Dorothy Garlock - [Wabash River] (11 page)

“It wasn’t easy for her.” Daniel’s stern words wiped the smile from Mike’s face.

“What’s this business about her name being Hester?”

“Have you seen the two fellows in peaked hats hanging around?”

“Leather peaked hats? Riding the mules?”

“Yeah. Have you seen them this morning?”

“About an hour ago. They were heading for the mill.”

Daniel muttered a curse and glared toward the mill. “What time did Turley leave?”

“Long before daylight. I sent food for the woman. Pap and milk for the babe. Coffin gave Turley a letter to a man in Springfield and left shortly after. I wish we could have kept Mercy out of this.”

“So do I.”

“About those fellows . . . what’ve they got to do with Mercy? Why were they at the school? By God, if they hurt her, I’ll fill their hide with buckshot!”

“They didn’t hurt her.”

Daniel studied his friend for a moment, seeing him once again standing close to Mercy with his hand on her arm, Mercy earnestly looking up into his face. He choked down the jealousy the vision evoked. Whether Mike was in love with Mercy or not, he was like one of the family and had the right to know what was going on.

Daniel told him in as few words as possible about the Baxters coming to the house, upending Mercy to see if she had the “Baxter spot.”

“They . . . what?” Mike asked as if he couldn’t believe his ears. “They looked . . . under her clothes?”

“She said they didn’t hurt her. The mole beneath her eyelid, the brown spot, and the fact that Farr found her on the Green River at the time the Baxter child was taken, are evidence that she is Hester Baxter.”

“Can it be true after all this time?” Mike murmured with a worried frown on his face.

“She thinks it is. That’s all that matters.”

“She’s ashamed to be kin to them, is that it?”

“Not all of it. They want her to go back to Kentucky with them. Their mother is on her deathbed, and her dying wish is to see her little lost girl. That’s the way they put it.”

“That’s a bunch of horseshit if I ever heard any! Why, hell! We’re not letting her go off alone with those two buzzard-eaters, even if she wants to!”

“Hell, no!”

“Get her away from here. Take her to Vandalia.”

“I suggested that. She won’t go. She’s afraid the Baxters will follow and be an embarrassment to the Quills. She thinks this is something she has to work out herself.”

“What can we do?”

“We’re going to wait and see what Mercy wants to do. It’ll take a little time for her to get used to the idea that she’s got blood kin. Then she’ll decide if she wants to see them or not. I’ll not tell her to do something that she may regret later.”

“If she decides to go, then, by God, I’ll go with her!” Mike’s jaws clamped shut, and he pounded his knotted fist into his palm.

The thought of anyone other than himself taking Mercy anywhere caused Daniel’s brows to draw together in a frown. The pulse jerked in his throat, and he cursed himself for being a jealous fool.

“If Mercy wants to go to Kentucky,
I’ll
take her. And I’ll make sure she comes back.”

“How can you leave here right now with Coffin sending runaways through? I look for this to be one of the main lines of the Underground Railway.”

“You and George and Turley will have to handle anything that happens while I’m gone.”

“What about Hammond Perry? That man hates everything about Quill’s Station. If he even suspects that the mill is the place known as Sugar Tree, he’ll watch it like a hawk watches a chicken.”

“I’m thinking he’ll show up in a day or two. He’s a mean bastard. It would be like him to grab some of the people out on the farm, just to show us he can, and to get back at Farr for the year he had to spend at Fort Dearborne after his attempt to have Farr hung for treason.”

“He’d be sure to get the legislators riled up if he kidnaps free folk in Illinois. Most of the Negroes here are second-generation freedmen like George. The rest, like the people out on your place and old Jeems and his boy, have papers,” Mike protested.

“Ha!” Daniel snorted. “Papers wouldn’t make any difference to Hammond Perry. He’d see Jasper’s boys as good breeding stallions, and Birdie, Gus’s daughter, as a brood mare. They’d be a nice addition to his breeding farm. Damn him to hell!”

“Breeding farm? My God! That’s the worst thing I ever heard of. It’s like he was raising cattle or horses.”

