“That’s easier said than done.” And growing harder by the minute. Why would God allow her to be put in this situation in the first place? Without her papa to guide her? Engaged to a man whose actions rivaled those of the devil himself. Did God even care about her anymore?
Hudson’s hand slid over hers. “God has a plan for all of this.”
She glanced up at him. “You sound so certain of that.”
“It’s what I cling to at times.”
Hudson had never spoken of his faith, at least not so honestly. But then, she’d never voiced her own, feeling it was a private matter between her and God. “I guess I don’t have much of a choice if I want to see Sally away from here.”
“You’ll feel better once you’ve seen the process.”
Her head snapped around. “You’re going to let me help?”
He hesitated. He couldn’t change his mind now, not when she found herself so desperate to do what she could for these people. Even if he turned her down, she’d find a way. Maybe Liv knew some way she could get food to these people.
Hudson licked his lips. “The truth is I need all the help I can get, but there are dangers to this. If we’re discovered, if anyone finds out that you’ve been helping the runaways, the life you have won’t exist anymore. You’ll be a pariah. And if Win finds out…”
Jorgine nodded. She didn’t doubt the man would probably kill her. Uncle Richard too. Still, her mind was made up. “I understand.”
He opened his mouth to speak when the creak of a wooden door turned their attention to the smaller of the two sheds. A few seconds later, a Negro girl, no more than eleven or twelve, peeked around the side of the building.
“Come on out,” Hudson said, waving her toward them. “You’re safe here.”
She took a tentative step and then another as if measuring the promise in his words. As she drew nearer, she straightened her lanky body to her full height. “Are you Mr. Hudson?”
He nodded. “Who might you be?”
The stench of pigs and sweat clung to her like a second skin as she stood in front of them, the fabric of her dress so sheer and torn, it barely hung on her slender shoulders. Her gaze shifted from Hudson to Jorgine. “Mama said I only speak to Mr. Hudson.”
Letting go of his arm, Jorgine set the valise down then dragged her lace shawl from her shoulders. She handed it to the girl. “My name is Jorgine, and I’m here to help.”
The girl glanced at Hudson. He nodded as if he wasn’t quite sure what to make of this. Well, she didn’t care what he thought of her. She’d do what she could for these people with or without his help.
Jorgine crouched down and opened her valise. “Are you thirsty?”
The girl’s eyes grew wide, and she licked her lips. “Mighty thirsty, ma’am.”
“Then I hope you like lemonade.” She pulled Papa’s whiskey flask from her bag and handed it to her. “My friend Sally says I make the best she’s ever tasted. Sweet with just a little bit of tartness.”
The girl took the flask with both hands and drew a long swig from the container.
“You carry lemonade in a whiskey flask?” Hudson asked with a note of laughter in his voice.
“It was Papa’s.” She stole a glance at him and then returned her attention to the girl. “It may seem silly, but carrying it makes me feel like he’s close by.”
“I’m sorry.” His voice lowered to a whisper. “I know you must feel his loss tremendously. I shouldn’t have poked fun at you like that.”
“Though you do seem to enjoy doing it.” Jorgine nodded toward the girl. “Did you know she was here?”
He shook his head. “But they show up like this at times, though usually not this young.” Hudson waited until the girl set the flask aside to speak again. “Now, what is your name?”
The girl wiped her arm across her mouth. “Mazie, sir.”
“What are you doing out here?”
A defiant light grew in her dark eyes. “I done runned away, sir.”
“But you’re barely a child.” Forgetting herself, Jorgine approached her slowly then draped an arm around her thin shoulders. “What do your parents have to say about this?”
Mazie leaned into her as if searching for comfort. “I don’t know where my daddy is, ma’am. Master sold him off when I still slept in my mama’s belly. And Mama—” She drew in a shuddering breath. “Mama took sick a while back. Miss Emma—that’s the master’s great-aunt—she told us there ain’t nothing left to be done.” Tears glistened in her black lashes. “Both Mama and Miss Emma said I need to run. Said the master’s been looking at me in a particular way, funny like.” Her face crumpled. “I didn’t want to leave Mama, ma’am. Not with her sick like that.”
