Ebb Tide (Ella Wood Book 3)

by Michelle Isenhoff

  She sat back against the seat and chewed her lip. She hadn’t hidden her departure, but neither had she proclaimed it. Somehow Thad found out, and he was none too pleased with her leaving. Would he follow? Even if the train ran smoothly, his horse could easily arrive at the next station ahead of them.

  There was nothing she could do about it. Grimly, she watched the miles pass.

  Thirty minutes later, her suspicions were confirmed. Thad stood on the platform as the train pulled in. He looked muddy and out of sorts. She braced herself for what would follow.

  Thad pushed into the compartment before the train even stopped. “Where is she?” he thundered.

  Every eye in the passenger car fastened on him then shifted to locate whomever he was addressing. Emily didn’t wait for the searching glances to find her but rose to meet him, indignation evident in every line of her body. “Mr. Black, what is the meaning of this?”

  He stalked up the aisle. “I want to know what you’ve done with her.”

  “I’ve already told you, I don’t know where Sarah is.”

  He grabbed her arm. “I got it on good authority. You took her.”

  “You were told wrong. Look for yourself.” She gestured to Trudy and Apollo, who had half-risen in his seat. “She’s not here.”

  Thad’s voice rose to a bellow. “I know you’re behind this, Emily Preston, and by God, I’ll find you out!”

  By then the conductor had become aware of the altercation. “I’m sorry, sir. I’m going to have to ask you to leave. Unless you purchase a ticket—”

  Thad shoved the man into a seat then leaned his face into Emily’s. His breath puffed the strands of hair around her face. “Tell me where she is or I swear I’ll—”

  “Dat be enough, Mr. Black.” Apollo stepped between them, pushing Emily behind him.

  “Don’t you lay your filthy hands on me,” Thad warned.

  But two passengers had also risen from their seats. Two men, fully Thad’s equal in height and strength. They each took an arm and walked him toward the door. “The lady obviously doesn’t have what you’re after,” one of them said. “So why don’t you take yourself off the train and look elsewhere.”

  Thad made no resistance as they marched him down the stairs and tossed him to the platform. He shook out his shirt and approached the window, glaring at Emily through the glass. “This is not over.” Then he turned and disappeared around the corner of the station. A moment later, his horse bolted from the yard, pounding in the direction of Charleston.

  17

  Emily’s knee bounced in nervous agitation as the train began to slow. Would Thad be watching for them in front of Seven Mile Station, as well? Sarah waited in an abandoned woodshed a quarter mile from the track. Her safety could depend on Emily’s caution.

  The conductor entered the compartment looking tired and rumpled but none the worse for his encounter with Thad. “We’ll be stopping here to refuel,” he called out. “We apologize for the inconvenience. If anyone would be willing to join the wood-cutting team, a partial refund will be applied to your ticket.”

  It was a word-for-word repeat of the last time Emily had traveled. No one objected or complained. Long delays were simply a fact of life in the South these days. One of the men who’d removed Thad from the train stood and followed the conductor out of the compartment.

  The large woodlot outside town was used routinely by the South Carolina Railroad. Emily had counted on it when she and Wilson chose this station. Now, as she scanned the approaching platform, she had serious misgivings. She could not see Thad, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t nearby.

  She gathered her bag. “Let’s get out and stretch our legs.”

  They followed the other passengers off the train, and Emily guided Trudy and Apollo to a secluded area of the platform where they would not be overheard. Both had been fully apprised of the plan. Now she asked their opinions on carrying it out.

  Trudy set down her bundle and stretched the muscles in her back. “I feel like I got eyes on me right dis minute. Like ever’body know what we doin’.”

  “I feel the same,” Emily said. “I don’t see Mr. Black, but I think we should wait awhile before we look for Sarah.”

  Apollo’s eyes roved the area, and his lips barely moved as he mumbled, “Miss Emily, I don’ think we should get back on dat train.”

  “But we must. We catch the northbound line in Charleston.”

  “Dat ’xactly what Mr. Black gunna ’spect us to do.”

  She bit her lip. “He’s gone on to the city, hasn’t he? He’ll be waiting for us there.”

