Savage Flames (18 page)

“Now let us see that honey,” Wolf Dancer said, sensing Lavinia’s uneasiness at her daughter and Running Bear’s interest in
one another.

He knew that it was natural for a young boy and girl to have these sorts of infatuations, and knew that it would probably
be short-lived, as had his own infatuations with young girls in years past.

He took the deerskin and opened it, gasping at how much honey had been collected.

And then a bee buzzed out from the bag, making a quick escape.

They all laughed, but even though Lavinia was laughing, her mind went back to what she and Wolf Dancer had been discussing.

She was almost afraid for night to fall; with it would come a test of her true feelings for WolfDancer and the life he was
offering her. If she could stand by and watch the mansion burn, and accept its destruction without feeling much about it,
then she would know that those savage fires had burned away the past, leaving her life clear for a new future.

Chapter Thirty

A great flame follows

A little spark.

—Dante Alighieri

Lavinia felt many things when she arrived at the Price Plantation, mostly sadness over the loss of her husband.

The moon was high above her as she stepped from the canoe, with Wolf Dancer’s help. As she stood beside him on the riverbank,
she stared at the huge mansion, while Joshua and the warriors that had accompanied them on their mission stepped from their
canoes.

Wearing a heavier buckskin dress than she usually wore, Lavinia trembled, not so much from the cold as from knowing what would
soon transpire. The plans were to burn the mansion to the ground, after finding Hiram and removing him from it.

She had not been told what was planned for him, but she knew that tonight all of his cruelty would end.

The slaves were going to be given their freedom and allowed to go either to the Seminole village or elsewhere.

She was glad that their days of fear and hurt would be behind them. They would be freed of all the pain and humiliation they
had found under Hiram Price’s rule since he had taken charge of their destiny.

After tonight, their destiny would be their own!

Once all of the warriors had left their canoes and gathered around Lavinia, Joshua, and Wolf Dancer, they set out. Nothing
was said. They had already been instructed as to what to do.

First they would go to the slaves’ quarters and tell them the good news.

Then they would enter the mansion, find Hiram, and take him from it. Lavinia was to go inside to get what she wanted of her
possessions, then leave and let the torches be lit to burn down the mansion.

Lavinia’s gaze went to the windows of the study, and then slid upward to Hiram’s bedroom windows. She saw no lamplight anywhere.

Her spine stiffened. What if he wasn’t there? And why hadn’t the servants lit the lamps in his absence, even if he was gone?

Perhaps they had all gone to bed early. Maybe that was why there were no lights on in the mansion.

She saw Wolf Dancer nod silently to his warriors. She knew it was the sign to move onward and take their places around the
building.

Then Wolf Dancer nodded at Lavinia and Joshua. Lavinia lifted the skirt of her dress from the dew-dampened grass and ran between
Joshua and Wolf Dancer until they reached the slaves’ quarters.

Soft light shine from the cabin windows. Voicescould be heard, and the smell of beans cooking wafted out to them.

Joshua ran on ahead of Wolf Dancer and Lavinia. Tears came to Lavinia’s eyes as Joshua hurried from one cabin to another,
quickly explaining what was about to transpire.

Sudden laughter could be heard, and shouting. “Praise de Lord!” She could hear some people thanking Joshua and knew hugs were
being exchanged.

One family after another left the slave cabins and soon were huddled together, their eyes wide and bright as they looked at
Wolf Dancer. They could see the many warriors stationed at various places around the plantation grounds.

But when they saw Lavinia, they broke into large smiles, for Joshua had taken the time to tell each of them what she and Wolf
Dancer were offering them. Total freedom, whether they went with Wolf Dancer and Lavinia back to the Seminole village or elsewhere.

Several women and children broke away and ran to Lavinia. They hugged her, their tears mingling with hers as she brushed soft
kisses across their brows.

Wolf Dancer stepped closer to Lavinia, swept an arm around her waist, and as the women and children returned to stand with
the men, he began telling them that they would be welcome in his village, but it was up to each of them to make his or her
own decision.

When they finally realized what they were being offered, they clamored around Lavinia and Wolf Dancer, giving them fierce
hugs.

Finally Lavinia held up a hand for silence. “It is truly up to you where your freedom will take you,” she said, her voice
breaking with emotion. “As Chief Wolf Dancer has said, you can either go with us to the Seminole village and live where I
am planning to live as the wife of this wonderful Seminole chief, or you can go and try to find a decent life elsewhere. The
most important thing is that you are free now to make your own decisions. I am so sorry for the hell that Hiram Price has
put you through since my husband’s death. I wrongly neglected you while I kept to my room after my husband’s burial, trying
to avoid Hiram. I was wrong. I apologize.”

