“And they won’t visit us?”
“No.”
The little girl took in the information. The twitch in her left eye revealed to Lisbeth that she was holding back emotion, just like Lisbeth.
Finally Sadie said, “I’m sad that I won’t see Uncle Jack and Auntie Julianne again, but not sad about Grandmother Wainwright or Cousin Johnny. Is that bad?”
Mixed emotions swirled in Lisbeth too. “No, it’s not wrong that you feel that way. Your aunt and uncle have been very sweet to you. I understand why you will miss them. Johnny and Grandmother Wainwright have not earned your affection.” Lisbeth went on. “However, it would be wrong to tell any of them.”
“I know that, Momma!” Sadie declared. The girl got quiet. Her hand flew to the locket around her neck. She stared at Lisbeth with glassy eyes, then asked, “It wouldn’t be right for me to keep it, would it? Will you take it off?”
Lisbeth’s heart broke for her daughter. Sadie was right. The girl turned around, and Lisbeth undid the clasp on the locket. Sadie kissed the metal, whispered goodbye to it, and left it on the bureau.
“Does Sammy know?” Sadie asked.
“That we are leaving forever?” Lisbeth asked.
Sadie nodded, her blue eyes wide and her eyebrows curved in an arc. She looked so earnest it unsettled Lisbeth. This journey was proving even more complicated than she had ever expected.
“I will tell him what I have just told you. And of course Poppa is aware of our plan,” Lisbeth replied. “There are no secrets in our family.”
“Is that why Poppa came?” her child asked. “To help Mr. Freedman?”
“Yes,” Lisbeth said. “You are a clever little girl.”
“I’m not little,” Sadie declared. “I’m six!”
CHAPTER 20
JORDAN
Charles City County, Virginia
Jordan felt ill as they left Richmond and journeyed back toward Fair Oaks. Sitting in the back of the wagon, she felt her stomach lurch with every rock and rut in the road. It didn’t help that she was so sleep deprived, having tossed and turned all night long with her mind jumping around like a frog every time she started to drift off. She’d been glad to see her father, but terrified for him as well. She feared he would be taken away just like Samuel. Brave. Be as brave as Mama, she told herself, but her heart wouldn’t comply.
They were heading to Sadie’s grandparents’ house—the Johnsons, not the Wainwrights. Apparently Matthew Johnson’s parents would be sympathetic to their cause. Pops said this family might help them get Samuel released—or at least their house would be a safe location from which to act. Lisbeth and her family were meeting them there, and they would make a plan to retrieve Sarah as well as Samuel.
If she felt like this setting out, she could only imagine how scared she’d be as they got closer. She did her best to hide her anxiety, especially from little Ella, who was lost in her own world, staring off into the woods as the wagon bumped along. Mama and Pops sat in the front. Having Pops along should have been soothing, but it just made Jordan worry more. In Ohio neither of her parents had ever seemed fragile, but down here she felt enormously protective of both of them—and powerless to keep them safe. She reached into her pocket, hoping the tiny mustard seeds would transfer a bit of faith to her.
A few hours later they pulled up to a farmhouse in need of a good paint job. Jordan hung back in the wagon with Ella while Pops and Mama approached the three White folks who came out to greet them. The older two had mostly gray hair and the wrinkles that showed they’d worked outside for most of their lives. They were most likely Matthew’s parents. The younger man looked enough like Matthew that she assumed he was his brother, but he could be a field hand.
“Can I help you?” the older man said, looking wary. Jordan strained to hear the conversation without staring.
Pops spoke up, keeping it light and respectful. “Mr. Matthew invited us, sir.”
The man replied, “You must be confused; he doesn’t live here.”
“We know him from Oberlin,” Mama said. She sounded nervous.
The folks nodded, but looked perplexed.
“Matthew and I drove together from Ohio to Virginia,” Pops explained.
“Oh,” the woman said, sounding excited. She looked around. “Where is he?”
“He and Lisbeth are driving they own wagon with the children,” Pops said. “We thought they’d be here by now. They musta got held up.”
“Well then,” Matthew’s father said, smiling, “it’ll be nice to see them, and you are more than welcome.” He stuck out his hand and said, “Mitchel Johnson.”
