Auralie squeezed Belle’s hand. “But he doesn’t know about the baby yet. That will make a difference, won’t it?”
Belle laid her hand over her abdomen, a gesture Auralie had often seen her do. “I hope so.”
As so often happened, Auralie’s gaze drifted toward Colton’s place. Sheep dotted the pasture like scattered clumps of snow. She wondered silently if he would enlist in the militia if conflict arose. What a difficult decision. Would he fight to defend Georgia? Every time she heard the topic debated, the outcry was always for state’s rights, but in truth, one of the rights for which they clamored was the right to own slaves. She couldn’t imagine Colton fighting for slavery.
Belle flicked a mosquito from her arm. “Do you think the forming of the militia will affect your father’s election?”
Auralie lifted her shoulders. “I don’t know. Dale has announced he intends to stand up for Georgia and defend her rights. Father was incensed. He kept telling Dale he could send ‘a couple of darkies’ in his place, but Dale rejected that. He said he would purchase a commission and be an officer.”
Belle’s mouth dropped open. “But he and Gwendolyn are going to be married next month. Surely he wouldn’t go off to join the militia and leave his bride.”
“That’s what he said.” Auralie sipped her now cooled tea. “I don’t know what Gwendolyn thinks about it.”
The sound of hoofbeats coming up the drive drew their attention, and Auralie’s heart turned over in anticipation. Perhaps Colton had returned from the trip he’d told her he was making to the county seat. She stood and smoothed her skirt. Glancing at her reflection in the window, she gave her hair a pat and pinched her cheeks.
Belle winked at her and led the way around the corner of the porch. But it wasn’t Colton. Reuben, one of her father’s slaves dismounted from a tired, old gray plow horse. The blood in Auralie’s veins ran cold, and she stood rooted in place. Reuben tied the horse and approached the porch. He lowered his eyes and gave a polite nod.
“Miss Covington. I has a note fo’ you from yo’ mothah.” He held out an ivory envelope with her mother’s distinctive handwriting.
Auralie stared at the folded missive as if it were a snake. Her feet wouldn’t move. Her fingers of her left hand found the ring on her right and twisted it in vicious circles.
Belle stepped forward and took the note. “Thank you. If you’d like to go around to the summer kitchen, I’m sure Maizie will give you some refreshment and Sam will water your horse.”
Reuben bobbed his head. “Thank ya kindly, ma’am.” He disappeared around the corner of the house.
Belle turned with the letter in her hand. “You have to read it.”
Auralie shook her head, as if the vehemence of the motion would keep the words of the letter at bay. But as much as she wanted to pretend it didn’t exist, she couldn’t tear her eyes from the envelope.
“It’s happening.” Her own voice sounded like it belonged to someone else. Her prayers had found their way to God’s throne room, she was sure of it. He heard the cry of her heart. She’d said that very morning she intended to trust Him with every part of her life. The moment of truth had arrived, and she had a choice. She could cling to God in faith, or she could crumble.
Mammy came bustling through the side door. “Reuben jus’ came to the back do’, and he say he brung a—”
Mammy’s groan sounded like glass breaking.
Auralie took the note and slid her finger under the edge to break the seal. With Mammy on one side of her and Belle on the other, she read her mother’s words.
Auralie,
Perry Bolden has telegraphed from New York. His ship has docked, and he plans to take the southbound train scheduled to leave for Charleston on Thursday, May 31st.
May thirty-first. Perry was boarding the train today to come home. Auralie’s stomach churned, but she continued to read.
After attending to some business in Charleston, he will take the train to Augusta where a carriage will meet him and bring him home. He plans to arrive by June the 5th.
A carriage will be sent for you on Monday, June 4th.
Mother
Auralie crumpled the note in her hand. As much as it pained her, she owed it to Colton to be honest with him.
Chapter 17
Engaged?”
Colton almost choked on the word. His delight at seeing Auralie coming through the meadow with the morning sun playing off her hair evaporated. The impact of her statement left him reeling.
