“You must care for her deeply to travel such a distance.”
He bowed his head. “I would be a real scoundrel to ignore her fate and let her and her child succumb to certain death up here.”
Slime pasted the lips and whiskers of his bloodhounds, and Anna wondered why the master of an estate needed dogs to rescue someone he cared about so deeply.
“She looks like this.” The man held out a flyer to her with an ink portrait, the remarkable likeness of the girl she’d befriended. “She’s probably carrying a baby with her.”
Anna wanted to tell him that Marie did have a child with her, a beautiful baby boy with the same blue eyes and head full of blond hair as the man who stood before her.
The man covered his chest with the flyer and blinked back a tear. “She’s like a daughter to us.”
It took everything Anna could do to control her tongue. Words wanted to tumble out of her like they had done moments ago from her pen, but this time she stopped them. She would write later...and burn her words.
How could this man, who had done so much to hurt Marie, say that she was like a daughter to him? If that’s how he treated his children, she felt sorry for them as well.
The story came back to her quickly, the one Marie had told her of the baby born to her friend and fellow slave. The one who had been taken away and either sold or left someplace to perish.
Noah Owens was not kind to his children, either.
He didn’t seem to notice the anger sparking inside her. He continued. “She was last seen at the mouth of the creek, a mile or so from here.”
She forced a smile. “I know where the mouth of our creek is located.”
“Of course you do.” He winked at her. “You have a beautiful home, Miss—”
“My name is Anna.”
He laughed. “You don’t stand for much pomp and circumstance around here, do you?”
She didn’t explain to him the Quaker disdain for any title that esteemed one man or woman over another. “Is there anything I can do for you?”
“I’d like to know if you’ve seen Marie.”
She shrugged her shoulders. “Hundreds of colored people travel through our town, Noah, and they all look the same to me.”
“I understand.” He turned back to the men behind him. “She hasn’t seen her.”
He took a step down like he was leaving but then pivoted toward her again. “There is one more small thing you could do for me.”
She didn’t want to ask, but there was no other way around it. “How can I help you?”
“If it’s not too much trouble”—he hesitated only for a moment—“I’d like to take a quick look inside your home.”
Chapter Fourteen
Both hands firmly on her hips, the fury inside Anna blazed. How dare this man ride all the way from Tennessee, in pursuit of a girl he had probably raped, and then demand that Anna allow him and his rogue hunters to search the house for her?
The audacity astounded her. It was as if he had no idea that what he had done was wrong or that Marie was willing to risk everything to get away from his “kindness.”
“You think I’m hiding your slave?”
“Of course not.” Noah waved his hands at her. “I’m not accusing anyone around here of doing anything wrong. I just wouldn’t be doing my job as a Christian man, you see, if I didn’t search every house along this creek to try to find Marie and beg for her to come back home to her family.”
She held out one of her hands. “Do you have a search warrant?”
“Aw, Miss Anna, all your neighbors let me glance in their houses without a warrant, so I didn’t even think to get one.” He stepped down the stairs again. “But I’m a gentleman, not one to force my way into someone’s home. I’d be glad to get one from the sheriff if that would help you open your door for me.”
Anna sighed. He wouldn’t have any problem in getting the warrant—if not this afternoon, then when the court opened again on Second Day—and he’d return, perhaps with Randolph Zabel and Will Denton in tow. Better to let him go through her home now and be on his way.
She nodded toward the two slave hunters behind him. “I don’t want them in my house.”
Noah smiled at her again. “That won’t be a problem, will it, fellas?”
He didn’t turn around, but like obedient dogs, the men stepped back. Then with the quick removal of his hat, Noah Owens stepped over her threshold and into her house.
“My housekeeper is working upstairs.” Anna shut the door behind him and turned. “I hope you won’t disturb her.”
Noah gave her another broad smile. “Of course not.”
“You can look wherever you’d like.”
He took off his coat and strung it over his arm. “Thank you for letting me intrude on your day.”
She nodded, like he had given her a choice.
Noah brushed past her, and she moved into the parlor to wait for him to finish looking for Marie on the first floor. She folded her papers and the Liberty Era and slid them both behind a stack of books. He may never leave if he found abolitionist papers on her desk.
She shoved the edge of the newspaper down behind the books. What the world needed was more men like Daniel Stanton, men who were willing to stand up for slaves instead of hunting them down. He was sure to get a lot of local flack for condemning this new bill, both from people who were pro-slavery and from Quakers who believed that the Society of Friends should support the government and its laws protecting slave owners.
She closed the top of the secretary and wiped off her fingerprints with her sleeve. She could hear Noah’s boots stomping through the dining room.
Never before had she been so thankful that they didn’t have any runaways staying at their home. All it took was one cough. One sneeze. One cry from a baby, and the waiting bloodhounds would barge through her front door.
Having a man like Noah find even one fugitive in her home would be catastrophic. Not only would the runaway be returned to slavery, but she and her father would have to shut down their station for good.