A knot tightened around Jorgine’s heart. Poor child. Grieving the loss of everything she’d ever known and sent out into the world alone. She pulled Mazie against her, stroking her back as the girl cried. “Shh. Everything is going to be all right. You’re safe now.”
“We’ll take care of you.”
Jorgine lifted her head to find Hudson watching her with an intensity that made her feel vulnerable, as if he could see into every corner of her heart. She shook her head slightly. Why would Hudson care how she felt? And yet she knew without a doubt that he did.
Now was not the time for such thoughts, not with Mazie in such need. Jorgine met Hudson’s gaze. “We will help her.”
His soft smile made her stomach flutter like butterflies around a honeysuckle bush. “We will.”
Chapter 5
What do you know about Jorgine Emerson’s engagement to Win Wakefield?” Hudson buttered a piece of toast and handed it to his sister.
Liv took a bite then lay the rest down on her plate. She lifted the nearby coffeepot and poured herself a cup. “It’s turning into the wedding of the season, though I have to say I was surprised by it all. Jorgine usually tells me everything, but she never said a word about Win courting her. I only heard of the engagement when Win announced it at a party last month.”
“Jorgine didn’t tell you?”
His sister set down her cup and leaned back in her chair. “Why do you want to know?”
Hudson took a bite of his eggs and chewed slowly. Why did he want to know? It had been two weeks since he and Jorgine had come across Mazie at the clearing. Every day since, Jorgine had come as promised, her valise filled with an array of items such as bandages and toweling, hard candy for the children, anything she thought would make the journey easier to bear.
More than anything, she cared for them. It showed in her touch, in the easy way she spoke to each person, always listening and offering encouragement. These men and women had value to her, not as property but as people.
“Are you going to answer my question?”
Hudson pinched the bridge of his nose. “For Pete’s sake, Liv…”
She laughed as she picked up her coffee cup. “I love when I get the best of you. It happens so rarely. So tell me. Why all the questions about Jorgine this morning? Does it have anything to do with all the time you’ve been spending together at Thorndike Hall?”
He grimaced. “You’re just as nosy as she is with all her questions. Just yesterday, she asked me why the sheds were built the way they were. Said we could have fit a small kitchen with a cookstove in the larger one so we could feed people before we sent them off to the next station.”
“She’s just concerned about our passengers, that’s all.”
Hudson knew that. Jorgine lived out her concern every time she came to the sheds. Yet she was engaged to marry a man who made a living from hunting down and brutalizing the defenseless. “She’s only helping until we can get her maid to safety.”
“Really, Hudson. Do you think so little of Jorgine?” Liv blotted the edge of her mouth with a cloth napkin. “She knows you would have helped Sally escape whether she worked with you or not.”
Yes, Hudson conceded. He would never turn his back on someone in need, especially a woman in a helples
s situation like Sally. Jorgine would know that. “Then why is she spending her nights out there at the sheds?”
“Maybe because she wants to help.”
Yet Jorgine kept her own slaves. How could she give aid to runaways when she refused to free her own? “I guess her father was right.”
Liv broke off a piece of bacon and popped it into her mouth. “What are you talking about?”
“Just before he died, Mr. Emerson came to Atlanta to see me. He knew we were part of the underground, supported what we were doing, but he felt using our own home was too much of a risk. He’d bought Thorndike Hall after Miss Lucille passed and offered to sell it to me.”
“I didn’t know he owned that place.”
“I didn’t either.” Hudson pushed his plate aside then leaned his forearms on the edge of the table. “He sold it to me for less than it was worth. He told me several times during that visit how wrong he’d come to believe slavery to be and how he wanted to help any way he could.” He hesitated. “Maybe he sensed he didn’t have long and he wanted to make things right with the Lord.”
“Maybe, but then why didn’t he free his own slaves?” Liv asked.
“I asked him that. He said he couldn’t free them because of Jorgine.”
