The attorney's face had turned a blotchy red. He was furious the hearing hadn't gone his way.
Judge Burns looked at Harrison. 'Who exactly does he think we ought to string up? The town or just the Claybornes?'
Manning was happy to answer him. 'The Claybornes, of course, especially that white girl living under the same roof with the nigger. She's trash.'
'You got something to say about that, Harrison?' the judge asked.
He counted to ten before he answered the judge. Stalling didn't help him change his mind. 'How much for the charge of assault, Your Honor?'
Burns's eyes sparkled with merriment. 'Five dollars, given the special circumstances.'
Harrison reached into his pocket, pulled out five dollars, and dropped the money on the table.
What happened next so surprised the southern attorney, he didn't have time to protect himself. Harrison punched him hard in the face.
He coldcocked him. Manning collapsed on the floor in a dead faint. The judge leaned over the table to get a better look at the man, then turned back to Harrison.
He was trying hard not to smile. 'Well now, that's premeditation. Cost you a dollar more.'
Harrison handed him the money and went to his wife and her brothers.
He kept his attention on the crowd. The men were slow to leave, and Harrison had plenty of time to study their faces. He didn't recognize any of them.
Travis started to get up. Harrison ordered him to stay in his chair. 'Mary Rose, get up and come over to me. Look damned happy to see me.'
She didn't hesitate. She quickly got up and walked around the table. He pulled her into his arms, leaned down and kissed her brow, and then hugged her tight.
'Welcome back, Harrison,' Adam whispered.
'When the hell did all this happen?' he asked.
'They woke me up yesterday,' Adam answered. 'And here I am. You got here in the nick of time. In another hour, it would have been too late. They would have waited until tomorrow to hang me, but once a sentence is handed down, no one can do anything.'
The last of the strangers filed out of the storefront. Douglas and Cole came charging inside.
'Shut the door,' Harrison called out.
'Let's get the hell out of here,' Cole muttered. He tossed Travis his gun as he came storming down the aisle. 'Adam, you okay?'
'Yes,' his brother answered.
Harrison finally relaxed his grip on Mary Rose. She didn't move away from him, however, but continued to lean into him. She was shaking almost violently now. She'd had one hell of a day, and he knew it wasn't going to get much better.
He had so much to say to her, but now certainly wasn't the time or the place. Getting Adam back to the ranch alive was going to require everyone's full concentration.
'I say we run now,' Cole said.
'We'll all get bullets in our backs if we try,' Travis argued.
'He's right,' Douglas agreed. 'Now isn't the time to leave,' Douglas said.
'I'm not going anywhere but home,' Adam announced. He pushed his chair back and finally stood up. ' Harrison, I don't know if I should thank you or hit you. You've just given me two full weeks to think about that rope going around my neck.'
'You don't have much faith in your attorney,' Harrison remarked dryly.
'I've got plenty of faith in you. It's the rest of the world I have trouble with. You're an honorable man, Harrison, but that seems to be a rare quality these days. I told Mary Rose you'd come back. She didn't believe me. I guess she does now, doesn't she?'
Harrison was stunned. Had she thought he'd stay on in England and go right about his business? Didn't she realize she'd taken his heart with her?
' Harrison, are you going home with us or over to Belle's to look at the evidence?' Travis asked.
'Home,' he answered. 'I want to talk to Adam before I do anything else.'
It was a solemn procession that filed out of the storefront. The locals were there to greet Adam and offer him words of encouragement. It was good to see the people of Blue Belle hadn't turned against him.
Harrison was given the duty of watching their backs on the way home. He stayed well behind the family, and when they started down the last hill, he stopped and waited until they were safely out of gunshot range. He made a quick detour then, found what he was looking for, and continued on.
Mary Rose sat with her brothers at the dining room table. They were all whispering and worrying out loud about the two-week reprieve.
She was thinking about Harrison. Seeing him again had filled her with such incredible longing. Why had he come back? She couldn't be the woman her relatives in England wanted her to be. Didn't he understand that? Oh, God, what was she going to do? She'd been so miserable from the moment she'd left him… until today. She'd felt as though she were dying inside, and when he'd calmly walked into the courtroom and made reason in the midst of madness, she'd started living again.
She heard Harrison come inside the house and go upstairs. Doors squeaked open and closed. He was looking for her room, she thought to herself, and did that mean he expected to stay with her?
He finally joined the family. 'Adam, I want to talk to you alone in the library.'
He didn't even look at her.
'My brothers and my sister know everything,' Adam replied.
'Alone,' Harrison suggested once again.
They weren't disturbed by anyone and stayed closeted together for over two hours. Harrison had insisted Adam tell him everything he remembered about his daily routine while he lived on the plantation and everything he knew about the family who had owned him.
'Mistress Livonia was married to Walter Adderley. They had two sons. You saw both of them in court today. Reginald's the baby. He's a couple of years younger than I am. Lionel is the older one. He's the spitting image of his father. Walter was a drunk. He'd start in around noon every day, and by evening, he'd have to be carried up to bed. He got real mean when he drank, which meant he was mean most of the time. He would pick fights with his wife. Something must have happened between them, because when he was drunk, he couldn't abide the sight of her.'
'Would he strike her?'
'Oh, yes, he'd use his fists. She wasn't any match for him. He was over six feet, and she was just a little tiny bit of a thing. He'd hit my mama too. She was Livonia 's companion, and so she got her share of abuse as well.
'On a late Friday afternoon, just around suppertime, I was passing by the house on my way in from planting, and I heard Mistress Livonia screaming. Adderley was beating both of them. I put myself between Livonia and my owner because when I walked into the room, he was pounding on her. I remember thinking that if I could just get him to turn his rage against me, Mama and Livonia would be all right. Mama's nose was bloody and one eye was already swelling closed. Livonia was in worse shape. She was trying to stand up and had almost made it when he struck her again. She collapsed on the floor. She kept begging him to stop. He started kicking her then. She was pleading for mercy, and praying, Harrison. She begged me to help her… and so I did.'
Adam paused to take a shaky breath before continuing. 'I put my arms around his waist and pulled him back while Mama ran over to help Livonia to her feet.
'Adderley went crazy. He told Livonia he was going to kill her, shrugged me off of him, and went after her again. That's when I hit him. He stumbled back about ten feet and then started to charge me. He lost his footing and crashed into the edge of the mantel. I think he was dead before he landed on the floor.'
'Where did you hit him?'
'In the chin.'
'Not from behind? You said he had turned away from you…'
'Yes, but I was quicker than he was. I put myself in front of Mistress Livonia again to try to protect her and struck him when he tried to kick her.'
'And then what happened?'
