sleeves and trousers, and pull the dress over’them. A smock to keep thine own clothes clean, understand? Just the same, I suppose thee’ll get thy head and arms and legs mired up.
Downright black, even. Well, I remember how I liked that when I was a kid.” Edmonds laughed. “Till I came back and my mother saw me! But this is a holiday for thee, so that such carelessness will be allowable.” He paused. “If perchance thee pass near the Lyndon house, so they spy thee, don’t linger. Don’t give them a good look, but run past quickly. They’d be scandalized to know young Jacob Edmonds was dressed and mucked like that. Dash back into the woods and bury the dress somewhere. Then circle back to our land and collect that kindling. Thee may take several hours all told.” He squeezed the shoulder and smiled. “How’s that sound, hm?”
His son had strained breathless at his words. Eagerness blazed: “Yes, sir! Wonderful! I can do it!”
Jane touched her man’s arm. “Matthew, dear, he’s only a child,” she protested.
Jacob reddened. Edmonds raised a palm. “There should be no danger to him if he’s as smart as I think he is. And thee,” he said sternly to the face below his, “remember Jesus doesn’t like bragging. Tomorrow I’ll give thee a note to the schoolmaster, that I needed thy help here today. That’s all that either of us has to tell anybody, ever. Got me?”
Jacob stood very straight. “Yes, sir, I do.”
“Good. I’d better get back to work. Have fun.” Edmonds stroked his wife’s cheek, softly and briefly, before he went out.
As he crossed the yard, Alien rode over and exclaimed, “What you been doin’?”
“Minding my own business,” Edmonds said. “We have a farm to run, if thee has not heard.” He went on into the shed and took up his task again.
It was near midday and he was growing hungry—Jacob doubtless wolfing the sandwiches Jane would have made— when the dogs barked and Alien whooped. Edmonds strolled into the warm sunlight. Alongside Gabe rode a man with curly brown hair and troubled youthful face. The three of them brought their horses to meet the farmer.
“Good day, friend Peter,” said Edmonds cheerily.
“Hi.” Deputy Sheriff Frayne bit the greeting off. He struggled a few seconds before he could go on. “Matt, I’m sorry, but this man’s gone to Judge Abshire and got a search warrant for your place.”
“That was not very neighborly of the judge, I must say.”
“He’s got to uphold the law, Matt. I do too.”
Edmonds nodded. “Everybody should, when it is at all possible.”
“Well, uh, they claim you’re hiding a fugitive slave. That’s a federal offense, Matt. I don’t like it, but it’s the law of the land.”
“There is another Law, Peter. Jesus Christ spoke it hi Nazareth. ‘The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath set me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised.’ ”
“No more of your preachin’, Quaker!” Gabe shouted. He was tired, sweaty, on edge after so much faring to and fro. “Deppity, do your duty.”
“Search as thee will, thee will never find a slave on this land,” Edmonds declared.
Frayne stared. “You swear to that?”
“Thee knows I can’t give an oath, Peter.” Edmonds stood silent for a spell. Then, in a rush: “But it’d bother my wife and frighten our little ones, having ye ransack the house. So I’ll confess. I did see a Negro woman today.”
“You <ftJ?”-Alleri yelled. “And didn’t tell us right off? Why, you son of a bitch—”
“That’ll do, fellow!” Frayne rapped. “Any more and I’ll run you in for abuse, threat, and menace.” He turned to Edmonds. “Can you describe what you saw?”
“She was wearing a ragged yellow dress, badly stained, and it was clear she was traveling north. Before ye spend valuable time here, why not ask the people in that direction?”
Frayne scowled. “Um, yeah,” he said reluctantly, “the Lyndons are about a mile off, and they ... don’t like Abolitionists.”
“They ,might have1 seen something too,” Edmonds reminded him. “They wouldn’t keep it from thee.”
“The tracks we followed—“ Alien began.
Edmonds chopped air with his hand. “Bah! Barefoot tracks are everywhere. Look, if ye find nothing, hear nothing, yonder, ye can come back and search us. But I warn ye, it’ll take hours, as many possible hiding places as a big farm has got, and meanwhile a fugitive who was not here would get clean away.”
Frayne stared hard at him. Gabe opened his mouth. “He’s right,” the deputy said. “Let’s go.”
“I dunno—“ Gabe muttered.
“You want my help or not? I been hauled from my business hi town for this. I’m not about to lose another half a day watching you bumble around if it’s needless.”
“You go ask,” Gabe told Alien. “My turn to guard this place.”
“I’ll come along,” Frayne said, and rode off with the warrant in his pocket.
Jane appeared on the kitchen steps. “Dinner!” she hailed.
“I regret we cannot invite thee to share our table,” Edmonds said to Gabe. “A matter of principle. However, we’ll send food out.”
The slavecatcher shook his head, furiously, and swatted at a fly. “To hell with you,” he grated, and trotted to a vantage point.
Edmonds took his time washing up. He had barely finished saying grace when the dpgs barked once more. Glancing out a window, he and Jane saw the deputy ride back into the yard and over to Gabe. After they had talked a minute, Gabe spurred his horse and disappeared between the apple trees. Soon he came back to sight on the road, northbound in a hurry.
Edmonds went onto the steps. “Will thee come eat with us, friend Peter?” he called.
The deputy rode to him. “Thanks, but, uh, I’d better get on back,” he replied. “Another time, or you folks come in to Molly and me, hey? Maybe next week?”
“I thank thee. We’ll be in touch. Did the Lyndons have news?”
“Yeah, Jesse told as how he glimpsed what’s got to be her. We’ve seen the last of those two boys for a while, I guess.” Frayne hesitated. “I never thought you’d give out information like that.”
“I really didn’t want my house invaded.”
“N-no, but still—“ Frayne rubbed his chin. “You said no-body’d ever find a slave on your land.”
“I did.”
“Then I s’pose you haven’t joined the Railroad after all. There was some rumors.”
“It’s better not to listen to gossip.”
“Yeah. And better not wonder too much.” Frayne laughed. “I’m off. Give your missus my best.” He turned serious. “If you did ever tell a lie—if you ever do—I’m sure it’s in a rightful cause, Matt. I’m sure God will forgive you.”
“Thee is kind, but thus far falsehoods haven’t been necessary. Not but what I don’t have plenty of other sins to answer for. Good day, friend, and give thy Molly our love.”
The deputy tipped his hat and departed. When he was out of earshot, Edmonds stated, “There are no slaves. It’s against Christ’s teaching that human beings should be property.”
He went back in. Jane and William cast him expectant looks. Nellie gurgled. He smiled as widely as a mouth could stretch. “They are gone,” he said. “They took the bait. Let us give thanks to the Lord.”
“Mr. Frayne?” asked his wife.
“He’s gone home.”
“Good. I mean, he’d be welcome, but now we can bring Flora down to eat with us.”
“Oh, is that her name? Well, certainly. I should have thought of that myself.”
Jane left the kitchen, set the ladder against a wall, climbed it, opened the trapdoor, murmured. In a short while she returned with Flora at her heels. The colored girl walked warily, eyes darting to and fro. A gown of the wife’s rustled about her ankles. The knife quivered in her hand.
“Thee can surely put that from thee now,” Edmonds told her. “We’re safe.”
“We really is?” Her gaze searched his. She laid the knife on the counter.
“Thee should never have taken it up, thee knows,” Edmonds said.
