“I’ll get it back to you!” I said gratefully, while Joe scooped up the goat and left at a trot.
“Look! There is the carriage!” I said in a loud whisper, pointing to where it stood in the shadow of the barn. “You take the goat to the carriage. I’ll get Kitty,” I said, and sprinted ahead.
I might have rushed in, but there was light from a lantern back in the feed room, and I doubted Robert would have brought it. I heard a threatening voice and dropped down to edge my way forward.
“I’m askin’ you one more time, where’s James Pyke at?”
A cold chill covered my body. I could not mistake Rankin’s voice.
“I do not know a James Pyke,” said Robert.
Where was Kitty? I moved closer but stopped when a floorboard creaked.
“You don’t know him? Somebody at Southwood say you was down there looking for him.”
“I’ve come to the Carolinas to take a young lady back to Philadelphia to attend her school,” Robert said, his voice high and afraid.
I inched forward again.
“No white girl’s gonna travel with no nigra!”
“She has her maid in attendance, sir.”
“?‘Sir’! ‘Attendance’! Listen to this nigra talk like he think he somethin’!”
Kitty gave a sudden cry.
“What’s that you got back behind you?” Rankin asked in surprise. “Give it here!”
“No!” Robert argued.
I crept forward, unsheathing the knife and gripping tight the bone handle. Kitty cried out again.
“It’s just a nigra baby! She yours?” the man asked.
“Don’t hold her like that! Give her back to me!” Robert exclaimed as Kitty screamed.
“I’ll snap her neck like a chicken, you don’t tell me where Pyke is.” He dangled Kitty by the arm.
“No!” Robert begged.
I was almost close enough to lunge when I tripped on a floorboard. Rankin swung around and dropped Kitty with a thunk. She shrieked, but with his pistol pointed at me, I dared not reach for her. “Well, now, Jamie Pyke!” he said. “I’ve been waiting on you! Can’t see much a your nigga mama in you, but you sure do look jus’ like your daddy.”
I froze. The man’s hair was white now, but he was as ugly as I remembered. I spat out the words: “I have no father!”
“Oh, you got a daddy, all right.” He laughed. “I was there holding your mama down for him when Marshall got on her. You shoulda heard her screamin’. Nothin’ like a nigra woman who puts up a good fight!”
His gun was leveled at my chest. Powerless, I felt like a small child again. “Why would you do that to her?” I asked. “Why would you do that?”
“That nigra Belle always did think too high on herself, not wanting somebody like me!” he said, sneering. “Even said no to your daddy when he got on her, and he was the masta!”
“She had a right to say no!” I shouted.
“She was a nigra!” he growled. “And then she had you. Thought her yella baby was somethin’ special, so I fixed her good! Took you away! Oh, the hootin’ and hollerin’ that woman did when I got hold a you.”
I dared not look Robert’s way as he eased a pitchfork from the wall. Though Kitty screamed, I knew I had to keep Rankin’s focus on me.
“So you took me?” I asked. “It was you who took me away from her?”
“Boy oh boy, you sure did make a fuss leavin’ that mammy a yours.” He laughed. “You two sure did raise a stink!”
Robert grunted as he thrust the sharp tines of the pitchfork into Rankin’s back. The gun flew, and Rankin yowled, twisting in pain. As he turned back for Robert, I used the knife to end Rankin’s life.
Robert scooped Kitty up from the floor, then swayed and sank onto a sack of grain, but my strength grew to that of two men. I slung bags of feed aside and pushed Rankin’s body into the soiled hiding spot that I knew well, then quickly stuffed it up again before I rushed us out to the waiting carriage.
The carriage door was flung open and we were not yet seated when the horses pulled out. Robert pushed past the frantic goat and dropped onto a seat, while I, clinging to Kitty, was saved from being thrown forward when someone clutched my jacket and pulled me back. “I got you, Mr. Burton,” Pan said, and I felt a swell of relief to know he was safe as I sank down beside him. The goat bleated, Kitty wailed, and our carriage raced ahead.
“Are you all right?” I asked Pan.
“I was scared for you and Kitty,” he said.
“We’re safe now,” I said in an effort to comfort him.
“And thank heavens for that! What a relief to find you safe!”
I looked about in surprise. “Adelaide Spencer!” I said, recognizing her voice even in the dark. “Is that you?”
Before she had time to reply, another woman across from me reached out her arms. Her dark face looked out from under her traveling bonnet. “Mr. Burton, give me the chil’.” It was Hester!
“Be careful with her,” I said, my arms suddenly feeling lifeless as I handed her over. “I don’t think she’s been hurt, but she’s been badly frightened.”
The carriage swayed and creaked, and the dark swamp flew by. The goat fought for footing and bleated mercilessly until she finally dropped onto the floor amid the feet and baggage. “Where are we?” I asked.
“By now we should be safely in Virginia,” Robert said, “but we will keep the pace for a good number of miles.”
“We picked you up at that hotel because it was at the border,” Addy broke in.
“Should a crime be committed by you in North Carolina, you cannot be arrested for it in Virginia,” Robert said pointedly. “Patrollers from North Carolina have no say in Virginia.”
“And where are we headed?” I asked.
“We’re on our way to a tavern just past Suffolk, where we will rest and change out our horses. From there we will travel to a ferry that will take us across the James to Williamsburg.”
“Excellent!” I said, and sat back, trying to take in this turn of events. Was it possible that we had made it to safety?
“Shhh, shhh,” Hester crooned to Kitty. We all grew silent, soothed by her voice and the repetitious grinding and clanking of the carriage wheels. After the baby quieted, Hester spoke low. “Mr. Burton?”
“Yes, Hester?”
“Where Sukey?”
Pan, wedged next to me, stiffened.
“Hester, she’s gone,” I said.
Hester turned and looked out into the night.
“But you are holding her daughter,” I offered.
“We go back a long way,” Hester said.
“She was a brave woman, Hester. She saved our lives.”
“She help a lot of others, too, but all she ever want is for her babies to go free.”
“Kitty will be raised free. I will see to it that she has every opportunity,” I promised.
“Who gon’ care for her?” Hester asked.
“I will see to it,” I repeated. I leaned my head back and closed my eyes, meaning to quiet Hester. I needed some time to think. Now that I had reached safety, new worries began to bombard me. What awaited me in Williamsburg? And where was I to go from there? Without a home, I could provide nothing for Kitty and Pan, never mind my daughter. Images of my home in Philadelphia kept coming to me, and I felt sick with longing.
When Hester placed a sleeping Kitty in her basket, then settled herself for a rest, Pan did the same. Addy surprisingly took to the idea of sleep, bundling her green shawl to use as a pillow. Silence descended as we traveled on.
Only Robert and I remained awake. He stared out the dark window, and though I wanted to converse with him, I found myself at a loss for words. I was trying to formulate a plan for my future, and I wanted to make the right decisions for all concerned—not only the children but Robert as well. I had no home to offer Robert, and especially after the trauma of the last few months, I felt that the kindest thing I could do for this good man was to give him a substantial stipend and relieve him of his service to me. But right now I could not face that.
I leaned forward. “Robert,” I said softly.
“Sir?”
“Thank you. I don’t know that I would have survived today without you. I’m sorry for the position I put you in.”
“We both knew the danger, and we need never speak of it again.”