Adria tried not to think about how dark the night was as rain kept peppering down. At least the thunder was only a faint rumble now as lightning flashed in the distance, but even if the storm blew back toward her, she would keep walking.
She had to get back to Springfield before she was missed. Enough people might know about her abolitionist leanings to suspect her once Twila was discovered gone. Pray God she was really gone. Safe and on her way to freedom.
How many miles away could Springfield be? She tried to figure out how long it had been since Twila crawled in the wagon and they set out, but this night, the minutes and hours hadn’t seemed to tick away in the customary manner. When she had watched Twila slip up to knock on the door of that house, those moments had stretched out to take forever. Then when Adria had returned to the place where she thought Logan would be waiting, time had the same as stood still while she stared at the empty road. Since then, time had rolled on too fast with her need to hurry each step.
The road was either rough with rocks or rife with mud puddles pulling at her shoes. One of her soles flopped loose at the toe, making walking fast even more difficult. As she moved doggedly on, she kept an ear cocked for the slightest noise that might warn her of danger approaching. Logan was right that it would be better if no one saw her here where she had no reason to be.
When her sodden skirts kept dragging at her legs and slowing her steps, she tucked her skirt hem into her waistband to show an indecent amount of her legs, but no one was there to see.
She counted her steps to calculate if she had walked a mile, but she lost count. The night was taking a toll on her. The fires. The danger. The fear. She gave up on numbering her steps and started reciting Bible verses.
“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil.”
She said the words, but she couldn’t push away the fear that stalked her. If Louis had been there walking with her, then she could. His faith would bolster hers. Tomorrow—no, more likely today, since midnight had surely already come and gone—Louis would be free. That thought lifted her spirits. The Sanderson family would take the money. They would have to. No matter what they thought about Twila running away. They would have no reason to suspect Louis. Or her if she could get back to Springfield before she was missed. She tried to walk faster, but the rain drained her energy.
A noise caught her ear. Behind her, the road curved, but the creak of a wagon and jangle of harness was unmistakable. Someone was coming. She ran toward the trees alongside the road but tripped over her loose shoe sole and slid down in a mud puddle as the wagon came around the curve. She stayed low and crept off the road in hopes the wagon driver would not see her in the dark. She breathed a little easier after sidling behind a tree.
The wagon kept coming, but then instead of rolling on past her hiding place, it stopped.
“Adria. Are you all right?”
“Logan.” She stepped out from the tree and stared at the man climbing down from the wagon. While she couldn’t see his face, it had to be Logan. No one else knew she was out here on this road. She stayed where she was. “What do you want?”
“What do you think?” His voice sounded strained. “I came back for you.”
“To do what?” She couldn’t trust him. Not now.
“To help you. What else?” He motioned toward her. “Come on.”
When she stayed where she was, he made a sound of disgust and stalked off the road toward her. “For heaven’s sake, what do you think? I’m going to attack you or something? If I’d wanted to do that, I could have already. So hurry up. No time to waste.” He grabbed for her arm.
She jerked away, balled up her fist, and punched him in the face. Her hand hurt, but she felt better.
He rubbed his jaw and then surprised her by laughing. “Is that any way to treat somebody trying to help you? Somebody risking jail or worse. Somebody who could have been halfway to free and clear by now.”
“I’m sorry. You’re right.” She dropped her hands to her side. “You want to hit me back?”
“Hardly. My mother taught me better than that.” He stepped closer to her. “A kiss sounds better.”
In spite of everything, she almost hoped he would kiss her. She was glad for the dark to hide the warmth flooding her face. How could she still be attracted to him, knowing what he had done? But he wasn’t all bad. He helped Twila escape and he came back for her. She didn’t move away from him and his teeth flashed in a smile.
After a couple of seconds, he said, “But no time for fun. Come on.”
She let him take her hand then and help her across the mud to the wagon. “Smart to hike up your skirt like that.”
More heat flashed in her face. She’d forgotten about her skirt. “It made walking easier.” After she climbed up into the wagon, she jerked the skirt hem free to let the wet cloth properly cloak her legs.
