Drinking Gourd by Hambly Barbara

Author:Hambly, Barbara [Hambly, Barbara]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery, Historical
ISBN: 9781780107691
Amazon: 1780107692
Goodreads: 30209095
Publisher: Severn House Digital
Published: 2016-07-01T07:00:00+00:00

SIXTEEN

His sister’s face returned to his mind as they walked; the sound of her voice …

The smell of smoke and swamp-water in the maroon camp in the ciprière, all those years ago.

Olympe will know …

Will know what? Hannibal walked ahead with Sheriff Preston, trying – with the discreet air of one who would never indulge in gossip unless it was absolutely necessary – to get Sheriff Preston talking about Maury – who seemed to have made enemies of just about everyone in two counties – Mrs Maury, the rumor-mongering slave-dealer Poger, and whatever else he might have learned about either Ezekias Drummond or Jubal Cain.

‘If Cain is working for the abolitionists,’ grunted the sheriff, ‘it would explain why he hated Drummond. There’s nothing one of those self-righteous whining Quakers hates so much as a real man who’ll turn their come-to-Jesus excuses back on themselves with the real word of God, the actual word as it’s found in the Bible. If there’s one thing in this world that sets my back up,’ he added, ‘it’s a hypocrite.’

Evidently, January gathered, it would never occur to any slave in captivity to try to escape, were it not for white Puritan abolitionists coming south and encouraging them to run away. His mouth grew almost sore with the effort of not asking Preston how the hell HE knew so much about what slaves thought and felt about their lives.

‘Maury always suspected Cain had something to do with that boy Quinto running off. And Cain did show up in town just two days before it happened. Myself, I think it had just as much to do with Cain taking seventy-five dollars off Maury at the Best Chance over on Adams Street, the same night Quinto disappeared. Next day Maury shows up in my office to swear out a complaint saying Cain had kidnapped Quinto and was going to sneak him out of town on the steamboat and sell him in New Orleans.’

He shook his head. ‘Did he have any reason to think this? That I don’t know. But he may have written Poger about it, in which case it would make sense that Poger would write back to say, “Far from it, the man’s working for the Underground Railroad.”’

‘I’ve heard tell,’ said Hannibal delicately, ‘some rumor about him hating Cain because Cain was a little too friendly with Mrs Maury—’

‘Now that,’ retorted Preston sharply, ‘is a damn lie, and the kind of damn lie you’d expect—!’ He paused, visibly gathering himself in hand. ‘Where’d you hear that from, sir? Some of those roustabouts at that circus of yours?’

Hannibal gave him his most honest and innocent expression. ‘To tell you the truth, I can’t recall just where I heard it, sir.’

Preston sniffed. ‘Then my advice to you, sir, is you keep your mouth shut about any lady in this town, if you don’t know what you’re talking about. Julia Maury would no more have to do with a man of Cain’s class than she’d steal from the church poor box.

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