Ella Wood Novellas: Boxed Set Page 6

  Soon they were settled in an open carriage with blankets draped over them. Julia tucked the corners in well and settled beside them. She smiled reassuringly. “Y’all safe, but it be best if we do our talkin’ at home.”

  At her words, Lizzie to cast a last cautious glance around the busy train yard, but she was too cold and too weary to do more.

  The men soon followed with the trunk and a wriggling, joyful puppy. Daisy barked with excitement as Ketch handed her up to Robin. “Hol’ on to her now,” he cautioned. The carriage rocked as Ketch hoisted himself inside. Then Malachi flicked the reins over the backs of the mismatched team. A few minutes’ ride over rough, frozen roads brought them to a two-story building with a sign in the front yard that read “River Street Inn.”

  Malachi drove them around back. Ketch stayed outside in the walled backyard to let boy and puppy burn off some energy while Julia escorted Lizzie through a door that led directly into a cozy kitchen. The warm smell of food set Lizzie’s stomach to rumbling.

  Julia immediately busied herself at the cookstove. “You can hang yo’ wraps on de hooks an’ I’ll get you somethin’ hot to drink. Malachi will deliver yo’ trunk to yo’ room.”

  Lizzie removed her coat and unwrapped Larkin, then seated herself at a large, battered table. Julia set a cup and teapot before her. “You hungry? I got soup simmerin’.”

  It had been ages since Lizzie had eaten a hot meal. “Yes, please.”

  Ketch and Robin came in a few minutes later. “Miss Daisy be comfortably placed in a large box stall,” Ketch told Lizzie, “where Robin can visit any time he like.”

  Robin grinned. “She likes it better’n de crate.”

  “I’m sure she does.” Lizzie laughed.

  They sat down beside her. Ketch inhaled appreciatively as Julia handed him an empty teacup and set a glass of warm milk in front of Robin. “It smells like heaven in here.”

  “You’ll get accustomed to that,” came a new voice. A tall man with curls fingered haphazardly back from his forehead entered through a swinging door. “Julia’s the best cook in the city. You’ll gain ten pounds before you leave, I guarantee it.” He smiled and shook Ketch’s hand. “Hi, I’m Isaac Milford.”

  Lizzie looked him over curiously. So this was the uncle Emily spoke of so often. “I’ve heard a great deal about you, sir,” she said.

  “All good I hope?”

  “Most of it.”

  Isaac laughed. “My niece and I parted on amiable terms, but I’m afraid we didn’t start out that way. I’m pleased to have you in my house.” He rubbed the little boy on the head. “So, you must be Robin, and you’re Ketch and Lizzie. Do you have false names you’ve been using?”

  “Yes, sir,” Ketch replied. “Elsbeth and Cash Lewis. Got de papers here if you’d like to see ’em.”

  “That won’t be necessary. But you’d be wise to continue using them while you’re here. I’d hate for anything to happen this close to Canada.”

  Julia set three steaming bowls of chicken vegetable soup in front of them, along with a loaf of white bread. “Eat up,” Isaac said. “Then I’ll show you to your rooms. My wife is currently resting. She’s quite pregnant with our second child. You’ll meet her tonight. We eat lunch here in the kitchen, but for dinner we join our guests in the dining room. You’ll be expected to eat with us. It will be far less conspicuous than hiding you away.”

  The soup was delicious. After two helpings, Lizzie began to grow drowsy.

  Isaac led them through the swinging door and into a large room partially divided by a staircase that led to the upper story. Six round tables filled the area nearest the kitchen. The front half of the room contained a fireplace, a sofa, and several comfortable chairs. The entryway was dominated by a large desk. Isaac walked them behind it and through another door.

  “These are my family’s private quarters. It’s small, but the guests won’t bother you here.” He opened the first door. It comfortably contained a bed and a bureau, though a cradle and a cot had been crammed in as well. The trunk stood outside the door.

  “Dinner’s at five,” Isaac said. “I’ll see you then.”

  When they were alone, Lizzie lay wearily on the bed to nurse the baby. Ketch lay down beside her and threw an arm around her waist. Then the mattress shifted again as Robin nestled behind his father. With a sigh and a smile, Lizzie drifted into the first easy sleep she had enjoyed since leaving Uncle Timothy’s farm.