“The white flash of your legs as you ran across the road is why I spotted you.” He laughed again as he got into the wagon. “Are you sure you don’t want to go to California? The two of us could have some fun.”
“I’m not going to California.”
“Might come a day you’ll wish you had.”
“It might, but that day isn’t now.”
“Oh well. Then best you crouch down out of sight and not let anybody see you with the likes of me.” He took up the reins.
She did as he said and huddled down under the blanket the way Twila had earlier. It wasn’t a very comfortable ride, but it was better than walking. And faster, although she still had no idea what time it might be. At least the rain seemed to have nearly stopped or was so light she couldn’t feel the drops under the blanket where everything was black and way too steamy. She pushed back the edge to get some air.
At last, when Adria didn’t think she could bear another minute under the blanket, the wagon stopped.
“This is as close as I dare go.”
Adria threw off the cover and sat up. The gray light of dawn was turning night to day. “How far to town?”
“Probably less than a mile. You can see the smoke.” He pointed at a dark cloud hanging on the horizon. “I told the truth when I said the fire was an accident. Not my fault.”
“You were still going to steal Louis’s freedom money.”
“I guess saying I’m sorry isn’t good enough on that one.”
“No.” She stood up.
He grabbed her hand before she could climb out of the wagon. “You could do your good deed and reform me. Make me into the kind of man you could love.”
“I appreciate what you chanced to help Twila and then me.” She gave him a long look. “You could come back to town with me and explain what happened to the sheriff. I won’t say anything about you trying to break into the safe.”
“Guess I’ll have to pass on that.” Logan shook his head. “I’m afraid I might have the smell of smoke on me, and being a stranger in town, folks would be glad enough to have somebody to blame for their troubles.”
“Then goodbye, Logan. I hope you make it to California.”
“No worry about that. I will. And I hope you make it to wherever you want to be.” He squeezed her hand. “But trust me on this. There are better men out there than Carlton Damon.”
“Or you?”
“Or me.” He laughed and raised her hand up to his lips before he turned her loose. “Good day, Miss Starr. It has been a pleasure. Perhaps I will long live in your memory as the man who saved you not only from getting trampled by a team of runaway horses but also from the disaster of marrying the wrong man.”
After he disappeared back the way they’d come, she headed toward town with an odd mixture of regret and relief. Smoky fog settled down around her as she walked. That was good. Better for her to smell like smoke than the mud of the road.
When the town’s buildings came into view, she did her best to smooth back her hair and brush off her skirts. She needn’t have bothered. The people wandering about in the streets looked every bit as bedraggled as she did. Here and there, a few men and women stood and stared at the smoking ruins of their homes or businesses where flames still flickered among the ashes.
Three hogs ran past her. Nobody was chasing them. The stock pens must have been opened for fear the fire would take the sheds and warehouses around them.
She was glad to leave the destruction behind and move on through town to where the buildings stood untouched. The bank. The hat factory. The drugstore. Billiter’s Mercantile, closed and shuttered. She needed to get home and cleaned up so she could show up for work like any other day. But ashes drifting past her in the air proved it wasn’t any other day.
A tremble swept through her as she thought about catching Logan trying to steal Louis’s freedom money. She whispered a thankful prayer that he hadn’t known all the numbers of the safe combination. The petty cash had been enough to satisfy Logan, but she needed to replace it before Mr. Billiter discovered it missing. She could always say she’d changed the hiding place.
More lies. Dear Lord, forgive her. That was all she had done since Bet showed up at the kitchen door. Lie. Right now, her whole life felt like a lie. Writing her abolitionist letters and sending them out under fake names. Thinking she could find a way to marry into a family of slaveholders. Pretending to be someone she wasn’t. She felt like a shell of a woman, something like the burned-out buildings she’d just walked past.
She looked up. The sun was burning off the fog and leaving only the drifting smoke behind. Did I do the right thing, Aunt Tilda?
No words came down from heaven, but the words were in her ears. The only thing.