  “Dat be my guess, miss.”

  Emily had never considered that she might be followed. “We can walk there easily enough, I suppose. It’s only seven miles. Then we’ll hide out somewhere until he leaves. Maybe even cut overland to the first station north.”

  “An’ if he waitin’ for us dere? You gunna walk all de way to Baltimore?”

  “Do you think he knows that’s where we’re going?”

  “Everyone at Ella Wood know you chasin’ down Mr. Jovie, miss.”

  Emily grimaced. Yes, her travel plans had been decided before Sarah needed help. Too late to divert attention or lay a false trail.

  “But I doubt Mr. Black foun’ out by chance,” he added.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I think you know what I mean. Ain’t no secret how much Herod hate you.”

  She swallowed hard. No, that wasn’t a secret. “You think he deliberately told Thad our travel plans?”

  “You know he did. An’ he add fire to every suspicion Mr. Black already hold.”

  Emily winced. She started pacing, then thought better of how it might appear and forced her feet to a standstill. “Then we can’t take Sarah to Baltimore. Thad will never stop hunting until he finds us.”

  “We could take her south, miss,” Trudy suggested mildly.

  “South?”

  A look of understanding passed over Apollo’s face. “To Port Royal,” he finished.

  Emily’s eyes lit up. It wasn’t too late to lay a false trail after all. Baltimore could be the diversion they needed.

  It would mean weeks of delay, she realized. Perhaps months. Jovie might no longer even be in Baltimore by the time she could make her way there.

  It could also mean Sarah’s life.

  Emily pressed her fingertips into her eyes. In the end, she knew what she must do. She had promised Jeremiah.

  “I guess we’re going to Hilton Head.”

  ***

  Roughly one hundred miles separated Charleston from Savannah. Hilton Head Island lay just to Savannah’s north. By Emily’s best estimate, it would take at least two weeks to walk there overland in the dark. They could follow the rail corridor. It lay just inside Confederate lines, was well-protected, provided bridges over waterways, and would prevent them from becoming lost. By staying to the west, hopefully they could avoid any picket lines. They were ill-prepared for a camping trip, however. So if it seemed safe, they could always hop the train.

  Wilson said he’d secured Sarah in a tumbledown barn just south of town. They found the abandoned farm easily enough, but it took several minutes of searching before the woman heard their whispered calls. She crawled out of an empty stall, wild-eyed and shaking. “I’s so glad to see you. I been havin’ every sort of nightmare since Wilson left, ’cept I been awake.”

  “Sarah!” Emily exclaimed, taking in the woman’s black eye and bruised lip. “How did you ever get away?”

  “Weren’t hard. Mr. Black half drunk. Once he got tired o’ beatin’ me, he fell asleep and I walked right off’n his property. I never been so scared in my life. I jus’ waitin’ fo’ him to come take me back.”

  “You’re safe now,” Emily assured her. “We won’t let anything happen to you. But there has been a change of plan.”

  As she explained, Sarah’s eyes grew wider and wider. “Oh, sweet Jesus, what gunna happen to me?”

  “You gu
nna be jus’ fine,” Apollo said, settling down in the dirty hay of the stall. “We all goin’ to Port Royal together.”

  Emily sat down too. “We might as well get comfortable. It’s too dangerous to travel before nightfall.”

  The day inched past. They ate sparingly, and no one was tired enough to sleep. Darkness came as a welcome relief from monotony. Before they departed, however, they made a careful inspection of the house and barn. Nothing useful remained except a few empty tin cans, which Apollo placed in the food basket.

  “We have a decision to make,” Emily announced. “If we’re going south, the first thing we need to do is cross the Ashley, and there are only so many ways to do that when we don’t have a boat. There’s the bridge, of course, but that means traveling through Charleston all the way to Broad Street. Bee’s Ferry is nearby and would allow us to cut miles off our trip by traveling directly to the Savannah rail corridor, bypassing Charleston altogether. But if Thad starts asking, that would be one of the first places he’d look. There are a few other ferries, but they pose the same risk. Our other options would be to steal a boat, which also might point to us, or hike upstream beyond Ella Wood and cross where the river narrows west of Summerville. It’s fifteen miles there and back and at least two days’ detour.”