  ***

  Shannon Milford leaned heavily against the work counter, the exhaustion of pregnancy evident on her face. “Elsbeth, you don’t know how welcome your presence is right now. I kept up with the housekeeping fine when Emily Rose was born, but this second baby is draining the energy right out of me. If we have a third, I’m certain we’ll have to hire help.”

  Julia and Shannon had both insisted that Lizzie rest up from the long, stressful journey—and she had done so gladly. But after just a day and a half, she was drawn into the pulse of the daily routine and pitched in wherever she could. “How much longer till de baby arrive?” Lizzie asked, slicing bread for sandwiches. She set the loaf on the table beside a round of cheese and yesterday’s cold chicken.

  “One more week.” Shannon sighed and picked up the mop pail. “It can’t come soon enough.”

  “Now you put dat bucket away, Shannon,” Julia admonished. “Me and Lizzie can get de floors mopped dis afternoon.”

  “Dat’s right, Miss Shannon,” Lizzie replied. “If you watch Robin an’ Larkin, I’ll gladly mop de floor.”

  “That hardly seems a fair trade,” Shannon protested. “Robin keeps Emily Rose so occupied I’ll hardly have to do a thing.”

  It had taken Robin only half a day to warm up to the Milfords’ two-year-old daughter. Their play differed drastically from the rough-and-tumble freedom he’d enjoyed on the farm, but Lizzie suspected he enjoyed being the one in charge.

  “You gunna stand here an’ argue wid us, Shannon?” Julia pushed her toward the table. “Here, set yo’self down and peel dese potatoes.”

  Shannon laughed. “Yes, ma’am!”

  After lunch, Lizzie and Julia cleaned the three rooms that had been vacated that morning. Lizzie quickly learned that work with Julia could hardly be considered work at all. They changed the sheets on the beds, then Julia swept the floor while Lizzie followed behind with the mop bucket.

  “Miss Emily tol’ me you was once a slave too,” Lizzie prompted. “Where?”

  “Georgia. For twenty-two years. Came north after my husband bought my freedom. He worked six years fo’ it, God bless ’im.”

  “What happened to yo’ husband?”

  Julia bent to catch the dust under the bed. “We bought a farm outside town an’ farmed it fo’ eight years. Had three babies, but Malachi de only one who lived. When Malachi seven years old, my Moses died o’ consumption.” Julia paused to lean on her broom with a soft smile and faraway eyes. “I had me some good years on dat farm. But me an’ Malachi couldn’t run it alone. I sol’ out, moved to town, an’ started workin’ fo’ Mr. Milford. He been our family ever since.”

  “You got no one else?”

  “Dey all sol’ away. ’Cept a brother who run off. Ain’t seen ’im since. An’ you?”

  Lizzie shook her head.

  “Well, Cash an’ dose beautiful babies yo’ family now.” Julia attacked the floor again with a vengeance. “Tell me ’bout Emily. She still de same little spitfire I remember?”

  Lizzie laughed. “She single-minded, if dat’s what you mean. Got her heart set on goin’ to school.” Her brow furrowed as she recalled her friend alone in Charleston. She wished there was some way to communicate with her, to know how she fared. “Emily credits you wid changin’ her thinkin’, you know. You an’ Malachi. I guess Ketch an’ me got you to thank fo’ dat.”

  “I only wish de whole South could come sit in my kitchen fo’ a year.”

  They finished the rooms about the same time Larkin’s fussing became an outright squal
l. Lizzie followed the noise through the dining room, through a pair of French doors, and to the backyard where the two older children played with Daisy. Overnight, the weather had warmed considerably.

  Shannon handed the baby back apologetically. “I think he’s hungry. If you stay out here with Robin and Emily Rose, I’ll help Julia in the kitchen.” And she passed off the blanket she had draped around her shoulders.

  Lizzie found a chair in the sun and Larkin’s cries soon stilled. The yard, she saw, contained a large, symmetrical garden, brown and dead now but probably beautiful in the summer. She leaned back her head and closed her eyes, enjoyed the kiss of the sun, the touch of the wind, and the happy sound of the children. Within a few minutes, Ketch finished whatever task he had assigned himself in the barn, kissed Lizzie on the cheek, and joined the children in their play. He scooped up Emily Rose and chased a whooping Robin in circles while the puppy yipped happily at their heels. Lizzie laughed at their antics.

