A Wild Heart by Celeste De Blasis

Author:Celeste De Blasis [Blasis, Celeste De]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781800192249
Google: VhKLzgEACAAJ
Amazon: B08KHKB713
Publisher: Bookouture
Published: 2020-04-15T08:01:35.176492+00:00

Book Three

Chapter 24

Wild Swan, Prince George’s County, Maryland, 1857

A baby wailed fretfully, and it sounded as loud as a gunshot on the muggy air of the June night.

“Hush dat chile!” The order was given in a growly whisper before Alex could say anything.

There were nine of them tonight—three men, two women, three children, including the baby and two toddlers, and their guide, a stout Black woman who was leading the fugitives north. Alex had met the woman before. Her name was Harriet Tubman, and there was a price on her head in the South. Gaining her own freedom from slavery in Maryland had not been enough for her; she had returned again and again to help others escape not only from Maryland, but from states further south. She carried a huge pistol; slaves who set out with her did not turn back. There was a brooding, mystical aura about Harriet Tubman, as though she believed the hand of God had selected her for her mission Alex did not feel any warmth from her or for her, but she respected her.

There had been little warning of the slaves’ coming tonight. Scarcely more than half an hour before their arrival, a young Quaker, son of other agents on the Underground Railroad, had ridden in to say that the first destination of the slaves might be under surveillance, and that Dr. Cameron was diverting the slaves to the farm. But the inhabitants of Wild Swan were accustomed to the night visits by now, and work went smoothly. In the room beneath the stallions, there were food and drink, water for washing, and medical supplies.

And concealed in the darkness, Padraic, Samson, and Jed Barlow would be watching for pursuit, ready to challenge any who followed the slaves. The men were armed. This had become an increasingly dangerous game, as more and more slaves fled from the South and more and more of their owners sent slave catchers after them. Personal liberty laws had been passed in some Northern states to assist Abolitionists in protecting the fugitives, but this was a slave state, quite a different circumstance.

They did not plan to have a gun battle with slave catchers, but rather to plead ignorance and stall them for long enough to allow the fugitives either to leave or to be warned to maintain absolute silence in the hideaway.

Trusting the men to keep a keen watch, Alex went about the business of seeing to the little party’s needs, with Katy and Gincie assisting her. She was relieved to find that there were no grievous wounds, though the slaves were footsore, hungry, and, most of all, terrified.

Alex did not blame them. She could barely imagine the depth of fear they must suffer when one wrong step could lead to death. And she could only admire the vast and desperate courage it required to set out on this journey, most of them hardly knowing how to follow the North Star, let alone anything about the world that existed beyond the plantations where they had been held.

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