“Lizzie didn’t either, but she took to it easily enough. And you won’t be alone.” Emily distracted her with a question. “What do you imagine the baby will be like?”
“How can I possibly know that?”
“Don’t tell me you haven’t thought about it. Will he have dark hair? Dark eyes?”
Abigail almost smiled. “Like his father.”
“And that cleft in his chin?”
“Maybe when he grows up. And he’ll be an expert horseman, just like Darius.”
“I think he’ll build things,” Emily proposed. “Tree houses and model ships. And he’ll drive his parents to distraction by taking things apart just to see how they work.”
Abigail laughed. “Maybe he’ll like to draw like his Aunt Emily.”
“Maybe he won’t be a he.”
“That would be just fine, too.”
Abigail’s eyes had turned dreamy-soft, and Emily hoped to keep her mind off her worries for as long as possible. “How about I go fetch the checkerboard?” she asked. “We’re going to be here awhile.”
***
Elsie Louise Johnson made her appearance not long before the sun rose. Emily left the sleeping mother and baby in Deena’s care and wandered into the lightening yard. A spring shower had fallen overnight, a gentle prequel to summer’s violent torrents, which left the air balmy and moist. She yawned, arching her back and dragging her fingertips across a translucent indigo sky. It was a beautiful morning for a ride. The thought sent a pang through her heart. Wherever Chantilly and Lune might be, she hoped they remained far from the battlefield.
“You up earlier den usual, Miss Emily.”
She startled, thinking for a moment Abel had called to her from his usual spot outside the stable, but it was only Zeke walking from his cabin to start work. “I haven’t slept.”
“Miss Abigail hab dat baby yet?”
“An hour ago.”
“Colt or filly?”
Emily smiled. It was exactly what Abel would have said. Perhaps Zeke was thinking of him, too, working up there in Heaven’s stables. “A beautiful little girl with blue eyes and a fuzz of blonde hair.”
“Dat be jus’ fine.” His smile was a smudge of gray in the gloom. “I bes’ get on up to de big house.”
She hadn’t planned on walking, but she found her feet taking her in the direction of the woods. A walk would get her blood moving. She couldn’t sleep anyway. Her mind had already sharpened in the fresh air.
The woods were as soggy as an undercooked cake. Centuries of decayed vegetation soaked up the moisture, leaving the ground springy and fragrant. And as dawn drew off earth’s gray mantle, light refracted from a million dripping prisms. Only the mosquitos—two for every droplet, Emily was certain—robbed the morning of perfection. She moved quickly in a vain effort to keep ahead of the pests.
The miracle of little Elsie’s birth still played foremost in her mind. The baby was so tiny, so perfectly formed, so utterly helpless. Holding her had roused some protective instinct deep within her. She couldn’t deny a certain wistfulness.
She squelched along the edge of a puddle and then, preoccupied by her thoughts, lost her footing as a figure stepped from behind the trunk of a loblolly pine. She landed on her backside in the mud and felt wetness creep through her skirt.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk. What a shame to find Emily Preston on the ground at my feet.” Thad was dressed casually, handsome but for his smirk. Fortunately, she’d managed to avoid him since their ill-fated tea. “Or prophetical, perhaps.”
Emily rose in a fury. “What are you doing on my father’s property?”
“I didn’t realize I’d wandered over the line. It was an honest mistake.”
“It was no mistake. You’ve ridden this land with me dozens of times.”
“I remember.” His smile thinned. “I like to examine a property before I come into ownership.”
Her eyes narrowed. Was that a threat or a memory?
“In fact, I’ve made quite a habit of it lately. Land is one of the few things that will hold its value when all this is over.”
His nearness and his cool confidence were beginning to turn her stomach. “I almost hope the Yankees win, just so I can watch them take Fairview from you.”
“Ah, but you see, they won’t confiscate from those who pledge loyalty. Only from those who do not. And there’s no predicting what opportunities might be arranged to snap up surplus properties.”
There was no longer any mistaking his innuendo. “You will never own Ella Wood,” she spat.
Thad grabbed her arm and backed her against the trunk of a live oak. She struggled violently, but his grip held like iron. “I’ve grown rather fond of the idea,” he said, pressing his body heavily against hers. His hands found her hips.
Terror froze her in place. No one could hear her this far from the house.
He held her there, enjoying his power. “You forget what fun we used to have.”
She spat in his face.
His fist was swift and sure, striking just above her ear. The blow sent her sprawling into the mud. She stayed there, cowering, stunned by the gong ricocheting inside her skull.
He dried his face on his cuff, eyes glinting like granite. “I see you still find my company disagreeable. Then you’ll be glad to learn that you will have a few weeks’ reprieve. My business will be taking me away this afternoon.”
“What business?” She would pay money to learn what illegal activities he was involved in.
He smiled coldly. “Let’s just say the North granted us a tremendous opportunity when it blockaded our ports. I find I can’t resist such an invitation to wealth.”
Land-based smuggling, certainly. Activities probably of interest to officials in the North and South alike.
“But I’ll be back, and then we have some matters to…discuss,” he said, tugging his shirt into place. “You could still join me. We were very good together once.”