  When Larkin had finished eating, she left Ketch with the older children and returned to the dining room where Shannon watched the backyard activities through the French doors as she set the tables for dinner. Lunch was usually set up as a buffet, but in the evening, family and guests sat down together. It felt odd at first, sharing a meal with so many strangers, but Lizzie was becoming accustomed to their presence. She’d spoken briefly with Mr. and Mrs. Sanders, an older couple from Toronto in town on business, and met a young family with twin ten-year-old boys. There were also three single men who came and went. None of them even looked twice at Ketch and Lizzie.

  Pushing through to the kitchen, Lizzie tossed the blanket in a corner where she then laid Larkin down on his back. “What can I do to help?” she asked.

  Julia eyed the baby narrowly. “He gunna be sittin’ up soon.”

  “He already tries, but he topples so easy.”

  “Shannon,” Julia called. “Where’s dat big basket you used to put Emily Rose in?”

  “I’ll get it,” came the muffled response.

  A moment later, Larkin was propped upright inside and given a spoon to play with. He squealed happily at the women and pounded the edge of the basket.

  “Mmm-mmm, smells good in here.” Malachi swung through the dining room door. He’d spent most of the day reading through coursework from the Ann Arbor Medical School. Emily had purchased the materials for him after her visit to Detroit two years before, as Negroes weren’t allowed admission. “Studying gives a man an appetite.” He snatched up a spoon and helped himself to a taste from the kettle simmering on the cookstove.

  Julia smacked his hands then handed him a pitcher of milk. “Make yo’self useful and bring dis to de dining room.”

  The guests began arriving downstairs as Lizzie helped lay out the meal. When Isaac called everyone to the table, she set Robin in a seat beside Ketch and dragged Larkin’s basket into the dining room near the table they shared with Malachi and Julia. It was the one nearest the kitchen. Isaac and Shannon always sat a table over and mingled with the guests.

  As they ate, Malachi shared some of the information he had read in his lessons that day. Emily had told Lizzie he was studying to be a doctor, but she still found the idea amazing. Such an ambition would have been unthinkable in Charleston. But even Lizzie could see he was driven and well-suited for the profession.

  Many of the concepts Malachi shared were difficult, but he had a way of breaking them down so Lizzie could see them in her own head. Ketch checked himself out of the conversation, claiming his illiteracy, but when Lizzie mentioned his interest in agriculture, Malachi shifted the conversation around to growing cycles, planting methods, and what cultivars grew best in what conditions.

  “Cash,” Malachi told him, “do you realize you’ve been carrying on a highly academic discussion?”

  “I ain’t no scholar, Malachi,” Ketch said, shaking his head.

  “Crop rotation and cultivar selection? That’s science, Cash. I’ve no doubt you’ll adapt well to a new climate, but I think you’d be well-served to read up on the methods that work best in the region. You’d have no trouble mastering them.”

  “Dey write books on farmin’?” Ketch asked with a hint of interest.

  “I’ll find you a pile of them if you let Lizzie teach you to read.”

  In the pause that accompanied Ketch’s thoughtful consideration, the front door opened and two men entered. “Well, well, well. It looks like we’re just in time for dinner, Collins.”

  Lizzie looked up at the familiar sound of his Southern accent.

  Isaac rose to greet his new guests. “Hello, Jarrod. Are you checking in?”

  “Yes, sir. We just got off the train. I apologize for taking you away from your meal.”

  “Not at all.” Isaac strolled toward the desk, calling over his shoulder, “Julia, will you please fetch two more place settings?”

  Julia obeyed, but not before uttering a quiet harrumph. Lizzie cast a questioning glance at Malachi, but he was examining his fork with an unreadable expression. She felt a sense of caution stirring within her.

  Julia set the plates at Isaac’s table and returned to her seat without comment.

  Malachi resumed the conversation. “Cash, you should consider attending the state fair this summer. It’s a showcase for the latest farming equipment and innovations. I think you’d find it very interesting.”

