A Free Heart (3 page)

Elizabeth inhaled sharply. “That’s quite the brave thing you did.”

Harriet shrugged. “I had no idea what the slaves were or were not allowed to do—he was my friend, and I wanted him to have everything I had. But then, all of a sudden, everyone was leaving. My father had given them the choice of staying to work for wages or leaving as freedmen, and most of our slaves chose to leave. Jane was one of them, and she took Sammy with her.”

She blinked as the pain of that day rose up in her chest. The ache of it was raw and crippling, and she had to pause a moment before she could speak again. “I sat in my bedroom window and watched as Jane pulled their little wagon down the road that led out of the plantation. Sammy turned around and waved at me before they were out of sight, and I sobbed and sobbed and sobbed. My oldest brother, Sterling, came in and tried to explain it to me, but I was eight. Nothing he said made any sense to me. All I knew was that my soulmate was leaving.”

Elizabeth handed Harriet a handkerchief. She took it and wiped her eyes, then laughed. “How many of these am I going to take from you today?”

“We’ll just throw them in with the laundry. No harm done.” Elizabeth smiled gently. “And then what happened?”

“Time passed. My father hired workers to come in and help run the plantation, and my brothers pitched in too—they were both married, and their wives helped my mother with the household duties. We weren’t as wealthy as we once were. Andrew, my other brother, explained to me that now that we had to pay our workers, we had less for ourselves. That was a shock to me. It had never occurred to me that our slaves weren’t paid. It sounds silly, I know, but I was so young, things like that had just never crossed my mind. The word ‘slave’ just meant the people who lived on the plantation. It wasn’t until years later when I was reading in the Old Testament about the Israelite slaves that I finally understood.”

Harriet wiped her eyes again. “Let me skip forward to the happy part of my story. Last summer, I was out shopping. It was a gorgeous day and I was going along from store to store, looking in windows, probably wasting time more than actually shopping. I heard my name and looked up, and there was Sammy.”

Elizabeth clasped her hands together under her chin, her eyes shining. “No!”

“Yes. There he was, wearing a gray suit, as tall and handsome and distinguished as any of the other men on the street. Seeing him again was like every one of my dreams and daydreams had come true at once. He promised to meet me down by a stream that ran through the back of our property. I practically ran down there when the time came. We talked and talked for hours. He and his mother had come to Kansas after they left our place. She’d found a job working as a maid for a very wealthy family, and Sam was able to start working not too long after that. When I saw him, he was on a break from his studies—he was a student at Wilberforce University in Ohio.”

“Oh, that’s wonderful,” Elizabeth said. “So much changed after the war.”

“So many things changed for the better.” Harriet twisted her borrowed handkerchief between her fingers. “He said he came down to Atlanta to find me, and that running into me on the street was a stroke of destiny. He would have come out to the plantation, but there I was, right in front of him. He told me that when he left Georgia, he knew he’d be coming back for me someday. Even at eight years old, he wanted me to be his wife.”

Elizabeth reached out and grasped Harriet’s hand. “And then what happened?”

Harriet began to tremble. The memories were cruel sometimes. “He wanted to bring me back to Kansas with him. The laws in this state are much more tolerant and accepting than in most other states, and he wanted to see if it was possible for us to have a life together. I can’t even tell you how I felt when he said this. Seeing him again, all grown up and dashing and heroic, coming to find me, telling me he loved me . . . I would have gone anywhere with him at that moment. I was ready to go as I was, with just my hat and parasol. But he insisted that I actually go pack and have a few days to say my good-byes.” She chuckled from a painful spot in her chest. “The plan was that I would go with him to Salina, where I would live with his mother. Then he’d return to Ohio and finish his schooling. After that, we’d be married. I agreed—it sounded wonderful. And then he kissed me.”

Harriet closed her eyes, remembering that moment, the tingles down her arms. “I’d never been kissed before. I’d never even had a beau. His touch on my cheek—it was so tender and soft, I thought I’d die from happiness. And then he kissed me, and I knew I was his. I just knew it. Nothing else mattered. Not our skin color, not our stations in life—nothing. He was my best friend, and now he’d claimed my heart.” She opened her eyes again and saw Elizabeth wipe a tear from her jawline. “I’m sorry. I’m getting a little carried away.”