Joshua stepped forward. “You have heard Lavinia and Chief Wolf Dancer,” he said, looking from one to the other. “We can’t
wait long for your decision. We have Hiram Price to deal with, and then it is Lavinia’s and Wolf Dancer’s plan to burn de
mansion.”

That brought gasps of wonder from the crowd.

“Yes, I will even help set fire to it myself,” Lavinia said with determination. “It has stood for all of the wrong things.
It won’t ever again stand like an overseer, looking down on the slaves’ cabins and the fields where you have worked your flesh
to the bone. It must go.”

They all gave a loud cheer.

Lavinia grew pale and looked up at the mansion. She expected Hiram to lean out of his bedroom window to see what was happening.

“You don’t have to worry ’bout Massa Hiram hearin’ our excitement,” said Caleb, stepping away from his wife Nada. “He ain’t
been here fo’ two days. Aftah he threw your clothes from de window, he took off on his white mare and hasn’t returned. We
finished collectin’ the tobacco and placed it in the tobacco barn. Since then, we have just waited in our cabins to see what
de crazy man might do next. We were tempted to leave, like dose who ran away, but we were too afraid that he’d come and fin’
us and shoot us. Dat’s why we’re still here, Missie Lavinia. Dat’s de only reason except hopin’ to see you again. We’ve missed
you, Missie Lavinia. Lots.”

Lavinia now noticed that many slaves were missing; they must have escaped since her departure. She could only imagine how
furious Hiram must have been to discover not only her but also half his workers missing. She knew that the slaves who were
still at the plantation were very fortunate not to have been shot after Hiram learned she was gone.

“We gathered your clothes and saved dem fo’ you,” Nada said, smiling sweetly at Lavinia. Then her smile faded. “But dey ain’t
worth nothin’, Missie Lavinia. Massa Hiram tore and cut dem all with de scissors until no one could evah wear dem again. But
since dey were yours, we saved dem for you any ways.” Stunned at this turn of events, Lavinia gazed up at Wolf Dancer, then
looked at Caleb.

“You said he’s been gone for two days,” she said. “Do you know where he went?”

“He done told us to finish de harvest and dat he’d be home again soon, but he ain’t come home yet. So’s like I already said,
we put de harvested tobaccointo de tobacco barn and just stayed in our homes and waited,” he said. “Where have you been, Missie
Lavinia?” He gazed at Wolf Dancer, then at Lavinia. “You’ve been at de Seminole village? Is dat where Dorey is? And Twila?”

“Yes, they are both safe in the Seminole village, and that’s where I am going once…once…I see to the burning of
the mansion,” she said. “We brought enough canoes so that you can journey back to the village with us if you like.”

“But de white panther…de alligators…de snakes,” Nada said, her eyes wide. “Is it safe?”

“When you are with Chief Wolf Dancer and his warriors, you are absolutely safe,” Lavinia assured her. “We’re going inside
the mansion now…Wolf Dancer, myself, and Joshua. By the time we leave, you must have made your decision, for we will
leave quickly once we’ve set fire to the mansion.”

They all nodded.

Lavinia felt a weakness in her knees as she walked with Wolf Dancer and Joshua inside the house. It was dark and strangely
ghostly inside. There was no lamplight or fire’s glow from the massive fireplace in the parlor.

“I’ll find a lamp and light it,” Lavinia said, knowing exactly where to look. She soon found a lamp and touched a flame to
its wick.

With the lamp supplying enough light to see by, Lavinia looked around each room, and was stunned speechless by the destruction
everywhere.

Hiram had left nothing of value untouched.

Beautiful crystal vases lay in splinters across the lush carpet.

Expensive paintings had been taken from the walls and slashed with a knife.

Lavinia was horrified by the damage that Hiram had done.

“My room,” she gasped out, looking up the winding staircase. “My clothes; my bedroom.”

Although Nada had said that many of her clothes had been cut and torn by Hiram, she wanted to see if anything was left.

Clutching the lamp, and with Joshua and Wolf Dancer following her, she went up the stairs and down the hall to her bedroom.

When she entered it, she saw the full extent of Hiram’s hatred for her. She realized now that she had been wrong to think
he would want her as his woman after all that had happened.