  As the men talked, Lizzie cut a chicken leg into small pieces for Robin and watched Isaac and the newcomers from the corner of her eye, but they were too far away for her to make out their words. When Isaac escorted them to the table a few minutes later, however, everyone in the room heard one of the Southerners remark, “I vow, Isaac, you’re getting more Negroes in your hotel than many a fine plantation.”

  Lizzie sensed Ketch stiffen beside her. She laid a calming hand on his leg, even though every nerve in her own body jangled as the man’s eyes raked over them. She glanced down at little Larkin, playing so innocently in his basket, and suddenly wanted to snatch him up and squeeze him to her chest.

  “Come now, Jarrod,” Isaac answered, calmly sitting down. “You’ve been here before. You know I welcome everyone to my hotel.”

  “I’ve never been able to figure that out about you, Isaac,” the man said, pulling out a chair beside Shannon. His partner sat on his other side. “A fine gentleman like yourself from Charleston.”

  “It’s good business sense. Negro money spends the same as yours.”

  “It’s peculiar. I’d go elsewhere if your colored woman wasn’t such a fine cook.”

  Isaac shrugged and took a spoonful of soup. “So, who are you chasing this time?”

  “A pair o’ field hands out of North Carolina. They ran off together two weeks ago. There’s evidence they’re heading this way. One of them is a big, strapping fellow.” The man cast a curious glance at Ketch’s impressive physique.

  Lizzie felt icy fingers of fear squeeze her heart. The men were bounty hunters! It was all she could do to hold herself at the table and continue forking food into her mouth.

  Isaac chuckled. “I assure you, I don’t have your man, Jarrod. These are Cash and Elsbeth Lewis, Julia’s niece and nephew. They’re here visiting, and with Shannon so close to her due date, they’ve been kind enough to help us out for a few days. It has been greatly appreciated.”

  Lizzie forced a smile of acknowledgment.

  Isaac deftly turned the conversation to the outcome of Virginia’s mid-term elections, and Lizzie managed to finish her meal, but it sat like lead in her stomach. Ketch and Malachi’s pleasant conversation withered and died.

  As soon as the pair of Southerners retired upstairs, before the meal was even cleaned up, Lizzie and Ketch sought out Isaac in his office. “What dose men doin’ here, Mr. Isaac?” Ketch demanded in low tones.

  Isaac leaned back in his office chair with a sigh. “Jarrod Burrows is one of my regular customers, though his visits are infrequent. I’m sorry he appeared during your stay.”

 
“You welcome slave catchers?” Ketch’s face was fierce to behold.

  “It deflects suspicion. Jarrod would never guess the number of slaves I have moved through my barn right under his nose.” Isaac crossed his arms. “He usually only stays for a few days at a time and spends little of it in the hotel. I imagine he’ll be gone by the end of the week, but it would be wise for you and Elsbeth to be on your guard. He wouldn’t hesitate to carry either of you back to Charleston if he found out who you really are.”

  The muscles in Ketch’s jaw bulged with strain. “Mr. Isaac, how soon do you s’pose me an’ Elsbeth can cross into Canada?”

  “Now that you’re both rested, I believe the sooner the better. I’ve already contacted the Refugee Home Society. They help with clothing, tools, and even land purchases. In the meantime, you and I can visit the settlements in Ontario. If you prefer, I’m sure we could find you temporary quarters across the border while you’re looking for a permanent home.”

  “I think dat be best.”

  Isaac nodded shortly. “We’ll go tomorrow.”

  6

  Ketch and Isaac left early the next morning, and Lizzie keenly regretted their absence. She felt vulnerable in the house with only women and a teenager standing between herself and danger. But shortly after breakfast, Malachi came into the kitchen to report that Mr. Burrows and his companion had both gone out for the day.

  Lizzie left off kneading the bread dough and turned to Robin. “You may go play now.”

  With a happy shriek, he left books, papers, and pencil on the table and pushed through the swinging doorway with Emily Rose close on his heels.

  “She’s going to miss Robin when you leave,” Shannon said from across the work table where she pounded her own bowl of dough. Then she sucked in a breath and braced both floured hands beneath her stomach.

  Julia raised an eyebrow. “Shannon, how long you been havin’ pains?”

  “Since three o’clock this morning,” she confessed with a guilty grimace.