“Colton, I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you sooner.” She leaned against one of the apple trees and twisted her ring. “At first, I didn’t think it was appropriate to even mention it. You and I were barely acquainted.”
He stared at her, but she wouldn’t look him in the eye. Instead, her gaze shifted everywhere except at him.
“After a while, I kept telling myself the engagement wasn’t official until it was announced.” She tipped her head. “After we became…friends, I didn’t want to read more into the friendship than was truly there.”
Colton hadn’t yet attempted to put into words what was truly there, but he knew without a doubt that it went beyond friendship. Pain sliced through his heart and realization overtook him. I’m in love with her.
“Every time I intended to tell you, I simply…couldn’t.” Her voice reflected her troubled spirit.
If he reacted in anger, he would only confirm to her what he now knew. He found his tongue. “I hope you didn’t think I’d not want you to be with the man you love.”
“But I don’t.” Strained emotion clouded her tone and her eyes misted.
Confusion caught Colton off balance. “I don’t understand. You don’t want to be with your fiancé?”
She caught her lip in her teeth. Anguish—the kind born of long, silent suffering—veiled her eyes. Her voice fell to a whisper carried away by the wind. “I don’t love him.”
Her conflicting statements defied understanding. Colton ran his hand through his hair. “Am I to understand you’re marrying a man you don’t love?” He had no business asking her such a question, but he couldn’t help himself.
The flush in her cheeks evidenced the humiliation racing through her at having made such a declaration. A war raged within him. Part of him longed to take her in his arms and comfort her, tell her she need not say any more. But another part of him he hadn’t known existed until now wanted to confront her and demand to know why she waited until he’d fallen in love with her before telling him she was promised to another.
The lines in her brow furrowed and her voice bore a brittle tone. “Do you remember the day we met?”
How could he forget? He’d literally tripped over her. He nodded and she went on.
“I heard some men in the café that day call out to you, but there was so much commotion. I thought they’d called you Bolden.”
Colton rolled back his memory to that day. He recalled the misunderstanding.
“I haven’t seen my fiancé since we were children. I can’t even remember what he looks like. My father and his father arranged this union four years ago. He’s been studying abroad for the past five years, and now…” The tremble in her voice punctuated her unfinished sentence.
Now? Understanding dawned as all the pieces of the puzzle fit together into an unspeakable portrait of Shelby Covington’s selfishness and greed. The man was a canker on everything that being a man, a husband, and a father meant.
“Your father has arranged for you to marry Thaddeus Bolden’s son?”
Twin tears slipped from Auralie’s eyes, and she nodded. “I’ve received a letter from my mother telling me that Perry is arriving tomorrow and I must return home.” She grimaced as if she’d just tasted something bitter. “A carriage is being sent for me later this morning. I’ve come to tell you good-bye.”
Acid gall rose in his throat as an invisible fist punched him in the gut. His hand reached out involuntarily for her, to pull her to him, but she took a step back. She
clasped her hands together under her chin, her arms clamped tightly to her chest.
“Auralie, I—”
“Don’t.” She shook her head, as if afraid to hear what was in his heart. “Please encourage Barnabas to keep learning. And take care of those lambs.” She covered her mouth with trembling fingers that muffled her words. “I’ll miss you.”
She picked up her skirts and ran through the orchard and across the field toward the Hancock home.
“Mistah Colton?”
Colton turned. Barnabas stood a few yards away, his expression one of sorrow as he watched Auralie leaving. “I’s sorry, Mistah Colton, but I needs to tell yo’ some o’ the sheeps is missin’. Free was barkin’, and when I went to see about it, there be a place in the fence where that orn’ry ram musta busted through. Free wouldn’t leave the rest of the sheeps.”
Colton gazed another long moment in Auralie’s direction, wondering if his heart would ever be whole again, before he turned to join Barnabas.
The lump in Auralie’s throat nearly prevented her from drawing a breath as the carriage pulled away from Belle’s. The sobs she’d valiantly tried to hold back won the battle as tears cascaded down her cheeks.
