Underground Captive (44 page)

    
             
Nicki's blood was hot with a bitter fury.  He had the gall to stand there and calmly suggest that she was untrustworthy?  She wanted to rake her nails across his smug face.

    
             
Jared started to respond to her angry outburst when the ear splitting racket of a wagon, rolling pell mell down the path from the direction of the stables, came straight toward them.

    
             
"Massa Jared!  Massa Jared!" Rags called, pulling in the two spent horses just inches from where they stood.

             
"Rags!" Nicollette exclaimed incredulously, her eyes widening.  "W-what are you doing here?"

             
Jared pushed her gently aside and rushed up to Rags, who jumped off the

wagon.

             
What was Rags doing at Highland Acres?  Certainly her Pa Pa hadn't sent him.  Charles didn't know the horse farm existed.  How could Rags know?  Unless, he was betraying her Pa Pa as Jared did. 
Non
!

             
Mon Dieu
!  Not Rags!  Was that how Jared knew about slaves who wanted their freedom?  And what about Captain Blossom?  Did Rags assist him also? 

             
Damn Rags.  Damn Jared.  Damn them all!

             
"
Rags!
"  Nicki furiously began again, but the slave’s next words halted her.

    
             
"Massa Jared, Massa Falgout done beat Emma 'most to death," Rags cried.  "She come to Crescent Wood last night and Zeke done hid her till it was safe to bring her here."

    
             
"What were ye doing at Crescent Wood, Rags?" Jared asked, concerned that something may have happened to Charles.  Rags never stayed at the plantation overnight.

    
             
"Massa Charles done ask me to stay there and help with some of the cotton plantin'.  Emma's in the back of the wagon, Massa Jared."

    
             
Jared went to the back of the wagon and, brushing aside the burlap, saw a small girl of about thirteen, her belly swollen with child.

    
             
Nausea rising within her, Nicki gasped and recoiled at the still form. 

             
Jared climbed aboard the wagon and the movements of it caused the girl to moan and open her eyes.  They were filled with terror and pain.  
             

             
"H-h-hurt."

    
             
"Jared!  S-she looks like she's about to give birth!  Do something!"

    
             
"I can't take the chance of moving her, Nicki.  Run to the house and bring Mary and Elizabeth here.  Tell them to bring some clean linen.  Hurry!" 

             
Without hesitating, Nicki picked up her skirts, turned on her heels and started running.

             
"What happened, Rags?" Jared asked.

             
"He's done raped her, Massa Jared," Rags answered, his shoulders sagging with grief.  "She ain't nothin' but twelve years old."

    
             
Nicki was back before she was missed.  She carried clean linen as did Mary and Elizabeth.  They reached the wagon just in time to hear the girl give a bloodcurdling scream as a near white infant was expelled from her body.

    
             
The girl's chest heaved convulsively then she lay still.  Open cuts and huge welts covered her small body.  Her eyes rolled back in her head and she gasped, sucking in as much air as her fragile body would take.  Closing her eyes, her head dropped to the side as she drew in the last breath she would ever breathe.

    
             
Elizabeth went into action, and rushed to pick up the baby, but it, too, was dead.

    
             
Nicki stood in stunned horror, her eyes riveted to the wagon, unable to look away.  She watched as Jared, his face contorted with rage, took a sheet from Mary and covered the bodies of Emma and her stillborn son.

    
             
Jared held onto the side of the wagon until his knuckles were drained of all color.  "The bastard!" he stormed.  "She was just a child!"  He looked at Rags.

    
             
The big man's body shook, his grief racking him with sobs.  "She was my daughter, Massa Jared."  Rags cried unashamedly.  "The auctioneer split us up.  He done sold me to Massa Charles an' my Liza to Massa Falgout.  My Liza was already heavy wid my issue when Massa Falgout bought her.  He's done married her off to somebody else an' she's done had four more babies." 

    
             
"Come, Rags, I'll help ye bury yer girl," Jared said softly, his voice breaking.

    
             
"No, Massa Jared.  That'll be my job.  Ah'll bury my daughter an' Massa Falgout's son.  Ah knows where the burial yod is."  Without another word, Rags climbed aboard the wagon and started off behind the stables, where a small cemetery was located a mile in the distance.

    
             
Jared stood watching in silence, his face unreadable, as the wagon drew away from them.  Then he turned to Nicki.

    
             
Her eyes, wide and violet in color now, spilled tears down her cheeks.  Jared enclosed her in his arms and she shivered in his embrace, crying uncontrollably.  How could this have happened?  If this had been the daughter of a plantation owner, the cry for justice over this horrible act would have come from everyone. 
Mais non
!  People couldn't condone this.  Human life was valuable, no matter the color of the person. 

             
Mon Dieu
, forgive me!
             

             
She thought back to all the arguments she and Jared had over slavery.  Is this why he had resorted to stealing slaves?  Because of people like Edmond Falgout?  But definitely not all slave owners mistreated and murdered their people.  Her Pa Pa certainly didn't.

             
Dieu de ciel
!  Had she been so wrong?

