Promises to the Dead (15 page)

"I'm sorry about speaking to Polly like I done," I said. "I swear I'll do what you say from now on."

She studied me a long while without saying a word. I kept my eyes on hers so she'd know I was telling the truth. Outside the cabin, the wind picked up a little, and I heard an owl hoot close by.

Hyacinth glanced at Perry as if to make sure he was truly asleep. "A group of runaways is hiding in the woods north of here," she said slowly, keeping her voice real low. "Two women, a man, and a baby. All but one have traveled a long way, and I've been feeding them to build up their strength. We planned to leave for Ohio next week, but now I'm afraid to wait that long."

Suddenly she reached across the table and seized my hand. I'd never met a woman with a grip as strong as hers. "You'll have to come with us, Jesse. I can't risk leaving you here. I know where you were born and who brought you up. I know what you've been taught."

I started to speak, but she hushed me. "They're all rebel lovers on the Shore. Why, if it wasn't for Mr. Lincoln's army, the whole bunch of them would be in the Confederacy by now, including your uncle, Mr. Philemon Sherman."

"Not me." I found my voice at last. "I wouldn't belong to no nation that has Colonel Abednego Botfield in it."

Hyacinth eyed me. She hadn't eased her grip on my wrist. Trying not to flinch, I said, "I swear I'll never betray you. You think I brought Perry all this way to see him get caught?"

"Just be sure you remember that," Hyacinth said. "White folks have a way of going back on their word."

It cut me to the heart to hear her speak so distrustfully, but there was no denying such things happened. "Didn't I keep my promise to Lydia as best I could?"

Hyacinth reached out and patted my hand in a kindly way. "I'm sorry for doubting you, Jesse. But my own mama is with those runaways, and I can't take any chances on her being caught."

"Your mama?" I stared at her as the full meaning of her words sunk in. "Perry's granny?"

Hyacinth nodded. "I been searching for her such a long time, asking every slave I meet if they've seen her. Not long ago I got word where she was. As soon as Polly and I arrived here, I sent a message to Mama telling her I was at Mr. Cornelius Baxter's place, close to her. She ran the first chance she got. Lord, it was good to see her. Nine years is a long while to be apart."

Hyacinth broke off talking and stared into the fire. "Mama doesn't know Lydia's dead. Nor does she know about Perry." She sighed and shook her head. "Now's not the time to sit here thinking sad thoughts. We have to get ourselves ready to go."

Getting to her feet, she began to gather things for the trip. "Make a bedroll with your blankets, Jesse, and help Perry do the same."

Perry woke in some confusion. "Why are you taking the blankets?" he asked, grabbing for one. "I'm cold, Jesse."

Hyacinth hushed him and blew out the candle. The fire had burned itself down to embers so the cabin was almost as dark as the woods outside. "We're leaving here," she told Perry, "so we must be as quiet as quiet can be."

"Where are we going?" Perry asked, suddenly fearful.

"Someplace we'll be safe," Hyacinth whispered. "Safe and free. Just like your mama wanted."

"But it's dark outside. It's still nighttime." Perry looked at me. "Is the colonel coming after us?"

I shook my head. "Don't fret, Perry. The colonel don't know nothing. Just do what Hyacinth says."

Still worried, Perry let Hyacinth take his hand and lead him to the cabin door. I followed, carrying the blanket roll on my back. Once we were outside, we heard men laughing and talking in the big house. It gave me shivers to think how close the colonel was. I prayed he wouldn't come to the window and see Perry and me skulking past in the shadows.

Hyacinth strode into the woods, carrying a huge basket on her back. Perry was right behind her. I hurried after them, struggling with the bedroll.

Dark as it was, Hyacinth never hesitated. I reckoned she'd been this way before, taking food to her mama and others. We climbed one hill after another, going higher and higher with every step, following a path that wound round rocks and trees. I was soon gasping for breath, bent nearly double under the weight of the bedroll, but Hyacinth kept up a steady pace. Though every one of my muscles ached, her long skinny legs never seemed to tire.

At long last we reached level ground, high atop a ridge above the river. Across the water in Maryland, I could make out the watch fires of Federal army camps. They shone like tiny stars fallen from the sky onto the black earth—hundreds of them, it seemed.