She was called to help fugitives, “aid and abet them” as the new bill said, though the government meant these words to be an act of evil instead of good. Nothing would devastate her more than being forced to stop helping slaves find freedom from people like the man currently tramping through her house.
The door squeaked open to the basement, but she didn’t follow Noah downstairs. He could spend all day down there if he wanted. Drink from their spring. Eat some bread or meat. There was nothing incriminating in the kitchen.
Out the window, she saw the two colored men and their dogs still standing, waiting for Noah. At least they weren’t trying to sneak around her property while their master was inside.
She eyed the men. Beyond the harshness of their faces, she saw a hint of raw sadness in one of the man’s eyes. Why didn’t he try to run while he was in Indiana, like the man Daniel had reported about in Richmond?
Running on his own, he could easily make it to Canada before the first snow. Most Northerners wouldn’t dare stop a hardened escapee like him. It was the most vulnerable, people like Marie or elderly Auntie Rae, who were apprehended if friends didn’t help them along the way.
The man didn’t even look around him like he was contemplating the idea of running. Noah probably made it worth his while to stay in Tennessee.
How sad to have dark-skinned men hunt down a colored girl for money. Or perhaps Noah had beaten them both into submission and they truly feared him. It was hard to say. Maybe they were free blacks he’d hired in Indiana. These hunters preyed on runaways across their state and used their muscle and weapons to capture them for handsome rewards.
Did either of these men wake up in the middle of the night ashamed of what they had done? Or had their consciences been so seared that they no longer cared about the pain they inflicted on others? Either way, it was tragic.
“Nothing down here,” Noah reported with gaiety, like the search was a game
.
Anna followed him to the staircase in the hallway. “Of course not.”
He placed his hand on the banister. “But your turkey smells wonderful.”
“We’re expecting guests tonight.”
“It’s too bad I’m not invited.”
Too bad.
As he climbed the staircase, she thought it awful that he could joke about dinner when a woman’s life was at stake. He acted like a casual hunter, tracking a fox or goose for pleasure.
What would happen if Noah’s facade crumbled and his heart was exposed? She imagined that under his cool exterior was a swell of anger that could surge at any time. Even if she had to face his wrath, she wouldn’t let him walk around upstairs unattended. Not while Charlotte was working up there alone. She trailed Noah up the staircase, and when he entered the first bedchamber, she waited for him in the hallway.
Minutes passed, and she finally peaked into the room. The man was under the bed, pounding on the floor planks. So much for a casual tour through her home.
“Anything loose?” she asked.
His voice was muffled. “Not yet.”
He pushed himself out from under the bed, his black jacket speckled with gray. Bits of hair stuck up across his head. He brushed off the jacket, but already he was looking less like a gentleman.
He walked toward the door. “Are you planning to follow me around?”
“Of course,” Anna replied. “If you find your servant hiding under my floor, I want to know about it.”
His smile wasn’t as big this time. “I wouldn’t be doing—”
“I know,” she interrupted. “You’re doing your Christian duty to help this girl.”
“Right.”
So she followed the man into the next room and the next, watching him pound on the walls, open wardrobes, and check under each bed.
In the hallway, he opened the door to the dumbwaiter, and she held her breath when he looked up, hoping that someone had remembered to cover the opening to the attic so he wouldn’t ask questions about the dumbwaiter traveling past the second floor.
He didn’t ask.
When he came to the last bedchamber, Anna forced her expression to maintain the annoyance she’d displayed while he searched the other rooms. This was the only room that really concerned her. It wouldn’t take much tapping inside the cabinet to discover the false wall.
Charlotte was making the bed in this room, the look on her face as cold as stone. She didn’t nod at the man when he entered even though he stared at her like so many men did. His mouth was agape, his focus solely on her friend. “You’ve made a fine choice for house help, Miss Anna.”
Her blood curdled at the lust that thickened his tone. He looked directly at Charlotte yet spoke to Anna like Charlotte wasn’t worthy of his address. “Charlotte chose us, Noah. We didn’t choose her.”
“Even so...”
Anna shivered to think what would happen if Noah met Charlotte under the cover of night, without someone nearby to help or protect her.
Anna tapped him on his shoulder. “Is there anything else you’d like to look at in this room besides my dear friend?”
His eyes broke away from Charlotte, but he didn’t look the least bit embarrassed at being caught.
At that moment, she knew with certainty that Marie had told the truth. If she ever returned to Tennessee, Noah Owens’s wife would sell her off the plantation. No woman would want her husband steaming with such a blatant desire for another woman, especially right in her own home. Not that Anna could justify the woman’s actions, but she could understand her resentment. Noah’s wife probably felt trapped as well.
Noah didn’t crawl under the bed in this room, but he stuck his foot under it and stomped on the planks. He pounded on the walls around the bed, and when he opened the cabinet doors, Anna clutched her hands together so he wouldn’t see them shaking.
Charlotte stepped forward and forced a tepid smile. “Would you like a cup of coffee, Noah?”