“What?” Liv tossed her napkin on the table and sat up. “That’s ridiculous.”
“I agree.” At least, he wanted to believe so. Then why had the man been so unmovable in his decision when Hudson had confronted him? “Jorgine’s father thought that freeing his slaves would hurt her.”
“I don’t know where he got that idea from.” Liv took another sip of coffee. “After Mr. Emerson passed, Jorgine gave all of the slaves on Piney Brooke their freedom. It was her uncle Richard who had them rounded up before they got too far away.”
Hudson tried to follow what Liv was saying. Jorgine had freed her father’s slaves? “What right did Richard Emerson have to retrieve them?”
“He is her guardian.”
“And she’s a grown woman now,” Hudson bit out.
“I do have another theory as to why Jorgine is at the clearing so much.” Placing her cup back in its saucer, Liv leaned back again, her eyes dancing with amusement. “I believe she’s still in love with you.”
His heart did a little flip in his chest, and he scoffed. “She’s engaged. The wedding is soon.”
“I know. We received our invitation.” Liv took a biscuit from the basket in front of her and broke it open. “But everyone knows it’s not a love match. Her uncle arranged the marriage with Mrs. Wakefield, at least that’s what people are saying. The Wakefields will promote Mr. Emerson’s bid for governor next year while Win will have use of the Emerson name and Jorgine’s dowry to get elected to the senate.”
A marriage of convenience, she’d told him. Still, Richard Emerson in the governor’s mansion. “I don’t see how Emerson thinks he can win. He doesn’t have the political clout or the wealth his brother had.”
“Oh my heavens.” Liv’s eyes were dark with sudden concern. “I thought the rumors seemed odd, but then I overheard that Mr. Emerson had come into money recently.” She stared at him. “You don’t think he’s taken Jorgine’s inheritance?”
Hudson shook his head. “Her father probably made provisions for them both.”
“Maybe. But it would be easy for Mr. Emerson to steal from her. He is her guardian, after all.”
Yes, it would make it easier, but the man couldn’t be that foolish. Once she was married, he would relinquish his responsibilities to her as well as her money. Hudson took a sip of coffee before realizing it had grown cold. Was that why Jorgine had agreed to this marriage? To lay claim to her inheritance? It was a common practice. No one would blame her.
Still, it didn’t sound like the woman he knew. A woman motivated by money wouldn’t put so much of herself into helping others.
“Hudson?”
He glanced over to find Liv watching him, her pale brows gathered in sisterly concern. “Hmm?”
“Are you in love with Jorgine?”
Possibly. Of course, he’d always been a little in love with her for years, but the last two weeks had revealed in her a woman he both admired and respected. But even if he was, and she returned his feelings, she’d made a commitment to marry Win. Breaking her engagement would bring social consequences with it.
“We’re friends, Liv.” He gave her a halfhearted grin. “Besides, I have my reputation to consider. It’s difficult to be a rake with a wife.”
“Well then.” Her sigh held a note of disappointment as she reached for the small stack of mail she’d brought in with her. “I have some letters I must answer before the dressmaker arrives this afternoon.”
Hudson leaned back in his chair. Liv had always harbored the hope he and Jorgine would one day marry and have a family. But it just wasn’t possible, not if he wanted to continue his work with the Underground Railroad. Hundreds, thousands of people had escaped because of his ability to collect information on slave hunters, but all that depended on his rakish disguise.
“Hudson.”
He glanced across the table to find Liv holding a letter out for him. “It’s from Papa. We’ve been compromised.”
Chapter 6
Jorgine leaped out of the seat of the wagon before Big Jim could come around to help her down. “Remember, if Uncle Richard comes by in the morning, have Sally tell him I was up with a headache all night and won’t be accepting callers until afternoon, all right?”
“I don’t know about this, Miss Jorgine. Don’t seem fitting for a young lady such as yourself to be traipsing around alone in the dark.” He held up his large, calloused hand when Jorgine opened her mouth to speak. “Mr. Hudson is a fine man doing an honorable thing, helping all those folks like that. But if Mr. Richard finds out you’re working with him…” His voice trembled slightly. “Lord save you both.”