Hyacinth looked at them. "For every Yankee fire you see on that side of the river, there's a rebel fire on this side. We got to be quiet so as not to alarm the sentries."

The thought of armed rebels all around us scared me some. Did they ask questions first or did they just shoot? And if they did ask questions, what would we answer?

"How much farther do we have to go?" Perry whispered.

"Downhill a ways," Hyacinth said. "They're hiding in a cave halfway to the river."

Downhill sounded better than uphill, but as soon as we started, I found I was wrong. The bedroll threw my balance off, and I was forever grabbing at bushes and trees to keep myself from tumbling straight down into the river. A whole new bunch of muscles came into play as well, and I began to ache in places I didn't know I had.

Just when I thought I couldn't take another step, Hyacinth motioned me to stop. "You boys wait here," she whispered. "I'll tell them you're coming."

In a trice, she'd disappeared into the trees, leaving Perry and me alone. He turned to me, his face a blur in the dark. "What if Mr. Baxter and the colonel come after us?" he whispered.

"They won't do that," I blustered. "From the sounds of it, they was too busy funning themselves playing cards and drinking." But I found myself looking over my shoulder anyway, worrying about the colonel.

"I wish I had Mama's knife," Perry said.

I wished he did, too, but before I could say so, Hyacinth came creeping back so quiet she scared me half out of my skin. "Come along now," she whispered.

We followed her into a thicket of brambles at the foot of a rocky cliff. The thorns scratched at my face like tiny claws, and I felt my shirt rip once or twice. When we got through the prickers, Hyacinth led us into a tiny hole that seemed a likely place for a fox den. It was the darkest place I'd ever been. I couldn't see nothing, not even Perry, who was just ahead of me. The air had a cold, damp edge to it, like a musty cellar. I imagined graves had a similar smell. I wriggled after Perry as fast I could go, getting his foot in my face more than once.

All of a sudden we came around a bend and crawled out into a space as big as a church, lit by a small fire. I got to my feet and stared around me in wonder. I'd heard tell of caves, but I'd never seen one before, so I had no way of knowing whether this was special or just ordinary. The rock walls slanted up and up, higher than the firelight could show. Long pointed things like stone icicles hung down from somewhere above, and others grew up from the floor. Some met and formed pillars. The sight fair took my breath away. I felt like I'd come to another world hidden away underground.

All at once someone coughed. A woman by the fire got to her feet. "It's him, isn't it?" she asked Hyacinth, but her eyes were on Perry. "Lydia's son."

Hyacinth nudged Perry forward, but he'd gone shy on her. Like a little child, he clung to her skirt and stared at the woman.

She was about Athena and Delia's age, I thought. Lean and pleasant-featured. No gray in her hair, no wrinkles in her skin. Despite her raggedy clothes, she was proud in the way she held herself. In fact, she put me in mind of Lydia standing there in the woods, tall and straight, her belly busting with that baby. I knew she just had to be Perry's granny.

Reaching toward Perry, the woman said, "Come closer, boy. Let me get a better look at you."

Hyacinth gave Perry a firmer nudge. "Go on," she said. "Can't you guess who that is?"

Perry glanced at Hyacinth and then took a few steps toward the woman. "Did you know my mama?" he asked.

Catching hold of Perry's hand, she drew him close. "Lydia was my daughter, darling, and you're my grandson."

When he heard that, Perry flung his arms about the woman's neck. The two of them held each other tight.

Watching them, I'm ashamed to say I felt a twinge of the same old jealousy I'd felt when Hyacinth made such a fuss over Perry. Nobody in this world loved me the way his granny and his auntie loved him, and that was a fact. Even considering what he'd gone through, it seemed he was luckier than I was.

After a while Perry's granny looked at me. "Are you sure we can trust that white boy, Hyacinth?"

"I told you, he brought Perry all this way," Hyacinth said. "He's risked his own life for the child, all on account of the promise he made to Lydia."

Perry's granny came closer and studied me hard. I done my best to bear her scrutiny so she wouldn't think I had something to hide. Finally she said, "I hear you've made an enemy of Abednego Botfield."

"He hates me on account I helped Perry and Lydia," I said. "The last time I saw him he told me he'd be my death."