  “None o’ dese sound like good options,” Apollo said.

  “No one said this would be easy. Sarah, since you’re the one whose life is at stake, we’re going to leave the decision to you.”

  Emily could barely make out Sarah’s form in the darkness. She was quiet a long time. “I reckon we bes’ be safe, miss. If Mr. Black in Charleston, den he won’t be sniffin’ around Fairview. I think we should hike upriver.”

  “Very well. We’ll try to reach the Turner plantation by sunrise.”

  “Or we could go to Ella Wood,” Apollo said thoughtfully.

  “And risk Herod catching us?”

  Apollo warmed to his idea, his words coming more enthusiastically. “Miss Emily, yo’ daddy got a skiff tied up at de dock. I could sneak in real quiet-like and fetch Coffey. He could row us across an’ put de boat back widout anyone knowin’.”

  “An’ we could get more blankets,” Trudy added.

  “We could be across long before dawn,” Apollo finished.

  Emily hesitated. She didn’t trust Herod. He was likely snooping around, trying to find out for himself where Sarah disappeared to. But surely by that hour he’d be sleeping. She glanced at Sarah. After another thoughtful silence, Sarah nodded yes.

  Traveling the busy Dorchester Road, the highway to Charleston, proved nerve-wracking. They waited until the darkness thickened and the world lay still and silent. Even so, every animal noise, every rustle of wind caused anxious glances behind. Twice they had to leap off the road and lie flat in the weeds while riders passed.

  The black, wee hours of morning found them weary, footsore, and wet from crossing a score of small streams in the dark, but they made it without incident—right back to where they started. Apollo left to wake Coffey as the women silently stowed their gear in the skiff. Emily kept watch, her eyes shifting between the dark windows of the big house and the direction of the slave village, just out of sight beyond the trees. She considered sneaking to the kitchen for more food but decided not to risk it.

  The men returned shortly, Apollo carrying additional blankets and Coffey tucking his nightshirt into his pants. “Can you get us across?” Emily whispered to the young schooner captain.

  “Sho’ thing, Miss Emily. But I thought you was goin’ to Baltimore?”

  “We were. Plans changed.” She paused. “You haven’t seen Mr. Black here today, have you?”

  “Not a sign of ’im.”

  “Good.” Hopefully he was still looking in all the wrong places.

  They crowded into the skiff, a small flat-bottomed boat that could be powered by sail or with oars. Emily winced as Apollo knocked his foot against the gunwale, and she peeked at the windows in the big house. They remained dark. After stuffing the oarlocks with rags, Coffey shoved the boat into the current and rowed across the river with strong, sure strokes.

  The current carried them downstream to a secluded section of riverbank on the Jacobsen estate where they pulled ashore and quickly unloaded. “Don’t wait fo’ me to get back across,” Coffey whispered. “Jus’ go!”

  They thanked him heartily and vanished into the underbrush. Emily breathed easily for the first time since boarding the train that morning.

  ***

  Before the sun rose, they holed up in a copse of autumn olive far off the road and passed around careful rations from their food basket—bread, cheese, strawberries, and a pile of raw early vegetables—then dropped into an exhausted slumber. They awoke in late afternoon and waited impatiently for darkness to fall.

  The next five days passed in the same pleasant manner. Unhurriedly, Emily guided them southwest, navigating by the stars, aiming for Parker’s Ferry on the Edisto River. From there they’d turn south and catch the train in one of the small towns along the route. With clear skies and perfect springtime temperatures, anything seemed possible. And knowing they’d outsmarted Thad loosened the women’s tongues. Smiles came more quickly. Stories were exchanged in the quiet of late afternoon. Only Apollo refrained, his face as grave as it had been on the train. Emily was grateful for his watchfulness, but as they avoided farms, skirted swamps, and waded creeks, she saw no sign of pursuit.