“That’s it. To Hammond Perry a Negro is no more than a dumb animal to work in the field. Hell! I don’t know the answer. I realize they can’t all be turned loose to fend for themselves. They don’t know how. But, by God, they shouldn’t be treated like animals.”

With that comment he stepped off the porch and headed for the mill.

T
he rhythmic thump of the mill wheel was a familiar sound to Daniel. The high whine of the saw told him that the mill wheel was being used to rip boards for Gavin McCourtney’s lumber business. It had become profitable to both Daniel and Gavin to share the mill. After George opened the flume gate and set the wheel to moving, he would leave the sawing to Gavin’s men. George knew as much about operating the mechanism of the mill and keeping it repaired as Daniel or Turley Blaine.

The Baxters’ mules were tied beneath the trees behind the mill. Daniel walked rapidly up the stone ramp to the room above where the millstones and the saw were operated by the wheel. If the Kentuckians mistreated George, there would be trouble.

“I ain’t ne’er heared such a racket in all my born days.” Bernie Baxter’s voice rose above the whine of the saw.

Daniel paused in the doorway. George, a heavy sack of flour on his shoulder, turned to face the Baxters. He had worked at the mill since age twelve, and at seventeen he was as tall as Daniel and almost as muscular.

“Then get the hell out,” George said as he eyed the two with taunting amusement. “You ain’t tied in here.”

George was a handsome youth with straight black hair and fine features. His skin was more like that of his Shawnee mother, a light reddish-brown, not black like his Negro father.

“Ya just better watch out who ye’r talkin’ to, boy. I ain’t a man ta take back talk.”

“Is that right? I’m just plumb scared!”

Bernie took a threatening step forward. “I ain’t taking sass from a—”

“From a what? A nigger? A Injun? I’m half of each,
white man.
” There was a hesitation in his voice when he said the words. “Take your choice, but be careful how you say it.”

George Washington was extremely proud. He knew what he was, and took pride in his heritage. To be sneered at raised his anger to the boiling point. He was smart enough, however, to know that if he engaged in a fistfight with a white man, even one such as stood before him now, could get him into serious trouble. But there were other ways to even a score with a white man who ill-used him. One had been known to step on a loose board and break a leg; the axle on another man’s wagon had broken despite a light load. The gates at one farm had been left open. It took the farmer a week to gather up his livestock after they had wandered miles from home. But these mysterious “accidents” were few; and Daniel, aware of the circumstances, considered them so well deserved that he never mentioned them to George.

“What are you doing here?” Daniel demanded from the doorway, thinking it time he intervened. The Baxters swung around to face him. “I thought I had made myself clear enough to you that I don’t want you hanging around.”

“Ya ain’t ownin’ the whole town,” Bernie said nastily.

“No, but I own this mill.”

“Well now, ain’t ya the high muck!”

“Hush up,” his brother ordered sharply. Then to Daniel, “We’re a-wantin’ a word with ya.”

“Go ahead.”

“Here?”

“Here. I’ve got work to do.”

“I’d jist as soon walk off a piece. That noise plumb hurts my ears.”

“That’s the sound of good, honest work. But if it offends your ears, come on.”

Daniel left the room. The Baxters followed. They walked back down the stone ramp to the ground level and on to stand beneath the tree where the mules were tied.

“Say what you came to say. I’ve wasted enough time on you the last few days.” Daniel eyes were stormy, his voice full of irritation.

Lenny spat before he spoke. “Nobody ask ya to put yore bill in, mister. What we got to say is ’bout Hester. Jist what air ya aimin’ to do ’bout our Sister?”

“I’m aiming to keep Mercy Quill as far away from you two as I can. It’s for her to decide if she wants to claim kin to you. You’ve already caused her to lose her school. Did you know that?”

Lenny ignored the question and spat again. “She knows she’s Hester. And me ’n’ Bernie know ya ain’t wantin’ us ’round. I ain’t a-meanin’ that.”

“Then what the hell
do
you mean?”

“The Baxters is decent, God-fearing folks. They is looked up to down on Mud Creek. Me ’n’ Bernie, bein’ Hester’s kin, ain’t likin’ what’s goin’ on here, a-tall.”