    
             
"Oh, Jared," she said, still sobbing.  "The baby was
white
! That child was horribly violated!"  Her despair and astonishment turned to anger and outrage.  "Jared, get the authorities.  This should be reported.  My father will help!"  She started walking toward the house.

    
             
"Nicki!" he said, catching her by the arm.  "There's nothing ye can do! Falgout
owned
Emma.  She was his property.  His chattel.  Like his dogs and his horses."

    
             
"But she wasn't a dog or a horse, Jared," Nicki protested.  "She was a human being.  A child!  I know there are laws prohibiting excessive punishments of the slaves.  My father explained them to me.  And if that poor young girl died from anything, it was more from the beating than from giving birth.  Oh, Jared, I feel so helpless."

    
             
"Ye've just had a taste of the reality of the world we live in, Nicki.  Aye, there are laws prohibiting excessive punishments of slaves.  But they're only on the books.  Punishment of slaves is meted out at the owners whim."

    
             
"But not all slave owners are that cruel, Jared," Nicki said with some justification.  "My father isn't."

    
             
"Nay, Charles isn't, Nicollette," Jared conceded, dropping her arm.  "Most plantation owners know the value of slaves.  Slaves are their livelihood.  A healthy slave makes a wealthy planter.  So they treat their slaves with fairness.  It's the scurrilous swine like Falgout who are the exception.  Yet, one handing out bread and the other giving out stone still doesn't justify the ownership of one human being over the other!"

    
             
Nicki didn't respond.  She looked at her surroundings and realized they had walked to the front of the house.  Mary had made it to the front also.  She was there with a pitcher of cool lemonade, which she placed on the table between the two chairs on the gallery.

    
             
"This might 'elp the mood a bit, Master Jared," Mary said, tears streaming down her chubby cheeks.

    
             
"Thank ye, Mary." Jared followed Nicki up the stairs.  He drew in a tired breath as he looked out over the wind swept land.  Then he pulled out a chair from the table opposite from where Nicki had already seated herself and sat down.

    
             
"Have I been so wrong, Jared?" Nicki asked softly, her eyes downcast.

    
             
"Nay, Nicki.  Just misinformed," Jared answered gently.  And overly protected, he thought.  How could she possibly know about some of the blatant cruelties committed on slaves by their owners?  She was so naive she actually believed that one law ap
plied to all. 

             
Get the authorities!  They'll avenge Emma's death!
 
Falgout will report her as a runaway and a poster will go up with a warrant for her return and that will be that.  The authorities won't even check to see if she's really missing or if she's dead
.

So much for the law
.

    
             
The events of the hour so affronted Jared’s sensibilities that a consuming desire to bring Falgout to his knees momentarily replaced his insatiable hate for Ricard.  Falgout!  The pom
pous, overbearing, strutting peacock.  'Twas no secret that his slaves feared and hated him.

             
A plan formed in Jared's mind.

    
             
He needed the help of Captain Blossom.  Since the Captain's discovery by Charles Duplantier last year, his boat, the Magnolia Blossom, had come to be known as The Ghost Ship, slipping undetected in and out of plantation landings like a phantom.  Absolutely no clues were left that it had been there, other than the fact that twenty to forty slaves had disappeared from various plantations.

    
             
Captain Blossom was brave, smart, daring and in the same business Jared

was in--the business of freeing slaves.  Falgout's plantation was situated closer to the riverbanks than most others were, which made it easier for Jared to implement his plan.

    
             
The only ones who knew of the captain's activities were Zeke and Rags.  The captain used them the way Jared did--to get word to and from them about slaves desiring to be free.  All Zeke and Rags had to do was effect a meeting be
tween the captain and Jared.  A tall order.  But Jared felt sure it could be accomplished.  Rags and Zeke were as intelligent as they were loyal.  And they were very loyal.

    
             
"Maybe I've misjudged you," Nicki continued.  "There's almost always a reason why people do the things they do."

    
             
Unexplained hope burgeoned in Jared’s heart.  "What do ye mean, Nicki?"

    
             
"I mean I really don't know what goes on behind the scenes of other plantations," Nicki responded as tenderly as he.  "If poor Emma is indicative of what's routine I-I can understand why you're trying to help free the slaves.  Although I don't agree with your methods."

    
             
"Thank ye, Nicki, for understanding.  That's more than ye did yesterday.  Maybe in the future ye'll agree that my methods are the only way.  After all, I can't walk up to the planters and ask them to set their slaves free, can I?"

    
             
Nicki looked at him a long moment.  She didn't respond right away and when she did it was with another question.  "Have you delivered a baby before?"

    
             
Jared arched an eyebrow and looked at her with a half-smile.  "I don't

think I'm qualified to deliver babies.  What made ye ask such a question?"

             
"You seemed to know that it was Emma's time."

    
             
"Well, I've helped with the foals.  I always know when the mares are ready to foal.  I guess I instinctively knew it was...it was Emma's time," he said haltingly, remembering poor Emma.

    
             
"I see.  Where's Morgan?" Nicki asked, again changing the subject.  "I saw you talking to him when I came out earlier."