At times, a person had to put feet to her prayers. They’d done that with Louis. The whole town had. And she had done that with Twila. The only thing she could do, and the Lord had made a way. Perhaps he was showing her a way too. Out of Springfield. To the East where people fought against the injustice of slavery. She would telegraph Abigail to see if the room in her house was still available.
“Missy Adria. You is a sight for sore eyes.”
Adria turned to see Louis hurrying toward her, his face creased with worry. But then everyone she’d seen since she got back to Springfield had that look. A day to be concerned for the future of their town. But not for this man’s future. Before the sun went down again, he would be his own man and not have to answer to any master other than his Lord.
“Are you all right? Miss Ruth is some concerned about you.” He must have been fighting the fires since his clothes were covered in soot and ashes. “She was ready to set the sheriff to huntin’ for you, but I tol’ her to let me see if I could find you ’fore she did that. Seein’ as how the sheriff is so busy with the fires and all.” Louis looked off toward the part of town still smoking. “That you was prob’ly just out here somewheres fightin’ fires.”
“Yes, fighting fires.” There were all different kinds of fires to fight. “But I’m all right.”
“That’s good to know. I sure am happy to see you. Miss Ruth was some afraid you’d done run off with that drover.”
“No, I wouldn’t do that.”
“I knowed you wouldn’t. Leastways without tellin’ Miss Ruth. I tol’ her whatever you was doin’ it had to matter. We been prayin’ that you weren’t in trouble.” Louis looked straight at her. She could tell he knew where she’d been, but neither of them wanted to speak the words aloud.
“Sometimes prayers are answered.” She hoped he would know by those words that she had been able to get Bet’s daughter to the first house to start her journey to freedom.
He nodded. “All the time prayers are answered if you pray believin’ the Lord is there with you. He can get you through some hard times like them we’ve had here tonight.”
“Did anybody get killed in the fire?”
“Not so far as we know, but plenty is gonna have to find new places.”
“Including you, Louis. Today is your freedom day.”
A smile slipped across his face but didn’t stay, as though he thought it wrong to be smiling with the smoke of the fire lingering around them. “It don’t hardly seem true, but the reverend, he done tol’ me he’s payin’ the price for me soon’s the bank opens. And more than that. Makin’ a payment to Elias Brown. Mr. Brown done fixed me up a room in the back of his shop with a bed and ev’rythin’ I be needin’.”
“I know. It’s wonderful.”
“A miracle for certain. Now we best hurry on to let Miss Ruth knows you made it through the fires.”
A smile stole across his face and settled in his eyes. “You gonna be some surprised when you get there.”
“Why’s that?”
“The reverend and that little girl child of his done took up residence in your front room. Lost his house in the fire, but the church is still standin’.”
“Pastor Robertson? I thought his sister had his child.” Adria frowned a little.
“I’m supposin’ things must’ve changed. Things has a way of doin’ that.”
“So they do.” The strong smell of smoke in the air proved it, but nothing looked that different here with the hotel behind her and the houses clustered on Elm Street safe from the fire not that many steps away. The sun was up now, shining down on the tatters of the night. The lost buildings behind her. But it wasn’t only the buildings. The night had changed something inside her, made everything different.
Louis trailed along behind her as she started toward her house, talking now of the change she was going to find there.
“Appears Miss Ruth is done ready to take in another motherless child. The child is a pretty little thing. Some younger than you when Miss Ruth took you in after the cholera.”
“But I didn’t come with a father.”
“That you didn’t. Could make things some different this time for Miss Ruth, but from the way they was standin’ together, even while deep in worry ’bout you, seemed to be a best thing.”
“A best thing,” Adria softly echoed his words.
“That’s all we can hope for, missy, when troubles come our way,” Louis said. “For the Lord to take whatever happens and help us to find some of those best things in the midst of it all.”
She stopped and turned to face Louis. “‘And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God.’ Aunt Tilda taught me that verse a long time ago.”
“The truth in Scripture words is one of them things that never changes.”
Adria kept her gaze on Louis, their unspoken words loud between them. “Did I do the right thing, Louis?”
“That’s not for me to say.” Louis met her look without wavering. “But sometimes when fires is burnin’ out of control, then a body has to do whatever he can to put ’em out.”