Perry's granny relaxed somewhat. "Let's hope Abednego's wrong about you," she said. "For I aim to be
his
death."

A man stepped out of the shadows, a tall, spare fellow without any meat on his bones. "Maror," he said to Perry's granny, "shouldn't we eat and be on our way?"

Without saying a word, a young woman joined him. Her dress hung raggedy from her thin shoulders. In her arms was a baby about a year old. They both had a weak and sickly look.

The man put his arm around her and led her to the fire. "Sit and have your supper, Pearl. There's a long path ahead. You got to build your strength."

While Hyacinth dished out the stew, I watched Perry's granny, Maror. She kept him close to her, sharing her food with him and fussing over him. Perry smiled and laughed, shedding his cares faster than a snake sheds its skin. Although things hadn't turned out quite as Lydia planned, I believed she'd be happy to see her son and her mama and her sister together.

By the time we were ready to leave the cave, I'd learned the man's name was Thomas. He and Pearl had both come through the mountains from North Carolina with their baby. They'd met Maror in Virginia and joined up with her.

"It's a little easier now," he told me. "White folks ain't got the time or inclination to chase every runaway slave like they used to."

Instead of leaving through the tiny tunnel, Hyacinth led us out another way, lighting our path with a torch. We could stand up straight, but it scared me to be so far under the ground. Passageways led off this way and that, disappearing into the darkness. There was no telling what manner of beasts might be waiting around the next bend—wolves, bears, or even the colonel himself. Why, the gates of hell could be down one of those tunnels.

At last we started turning upward. The tunnel shrunk in size, so we had to crawl again, slithering on our bellies like snakes. I glimpsed light ahead, just a glimmer of moon and stars shining over Hyacinth's shoulders. We came out on a ledge above the Potomac River. Never had I been so glad to see the night sky.

"How far have we come?" I asked Hyacinth.

"Baxter's place is five miles back, maybe more, maybe less." She pointed across the river. "We're aiming to come ashore in the woods above New Berlin and make our way west. There are some folks along the way who will help us, Quakers mainly, some Methodists. If we make it to Ohio we ought to be safe."

Hyacinth led us down a winding trail, even steeper than the one we'd traveled before. It was so dark we had to feel our way along, slipping on loose stones every now and then and grabbing at bushes and roots. I was glad it was dark and I couldn't see how high up we were. Heights made me dizzy, and I feared falling.

At the river's edge, Hyacinth told us to wait where we were. "A Quaker man lives up around the bend," she said. "Samuel's got a boat to take us across. I'll go fetch him."

The rest of us huddled together in the dark. Maror kept Perry close to her side. Pearl cuddled the baby and tried to hush its whimpers. Thomas stood beside me, keeping watch. Nobody said a word. We just stood there, listening to the river gurgle and hoping nothing would go wrong.

CHAPTER 15

But, of course, things did go wrong. Not long after Hyacinth left, we heard horses' hooves on the rocks above us. A familiar voice shouted, "I tell you she must have come this way, seeking to cross the river."

Perry grabbed my arm. "It's him, Jesse," he whispered, "it's the colonel coming after us."

I done my best to hush him, for it seemed the men had stopped directly overhead. Thomas looked grim, and Pearl rocked the baby. Luckily for all of us, he seemed to be sleeping peacefully.

"I can't think what got into the wench," Mr. Baxter said. "My brother never said a word about her being the sort to run off."

"Don't worry, Cornelius," Colonel Botfield said. "We'll find her. She can't have gone far."

A third man said something about wasting time pursuing one runaway slave, but neither Mr. Baxter nor Colonel Botfield paid him any mind. It was clear they'd had way too much to drink and were wild to chase after anything that ran.

In a second or two, they were off again. We listened to the horses' hooves, trying to figure which way they'd gone, but none of us could tell for sure.

"Polly must have told after all," Perry whispered.

"Maybe not," I said. "It could be they sent for Hyacinth to fetch them something. When they saw she was gone, they set out after her."

Perry gave me a look that plainly said I was a fool to make excuses for a white girl. Could be he was right. If there was one thing I'd learned since leaving home, it was to doubt my own intelligence.

Not long after the men rode away, a boat no bigger than a dinghy came floating quietly toward us, with a man at the oars and Hyacinth seated in the back.