirrup and hoisted myself on behind Nate. I wrapped my arms firmly around his waist and off we went. If I wasn’t so cold and so worried about Samuel and so stiff from not having ridden a horse in a long time, this would’ve been really romantic. It turned out neither Nate nor I were that great with horses. The animal could sense it and started doing that skittery thing.
“Whoa, Nellie,” Nate cooed. “It’s okay.”
We weren’t even galloping. We were cantering. It was bumpy and I bounced like a jumping bean.
“We’ve got to go faster, Nate!”
Nate kicked Nellie and she got the message. We took off like a shot and if I hadn’t been hanging on to Nate, I would’ve been thrown off the back.
The road was slick with ice and every once in a while Nellie would lose her footing. I squeezed Nate so tight, I wondered if he could breathe. The branches of the bare trees began to blur and I shut my eyes tight, too.
“I see him!”
I dared to open my eyes and saw Cobb’s red flannel jacket wave like a flag in the distance. He obviously didn’t think he was in any danger of being caught.
“Cobbs!” Nate called out. “Stop!”
Cobbs twisted his thick neck, spotted us, then kicked his horse hard. She picked up speed and I worried we’d lose track of him. Or worse, that Samuel would fall off the back. He bounced around like a sack of flour, and I knew then that he was still knocked out.
At least I really hoped that he was knocked out and that it wasn’t something worse. Like dead.
Cobbs veered off the road and into the woods. Nate urged Nellie to follow. Cobbs may have had the added burden of Samuel’s body weighing him down, but he also had the advantage of better horsemanship and of knowing the area.
We did our best to keep up. Nellie’s hooves sunk into crusty snow and she whinnied in protest. Nate and I had to duck under branches, and a few got caught in my hair and scratched at my face.
Nellie slowed up.
“What’s the matter?” I said, my breath puffing out like little blasts of steam in front of my face.
“I can’t see him. The path splits. I don’t know which way to go.”
“Where could he have gone? Nate, we can’t give up!”
“I’m trying, Casey!”
We heard a twig crack and I spotted a flash of red. “That way!”
Nate pushed Nellie to pick up speed over a length of flat straight trail. I thought we might catch Cobbs.
Until I saw the fallen log crossing the path, just as we turned a bend.
I yelled, “Nate!”
He pulled up on the reins. Nellie made an effort to jump the oversized tree,
but it was too slippery. She got her back leg caught on the log and stumbled in her landing.
I screamed.
The sky and earth spun.
I heard a thump and a groan. Was it Nate? Was it me?
My head hurt. I felt pain. That was good. It meant I was still alive. It hurt to breathe. Cutting jabs as I drew a breath in, searing pain as I let it out.
Another groan. Not mine.
“Nate?”
A shadow fell over me. Nate’s face, blurry at first, came into focus.
“Casey? Are you all right?”
“I hit my head. And my ribs hurt, but I think I’m okay, nothing broken. How about you?”
Nate cradled his left elbow. “My arm. But it’s not broken either, just bruised.”
“Where’s Nellie?”
“She’s over there, in the trees. She’s fine.”
Ouch. Nate helped me back to my feet. He called Nellie in a quiet calm voice, inching his way to her. I let out a painful breath of relief when he grabbed her reins.
Eerie quiet. Every movement resounded like an echo chamber. Snow, trees. Silence.
Alone. A shiver crawled up my back. I was chilled and a little freaked out.
“We’re not lost, are we?”
“Nah. We’re on a trail. It’s bound to get us to the road eventually.” Nate helped me get back on Nellie. I gritted my teeth to cope with the pain, though the initial trauma had subsided. Nate swung up behind me this time. His arms pressed in against my waist as he held the reins, guiding Nellie. I leaned into his back, comforted by his warm, sturdy body.
We’d lost Samuel.
A tear trailed down my cheek and I couldn’t stop a little sob from escaping.
“We can’t give up,” I whimpered. “We have to find him.”
I felt a deep breath leave his body.
“I want to find him, too. But, what about your philosophy? Not to get involved? If we rescued Samuel, aren’t we interfering? Maybe changing history?”
I didn’t know. Maybe Samuel was supposed to be rescued by us.
Maybe he wasn’t.
My nose was red and runny. My lips were chapped and my ears were cold. We were stuck in the forest in 1860 and we had failed to save our friend. A hard pit had formed in my gut. I just wanted to go home.
