Love Finds You in Liberty, Indiana

by Melanie Dobson

  She sighed and straightened her bonnet. “I was hoping it was all a nightmare.”

  Daniel handed her the tin of cold coffee. “It was a nightmare.”

  He unwrapped the muffins and apples from his pack and handed them to both Edwin and Anna. Anna thanked him several times, but Edwin wouldn’t touch the food. “I need to talk to the judge about bail,” Edwin insisted.

  Anna reached for her father’s hand and clung to it. “He’ll want information.”

  “I’m only going to tell him about my role.”

  “Don’t tell them, Father.”

  “They will guess.”

  “But they don’t know...,” she said. “I was the one who aided those slaves last night. They don’t know where I was going to take them or who else is involved.”

  “Anna...”

  “I knew what I was getting myself into,” she whispered. “Now that they’ve stopped me, they will think they’ve stopped our entire line. You and Ben need to figure out how to get the next group through.”

  Edwin picked up his hat off the dirt floor and placed it on his head. “Your mother would be proud of you, Anna.”

  Anna’s cheeks glowed pink, and Daniel watched her, mesmerized, as she lowered her head.

  Anna Brent deserved someone so much better than him.

  Chapter Thirty-eight

  Anna twirled her ankle under Isaac and Hannah’s dining table, glad to be free from the chain. After two nights of accumulating dirt in the jail cell, her skin had been scrubbed clean again, and she wore the formal copper dress her father had brought out from Silver Creek for her appearance in court this morning.

  When the judge had refused to release her on bail, Daniel volunteered to be her attorney. He was at the courthouse this morning, pleading for the judge to lighten her sentence today.

  She wouldn’t face trial. The court had enough evidence from witnesses, including Joseph Cooley’s testimony, to penalize her for her work on the Underground. Her only hope was that Daniel would be able to talk them out of more jail time.

  Hannah leaned over her and filled her glass with milk. “Are you feeling better?”

  “I am.”

  “Daniel will do his best—”

  Anna stopped her. “I know.”

  The older woman sat down beside her, and Isaac joined them at the end of the table. Hannah scooped corned beef out of a dish and spooned it onto their plates. The meat was salty and hot and soothed the pangs in her stomach.

  Isaac cut his beef into minuscule pieces, but he didn’t take a bite. Instead, with fork and knife in hand, he turned to Anna. “My contact at the Independent Weekly keeps asking for another column.”

  Hannah hushed him. “This isn’t the time, Isaac.”

  He waved his fork at both of them. “Why not? She’ll have plenty of time to write.”

  Anna caught the look that Hannah shot him, a look that would silence most men. Either Isaac didn’t see his wife or he was ignoring her. Instead he spoke directly to Anna. “And you have plenty to write about.”

  “Daniel is going to get her out of jail today,” Hannah insisted—but Anna knew it wasn’t likely. She was the first person in Indiana to test the new Fugitive Slave Act laws. The court would probably make an example out of her. She would have a few months’ time to write, and truth be told, she was ready to tell her story.

  “I’ll need paper...and a pen.”

  Isaac grinned. “I have both for you.”

  “If we must talk about this,” Hannah said, “I think you should stop writing for the abolitionist papers and start writing for a magazine like... something like Godey’s Lady’s Book.”

  Anna’s mouth hung open, and so did Isaac’s. Isaac was the one who spoke first, but his voice was garbled. “Hannah!”

  Now his wife was the one smiling. “Why not?”

  “Because...,” Isaac sputtered. “Because it’s a worldly paper.”

  “Aye, that it is. A worldly magazine influencing thousands of women who wouldn’t touch a paper like the Independent.”

  Isaac’s fork clunked on his plate. “She couldn’t...”

  Hannah didn’t stop. “You could tell a story, Anna, about a fashionable woman who defies the law.”

  “I don’t know anything about fashion.”

  “Oh, that’s the easy part—Esther Cooley or someone else could help you with that.”

