The breeze, the steady afternoon breeze, swept over the Marketplace. I sat with my heart in my throat watching my sister be sold off.
“Fifty pounds!”
That voice was Cells’s. He hadn’t given up.
But then another bid fifty-five.
The numbers dueled. It finally stopped with Cells calling out seventy-six pounds.
That was all my money plus more. Sixteen pounds I did not have, that was the difference in keeping my sister.
Cells had won, and he led Kitty by her tied ropes from the Marketplace. When they crossed the road and stood by the carriage, he put his coat on her, then lifted my sister to me.
My friend climbed into the driver’s seat. I put my hand on his arm. I stared into his gentle pale eyes.
He put my palm to the seat. “It’s not safe.”
The man snapped his reins and made the beast move.
I untied my sister and hummed to her.
She didn’t sing back. I stopped too.
It was a long silent drive before we made it to Cells’s house. Kitty jumped when he tried to help her down.
“I have you, Kitty. It’s me, Dolly. I’ll protect you.”
She looked at me with soulless eyes.
“Inside, Dorothy. It’s not safe. I need to hear the rest of your plan.”
Muscles aching, maybe ripping, I struggled but carried my swallow into his house.
“Take her to the small bedroom down the hall. Get her cleaned up. You clean up too. I can’t stand to see you like this.”
He walked away.
Part of me felt horrible for making him choose. Part of me hoped this might help him stay out of the lukewarm spittle the priest preached about.
Hobbling all the way, I fetched water from the pump room and gathered towels.
I took away Cells’s stained jacket and mopped at the rope burns on her wrists. “I’m here, Kitty.”
When I cleaned her cuts, I noticed a discharge near her thighs.
Kitty’s terror had been complete. She’d suffered so. Mamaí had put the valerian tincture in my sack. I wondered about giving Kitty some of that root to sleep, but I wouldn’t trap her in a nightmare. I might take some, once I knew we were safe. I was used to the terror that filled my lids.
“Dorothy,” Cells called from the hall.
I kissed Kitty’s brow. “You’re safe now, sister. You’re safe. I’m in the hall.”
She sobbed. “I want to be safe. I want . . . Never safe again.”
Kitty’s death grip on my hand churned up those tears I thought I’d spent. I pried her fingers free. “Just be a minute.”
My sister pulled her head into the blanket, and I walked away with my heart under my feet, trampled under my sandals.
“Yes.” I leaned back against the door.
Cells put his hand on his hips. “Dolly, as long as Nicholas is alive, he’ll hunt you. You did leave him alive?”
My body started trembling. “Yes. I hit Nicholas, burnt up his things. Once his head’s not thick, he’ll figure things out. Oh, goodness. He’ll be here. Where else would I go?”
Cells’s lips opened, then pressed closed.
“I’ll be in the stocks and sold. I don’t have any more money to give you to buy me. I owe you sixteen pounds for Kitty.”
“You owe me nothing. I just repaid that favor long ago with interest.”
Cells clasped my shoulder right on a bruise. I yelped and clasped my mouth.
“That bastard.”
“I don’t care about him. I have to get Kitty away from here.”
Cells did care. He looked like I felt inside, how I wanted to set Pa’s owl house ablaze just to watch Nicholas die.
“He always wins. Cells, you’ve done enough. I should go to Mamaí, tell her my sister is safe, and wait to be hauled away.”
He blocked my path. “No. You just freed your sister. And you own Kitty. You just gave me the money like a buyer’s agent.”
The thoughtful look in Cells’s eyes gave him away. He had a plan. I wondered if it were the same as mine. Who would be brave enough to say it?
He thumbed his lips and left the begging to me.
“Take us to Demerara. Cells, take us, Kitty and me, now.”
“You want me to help you run? Runaway slaves could be killed if they are caught. I could lose a lot, too.”
“I’ll be killed if I stay. Nicholas has already put a gun to my head. And last night he showed me again how he’ll treat his chattel.”
I lifted my blouse and exposed my bruised stomach, the cuts to my breasts. “Nicholas did this.”
Cells closed his eyes. “Put your clothes back on. Go clean yourself.”
“The brute will kill me. Or I’ll kill him. That God you keep praying to wouldn’t want me to murder.”
“You can’t be selective about faith, Dolly.”
“And you can’t be selective about right and wrong. Take us to Demerara. I’ll work for you twice as hard to pay you back.”
He started to his study. “I’m crafting a bill of sale to account for the money you gave me for Kitty.”
“Who’s going to award the purchase of an enslaved person to another one?” I clasped my fingers like a prayer. “Please. Nicholas will find a way to punish you if he figures out you bought Kitty for me.”
Something crept across Cells’s face that didn’t quite look like guilt. Maybe it was a realization that Nicholas would make things difficult for him.
“Help us or take me back to Nicholas. Watch him beat me until I submit. Watch him press his knees—”
Cells clamped my mouth. “Stop. I beg of you, stop.”
“What is your God telling you to do? To walk away or take me and Kitty to safety? Nicholas knows where to find me. The only man I trust is here.”
Cells paced. “He knows I see your pa in passing, that I’ve done deals with Kirwan. Maybe I can tell him that his father and I agreed on your sale to me. But what about leaving your mother and your baby?”
“Mamaí will keep Lizzy until everything is safe.”
“I have some thinking to do. Please go wash. I don’t want that stench of Kirwan in my house.”
He pushed past me and went into the hall.
I went back to Kitty. I washed my bruises, scrubbed everything Nicholas touched.
I didn’t know if I’d ever remove his scent. From my sack, I put on a fresh tunic, then crawled onto the bed.
When I put my arms about Kitty, she cried. I hummed to her until she slept.
Closing my eyes, I hoped the next face I saw was Cells’s, standing in the doorway telling me he’d do what was right and take us to Demerara.