Nate had let the reins fall loose in the hope that Nellie could instinctively take us home. The farther we went, the more things looked the same. Leafless, frost covered branches, gray sky, slippery trail.
“We’re just going in circles,” I said. Hopelessness iced my words.
“No, we're not. Nellie will get us out.”
I wished I’d mirrored Nate’s confidence in our horse’s capabilities. The sky turned a darker gray, and I worried that we’d be lost in the forest overnight. It’d be hard to start a fire without matches in this cold wetness. We could freeze to death if the temperature kept dropping.
Then, suddenly, Nellie found the road.
“You did it, Nellie!” I leaned forward and patted her neck. “Thank you!”
Nate gazed left then right. “Which way, Casey?”
I wasn’t sure. “The sun is setting over there, so that must be the direction of the Watson’s farm. We’ll have to wait until we come to a road marker to know for sure.”
Nate steered us west and I swallowed hard. Heading back to the Watson’s meant that we had given up.
The temperature kept dropping. I pulled my jacket tighter but couldn’t keep from shivering. Nate wrapped his arms snugly around me and I pressed my back into his chest. I felt his warm breath on my neck.
If it weren’t for Samuel, I’d be insanely happy.
After a while I spotted a light in the distance. “What’s that?”
“I don’t know, but I think we’ll find out.”
As we got closer, we could see a small wooden building with a number of horses tied up to posts by the front door. Oil lamps shined through the windows.
“I think it’s a pub.”
“That’s Blossom,” Nate said softly.
“Who?”
“The horse Cobbs was riding.”
A little flare of hope exploded in my heart. “Then he’s here? Samuel must be here, too!”
“Shh,” Nate cautioned. “We have to be careful.”
Nate slipped off Nellie, helped me down, and then tied Nellie to a post on the farthest end. We sneaked up to a window, keeping low beneath the pane.
My heart was beating like a little bird’s. We slowly lifted our heads until just our eyes were high enough to see.
The window was grimy so it was hard to make things out, but it also made it tough for the patrons to notice us, too.
The small room was dark with only candle light to illuminate it. I could see a dozen men, give or take, scattered through the tavern, some in small groups around tables, and others alone on stools at the bar. One of the loners was Cobbs.
“He’s in there,” I whispered.
“Can you see Samuel?”
I shook my head. “Cobbs wouldn’t bring a black man in there. He must’ve tied him up out here somewhere.”
We kept low and followed a trail to the back side of the pub. In the trees a short way was a little shack.
I pointed. “In there.”
The door was padlocked. “Samuel?”
I heard movement. I knocked. “Samuel?”
“Who’s there?”
It was Samuel’s voice!
“Samuel, it’s Cassandra and Nathaniel. We’re here to help you.”
The door rattled as Samuel pushed from the inside.
“It’s locked,” Nate said. “Wait until I find a rock.”
Nate dug through the snow until he found a stone a bit larger than his fist. He slammed it against the lock.
“Nate, it’s too loud!”
He struck again, but the lock didn’t budge.
“Stand back, Samuel,” Nate said. “I’m going to kick the door.”
Then he did. Like some kind of superhero. The hinges gave way and I smiled at Nate, fully smitten by his act of courage and strength.
We worked to move the door out of the way.
“Samuel,” I said as we pulled him out of the shack. “Are you okay?”
“I got a bump the size of the dome on my head, and I’m a little stiff, but otherwise I’m fine. I can’t believe you did it, but thanks for coming after me.”
“No time for small talk,” Nate said. He was already leading us back to Nellie.
Except, how could three people ride one horse?
“Case,” Nate began, “You take Samuel back to the Watsons’. I’ll meet you there.”
“But you don’t know the way,” I protested. “You take Samuel and I’ll walk.”
“There’s no way I’m leaving you unattended, Casey.”
“Uh, Miss Cassandra, if I may interrupt, Mr. Nathaniel is right. This is no place for a lady to be found alone.”
“Oh, all right.” I look hard at Nate. “Are you sure you’ll be all right?”
Samuel spoke again. “Actually, if you don’t mind, I think I’ll make my own way. I’m so grateful for your help, but I can manage now on my own.” He put his hand out and Nate grabbed it. He nodded politely to me, then sprinted into the woods.
“Samuel!”
“Shh, Casey. We don’t want to be found out. He’ll be fine. It’s us I’m worried about now.”
Maybe Nate was right. Maybe they were both right. I waved weakly in the direction of Samuel’s fleeing form. Nate helped me back onto Nellie and we quietly trotted away.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN