Where was Will? What if the horse knocked him down? Her heart pounded in her ears. But even if he was in need of help, she had to take care of the child first. She chased after Willeena, who was on the porch, trying to turn the doorknob.
“Willeena.” Ruth kept her voice soft to keep from startling the child. “What are you doing?”
When Willeena looked around, tears streaked her cheeks. “Gotta get Maysie.”
Of course, the doll she’d been crying for at church. “Did you tell your father you were coming to the house?”
She shook her head, and in the wavering light from the fire, Ruth could see her bottom lip trembling. “Don’t want Maysie to burn up.”
Ruth kept her eyes on Willeena, even as the crackling sound of the fire sounded closer. Too close. Still, how long could it take to get the child’s doll? Will would understand, and Willeena would be inconsolable if she lost her doll to the fire. Ruth opened the door and they slipped inside. The fire wasn’t close enough to light up the dark room. Thank goodness. But that made it hard to see. She needed a candle or a lamp.
Willeena stopped just inside the door and sniffled. “Don’t like dark. It might swallow me.”
“No, sweetie. I’m right here with you.” Ruth reached for Willeena’s hand. “In a minute you’ll be able to see better and then you can find your doll. Do you remember where you left it?”
“Uh-uh.” The little girl sounded near tears again.
“Shh. Don’t cry. You’ll find her quicker if you don’t cry.”
Willeena sniffled but didn’t let out any wails.
Ruth squeezed her hand. “Come on. Let’s look in the kitchen first.”
Surely she could find a taper in there she could light from a live coal in the fireplace where Will had cooked supper. But the ashes were cold. So even if she found a candle, she would have no way to light it. She ran her hand over the surface of the table. A bowl. The loaf of bread she’d given Will earlier. No doll. She checked the seat of each chair and peered under the table. She couldn’t see any shapes that might be Willeena’s doll.
Smoke was drifting into the house through the open windows. Ruth stopped still. She thought she heard something, but it must have only been the wind. Wind that was relentlessly pushing the fire toward them.
Ruth kept a tight hold on Willeena’s hand and went back into the sitting room where she could make out the shapes of a desk and chair. A daybed in the corner. A narrow settee and a table. The doll could be anywhere. She touched a Bible on the desk and picked it up. Perhaps it belonged to Will’s wife, a treasure like her Peter’s Bible.
When the child sniffled again, Ruth kept her voice cheerful. “Maybe we need to call Maysie so she’ll know we’re looking for her. Then when she answers, we’ll find her. Maysie, where are you?” Ruth shook Willeena’s hand a little. “Come on. You have to help.”
The little girl’s whimpers turned into a giggle. “Maysie, stop hiding from me!”
“Does she do that? Hide from you,” Ruth asked.
“Sometimes. We play hide. Together.”
“Where do you hide?”
“Under Mama Hazie’s quilt.”
“Well then, let’s look there. Maybe she decided to hide without you.”
Again the giggle, but this time it ended in a cough. The smoke was getting thicker. A spark must have landed on the roof. If they didn’t find the doll in the next few minutes, she’d have to pick Willeena up and take her outside. She yanked the quilt off the little bed and Willeena gave a happy squeal and grabbed her doll.
Ruth felt light-headed. Not enough air. They had to get outside. She draped the quilt over her head and dropped down on her knees beside Willeena. The smoke wasn’t as thick low to the floor. She tucked the Bible in her skirt waistband. “Let’s play like we’re dogs and crawl to the door.”
Willeena grabbed hold of her doll’s dress with her mouth and took off on her hands and knees. Ruth yanked her skirt out of the way and crawled along beside her. And then Will was there, somehow picking them both up.
He carried them away from the house before he put Ruth down. Her legs felt so shaky she sank to the ground. Still holding Willeena, Will dropped down beside her and reached to pull Ruth close, while behind them, flames spread across the house’s roof.
“Are you all right?” Will asked.
“I will be.” Ruth managed to get out the words between coughs. She already felt all right with Will’s arms around her and Willeena.
Then out of nowhere came a clap of thunder, and rain showered down on them. Ruth lifted her face to the sky and laughed as the drops wet her face. Will tightened his arm around her and laughed too.
Up on the hill, the church stood untouched. Mr. Manderly must have prayed believing.
Thirty-one
The clap of thunder surprised Adria. In spite of how the moon had dipped in and out of clouds, she hadn’t given the first thought to storms. Now the thunder gave them fair warning to take shelter. But no time for that. They would have to take their chances with the storm.
Logan gave no notice of the thunder. He had lost his easy manner and sat straight and stiff on the wagon seat. Adria felt every bit as tense beside him. She wondered if they were both ready to leap off the wagon and make a run for it at the first sign of trouble. But the woods beside the road didn’t look very inviting, especially with dark storm clouds rolling in to hide the moon.
The only person they’d met so far was a farmer driving his cows home along the road. He gave them a curious look, but Logan grinned and switched the reins to one hand so he could wrap his free arm around Adria. When he pulled her close, the farmer chuckled and saluted them with his walking stick.
Adria waited until they were well out of sight before she scooted away from him.
“Did you recognize him?” Logan asked.
“No.”
“Good. It’ll be better if nobody knows we traveled this road. Our passenger isn’t the only one who needs to disappear without a trace.”
After that, neither of them had anything to say, and the only sound was a muffled gasp from Twila now and then when they hit a bump in the road. Adria’s ears tuned in to every snap of a twig or whisper of brush along the road that might mean someone was waiting to ambush them. She was almost as jumpy about the man sitting beside her. She had no idea what he might do. She tried to reassure herself with what he’d told Twila about never stooping to selling people, but at the same time, he obviously didn’t have a very sure relationship with the truth. As Ruth had warned.
Ruth would worry about her, but Adria was still glad she hadn’t left a note. Ruth was better off knowing nothing about any of this. The only one back in Springfield who could implicate Adria was Bet. Adria wasn’t worried about her. Only about the man beside her. And the rain that suddenly came down in sheets.
The horse whinnied and balked, but after Logan snapped the reins, it trudged on through the rain.
“You could crawl under the blanket with the girl.” Logan looked around with water dripping off his hat.
“No need. I’m already soaked.” Adria pushed her wet hair back. She hadn’t grabbed a hat when she left the house since she had planned to get a man’s hat at the store for her disguise. But the Lord had opened up a different way. She prayed it turned out a better way. “We need the rain.”
Logan laughed then. “You are one interesting girl, Adria Starr. Shame you have to be such a stickler for the law.” After a few seconds, he went on. “Well, some of the laws, anyway, right?”
She chose not to respond to that. Instead she said, “Are we about there?”
“Hard to say when I don’t know where there is.” He kept his face forward. “The question is, do you know where there is?”
Adria shut her eyes and pulled up a mental picture of the map. But all the roads were unfamiliar to her. She’d never been farther than Carlton’s family farm outside of Springfield. Now here she was, lost with a thief, ferrying a slave to hopeful freedom in
the middle of a storm.
She repeated the names written on the lines of the map that indicated roads and then asked, “Are we where we should be?”
“Not where we should be, but where we are.”
Adria’s heart sank. “So we’re lost.”
“Don’t sound so low. I didn’t say we weren’t headed where you say we need to go, but that sure isn’t where we should be. The two of us are playing with fire.”
“You’ve already done that today.”
“I told you that was an accident. An opportune one to be sure, but I didn’t set out to burn down the town. I liked your little town and the people in it.” He gave her another look. “Especially one of them. You know I could just keep driving this wagon and not take you back. Once you got used to the idea, you might be excited about heading west. With me.” He put his hand on her leg. “I’d get you a rain slicker first thing.”
She had the craziest urge to laugh and wondered if she was easing toward hysteria. She pulled herself together and pushed his hand away. “I wouldn’t go across the river with you, even in the sunshine.”
He laughed and flicked the reins to keep his reluctant horse moving. “You know if this little escapade of yours ever does get any light shined on it, you’ll have the dickens to pay.”
“I’ll worry about my reputation after we get Twila to safety.”
“Sounds fair. I’ll wait till then to figure out if I’m going to hog-tie you and take you with me. The long trip across the country to California would be more fun with a girl along.”
“I’m sure you can find a willing girl in your next town.”
“Maybe I could.” Again he laughed a little. “Looks like the rain is easing up, and if I’ve got things figured right, we should be seeing some houses along the road. So best we slide along like a shadow. Quiet like. No need inviting folks to wonder.”
It was even scarier riding past farmhouses than it had been through the woods. Some showed a light in the window. Others were dark and little more than bulky shadows in the black of the stormy night. Her throat tightened as she feared they might ride past the right house without seeing the porch with stone posts and five chairs. Then, as if the Lord heard her worry, the moon slid out from behind a cloud and bathed light down on a small white house with those very porch posts and the five chairs. No chair was turned upside down.
“That must be it,” Adria whispered.
Logan didn’t pull in the reins to slow the horse. “Best go on up the road a ways. No need drawing suspicion to them with a strange wagon in front of their house.”
The horse kept up a steady pace past another house. “In fact, it might be best if we don’t stop at all,” Logan said. “I’ll slow down in the next bit of road with no houses and plenty of shadows. The girl can slide out and walk back to the house.”
Twila began crawling out from under the seat.
“But what if it’s not the right house?” Adria asked.
“Better pray it is.”
“Pray believing,” Adria murmured more to herself than Logan.
“I’s afraid, Miss Adria,” Twila whispered.
“You’d be crazy not to be,” Logan said. “But there’s no going back, girl. Not now.”
“What if I go to the wrong place?” Twila’s voice was shaking. “I was hid down under that blanket and didn’t see the house.”
“Look, girl, I risked plenty getting you here.” Logan sounded angry. “You’re going to get out of this wagon and go.”
“I’ll walk back with you,” Adria said. “I saw the house.”
“Didn’t you hear me?” Logan shook his head. “I just told you it would be better if we didn’t stop.”
“Then don’t stop.” Adria looked straight ahead. “You’ll have to turn the wagon around to go back to Springfield. You can pick me up then. Without stopping.”
“I guess I could, but I was thinking on taking a different road.”
“Is there a different road?” Adria asked.
“There’s always a different road.” He pulled back on the reins to stop the horse. “This looks a likely spot. Nobody around. Tell you what. I’ll pretend my horse has a rock in his hoof. So be quick about it.”
He jumped down from the wagon and reached up to help them down, but Twila had already slid over the far side of the wagon and crouched in the shadow of the wagon out of sight. Adria’s wet skirts clung to her legs and hindered her easy movement out of the wagon. She practically fell into Logan’s outstretched arms.
He held her a little tighter and longer than necessary after her feet were on the ground. His eyes glittered in the dim light as he stared down into her face. “You’re one entrancing girl, Adria Starr. That California offer is still good.”
“I’ve never dreamed of California.”
“Maybe that’s because you are afraid to dream.”
“I’m not afraid.”
“Then why is your heart beating so hard?” Logan’s lips turned up in a smile. “If you’re not afraid, it must be because I’m holding you. To be honest, my heart is hammering a little faster too.”
“I thought you wanted us to be quick about it.” She wasn’t about to admit that being so close to him was awakening feelings better not felt.
“So I did.” With a little laugh, he turned her loose. “Go quiet and don’t let anybody see you. Either of you.” He glanced over toward where Twila still hid. “Good luck, girl.”
Adria took Twila’s hand and they started back down the road the way they’d come, slipping from shadow to shadow. The trees along the road showered raindrops down on them, but they didn’t dare walk out in the open. Neither of them spoke, but Twila’s breath came fast and hard.