“No, we ain’t,” Bernie said. “If’n ya was down on Mud Creek, ya’d be strung up ’n’ feelin’ the lash on yore back fer what ya’ve done to Hester.”

Daniel was losing patience. He swore, using words he reserved for extreme occasions. Of the two Baxters, Bernie was the one who aggravated him the most. The force of his voice, as much as his words, betrayed his irritation.

“What the hell are you two muddleheads talking about? Get to the point.”

“I ain’t takin’ no name-callin’ from the likes a you.” Bernie’s heated tone matched Daniel’s.

“Hush up, Bernie. Me bein’ older’n ya are, ’n’ next to Hod ’n’ Wyatt at headin’ up the Baxters, I’ll be doin’ the talkin’.” Lenny planted his heavy boots far apart and crossed his arms over his chest. “We knowed ya stayed with Hester all night long with nary a soul around ta be knowin’ what ya done. Ya didn’t come out till mornin’.”

“What of it? I stayed last night, the night before, and I’ll stay again tonight.”

“See there! See there!” Bernie’s voice squeaked. He jumped up and down, his arms flopping at his side like the wings of a chicken who had just been beheaded. “I told ya he’d be braggin’ it up. Hester ain’t never goin’ ta get a decent man ta wed up with her if’n this gets out.”

“Mister, if’n Hod and Wyatt gets wind a this, ya’d better look out. We knows what goes on when a feller gets a sightly woman off to hisself. Bernie seen ya huggin’ up to Hester. Huggin’ leads ta kissin’, kissin’ leads ta begettin’ younguns. Ya better be knowin’ there ain’t no feller ruint a Baxter woman ’n’ lived ta brag on it.”

A look of intense anger came over Daniel’s face. His eyes, filled with rage, were astonishingly bright with it.

“You dirty, spying, low-lifed, mangy, stupid, muleheaded idiots!” he shouted. “I’ve taken about all I’m going to take from you. I advise you to get on those mules and head for Kentucky, or by God, you may not leave here at all.”

“Warn’t make no difference at-tall.” Lenny spoke calmly. “Hod and Wyatt knowed where we was comin’ ’n’ what fer. They’d be right up here to see ’bout us. Hod ’n’ Wyatt’ll get Hester if’n they come. They’d not mess around askin’ her nothin’, like we done. They know ’bout the mole ’n’ they’d see the Baxter spot on her butt. Me ’n’ Bernie figger Wyatt ’n’ Hod got plowin’ ta do ’n’ their women ’n’ younguns to do fer. We be already here ’n’ we’re goin’ to handle thin’s the best we know how.”

“The best you know how isn’t good enough. You’re making me want to break your scrawny necks,” Daniel said angrily. “I’ll tell you this, if it will ease your mind. There’s not a woman in the world I respect more than Mercy Quill, and I would die before I dishonored her.”

“Ha!” The word exploded from Bernie. “Then why warn’t thar but one light on?”

Daniel looked so furious that Bernie backed around to the other side of the mules. Daniel took a deep breath. He didn’t want to draw any more attention to the Kentuckians, but if they didn’t get out of his sight, he was going to split their heads. If he did that, he reasoned, it would be cause for more talk. Mercy would be the one to take the brunt of it. When he spoke, he directed his words to Lenny.

“I stayed the night with Miss Quill because she was afraid you would break into the house again. She needs time to consider the things you’ve said about her being your Sister. All these years she had thought of herself as Mercy Quill.” Daniel tried to speak calmly and in terms they would understand. “We were raised together in that house. The Quills have been parents to both of us. Now get this through your thick heads. I’m going to stand between Mercy and anyone who will try to hurt her. If I have to break your legs, crack your heads, or shoot you, I’ll do it. The best thing you can do is back off and give her time to decide what she wants to do. If she wants to go to Kentucky, I’ll abide by her decision.”

“We ain’t got no time, mister. We done swore ta Maw we’d find Hester ’n’ brin’ her so she can see her little girl afore she passes on.”

“I understand that. But give Miss Quill a few days to get used to the idea.”

“What’s he talkin’ ’bout, Lenny? What’s he mean abide? Abide what?” Bernie came out from behind the mule scratching his head.