  The idea started to grow. She could write the stories of different men and women who stayed at a station. She could talk about their dreams and their fears and perhaps she could even inspire a few of the readers to work on overturning the Fugitive Slave Act.

  “Perhaps under a pseudonym,” she said. Hannah clasped her hands together. “It would be perfect.”

  Isaac stood up, and his chair grated across the floor when he shoved it under the table. “No, it’s not!”

  Hannah ignored him as he marched out of the room. “Just think of all the women who would read it.”

  The doorbell clanged behind them, and Hannah rose quickly to answer it.

  Anna rubbed her hands together. She was ready to start telling stories again.

  “You have a visitor,” Hannah said when she returned, and then she slipped out of the room.

  Esther Cooley pulled out a chair, pushing down her skirts as she sat. Her gown was a deep red color, and she wore a small red hat with white feathers. Her face shone as she held out her baby, and Anna took Peter... Ben...in her arms.

  He wore a long red gown that matched his mother’s outfit. Draped over the gown was a blue-and-yellow blanket made at her father’s mill, embroidered with his name and birth date lest there be any questions as to exactly when Joseph Benjamin Cooley II was born.

  “He looks handsome.”

  “He’s a good baby, Anna. Hardly ever cries at all.”

  “Is Greta helping you care for him?”

  Esther shook her head. “Greta is no longer with us.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Weeks ago we got a letter from her. She and her husband went to Canada.”

  “Canada?”

  Esther swept her hands over her skirt. “Greta got stopped by a slave hunter in Liberty last month. I think it frightened her.”

  “It would frighten me, too,” Anna replied. “When exactly did she leave?”

  Esther pinched her eyes shut for a moment and then reopened them. “The morning Ben was born.”

  Anna blinked. The morning that Charlotte and her friends had headed north.

  Esther scooted her chair closer to Anna. “Do you remember when I saw you at Trumble’s that first time? You were buying an outfit for a baby.”

  Anna held out her finger to Ben, and he clutched it. “I remember.”

  “You purchased a plum-colored gown for your friend’s child.”

  She nodded very slowly, remembering the gown. And then she remembered that it was the same one Peter had worn when they brought him to Esther.

  Esther wrapped her fingers around the edge of her chair. “Where did you find him, Anna?”

  Her mouth felt dry, and she reached for a glass of water. “You don’t want to know.”

  “Ben couldn’t be more my child if I’d birthed him myself.” Esther took him back into her arms. “Nothing is going to make me change my mind about him.”

  Anna felt her own face flush. “It would change your mind.”

  “I saw the handbills, Anna. The ones saying that there’s a reward for the light-skinned baby of a slave named Marie. I need to know if someone has put a price on my son’s head.”

  Anna stood and walked to the window. Two horses grazed in Isaac and Hannah’s yard, and at the far end of their property, she could see the town of Liberty. For a moment she almost wished for the privacy of her prison cell so she wouldn’t have to tell Esther Cooley that her baby had been born a slave.

  She clasped her hands together. “I found him in a smokehouse.”

  “A smokehouse?”

  She turned and faced
Esther. “His mother hid him there before she died.”

  “Why would she—”

  “Ben’s mother was a mulatto slave, and his father was her master.”

  “Noah Owens,” Esther said.

  Anna nodded. “He has been posting the bills.”

  Esther sounded scared. “He wants his son back.”

  “No,” Anna lashed out, “he doesn’t want him. He wants to punish Marie and perhaps send a signal to his other slaves about what would happen if they tried to run. Or he might even sell off the child in Kentucky. White slave children make a good profit.”

  “I didn’t know.” Tears wet Esther’s eyelashes and dripped down her cheeks. “His mother was the girl they found....”

  Anna wished again that she didn’t know the truth. “We believe Noah Owens killed her.”

  Esther tugged Ben even closer to her. “My poor baby.”

  Anna knew at that moment that Esther would never tell Ben’s secret.

  “When you testify today...,” Esther began, fidgeting with the bow on Ben’s gown.