A cold shiver ran down Jorgine’s spine. Big Jim must have overheard the same conversation she had. “I’m sure Uncle Richard was only trying to impress those folks from Charleston.”
“He said any man or woman helping a runaway should be shot.” Jim lifted her valise out of the undercarriage and set it down beside her. “Said he’d kill his own kin if need be.”
Even now, her uncle’s words made her go cold, but Jorgine couldn’t stop her work now that she had seen the need. She lifted the basket of sandwiches she and Sally had made and settled it into the crook of her arm. “Just because he said that doesn’t mean he’ll do it.”
“Doesn’t mean he won’t either.”
She threw a shawl around her shoulders. “Well, I don’t think I’m in any danger from him. I’m not sure what he wants from the Wakefields, but he needs me to get it.”
“What about Mr. Hudson?”
That question kept her awake at night. If something happened to Hudson, if her uncle found out what he was doing and went after him, she wasn’t sure what she would do. Thank God for small miracles. “Didn’t I tell you? Mrs. Wallace is feeling so much better, they decided to cut their trip short and return home. Hudson will return to Atlanta by the end of next week.”
Jim studied her for a long moment. “I is sorry, Miss Jorgine.”
Not nearly as much as she was. For the first time in her life, she felt a part of something more than herself, something that truly mattered. God had opened this path to her as well as certain truths. “For God so loved the world. “Not based on the color of their skin, but everyone.
Then there was Hudson. Jorgine drew in a deep breath of cool air. He was nothing like the rogue he pretended to be. In him, she’d found a quiet strength born out of his convictions, someone she could lean on in a world teetering on the brink of war. His faith had helped revive her own after the barren months following her engagement to Win.
A knot formed at the base of her throat. How could she marry one man when her heart belonged to another?
Now was not the time for such thoughts. A large group of runaways was expected
this evening, and there was much to prepare. Jorgine untied her bonnet and put it on the wagon seat. “We hope to have everyone moved out before dawn, but that’s only if things go smoothly. Hudson will bring me around the back way in case Richard has his men waiting at the front gates.”
“I’ll be sitting up, waiting.”
Jorgine glanced over at him. The dark hair she remembered as a girl had given way to silver, the gentle lines in his face a witness to times gone by. Big Jim was a constant in her life, one of the few people she still trusted. She threw herself against his strong chest. “I wish you were my uncle.”
Jim gave her shoulder an awkward pat then folded his arms around her. “It’s going to be all right, little girl. God’s at work in all of this. You’ll see.”
“I already do.” She gave him a kiss on his whiskered cheek then stepped back, reaching for her supplies. “But you don’t have to sit up. Go on to bed.”
“I’ll be deciding what I need to do.” Grabbing the leather strap on the seat, he launched his large frame into the wagon. “You be careful, you hear me. I’ll be praying for you both.”
Before she could thank him, he slapped the reins against horseflesh and jutted forward. Moments later, the wagon slipped out of sight. She’d tried to convince him and her cook, Jocelyn, to run, offered to help them get settled as she would Sally. But the man had refused. “Master Emerson told me to watch over you, and I aim to do just that.” Maybe after she married Win, she could convince them to go.
Jorgine gathered her things and glanced around. A large moon overhead cast light over the short meadow on the opposite side of the clearing, away from prying eyes. Hudson always met her near the tree line as soon as Big Jim was gone. So where was he? Her uncle’s words exploded through her mind. Had he been discovered? Was Hudson being stood in front of a tree, his hands and feet tied with rifles aimed at his chest, awaiting the fatal bullet? Without thinking, she started toward the woods.
“Jorgine?”
Relief flooded through her at the sight of his tall, lumbering figure hurrying toward her. She wanted to wrap her arms around him then press her head against his chest and listen to his heart beat strong and confident. Instead, she took a calming breath. “You scared the fire out of me.”
The Underground Railroad Brides Collection: 9 Couples Navigate the Road to Freedom Before the Civil War Page 31