The two men shook hands as Pops said his name back.
“This is my wife, Mary Alice, and my oldest son, Mitch,” Matthew’s father said.
“This my wife, Mattie Freedman.”
Mrs. Johnson exclaimed, “Lisbeth’s Mattie?”
Mama nodded.
“Oh my. It is a pleasure to meet you!” Mrs. Johnson grinned and said warmly, “She speaks of you so dearly. Please, come inside to wait.”
The old woman looked at Jordan in the wagon, smiled, and waved her over. She and Ella joined the group. Mrs. Johnson greeted them warmly, but Ella shrank into herself when the woman put out her hand to introduce herself.
“Sorry,” Jordan said, embarrassed at the girl’s poor manners.
“It is not a problem, truly. I was reserved as a child, so I understand.”
“Would you like some nice cool lemonade?” Mrs. Johnson asked Ella and Jordan when they were settled into the living room.
The child stared down at the worn rug. Jordan couldn’t tell if she was being stubborn or if she was frightened.
Jordan replied for them both. “That would be lovely, thank you.”
While Mrs. Johnson was out of the room, Jordan whispered to Ella, “Say thank you when she gives you the drink.”
“I too scared,” Ella whispered back.
“Of what?”
“The White lady,” Ella said.
“How come?” Jordan asked.
“They mean.”
“Not every one of them,” Jordan explained.
The little girl eyed her dubiously. “Ever’ one I ever met.”
The girl dropped her head down again. Mrs. Johnson had returned. Jordan’s impulse was to challenge Ella, to inform her she was wrong and teach her a new way of thinking, but she decided patience would serve them both better. The little girl would learn better that some White folks were kind by seeing it rather than by being told it was true.
Jordan whispered to the girl, “Have you even been in a White person’s house?”
The girl shook her head quickly. Jordan saw that her hand was actually shaking. Jordan felt a surge of sympathy. Ella was so terrified.
“You’re okay. Just stick by me,” Jordan reassured the girl. “I know this is a lot of change for you, but you’ll get used to it. And I promise you, not all White people are mean.”
It wasn’t long before they heard a wagon pull up. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson rushed outside to greet Lisbeth, Matthew, and the kids. Jordan watched the reunion from the front porch with Ella by her side.
Jordan leaned over to Ella. “Do you see how Mr. Johnson keeps wiping his eye? He is so happy he is crying!”
Ella looked at Mr. Johnson, then at Jordan with wonder on her face.
“Who that little White girl?” Ella asked.
“Sadie. She’s six years old, which means you have to be kind to her since she is younger than you. Her brother, Sammy, is nine, same as you. The parents are Mr. and Mrs. Johnson. It’s confusing with Matthew’s parents, since they have the same last names.”
“How come they gots two names?” Ella asked.
Jordan was confused by the question, but then she remembered that most slaves only had a first name.
She explained the tradition to the child. “We each have a family name and our individual name. My family name is Freedman. My parents picked it when they escaped fr
om Virginia. We are Emmanuel, Mattie, Samuel, and Jordan Freedman.”
The little girl nodded. “Do my mama have a family name?”
Jordan considered. “We aren’t certain. We think it might be Brown, but you can ask her yourself.”
“If she do, that gonna be my name too?” the girl asked. “If she my mama?”
“Yes,” Jordan replied. She ached for the little girl waiting to find out if she belonged.
“We really gonna find her?”
“That’s one reason we traveled here, to have Cousin Sarah meet you.”
“Do I have a pa?”
Jordan’s heart dropped like a sack of grain. Talking with this child was like walking too close to an empty pit. She shrugged and shook her head.
The little girl bit her lip so hard Jordan was afraid she would make it bleed. To distract Ella Jordan asked, “Would you like to go meet Sadie?”
The child stopped chewing on her mouth, but she looked more alarmed than enthusiastic.
“She is very nice,” Jordan reassured her. “One of my most friendly and helpful students.”
Ella nodded but still looked wary. They joined the group just as Mama and Pops were greeting Lisbeth and Matthew. Pops shook the man’s hand and clapped him on the back.