  Anna reached for her cloak from the back of the seat. She had to start walking toward the courthouse.

  “They’ll offer you a deal to get out of prison.”

  “Daniel told me.”

  Esther’s tears flowed again. “Please don’t tell them about Ben.”

  Anna reached for her and squeezed both her and Ben in a hug. “I won’t give him away, Esther. Not to the courts or to anyone else.”

  Esther wiped the tears off her cheeks. “Even to Joseph.”

  Anna looked at her friend. “You haven’t told him what you thought?”

  “Joseph is a good man, Anna, but he’s a good man who supports the rights of slave owners to keep their property.”

  “Surely he would keep this a secret.”

  “I think he would, but...”

  “But what?”

  “He’s been eyeing a piece of land north of town for a year now,” she said. “They’re asking seven hundred and fifty for it.”

  “I’m sure...”

  Esther reached again for her arm, insisting that she hear her. “And I don’t think he’d claim a slave child as his own.”

  Anna knew with certainty that he would, that he already had, but that wasn’t her secret to tell.

  She tied her cape over her chest. “Not a word to Joseph either.”

  “Thank you, Anna.” Esther paused to wipe her tears on her lacy handkerchief. “For finding Ben...and for giving me a son.”

  Chapter Thirty-nine

  Inside the Liberty courthouse, Daniel told Judge Arnold Harper about Anna’s love for people, both colored and white. He told the judge that her Christian charity wouldn’t allow her to look the other way when she saw someone hurting, and he explained how most of the people she helped had been abused by their masters down South.

  He described how the man and woman Anna had helped along the trail two nights ago weren’t even really slaves. They had been hired by Simon Mathers out of spite...and to lead him to the place where he thought Anna was hiding a slave baby.

  She hadn’t taken them to this supposed secret place. Nor had they found the baby. Simon and Matthew and the others had tried to trap her, but none of them had yet to find any evidence that she had been harboring fugitive slaves.

  Daniel talked for over an hour, presenting the judge with every argument he could render to keep Anna out of jail. The judge listened to him, and then he pounded his gavel, sentencing Anna with a five-hundred-dollar fine and sixty days in jail.

  Arnold Harper offered to bargain with Anna, dissolving her sentence if she revealed who usually brought the fugitive slaves to her and where she took them after she left the graveyard. When she refused, the judge didn’t push her to testify on the stand.

  For that, Daniel was thankful.

  Isaac and Hannah were among the one hundred people crammed inside the courtroom that morning. Rachel and Luke were there along with Charity Penner and the Nelson family. Milton Kent was in the front row, and Joseph and Esther were in the back.

  After Anna changed into a plain dress, Daniel led a crowd of supporters across the lawn to Anna’s jail cell. Randolph Zabel, obviously enjoying his role as chief lawman in Liberty, snapped the handcuffs back on Anna before they left the courtroom. Daniel insisted that the sheriff remove the cuffs, but Anna whispered that it was all right. He backed off and let the crowd see how Randolph was treating her.

  When the sheriff opened the door to her cell, Anna smiled at the crowd behind her. They called out their support for her as the sheriff unlocked her cuffs, and with a brief wave, she walked through the door.

  Edwin stepped into the cell behind her and Daniel started to follow, but Randolph stopped him before he could enter the cell. “Anna’s the one serving time. Not you or her father.”

  Daniel met the man’s stare. “There’s no law against visiting her.”

  “This isn’t a social hour,” the sheriff barked. “She’s in jail.”

  “For doing the right thing!”

  The sheriff glared at the crowd. “Neither my deputy nor I can sit out here all day long, escorting visitors in and out of this cell.” He took his watch out of his pocket and glanced at it. “I’ll give you and Edwin—and whoever else wants to visit—thirty minutes, starting at eight each morning. Then I’m locking the door.”

  It wasn’t much time, but Daniel didn’t argue. Visiting hours in Liberty were at the sheriff’s discretion.

  When he walked inside the cell, Anna looked up.