“Never.” She spat out the word. It tasted like quinine on her tongue.
This time his smile had a threat in it. “Very well. But you’ll find I’m a very patient man.”
Emily felt weak-kneed as she walked on. Thad wanted Ella Wood. It was his sole reason for purchasing Fairview, she was certain of it now. No doubt he’d made many times the plantation’s value running the blockade, but he’d desired it for years. And if by acquiring it he could strike a blow of retaliation, how much better it must seem.
Did he mean to force her into a marriage? He certainly made no pretext of winning her affections. No, she didn’t think so. He had something more sinister in mind. He wanted to see her humiliated, to take that which was important to her, to watch her grovel. It was a horrible, awful game of attrition.
She clenched her fists. She’d die before she let him win it.
15
“May I speak with you in your father’s office, please?”
Emily set her knitting down in surprise. “Of course, Mother.” Marie rarely used such a stern tone. Was she upset that Emily had unraveled one of Jack’s old sweaters to fashion a baby blanket for Elsie? But Marie hadn’t even glanced at her knitting. Perhaps another slave had run away.
Marie closed the office door, sat down in William’s chair, and folded her hands on the desktop. She looked almost as forbidding as her husband. Emily sat across from her, eyebrows raised.
“Mr. Turnbull came to see me this morning…with this.” She opened a drawer and pulled out the map of the United States. “He was furious and asked that I mention the incident to your father. Do you happen to know anything about it?”
Emily’s mind whirled furiously. When had she lost it? And where? There was no use denying ownership. She was the artist in the family. “Yes. That’s mine.”
“Do you have any idea how it happened to land on Mr. Turnbull’s porch overnight?”
On Mr. Turnbull’s porch? “I can’t imagine how it got there.”
Her mother’s voice grew tart. “May I ask why
you would need to bring such a thing outside where any slave could find it? Fortunately, one of them had the sense to turn it in.”
Emily bit her lip. Better to confess than let someone innocent take the blame. “I was teaching Trudy to read it.” Trudy had been in the class last night.
Marie let the paper drop to the desktop. “You are aware of the laws prohibiting the education of slaves, are you not?”
“She’s only a slave in a technical sense.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“It means I’ve manumitted her, as far as I’m able. I told you, my people are free to stay or go. You haven’t noticed that Stella and Paxton are missing?”
Marie closed her eyes and sighed in exasperation. “You can’t just let them go, Emily. We have laws about such things.”
“I’d accompany them if the war hadn’t made travel so impractical.”
“You could get in a lot of trouble for this, not to mention the fact that you’re throwing away a considerable portion of your inheritance.”
“I don’t care.”
Marie sank toward the desktop, shaking her head. “How did I end up with such a willful, shortsighted daughter?”
Emily looked down at her own fingers tapping against the seat of her chair. “I wasn’t your only child who came to see slavery for what it is.”
“Jack?” Marie laughed. “I find that hard to believe.”
“He was better able to hide his emotions, but he felt the same way.”
“That’s utter nonsense, and I’ll hear no more of it.” Marie straightened, and her lips pressed into a thin line. “Do you swear to me that you are not encouraging any of your father’s slaves to leave?”
She swallowed hard. Had she not pleaded with them to stay just last evening? “I swear.”
Marie considered her shrewdly. “I have a mind not to tell your father about this. I don’t wish to lose my daughter again.”
“I have no wish to leave.” Not even with Thad next door. But her mother needn’t know about his threats.
“However, you must keep your opinions to yourself. I will not have your father’s condition jeopardized by any conflicts. And you may not interfere with his administration of this plantation. Am I understood?”
“Yes.”
“Do I have your word that you will not help our people escape?”
“If I have your word that you will not try to bring back mine.”
Her mother nodded. “Very well. Then we are agreed.”
***
“But how did it get on Mr. Turnbull’s porch?” Abigail asked from her bed.
Emily pressed her cheek against the child sleeping on her shoulder and rocked with a gentle creak, creak. That was the same question that had nagged at her.
“I could understand if he found it in the woods,” Abigail continued, “or if it had blown up against the foundation of the house. But on his porch? It sounds deliberate. Who would do such a thing?”
“I’ve got my suspicions,” Emily said grimly.
“But you said Herod stormed off after your argument.”
“That doesn’t mean he went far. It was dark out, and he can be as quiet as a cat. He must have taken it.”
“But why turn it in? Why call attention to the lessons and put the others in danger?”
“Stirring up controversy is something Herod enjoys. And if this would end badly for me…” Emily shrugged. There was no telling what he was thinking. “I’m certain none of the others did it.”
“So, will you put an end to the lessons?”
“My mother made me promise not to interfere with Ella Wood’s slaves.”
Abigail crossed her arms. “You didn’t answer my question.”
Emily grew troubled. “I’m not sure it’s my most pressing worry. I came across Thad in the woods this morning.”
Abigail frowned. “On your father’s property? Does he not know where the boundary line is?”
“He knows,” Emily said ominously. “He’d like to move it over significantly.”
Abigail paused. “What are you saying?”
“He wants Ella Wood.”
Abigail gasped. “Are you sure? He already has Fairview.”
