Annie brought clean towels into the washroom, where her mother helped Emmeline bathe little Lucy and pick the small twigs from her hair.
“We’re going to need to use butter to smooth out the matted tangles,” Annie’s mother instructed, “and fresh water for Emmeline’s bath.”
Annie nodded. The caked mud they had scrubbed off the young girl’s body had turned the tub almost as brown as the child’s skin.
So different from her own.
And yet the tender look Emmeline gave Lucy was just as strong and full of love as the look Annie’s mother gave her. A fact she pondered while retrieving the needed items to clean up their guests.
“We ran, the two of us, on foot, and hid along the clay riverbanks till we could run for the trees,” Emmeline told them as she washed herself with a sudsy cloth.
“How did you know which way to go?” Annie asked, working the clean butter into Lucy’s hair with her hands. She’d never touched a black person’s hair before. The texture was course and wiry, but the tight spirals did soften with the butter, enabling them to drop down and touch her shoulders.
“Moses sang us a song leadin’ the way,” Emmeline said, her face relaxing for the first time since she arrived.
“Moses?” Annie asked, remembering Kitch had spoken of a woman by the same name. A former slave. A woman who helped slaves escape by singing encoded songs to signal when it was safe to run. “Did she come with you?”
“Moses took us as far as Pennsylvania then put us on the train tha’ came here,” Emmeline explained.
Lucy smiled and sang in a soft, high-pitched voice, “Wade in the water, wade in the water, children, wade in the water, God’s a-going to trouble the water.”
Annie frowned. “What does it mean?”
“The song is ’bout the Israelites’ escape from Egypt in the book of Exodus,” Emmeline explained. “Moses led them through to the Promised Land just like our Moses leads us to ours, the land of the free.”
The woman they described sounded like a brave soul, who risked her own life, again and again, to help others. Someone not afraid to do what she believed was right.
“I’d like to meet this Moses,” Annie declared, then gasped when she realized what that would mean. More danger. “What are the words to the rest of the song?”
“There are many verses,” Emmeline said, and smiled. “One told us to hide in the riverbanks to escape the dogs chasing our trail.”
Annie’s stomach clenched. “Did you say…dogs?”
After both Emmeline and Lucy were given a clean change of clothes and fed a generous helping of bread, cheese, and dried beef, Annie led them up the stairs to the secret room behind the hall bookcase, where her grandfather, who had built the house, would retreat to hide his cigar smoke from Grandma.
The small “parlor” had remained a family joke for anyone who needed time alone, and the perfect place to house their new guests, even though Emmeline had insisted that she and Lucy would be fine in the barn. But Annie’s mother wouldn’t hear of it and insisted they’d be much warmer and more comfortable upstairs.
Until they could make it to the ferry. Isaiah wasn’t scheduled to work for another two nights. Emmeline and Lucy would need to stay with Annie’s family until then.
Her mother introduced the newcomers to her father and Will as soon as they arrived home from the cabinet shop. Then Annie’s family gathered around the dinner table, and her father said grace.
“Lord, give us the wisdom to discern Your will for our lives and for the lives of those we harbor under our roof. We humbly ask for Your protection and guidance. Thank You for this food before us, and as Thanksgiving approaches, help us to remember to be thankful for all our blessings and give to others as You have so generously given to us.”
“Amen,” Annie chorused along with them at the end, and shifted in her seat.
Could God truly be counted on to protect them? What was His position on slavery? Surely a loving God couldn’t fault them for taking in Emmeline and little Lucy, even if it was against the law. Not if He was a God of compassion.
“I know we said we wouldn’t take in any more runaways,” Annie’s mother said as she passed a plate of roasted potatoes and herbed carrots. “But they truly had nowhere else to go.”
“We can’t let Emmeline and Lucy be separated,” Annie agreed. “They need each other. Families ought to be allowed to stay together.”
Will nodded. “I thought the slaves in the South were shown basic human decency.”
“Some are,” her father said. “Your grandfather owned a couple of slaves before moving up here, but he always treated them fairly. He didn’t break up families.”
“What happened to Grandpa’s slaves?” Annie asked, intrigued. She’d never had slaves or servants.
“Your grandfather sold them when he needed money to move my mother, my two sisters, and myself north, to New Jersey. He’d inherited the land we live on from a great-uncle. After buying the supplies to build the house and barn, there wasn’t money left over to repurchase slaves or hire help. We learned to do for ourselves.”
“As should the South,” Will said vehemently.
“Will!” Annie’s mother scolded. “It’s not for us to judge how others should do things.”
Annie frowned. “Would you have us stay neutral?”
Her father finished chewing a bite of stewed chicken and set down his fork. “Your great-grandfather fought in the Revolutionary War, which founded this country. I had thought it our patriotic and Christian duty to obey our government, as long as it remained true to God’s Word. But when I increasingly see the two divided into opposite sides, one has to question which he ought to follow.”
“Dad, do you mean—?” Will asked, his face expectant as he awaited an answer.
“Of course, there are dangers,” her father continued. “If caught, we must be prepared to pay the consequences.”
Annie looked around the table at each of their faces, trying to make sense out of what was being said. “Does this mean we’re going to become a station on the Underground Railroad?”
Her parents exchanged a glance, and then her father’s eyes twinkled. “What do you think, Annie? Should we?”
Her father had never asked her opinion before. He sought out Will’s opinion on social issues, but never hers. After all, women usually had no say on such matters. She sat up straight in her chair, honored, and with a surge of confidence ricocheting through her entire being, she thought of Kitch, Emmeline, and little Lucy, and met her father’s gaze head-on.