  The weather broke on the fifth day, about the same time they reached the Edisto. About the time their food ran out. They made camp in a drenching downpour. Cold, hungry, with no way to light a fire and no shelter from the weeping sky, they huddled in miserable silence and tried to sleep away the daylight. At least the rain kept off the mosquitos.

  Emily’s enthusiasm hit a valley. “We could just follow the river toward Edisto Island,” she suggested. “Sarah would be safe there.”

  “Is it near Port Royal?” Apollo asked.

  Emily hesitated. “No.” Which made Edisto the site of occasional skirmishes. The nearer to Yankee headquarters, the safer Sarah would be.

  “All de stories say Port Royal. An’ we can get dere by rail.”

  “Sarah?” Emily asked.

  The woman nodded. “I’ll go on.”

  Emily sighed. “Very well.”

  Part of her brain recognized that fate had chosen them a wiser course than she had originally planned. By traveling upriver and crossing at Ella Wood, they’d been forced overland, miles from the rail corridor, miles from any picket lines, miles from pursuit. Continuing wasn’t a danger, merely a hardship—one she’d already planned on accomplishing. She’d see it through.

  She set the tin cans out to catch the rain. It would fill their bellies for the time being. Tomorrow she would try to purchase food.

  ***

  Ashepoo wasn’t a town so much as a handful of buildings. But it had a depot, and that was all Emily cared about. She sank in a heap out of sight of the town and leaned her back against a tree.

  It had taken three nights to reach the station, and in all that time they’d eaten only a bit of stew purchased from an elderly farm couple. Emily had taken only Trudy to the door with her to avoid undue suspicion, and they’d shared the food between all four. No one had enough. Now, after miles of dragging rain-soaked skirts through mud, Emily had nearly reached the end of her endurance.

  She knew she was the reason they lagged. Though her lifestyle was far from sedentary, she wasn’t accustomed to so much activity and so little food. Apollo carried her valise. Still she struggled to keep up. She closed her eyes, cold, hungry, and trembling with weariness.

  “Miss Emily, it be dawn soon,” Apollo said. “You head into de woods outta sight, an’ I’ll fin’ food.”

  She barely registered his words. She simply followed when Sarah took her by the arm and settled in a new puddle a quarter mile on.

  She must look a sight. Her skirt was torn in places and covered so thickly with mud she couldn’
t even make out the color. Her bonnet had lost all shape, and her hair hung in greasy strands. If she showed up at the depot to purchase tickets looking like this, the stationmaster would ask far too many questions. But at the moment, she just couldn’t force herself to care.

  She must have fallen asleep. When she awoke, daylight had risen to a pale gray haze, a fire was sparking cheerfully, and the aroma of roasting meat filled the clearing.

  Emily sat up. It was still raining. “How did you do that?” she asked in wonder, holding her hands out to the warmth of the flames.

  Apollo grinned. “I found a few pieces o’ dry wood no one be usin’. Jus’ so happen dey be sittin’ in a woodshed.”

  Her lips parted wordlessly. “And the matches?”

  His grin grew broader. “Outta de kitchen ’fore we left Ella Wood. Grabbed me a knife too.”

  He gestured to a spit made of sharpened sticks on which roasted several small animals. Dare she ask?

  She didn’t have to. “I been catchin’ varmints since I de same size as dese here squirrels.”

  Emily inhaled ravenously. She would be happy to try squirrel.

  “Maybe we should rest here fo’ a day an’ catch de train tomorrow,” Apollo suggested.

  Trudy and Sarah readily agreed. Emily felt somewhat mollified that she wasn’t the only one feeling the strain. “A rest and a wash in the river sounds like heaven.”

  “We can’t get any wetter,” Trudy muttered.

  Emily actually laughed.

  “De weather gunna break soon,” Apollo assured them. “I seen patches o’ blue sky.”

  After the meal, the sun did indeed emerge through the clouds. The women washed themselves and their clothing as best they could without any soap. After letting their clothes drip-dry for half an hour, they donned them again and hovered near the fire to dry completely. Emily removed her extra skirt and blouse from her valise—they were wet but not muddy—and hung them near the fire. The foursome spent the remainder of the day resting and feasting on the abundant rodents.