It was farther than Adria thought. So far that she began to wonder if somehow she’d taken a wrong turn or missed the house. Clouds overtook the moon again and darkened the night. That was good to keep them from being seen, but not if they couldn’t find the house. Then it was there in front of them with only one stretch of open ground between them and the door promising Twila the chance for freedom.
They stopped in a line of trees and studied the house.
“Are you sure this is it?” Twila’s whisper was barely loud enough for Adria to hear.
“It’s what the map said and Bet said the map was right. Said she knew.”
“Maybe I should just go back.” Her words sounded shaky. “Leastways I’d know what might happen there.”
“No.” Adria kept her voice firm. “This is your chance, Twila. Others have gone this way and made it. You have to go on. For you and for Bet.” She squeezed Twila’s hand. “Be strong and of good courage.”
“That’s in the Good Book, ain’t it?”
“It is. Now run before the moon comes back out.”
“Tell Mam I love her.” Then without another word, Twila stepped out of the trees and slipped across the open area and up to the house like the shadow of a bird. Adria held her breath as the girl climbed the porch steps and tapped on the door. The door opened. Two seconds later, Twila was inside with the door closed, and the night settled back undisturbed over the porch.
“Be with her, Lord.” Adria whispered the words. “Help her across that river Aunt Tilda talked about. The freedom river.”
Somehow it helped Adria to not be so afraid when she imagined Aunt Tilda smiling down on her. She had done the right thing. Even if she got caught and had to pay the price for breaking the law. She pushed that thought away. It could be she might get back to Springfield with nobody the wiser except for Logan Farrell, who would be long gone to California.
She hurried along the road toward where Logan waited. The sooner she got home the better. But when she reached the place where Logan had stopped, the wagon was gone. She shut her eyes and opened them, but that didn’t change the yawning emptiness of the road.
Maybe she was wrong about the place, but no, she remembered that stump beside the road. She stared at it while tears stung her eyes. Would he have waited
if she’d told him she’d go to California? She almost laughed. What a silly thing to wonder. The man was a thief. Out for no one but himself. That she had been able to convince him to smuggle Twila to the beginning of a freedom trail was amazing. It had taken threats, but he hadn’t betrayed them. At least not until now.
What she should be wondering was how to get back to Springfield before Ruth raised the alarm about her being missing. Perhaps the havoc of the fire might keep that from happening for a little while. In fact, it might be suspected she was lost in the fire. Adria trembled at the thought.
She wasn’t dead. She wasn’t running from slave catchers to find freedom. And she had two good feet. Adria brushed away her tears. No need to panic. She could simply walk back to Springfield. It would take hours, but the way was clear. The rain had stopped, at least for the moment. She would pray the fires had been put out and her house wasn’t a blackened shell. She would pray no one had been hurt in those fires. She would pray to stay unseen along the road, but just in case she did meet someone, she needed a story.
The truth was best or at least a fragment of truth. She could say she was running away to California with Logan Farrell before she came to her senses and jumped out of his wagon to find her way home. No one ever had to know the whole truth. Not even Ruth.
She eased past the houses. The one where Twila had been pulled inside looked just the same as the others. Dark and quiet. Adria was relieved when trees again took the place of the houses alongside the road.
She had no idea how much time had passed. The clouds were so thick overhead she could barely make out the road, but she kept moving even when more rain dashed down on her. With a crash of wings, an owl swooped out of a tree in front of her. She shrieked, then clamped her lips shut while holding her breath to listen for signs someone might have heard her. Nothing but a rumble of distant thunder, the dripping trees, and a few night insects not bothered by the rain.
“I am not afraid of the dark.” She whispered the words with a bit of defiance as her heart began to slow its racing. True words. She wasn’t afraid of the dark. She was afraid of what might be in the dark.
River to Redemption Page 26