Mammy slipped her arm around Auralie and drew her close. “There, there, baby, don’ you cry. You have me cryin’, too.” She rocked Auralie back and forth in a comforting motion. “Shhhh.”
“Mammy, I did what you said. I prayed and asked God to intervene, to provide a way out of this marriage. Every day and night I begged God for help, but He didn’t answer.”
“Why you think He don’t answer? Jus’ ‘cause He don’t answer the way you want Him to, don’t mean He ain’t list’nin’.” Mammy pulled a handkerchief from her sleeve and blotted Auralie’s tears. “Maybe His answer is to change you ‘stead o’ changin’ what happenin’ around you. Ever’ time a prayer leave yo’ lips, yo’ faith and trust grow. You know God hear you, He care, and He never leave you.”
Auralie clung to Mammy. The woman’s wisdom fell over Auralie like a gentle rain washing away her doubts. Until now, she’d not tried to define God’s promises to her. In that heartbeat, she knew…He loved her. Did that mean He’d answer her prayer the way she hoped? She didn’t know that yet. She did know a deeper level of trust she never before knew existed now reinforced her, regardless of what lay ahead.
Mammy squeezed her shoulders. “We jus’ keep on prayin’, honey girl. Sweet Lawd Jesus, please hear us. We need a touch from Yo’ hand, a miracle.”
A miracle. Would God grant her a miracle if she asked?
“Whoa, there!” Their driver, Reuben, called out to the horses and the carriage lurched to a stop.
Auralie and Mammy exchanged alarmed looks. “What is it, Reuben? What’s the problem?”
“Trouble ahead, miss.”
Auralie stuck her head out the side of the carriage and craned her neck to see what was going on. On the road just ahead, a man jerked a black man from the wooded area along the road and dragged him toward a tethered horse. Auralie’s heart seized. Barnabas!
“Reuben, drive on up there so I can speak to that man.”
“Could be dangerous, miss.”
Auralie pointed. “Go.”
“Yes’m.” Reuben clucked to the horses.
Mammy leaned to the side. “What goin’ on? Who that man be?”
Auralie glanced back at her. “I’m not sure who he is, but he has Barnabas.”
The carriage pulled alongside the two men and halted. Auralie called to the man. “You there. What do you think you’re doing?”
Barnabas looked up at her with an expression that made the hair stand up on the back of her neck.
The burly man with greasy hair and an unkempt beard pulled a pair of shackles from his saddlebags and clamped them on Barnabas’s wrists. “Pickin’ up strays, ma’am. Ain’t no concern o’ your’n.”
Indignation straightened her spine. “It most certainly is my concern if I witness you taking a free man captive.”
The white man guffawed and called Barnabas a vulgar name. “Why else would a darkie be hidin’ in the woods if he ain’t runnin’?”
“I weren’t runnin’, Miz Cov—”
The man backhanded Barnabas. He staggered backward and blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.
“Shut up.” The white man yanked a bowie knife from his belt. “Open your mouth again and I’ll slit your tongue.”
“Stop that. Don’t you dare hit him again.” Wrath flamed through Auralie, and she climbed from the carriage. “See here. I happen to know this man is not a runaway.”
The bounty hunter smirked. “I say he is. The man I work for will pay me a nice bounty for every darkie I bring in.” He swept his hat off and held it over his heart, bowing in a sarcastic demonstration of mock respect. “Beggin’ pardon, ma’am.”
Auralie gritted her teeth. “Who is the man who pays you to capture men like this?”
He plopped his hat back on his head. “My boss, the honorable Shelby Covington. He hired me to recover his property. Escaped slaves make me a tidy profit.”
Bile rose in Auralie’s throat and her stomach twisted. “I’m telling you this man is not an escaped slave. He works for—”
“I ain’t interested in no petticoat pardon.” He cinched a rope around the wrist shackles on Barnabas’s arms and slid the other end through an iron ring attached to his saddle.
Mammy stood in the carriage and shook her finger at the man. “You watch yo’ mouth. This here is a lady, and—”
The man pulled the knife again and brandished it toward Mammy. “Lady, huh? Well, lady, you need to teach your darkie some manners. Or I can do it for you.”