“Bless you for comin’ with Emmanuel,” Mama said to Matthew.
“I’m happy to be here, Mattie.” Matthew smiled at Mama.
Lisbeth gave Mama a big hug and said, “I’m sorry we have to do this at all, Mattie. We are going to do whatever we can to help you get your Samuel free.”
Mama nodded, her mouth pressed tight. That word was a spear to Jordan’s heart. Her brother wasn’t free. Before this trip, she’d believed that justice always moved forward, but now she knew better. There were terrible people determined to keep her people down. Jordan had to agree with her parents: the fight for colored rights wasn’t over, and it was just as important as women’s suffrage.
Sadie ran over, shouting, “Hello, Miss Jordan!”
“It’s nice to see you, Sadie,” Jordan said. “This is Ella. Ella, this is Sadie.”
“I’m six years old,” Sadie informed Ella. “How old are you?”
“Nine,” Jordan mouthed to Ella, and held up nine fingers, though the girl couldn’t count. She was stating that fact as if this child were Cousin Sarah’s daughter, but for all they knew she was a seven-year-old born in North Carolina rather than a nine-year-old born in Virginia.
“Nine?” Ella said aloud to Sadie, sounding more like she was asking a question than stating a fact. Sadie looked up in thought and put up one, two, three fingers.
“You are three years older than me!” Sadie said.
Ella nodded, but Jordan wasn’t sure it meant as much to her as it did to Sadie.
They all squeezed into the living room. Jordan and Ella hung back at the edges, expecting to watch more than contribute to the conversation. Sadie stayed close by, clearly having decided that she and Ella were going to be best friends now. Ella looked both flattered by and scared of the attention.
“Prayer. We gotta start with a prayer.” Mama waved Jordan and the little girls over. “Ever’body come close and take a hand!” Then she looked at Emmanuel and nodded pointedly.
Jordan moved forward and took Lisbeth’s hand. She reached her left hand out to Ella. The girl looked confused, but she wrapped her fingers around her palm. Sadie grabbed Ella’s other hand, and she was all set.
Jordan looked at the chain of connection around the room. This was an odd mishmash of people, of various ages and hues. Some were her closest people, her parents, and others were barely more than strangers to her. These were the people who were going to do their best to set things right for Samuel. Was this grace, an unearned gift, that brought them together, or was this the result of her mama’s scheming? Whatever it was, Jordan was grateful.
“God,” Pops prayed, “we in need of your blessing. Guide us, and open the hearts and minds o’ Samuel’s captors. Release our son from his bondage if that your will, as you have released so many others from captivity. Amen.”
Amens echoed around the room. A calm settled into Jordan, and she joined in with an amen of her own.
Matthew leaned in and told the Johnsons what they knew of Samuel’s situation. Mrs. Johnson shook her head slowly the whole time he was speaking. Jordan couldn’t quite read her mood. She suspected that Mrs. Johnson was sympathetic to their cause but concerned about getting caught up in a dangerous situation.
“Are you certain that he is at White Pines?” Mr. Johnson asked.
Lisbeth shrugged. “I only have Jack’s word for it. He may have only been taunting me, but it seemed genuine.”
Mitch let out a large sigh and shook his head. “Edward Cunningham will be difficult. He has a severe case of soldier’s heart. He went mad after you broke off your engagement to him and you two got married”—he gestured to Lisbeth and Matthew—“but he is even less stable since the war. We must be extremely careful.”
Jordan’s interest perked up at that information: Lisbeth had nearly married the man who was working Samuel? She made a note to ask Mama about that.
Pops spoke up. “I been thinkin’ about the best ways to free my son. I think we say Matthew here brought me and Samuel to harvest for you folks.”
“We tell this to Edward?” Mr. Johnson asked.
“No, jus’ talk to his overseer,” Pops replied.
“With this in yo’ pocket, he gonna listen to you,” Mama said, pulling out the stack of cash.
Everybody in the room rustled at the sight of so much money. Now Jordan was grateful, rather than angry, that Mama and Pops had squirreled away that cash. It could save her Samuel.
Mitch said, “Money like that has a way of getting a man’s attention.”
