River of Mercy (19 page)

Outside, Mac trotted ahead of them, but Gant slowed. “That boy's too young and too feisty to be in charge of all those people. Once you get on the road, you'll have to cool him down more than once, I expect.”

Asa nodded. “He's some too big for his britches, that's for sure.”

They took up a faster pace again. “Comes with being young, I suppose,” Gant said. “He gets to you, doesn't he?” he added, grinning.

“He's a little impudent, all right.” Asa hesitated. “I can't place exactly what it is about him, but he reminds me of someone.”

“Who's that?”

“I don't know. Just something about him…”

“Well, I can't blame him for being jumpy. The longer we have those runaways under roof, the more risk for them all.” Gant paused. “For that matter, I'm worried just as much about you.”

Asa looked at him. “Me? Why?”

“You know why. You're a free man, but a lot of people aren't aware of that. And some who do know might not care.”

“Ohio's a free state.”

They stopped walking. “You're too smart to think that guarantees you a pass from trouble. There are just as many folks eager to help the bounty hunters as those trying to help the slaves.”

“You'd best worry about yourself instead of me. I'd say a white man with eleven runaway slaves in his barn is living way too close to the local jail.”

“Even so, you'd do well not to be too visible while we're waiting on word to move. Most folks in town know you're free and just think you work for me. But outsiders that stick around any length of time are going to question why you come and go as you do.”

“Don't you worry none, Captain. I can do a pretty good job of pretending to be your ‘boy.' ”

“Hang it all, Asa, that's exactly what you
can't
do! If they assume you're not free but working for wages, they'll haul us both to jail. You know it's illegal for a white man to hire a slave.”

Asa shrugged. “All right. I'll stay in the barn with the others for now.”

“You will not!”

The dark, steady gaze Asa leveled on him made Gant flinch. “Captain, we've always known there would be things about this work we wouldn't like. But we both agreed we'd do whatever needed to be done.” He paused. “Sleeping in a barn a few nights doesn't seem like much of a sacrifice to me when some of those folks have probably never slept even a single night by a warm stove.”

They started walking again. “Best we get some food out to them now,” Asa said mildly. “It'll be daylight soon, and they'll need to go below.”

Gant nodded, still not liking the idea of his friend sleeping in the barn. But when Asa took that tone with him, he knew better than to argue any further.

“So where has young Gideon been keeping himself lately?” Asa said. “I know he's working in the shop, but I never see him anymore in the evening. He hasn't had supper with us for days now.”

“Doc and Susan have needed help out at the farm lately,” Gant said. “There's a lot to be done out there. Gideon leaves right after he finishes up in the shop and goes out to lend them a hand.” He smiled a little. “I believe he also spends some of his time driving by a certain young Amish girl's place. That's just an assumption on my part, but Emma Knepp lives close to Gideon's family, you know.”

“Ah. So he's gone sweet on a girl.”

“I'd say so. But she's Amish.”

“Well, he is too.”

“But he's living
Englisch,
and that will be a problem if he tries to court an Amish girl.”

“Well, love has a way of overcoming problems sometimes.”

“Always the philosopher, eh?”

Asa shrugged. “You don't agree?”

Gant shoved his hands in his pockets and kept walking. “All I know is, even love isn't enough to bridge the divide between Amish and
Englisch.”

Asa looked at him but said nothing.

18

In dark days of bondage to Jesus I prayed
To help me to bear it, and He gave me His aid.

F
ROM THE SPIRITUAL
“I'
M
T
ROUBLED IN
M
IND
”

G
ant woke up before dawn, disoriented, his eyes still heavy with sleep.

Someone was pounding full force on the back door. He sat up, waiting for his eyes to focus before swinging his legs over the bed and pulling on his clothes.

The pounding continued, so fierce it seemed to be hammering inside his head. He stumbled to the door, but before he could throw the bolt, someone called out, “Captain Gant!”

Mac had already lunged ahead and stood waiting for Gant in the kitchen, uttering a low but constant growl. When Gant opened the door he found the boy, Silas, his face a tight mask. “We got a girl taken sick,” he said, his words spilling out in a hard rush.

Apparently Gideon had heard the commotion from his room over the shop. No more had Silas got the words out of his mouth than Gideon, still clad in his nightclothes, rushed up behind him. “What's going on?”

Gant swung the door wider. “Get in here, both of you. And keep your voices down! There's no need to wake up the whole town.”

Both youths stepped just inside the kitchen. “Asa said I should come get you,” Silas said, his voice low.

Finally, Gant's head began to clear.
Asa…Asa had slept in the barn overnight.

He closed the door. “So…who's sick?”

“Tabitha. Jalee's girl. She's been sick most all night.”

“Sick how?” Gant stared at him. “Throwing up sick? Fever sick? What?”

Silas rubbed his eyes. It looked to Gant as if the boy hadn't slept much, if at all.

“The fever. But Asa said she's hurting too.”

“Hurting?”

The other nodded. “Her hands and her legs.”

“How old is this girl?”

“About five or six, I reckon.”

“Sounds as if she needs a doctor,” Gideon put in.

Silas gave an angry shake of his head. “We can't do that! No way we can chance some white doctor seeing us here!”

“Well, the only doctor you're going to find around here is white, son,” Gant said, his tone dry. “But he just happens to be someone we can trust.”

After only a quick look at the child in the barn, Gant knew she was seriously ill and immediately turned to Gideon. “You'd best ride out and get Doc.”

Gideon looked at him. “You know he's not supposed to be treating anyone except the Amish.”

Gant leveled a long look on him. “We need him here. He'll come.”

Gideon waited but then gave a nod. He started for the barn door, stopping when Silas snapped, “Wait!”

The boy whipped around to face Gant. “This doctor—what makes you so sure you can trust him?”

Sullenness laced the boy's tone, and Gant had to wonder if the youth had ever trusted another human being.

“I'd stake my life on this man's honor,” Gant said. “And you can do the same. For now, you and the others stay out of sight. It'll be daylight soon.”

Silas shot him a dubious look but said nothing more.

Gant had taken care to move the fevered little girl away from the other runaways before Doc arrived. For more than a quarter of an hour now he'd stood watching Doc examine her, trying to assess the seriousness of the girl's condition by his friend's facial expressions.

A futile pursuit, as he should have known. David Sebastian was a master at concealing his thoughts.

Finally, Doc closed his medical case and walked over to where Gant was standing. Silas, who had stayed as close as Doc would allow during the examination, followed him.

Gant waited for Doc to fill them in, but Silas, who seemed to have no sense of the word
patience,
blurted out, “So what is it? What's wrong with her? Is it catching?”

Doc regarded the boy with a somewhat annoyed look. “I can't be sure.”

“What, then?” said Gant.

Doc looked at him with weary eyes. “Sorry to say, the child most likely has a serious form of rheumatism. She's a very sick little girl.”

“Isn't there something you can do?” Gant asked. “Some kind of medicine?”

Doc expelled a long breath. “Any number of treatments have been tried—quinine, different metals and medications—but none of them seem to help.” He gave a shrug of frustration. “I've seen some relief using salicylic acid, but there's no cure. And it seems particularly vicious when it strikes the young. I'll do what I can, but it's never enough.”

“Can she travel?” As soon as the words were out, Gant realized how callous he must have sounded. But he had to know. When the time came to move the runaways, they'd have little warning and would have to work fast.

Doc seemed to understand. “She can, yes, but she's going to be miserable whether she stays here or moves on. This is a disease that often comes in waves. An attack can last a few days or much longer. Sometimes weeks or months. And sometimes…well, sometimes it doesn't go away at all.”