He turned back around, obviously pleased when she spoke his name. “That would be mighty nice.”
“It will be ready in ten minutes.”
Anna nodded at Charlotte, and the woman fled the room. Perhaps the awaiting cup of coffee, along with the thought of seeing Charlotte again, might distract the man.
Noah pushed through the towels and pillows that Charlotte had stacked inside the cabinet to cover their hiding place. All it would take was one strong thump on the board that hid the entrance for him to know that it was hollow on the other side. Then it wouldn’t take him but a second to figure out how to slide the board into the wall.
The man must have been distracted, because she didn’t hear a single knock against the wall before he backed out of the cabinet and brushed off his pants. At that moment, she was thankful that the Lord did indeed work in mysterious ways. Blinded with lust, Noah Owens couldn’t see what he’d come looking for.
“Where’s the entrance to the attic?” he asked.
She turned her face abruptly, the absurdity of it almost too much. Here was this man, standing beside the most important entrance to the attic, yet she couldn’t say a thing.
Chapter Fifteen
Anna clasped the banister as she followed Noah Owens up the steep attic steps. In minutes, she would send him and his men on their way, and maybe all he would remember of his time here was receiving a hot cup of coffee. And seeing Charlotte.
Even before they entered the attic, she could smell basil and onions and mildew. Light seeped into the room from the two windows on each end, and herbs and garden vegetables dangled across the room like vines in a jungle. The floor was covered with trunks, blankets, and milk crates.
Noah ducked under a garlic braid hanging from the ceiling as he crossed the room, and then he stooped over to investigate the eaves of the slanted ceiling. When he came to the wall on the north side, he stopped and pounded on the brick.
Anna watched him quietly. If he could see through the brick, he would find a small room filled with cots, water, and wool blankets. His hands traveled across the rough brick, searching for an opening. “How do you access this part of the attic?”
She shrugged even though he wasn’t looking at her. “We’ve searched for an entrance up here but have never been able to find one.”
“That’s a strange way to build an attic.”
She walked beyond him, and her hands slid across the brick on the other end of the wall. “I haven’t thought much about it.”
He mumbled as he backed away, swearing about Yankees and inept construction. She didn’t mention to him that her parents had built the house and that the design was quite ingenious with its dumbwaiter and secret door and hiding space. Nor did she mention that she thought certain people were inept for not discovering the entrance on the second floor.
The attic floor was filthy, dust having no place to settle except on the ground. She and Charlotte had no real urge to clean it either, hoping the dirt would discourage men like Noah from hunting around.
But it didn’t discourage him in the least. When he realized the brick wall was intact, Noah sank to his knees, testing dirty floorboards with his hands. He opened trunks and moved pieces of furniture, like Marie and her child might be hiding behind a rocking chair.
After he’d scoured every inch of the room, prodded every box and floorboard, the man finally gave up his search. Anna followed him down into the hallway and closed the door behind them. Her emotions teetered between fear and madness. It was all funny, in a delusional sort of a way. This man who was so sure of himself really didn’t know a thing.
When she faced the man, she had to gulp back a laugh.
Noah no longer looked like the suave Southern gentleman who had appeared at her door an hour ago. His black coat and light hair and even his eyebrows were so heavily coated with dust that it looked as if he’d worked for days on the mill floor. His face was smeared and splotched red from exertion. His pants were crushed with wrinkles.
No
one could accuse him of not scouring her home. Not only had he searched, but he was taking most of the attic dirt with him.
“Anyplace else you’d like to look?” she asked.
“I think I’ve covered everything.”
“You haven’t searched the barn or the outbuildings.”
He gave her an odd look, like he was trying to determine why she was suddenly being helpful to him. She wasn’t being kind. She wanted him out of her house.
He brushed his hands over the dust in his hair, but it did nothing to improve his appearance. Instead of removing the grime, he only smeared it.
A proper hostess would ask if he wanted to wash his hands and face, but she hadn’t invited this man into her house nor did she want him staying a moment longer than was necessary.
Though it rarely happened, runaways had arrived at their house in broad daylight before. With the sight of the bloodhounds in the front yard, any newcomers should stay hidden behind the trees until Noah Owens and his men left, but the dogs still might catch their scent. And even though Marie was no longer at their home, Noah Owens would know she had been hiding runaways.
She was ready to send this man on his way and pray that Marie and Peter would cross Lake Erie soon. Once they reached Canada, no one could force them back to Tennessee.
The man walked briskly down both flights of stairs to the kitchen. The coffee was boiling over the fire, but Charlotte wasn’t in the room.
He glanced back at her like he’d just realized that she had been following him again. “What happened to your help, Miss Anna?”
Anna swung the crane out of the fire and removed the pot with a cotton holder. “Probably went into town for something.”
She poured the coffee into a cup.
“You don’t know where she is?”
Her amusement over his disheveled appearance disappeared. “Charlotte doesn’t have to report to me every time she leaves the house.”
Love Finds You in Liberty, Indiana Page 11