The Full Weight of Their Survival by Lynn Vadney

Author:Lynn Vadney [Vadney, Lynn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Christian Books & Bibles, Literature & Fiction, Mystery & Suspense, Religion & Spirituality, Fiction, Mystery, Christian Fiction, The trials of Lily Schwartz
Amazon: B00HS4ZSXK
Publisher: Desert Willow Publishing
Published: 2014-01-08T05:00:00+00:00

SIXTEEN

When the clinic is running smoothly with Lou doing the triage and Linda taking care of the financial side, Lily turns toward Officer Blakely who has been patiently standing nearby.

He steps over. “Good morning, Mrs. Schwartz.”

“Good morning, Officer. I didn’t expect to see you in the market.”

“Tuesday’s my day off.”

Perplexed, she rhetorically states, “You’re still in uniform?”

With a laugh, he leans toward her. “We can’t let our guard down for a moment.”

“I understand that.”

“Sorry about the blotch up at the auction yesterday.”

“Thank you.” She smiles in amusement at his courteous apology for unethical behavior as if it were merely a misunderstanding.

His mention of the auction reminds her of Mr. Barton’s arrangement to purchase slaves at the prison. Wishing to gather information about the workings of the slave trade without giving any hint of having inside information, she searches her mind for a neutral approach.

Officer Blakely intrudes on her thoughts. “I’ve noticed that you’ve been purchasing every slave left by the others.”

She keeps her reply cautious. “I’m not being indiscriminate in my purchases. You’ve just had a good assortment of men to choose from.”

“Would you care to purchase more?”

Since he seems to be willing to negotiate, she settles on the oblique approach of following his lead. “Yes. I could use more.”

“I’ll see if we can bring in more men from another area.”

“Thank you, Officer. I can use more men, but I need more women. I haven’t been able to purchase any for a few weeks now.”

“They’re scarce.”

Lily gazes steadily into his eyes with a calm expression. “I’ve gathered that since there’s never been more than a few, but I’d really appreciate it if you could find some for me. I’d even be willing to pay a premium for them. I have an urgent need for women.”

He studies her expression. “Now why would you have an urgent need for women?”

Panicking, her thoughts burst into a furious frenzy. She searches her mind for a reasonable explanation of her ‘urgent need’ since she must avoid mentioning her true motive. As she opens her mouth to say something about the number of people at the farm, she stops to reconsider the use of the term farm. She coughs to explain her slight pause. “Pardon me. Ahem. Okay, I can talk again. Now back to our conversation. With all the men I’ve purchased for our compound, the women are being overworked. We need several more women to help with the cooking, cleaning, and all those other tasks which usually fall to women.”

He frowns. “I really can’t go behind Commander Tyrant’s … I mean Commander Tyler’s back on this.”

She keeps her expression steadily calm even though two aspects of his comment take her by surprise. Ignoring his obvious slip of the tongue, she wonders what he means going behind the commander’s back.

Stifling her curiosity, she returns to her chosen topic and pleads, “I really need some women.”

After a long sigh, he frowns. “I’ll look into it, but I’m not promising anything.” He lowers his voice and softly pleads, “Don’t mention this to anyone.

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