“All right then,” Matthew said. “How about Mitch, Emmanuel, and I go early tomorrow and have a talk with the overseer of White Pines?” he suggested.
“I’m coming too,” Lisbeth said, looking fiercely determined.
“No, Lisbeth,” Matthew said. “You stay here with the children.”
“It wasn’t a question, Matthew,” Lisbeth declared. “I am coming as well.”
No one spoke. Tension filled the room. Jordan looked between their faces. She cheered Lisbeth on inside her head. Her husband looked like he wanted to continue the debate, but he just let out a sigh and nodded.
“Emmanuel, Mitch, Lisbeth, and I will head to White Pines in the morning,” Matthew said.
“And me, Jordan, and Ella are gonna go get Sarah,” Mama declared.
All eyes turned to Mama. Jordan was startled to hear her own name. She’d been so caught up in thinking about Samuel that for the moment she’d stopped thinking about the plan she’d made with Mama to persuade Cousin Sarah to meet Ella.
Casually Pops said, “You wait for me to get back, so’s I can go with you.”
Mama shook her head decisively and said, “We gonna go in quietly and leave quietly. We don’ need a fight. Besides, if’n we do it while you gettin’ Samuel, we can get out of this county before the end of the day—maybe before noon.”
Now Pops looked like Matthew had a few minutes before—concerned, but resigned to his wife’s plan.
Ella and Jordan were sitting in the back of the wagon in the same stand of trees on the Fair Oaks plantation that Samuel had waited in so many weeks ago. Mama had left them here and sneaked over to Cousin Sarah’s. Jordan had been hesitant to let her mother go alone, but eventually she agreed with the wisdom of her mama’s plan. Mama going to the quarters by herself would be much less conspicuous than the three of them.
Jordan had a new appreciation for the torment that Samuel had gone through the night they left him here. It hadn’t been more than half an hour since Mama left, and Jordan was ready to jump out of her skin with worry.
“What gonna happen if she ain’t my mama?” Ella asked in a pitiful voice.
Jordan’s stomach flipped. She’d wondered that very quest
ion herself and had yet to come up with an acceptable answer.
Returning Ella to the orphanage would be cruel beyond measure. Jordan would be haunted by the memory of the girl for the rest of her life if they abandoned Ella to an unknown fate. Mama wasn’t enthusiastic about taking in an orphan, and Jordan didn’t feel ready for that responsibility. She was hesitant to change her plans for her future, to give up on her dream of working for suffrage, but she could not let herself rule it out either.
As promised, Jordan had returned to teach at the orphanage every day since Samuel’s capture. It was the highlight of each day, giving her hope and purpose. The children had taken up a special place in her heart, especially Tessie.
Though she’d initially dismissed Mrs. Avery’s suggestion that she take a teaching position in the freedmen’s school, Jordan found herself conjuring lesson plans for this setting. These children needed different instruction than the children in Oberlin. Pride in their race’s history and instruction in morality would be equally as important in lifting up these children as mathematics and reading. If it turned out Ella was not her cousin, she might decide to stay in Richmond to teach and watch over this child. To her surprise she was not entirely disappointed at the possibility, though she very much hoped Ella was Sarah’s daughter.
Hopefully the prospect of meeting her youngest daughter would entice Cousin Sarah into the woods and convince her this child was one of the ones she was waiting for. If so, they fervently prayed that Ella alone would persuade their cousin to leave with them. Even though that would mean leaving Virginia without knowing Sophia’s fate, their possibilities in life would be so much better. There were too many ifs buzzing around in the air like bees ready to sting.
Ella gazed at Jordan, longing in her eyes, waiting for a reply. Jordan cleared her throat. She longed to offer reassurance to the child, but she could not lie or offer false hopes.
“You gonna take me back, huh?” Ella nodded slowly. The little girl curled her legs up to her chest, wrapped her arms around her shins, and rested her head on her knees. Curled up into a ball, she rocked herself slowly.
“I honestly do not know,” Jordan said, her voice husky. She put a hand on the small of Ella’s back as a slight measure of comfort and support, but the girl’s shoulder tensed up, and she twisted away from Jordan’s touch. There was no solace to be had right now.
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