  “I’m sorry,” he said, afraid that she would be upset at him because he’d let her down.

  Instead she held up a letter. “It’s from Charlotte.”

  She ripped open the envelope and scanned the writing. Then she looked up and smiled. “She made it to Canada two weeks ago. She’s already found a room and a housekeeping job.”

  Only Anna could find happiness in a jail cell through the joy of another.

  “She doesn’t have to worry now,” Anna said, and her words seemed to hover over them. She glanced at the locked door and blinked, as if she had just realized that she was back in jail.

  Daniel shoved his hands into his pockets and looked at Edwin. “Will you be able to pay the fine?”

  “I will.”

  He turned to Anna. “I didn’t want you to have any jail time.”

  “It could have been six months, Daniel. I can survive for sixty days.”

  “Still...”

  “And I didn’t have to testify.” She flashed him a smile. “Thank you.”

  Edwin set a knapsack filled with Anna’s things on the floor and shook his hand. “Will you stay with her today?”

  “The sheriff has given us a half hour.”

  “She needs someone to watch over her.”

  “I’ll do my best.”

  Then Edwin kissed his daughter’s cheek and walked out the door.

  Daniel glanced down at the dirt floor and then looked back at Anna. She was beautiful. Not just with her dress, but from the glow of peace and strength that radiated from her. It was as if the Spirit bubbled out of her, shining light in the darkest of places.

  He wanted to take her in his arms and kiss her—if she would have him. But he didn’t want the memory of their first kiss to be in a jail cell.

  He sat down on a blanket beside her. “You don’t deserve to be in here, Anna.”

  “Nor does anyone deserve to be trapped in slavery.”

  “You are an incredible woman, Anna Brent.”

  Silence settled over them before Anna spoke again, her voice quiet. “Daniel?”

  He inched closer to her. “Yes?”

  “I heard a rumor.”

  His mind raced for a moment, wondering what she had heard. Had he said something wrong? Done something? “Rumors can be nasty things.”

  “This one was about you and—”

  The door swung open. “Time’s up,” the sheriff said.

  “And who?�
� he probed, but she shook her head as Randolph stomped across the floor. He clamped a chain around Anna’s leg and locked it.

  “She doesn’t need a chain!” Daniel insisted.

  “She does in my jail.”

  “It doesn’t matter about the chain,” she told Daniel. “I’m not going anywhere.”

  “What will you do today?”

  She opened the knapsack and pulled out a pen and a small box of paper. “Write!” she said with a smile.

  Anna had thought imprisonment would suck the life out of her, but she had been wrong. She passed her first hours by writing a long letter to Charlotte. Then she passed the days writing articles for both Isaac and Hannah, and she even helped Daniel edit his work. Every morning her father visited—bringing her Charlotte’s return letters and baskets filled with new paper and food and clean clothing.

  Rachel Barnes came three or four times a week as well as Esther and little Ben. Ruth even stopped by occasionally with fresh bread or cookies.

  She was grateful for every person who came to see her, but she wished for a few minutes alone with one man. The man who was waiting outside at eight o’clock every morning for the sheriff to unlock the door.

  Even though the cell always seemed crowded, she savored every minute she spent with him. And she waited for the morning when no one except Daniel would come, but as the weeks slowly passed, she never saw him alone.

  Matthew Nelson never came to see her, nor did she see him passing by along the street. She asked once about Simon, and Esther told her that he was still in town, determined to make his eight hundred dollars before he left the area. Esther didn’t say it, but Anna wondered if he was waiting until she got out of jail. Did he think she would lead him to the baby? Or was he planning to try to force her to talk?

  Instead of withering in jail like she had imagined, she thrived in the quiet. Daniel had brought her a Bible and she read the entire book, though every day she reread Colossians—the book Paul had written while he was in prison. Late into the night, when the wind howled outside her door, she did what Paul and Silas had done when they were locked in a cell. She belted out the few songs she knew, certain God would approve while she was in jail.