No man who expected to bring a woman back to her own room would destroy everything he could, as Hiram had done to her personal
belongings.

What clothes he hadn’t thrown out the window lay in shreds across the floor, and even her mattress had been slashed, until
the cotton batting fell away from it and was scattered all across the floor.

“My Lord…” Lavinia gasped, feeling faint.

Wolf Dancer moved to one side of her while Joshua went to the other, both holding her until she was steady on her feet.

“And I thought he was looking for me,” Lavinia said, finding grim humor in all of this. “I had beenso afraid that he would
do anything to find me, and all along, he hated me so much he would never want me near him.”

“He will return,” Joshua said in a growl. “Remember the harvest and the amount of money he will get from it. And…he
probably plans to come back and kill de slaves if he has no interest in stayin’ here any longer. Dat’s sure how it looks,
since he destroyed all dat he could get his hands on in de house.”

“We will finish what he started and make certain he has no place to return to,” Wolf Dancer said sternly.

“What ’bout de tobacco plants de slaves worked so hard to harvest?” Joshua asked, searching Wolf Dancer’s eyes.

“We will take the tobacco to my village and find use for it,” Wolf Dancer said, smiling.

“I just want to get out of here and put all of this unhappiness behind me,” Lavinia said as she once again looked at what
remained of her clothes and precious belongings.

She went to the table beside her bed where she had kept her mother’s Bible.

Opening the drawer, she gasped with horror when she found it ripped to shreds.

“Even this?” she cried, reaching down and touching what was left of the Bible. “He knew I would come back for my mother’s
Bible. He wanted to make certain I would never have it.”

She gazed at Wolf Dancer. “All of this is the work of a madman,” she said.

She hurriedly left the room, and Joshua and Wolf Dancer followed her.

They thought she was going downstairs, but instead she made a turn in the corridor and went to another room.

They stood just inside the door as Lavinia moved slowly around Hiram’s room, which had not been touched at all. She opened
the chifforobe and discovered that all of his clothes were there.

It did look like he would be returning.

Then she saw something sticking out from beneath the bed. It was a blanket wrapped around something long and bulky. She bent
to her knees, set the lamp on the floor, and reached beneath the bed. She pulled out the blanket.

When she unfolded the blanket and saw what was there, she gasped and felt the color drain from her face. “Oh, my Lord,” she
said as Wolf Dancer knelt quickly at her side.

She looked over and saw the anger in Wolf Dancer’s eyes. “A bow…and…arrows,” she said. “This is what he used to
kill Virgil.”

“And to shoot me,” Joshua added.

Wolf Dancer picked up one of the arrows and ran his hand slowly over the shaft. “Where did he get arrows like the ones used
by my people?” he asked. “I know he wasn’t ever on my island, or anywhere near it.”

“Then he had to have gotten them from someone who has the same type of arrow as yours,” Lavinia said.

She swallowed hard, remembering the full horrorof the moment when she had seen Hiram carrying Virgil with the arrow in Virgil’s
chest.

“These arrows and Joshua’s testimony should convince Colonel Cox of what Hiram has done,” she said angrily. “Surely he will
arrest Hiram!”

Then she looked intently into Wolf Dancer’s eyes. “But that isn’t enough to satisfy my need for vengeance,” she hissed. “What
we have planned is what will truly tear at Hiram’s sanity. We will leave absolutely nothing for him when he returns. We will
burn not only the mansion but also every building that stands on this plantation, including the slaves’ quarters. Everything
he did will be for nothing! And when he does return and sees the destruction, he will experience the true feeling of loss.”

“This is only the beginning of his comeuppance,” Wolf Dancer said, laying the arrows back with the bow and getting to his
feet.

He looked into Lavinia’s eyes and gently placed his hands on her shoulders. “I will send Joshua to bring my warriors to set
fire to the mansion,” he said. He searched her eyes. “Are you certain this is what you want? This home is yours. Everything
on this land is yours.”

“That is why I want to destroy it all,” Lavinia answered, swallowing hard. “It stands for all the wrong things. An empty piece
of land is better than this huge mansion which has brought nothing but heartache into my life.”

“Then, Joshua, go for several of my warriors,” Wolf Dancer said. “By the time you return, lanternswill be lit. Those will
be used to set fire to the house interior.”

Joshua nodded and ran from the room.

There was a strange sort of quietness as Lavinia and Wolf Dancer moved through the house, finding and lighting the wicks of
various lanterns and lamps.