“Fairview was only the queen on his chessboard. Ella Wood is the real prize.”
“He can’t!”
“He won’t. Because I’ve got a little strategy of my own.”
Abigail’s eyes narrowed. “What are you up to?”
“Nothing you need to concern yourself with. Just concentrate on regaining your strength for this little girl. Have you written to Darius yet?”
Abigail pointed out three letters on her bedside table. “And to both sets of grandparents.”
“Perhaps he’ll be able to get a longer furlough?”
The baby began to fuss, and Emily handed her back. Abigail nuzzled the fuzzy head. “I hope so. I’m eager to make introductions.”
“Will your mother come?”
“Just as soon as she receives the letter, I’m sure. She planned to stay a few weeks then help me move back to the Johnsons’.”
The baby fussed louder. Abigail began to unbutton her gown.
“I’ll walk these down to the post office tomorrow,” Emily said, making her exit. “I think I’m going to turn in early. My nap this afternoon wasn’t nearly long enough.”
Abigail couldn’t mask the concern lingering in her eyes. “Don’t do anything foolish.”
Emily smiled. “Risk is only foolishness if you fail. And I don’t intend to fail.”
***
Emily darted across the yard as silently as the clouds that blacked out the moon. She was dressed in dark colors, her figure obscured by Jack’s shirt and trousers and her hair rolled into one of Lizzie’s old turbans. Another spring shower shrouded her from any eyes that might still be awake this long after midnight. She had sneaked away from Ella Wood without notice. She would slip into Fairview the same way.
She paused outside a storage room window on a back wing of the house. Jovie had broken off the latch years ago. He and Jack made frequent use of the escape route, keeping the jamb well-lubricated with candle wax. She worked her fingers under the sash, praying the latch had escaped repair. The window shifted soundlessly, rising with little effort. A quick glance and a listen, then she boosted herself inside.
Slipping off her shoes, Emily waited for her eyes to adjust to the deeper darkness. Forgotten boxes were piled haphazardly across the room like a chain of islands in an overcrowded sea. The dank smell brought to mind the single time she and Sophia had used the escape hatch, slipping out one hot July night to go skinny-dipping in the back pasture. Emily had been giddy with adventure and terrified that an alligator had made its way to the pond in the few hours since sunset. She felt that same mixture of emotion now.
Picking her way carefully through the debris, Emily emerged in the back hallway and felt her way to Thad’s office. She knew each turn, counted each door, avoided every squeaky floorboard. She barely made a sound. The door, however, groaned on its hinges. She eased it open painfully slow, an inch at a time, sweating beneath the rain-soaked turban. It took a full three minutes to create an opening large enough to accommodate her slender figure. She paused, straining to catch any sound from the interior of the house, but there was only the patter of rain and the groans of the building shifting in its sleep.
She slipped inside and closed the curtain, leaving the door ajar.
Lighting the candle stub pulled from her pocket, she set it on the floor and began pulling open the desk drawers. She didn’t know what she searched for exactly. A bill of sale, a cargo manifest—any evidence of Thad’s unlawful dealings that she might use to incriminate him.
As she searched, the open door gaped at her like a giant eye. She could sense it watching when she turned her back. Could feel its breath cool the moisture on her neck. It made her hair stand on end. Hastening, she continued her silent search.
The room was nearly empty. Thad
had accumulated far fewer belongings than Mr. Cutler. When the desk yielded nothing but a Maryland railroad ticket, an advertisement for chewing tobacco, a newspaper from Baltimore, and a forgotten button, she began snooping through cupboards and bookshelves. It was fruitless work. Thad had left no clues.
Rain pattered against the window in a sudden gust of wind. Emily froze, every nerve on alert. She wished she’d closed the door behind her, even if it meant having to open it again. The vacant hole in the wall set her teeth on edge. She forced herself to relax, to move quickly and silently through the last few cupboards. Then she heard the quick rhythm of frightened breaths.
Her spine stiffened. A rush of fear stopped her throat. Slowly she turned.
Wide, terrified eyes stared back at her from the darkness of the hallway.
“Sarah!” Relief nearly put her on the floor. “You frightened me to death!”
The round eyes grew larger. “Dat you, Miss Emily?” The orbs flashed both directions in the hallway then fixed again on Emily. “What you doin’ here? You gunna get caught!”
“Looking for something. Why are you awake?”
“I had to use de outhouse and saw de light.” She shook her head. “You better go. Mr. Black a light sleeper.”
“Mr. Black is here? In the house?” Fear rushed again in a hot, liquid flash. “I thought he was gone on business.”
“He here, sure ’nough. What you lookin’ for?”
Emily considered the woman a moment. “Sarah, Lottie’s taught you your letters?”
“Yes, miss. I can pick out some words.”
“Mr. Black is engaged in illegal activities. I’m certain of it. I need to find evidence of what he’s doing. You have access to this room, to his business. I need you to help me.”
Sarah’s face grew fearful. “I get in sore trouble if he fin’ me out.”
“Don’t put yourself at risk. Just keep your eyes open and let me know if you notice anything suspicious.”
Ebb Tide (Ella Wood Book 3) Page 16