“Yes, Father, I—I believe we should.”
Isaiah stood on the wharf, waiting for both the ferry and the Morrisons to arrive. Squinting, he gazed toward the First Presbyterian Church. Reverend Strong kept watch over the area from the bell tower, the tallest point in Jersey City. He had sent word through Louisa that he would light a lantern and place it in the top window when it was safe for Annie and Will to bring Emmeline and Lucy down to the docks. By this time of night, Annie and her brother should all be hiding in the woods, waiting for the signal. As was he.
There!
The lantern had been lit, giving off a bright, golden glow that could be seen for miles. Turning his gaze toward the tree line, he searched for Annie’s cloaked party of travelers.
“Did you hear the news?” a fellow crewman asked, coming to stand beside him.
“What news?” Isaiah asked hesitantly.
“We have a new captain,” the crewman said ominously and gave him a pointed look. “I thought you ought to know.”
A new captain? What happened to the other one? And how will that affect tonight’s mission?
“Thanks,” Isaiah said appreciatively. But he couldn’t suppress the sudden prickling sensation running down his arms, warning him to be careful.
The lanterns lighting the approaching ferry drifted closer across the river, and Isaiah’s pulse kicked up a notch. Would the new captain be sympathetic to the cause? And if not, how was he to sneak Emmeline and Lucy on board without being seen?
Once the ferry dropped anchor and the ropes had been tied around the pier posts, the crewmen off-loaded and reloaded several wooden crates, carrying various shipments of supplies. The captain must have remained inside the front steering cabin.
Keeping watch, Isaiah spotted the silhouettes of several figures emerge from the edge of the trees, then stop.
Glancing about in all directions, Isaiah made sure the coast was clear, then whistled the tune “Wade in the Water,” the signal he and Annie had agreed on to let them know they should come out of hiding and run toward the dock.
Except there were three figures instead of the four he’d expected.
“Where’s Will?” he asked as Annie ran toward him, carrying Lucy, whom she transferred into his arms.
“He and my father never came home from the cabinet shop. Mother has poor eyesight in the dark, and so that only left me to show Emmeline and Lucy the way.”
“That was a brave thing to do,” Isaiah said, his tone filled with admiration.
“Me? Brave?” Annie shook her head and with a smile said, “Lucy is the brave one. She took my hand and ran so fast, I couldn’t turn back even if I wanted to.”
“Is that so, Lucy?” Isaiah asked the child in his arms.
Lucy nodded, and with wide eyes that spoke of uncertain danger, she sang softly,
“Oh, go down, Moses, go down,
Way down into Egypt’s land,
Tell old Pharaoh,
Let my people go!”
“Emmeline, watch your step,” Isaiah said hurriedly as he lifted the lid to the trapdoor leading to the secret cargo hold in the back of the boat. “Once you climb down, I’ll hand Lucy to you.”
However, before he could do anything, Annie whispered, “Behind you!”
Isaiah spun around with the child in his arms, and tightened his hold as he locked gazes with a man with white hair and a beard whom he had never seen before. But the stranger’s unmistakable hat and uniform gave away his identity. Isaiah froze and judged the distance between them to be about ten feet. Lucy’s soft but passionate song had most likely drawn the man’s attention. Or Isaiah’s own whistling.
For a moment, they all just stared at each other, and Isaiah swallowed hard, adrenaline surging through every limb. The captain’s testimony against them would be enough to send both his and Annie’s families to jail. But the older man’s gaze shifted from Isaiah toward the girl in his arms, then over to the open hatch in front of them, where Emmeline’s head poked through.
Isaiah tensed, ready to spring off the boat and lead the child to safety, but the captain turned his back on them and said in a low voice over his shoulder, “I saw nothing.”
A wave of relief washed over him as Isaiah met Annie’s gaze.
“He’s letting us go?” she asked, her eyes incredulous as the captain walked away.
Isaiah nodded. “Quick! Let’s get Lucy below.”
Annie gave the child a quick hug; then Isaiah handed her down the hatch to her mother and closed the lid.
“Will they be safe?” Annie asked.
“I won’t let anything happen to them,” Isaiah promised, and extended his hand to help her step back off the boat and onto the dock. “Do you trust me, Annie?”
She glanced down at her gloved hand in his, and in the soft glow of the lantern light, he saw her expression soften. “Yes, I suppose I must, if we are to continue working together.”
“Does that mean…?” he asked, searching her face for an answer.
Annie nodded. “Our family has decided to become a permanent station on the Underground Railroad.”
“Great news,” Isaiah assured her. He knew he should let go of her hand, but found he couldn’t. Instead, he bent his head and kissed it. Then she pulled away, a smile on her lips, and he added, “I look forward to seeing you often.”
“I look forward to seeing you too,” Annie said, and gazed up at him shyly. “But what shall we say if other people take notice?”
Isaiah grinned. “The sheriff already thinks I’m courting you. I say we stick to that excuse.”
Annie’s smile broadened. “If you say so, Mr. Hawkins.”
He would have said more, continued their little banter, but the ferry whistle blew, signaling their departure, and the crew came out to untie the lines.
His last glimpse of Annie showed her running across the field toward the safety of the dark tree line, her long cloak billowing out behind her. But halfway across the field, she stopped and reached out her hand to give him a small wave.
And even though she couldn’t see, he smiled in return.
Annie’s heart raced as she ran up the hill and through the trees toward home. She tried to convince herself it was from the exertion, but by the time she arrived at her own house and into the waiting arms of her anxious family, she knew the cause was due to something else.
Someone else.
None other than the intriguing Isaiah Hawkins.