Auralie tried to swallow, but fear choked her. She watched in horror as the man mounted his horse and jerked on the rope to pull Barnabas along.
“Where are you taking him?”
The man’s sneer revealed tobacco-stained teeth. “Back where the overseer’ll teach him not to run no more.” He nudged his horse into a trot, forcing Barnabas to run behind the animal.
Auralie whirled toward the carriage. Both Mammy and Reuben wore pained grimaces. “Reuben, turn around and take the north road.”
“But missy, massah say to bring you home.”
“I’ll tell him you were obeying my instructions.” She picked up her skirts and clambered into the conveyance. “The north road, Reuben. Hurry!”
Reuben turned the carriage around and sent the horses running full tilt, veering to the left at the fork, onto the north road. The wind pulled at Auralie’s hair, but she wouldn’t let Reuben slow the horses until Colton’s place came into view.
“Stop!”
Reuben pulled back on the reins to bring the heaving horses to a halt. Auralie discarded propriety and jumped down.
“Colton! Colton!” She picked up her skirts and ran toward the house, screaming Colton’s name, but he didn’t appear. She ran down the slope toward the cornfield.
“Colton!”
“Auralie?”
She halted and searched in the direction of his voice. He came jogging toward her from the sheep pasture. She ran to meet him.
Trepidation edged his voice. “What’s wrong?”
“Barnabas. A bounty hunter took him.” She gasped for breath. “Come quickly.”
He grasped her hand. “Some of the sheep got out. We split up to look for them.” Together they hurried back toward the house. He sent a sweeping search in the direction Auralie’s carriage had come. “Where?”
Nausea swirled in her stomach. “Covington Plantation.”
Colton’s jaw dropped, his expression incredulous. “You go ahead. As soon as I throw a saddle on Jasper I’ll catch up with you.” He turned and ran back toward the barn.
“Hurry, Colton!”
He called back to her over his shoulder. “I will. Go on. Jasper will catch up with the carriage before you get there.”
She dashed back to the carriage where Reuben waited to help her aboa
rd. As soon as she was seated, Reuben turned the team around and lit out back down the road. The distance to Covington Plantation normally took an hour at a more sedate pace, but Reuben encouraged the horses to keep moving.
“Oh dear Lord, don’t let us be too late. Please don’t let them hurt Barnabas.”
Mammy gripped Auralie’s hand. “Amen.”
When they were within a mile of the entrance, the sound of pounding hoofbeats coming up behind them turned Auralie’s head. Colton’s sweat-flecked chestnut gelding pulled abreast of the carriage, and he adjusted the horse’s speed to keep pace.
Reuben steered the horses through the huge iron gate that yawned open. Colton went ahead and skidded his horse to a stop. He vaulted from the saddle and ran to meet the carriage as the lathered horses halted by the front entrance. He seized Auralie around the waist and swung her to the ground. Grabbing her hand, they ran up the front steps to the wide veranda.
Her father stepped through the open french doors from the parlor with a brandy snifter in his hand. “Auralie,” he barked. “What is the meaning of this?”
For once, Father’s intimidating growl had no effect on her. “Father, a bounty hunter who says he was hired by you has taken this man’s friend. Barnabas isn’t a runaway. He doesn’t even belong to you. Colton bought him and freed him.”
Father turned his glower on Colton. “I know who you are. You’re Danfield.”
“That’s right, and what your daughter says is true. Barnabas is no longer your property and carries papers to prove it, but it seems your bounty hunter took him anyway. I demand to know where he is.”
“You demand? Who do you think you’re talking to? And take your hand off my daughter.”
Instead of complying, Colton tightened his grip on Auralie’s hand.
Another man, with thick auburn hair and a daunting, chiseled countenance, stepped out the door behind Father. He scowled from Auralie to Colton and back again.
In the next heartbeat, everyone began talking at once.
“Auralie, how dare you, coming racing in here like a hooligan—”
“Father, please—”
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