“Oh, gracious, no. I’m getting married on Saturday—I completely understand being swept up in romance.” Elizabeth grinned, a sad, understanding grin. “Go on. What happened next?”

“Can’t we just stop here? That’s the beautiful part.”

“But there’s more,” Elizabeth said, her voice full of compassion. “Why aren’t you living with Jane right now?”

Harriet took a deep breath. She didn’t want to say the words aloud, but she’d already come this far. “A friend of my father’s heard about our plans. As it turns out, his son had decided that he was going to marry me, and he’d seen me talking to Sam on the street. The next thing I knew . . .” Harriet stopped. She couldn’t say it. She just couldn’t.

Elizabeth stood from the bed where she sat and knelt at Harriet’s feet, looking into her eyes. “What happened?” she whispered.

“Sam was hanged from the rafters of my father’s barn,” Harriet murmured. “My brother Sterling found him with a note pinned to his chest. It said that this was God’s punishment for being unequally yoked with a black man. It called me out specifically and warned me to marry one of my own kind.”

“No. Oh, Harriet. No.”

Harriet nodded, the tears now coming so fast, there was no way to stop them. She saw everything all over again—Sterling coming into the house, holding her back so she wouldn’t go running out to the barn, seeing a white-sheeted form being carried out to a wagon feet first, her father’s grim face. The pain in her chest was unbearable. It seared. It burned. She grasped Elizabeth’s hand and squeezed it too hard as she gasped for breath. It was too much. Too much.

Abigail poked her head up the stairs just then. “There you are. We’ve got just enough time to get the laundry on the line before the next train.”

“Can you start without us, please?” Elizabeth asked over her shoulder. “We’ll be down as soon as we can.”

“All right.” Abigail paused, seeming to take in the situation. “Is there anything I can do?”

“She just needs to cry it out,” Elizabeth said.

Abigail nodded. “We’ll see how much we can get done. Please let me know if I can do anything.”

Harriet smiled faintly. “Thank you.”

After Abigail’s footsteps receded, Elizabeth turned back to Harriet. “And then what?”Harriet swallowed hard. “I cried in my room for days. Then I cried in the parlor, on the porch—wherever I happened to be. And then one day, after months of heartache, I decided that I was going to come to Kansas and find Jane. Sam was gone—I couldn’t do anything about that—but I could see his mother and make sure she was all right. I couldn’t move on with my life until I had put a seal on that chapter of it.

“I sent a letter to the Salina post office. The postmaster replied that he’d see if he could locate her. In the meantime, I got on a train and ended up here. I told the postmaster where I’d be, and his reply is the letter I received this morning. It took him a while to find Jane because she had gotten married and has a new surname, but I now know where she lives.”

“You’re amazing,” Elizabeth said. “What did your parents say about your coming here?”

Harriet winced. “They actually don’t know where I am. I just . . . left.”

Elizabeth gasped. “You ran away?”

“I did. No, it wasn’t the most responsible thing I could have done, but I knew my father would never allow me to go if I spoke with him about it first. He never understood the close connection I felt to Jane and to Sam. He found it shameful. He had let his slaves go at the end of the war, but only because he had to.”

“Are you going to write to your parents and tell them where you are?”

Harriet nodded. “I will, after a bit. I want to see Jane first, now that I know where she is. I’m afraid my father would come charging up here and drag me back home quicker than I could spit if he knew where I was, and I can’t go home until I’ve done what I came here to do.” She wiped her eyes and stood up. “Let’s go help with that laundry. I don’t want the entire burden to fall on Abigail and Jeanette.”

Elizabeth stood too, and wrapped her arms around Harriet’s shoulders. “I’m so sorry for all you’ve been through. Thank you for sharing it with me—I’ll keep your confidence.”

“Thank you. I’ll go work out my angst on some tablecloths, and all will be well.” Harriet followed Elizabeth down the stairs, a plan forming in the back of her mind.

* * *

Tom White had traveled around the area quite extensively, and Harriet figured he must be good for something. No creature was completely without a function or God wouldn’t have created them. After the last bit of linen was hung to dry—Harriet’s two spare dresses dangling near them—she crossed the lawn and approached Tom where he worked on repairing a bit of sagging fence next to the barn.

“Mr. White,” she called out. “We’re done with the laundry.”

“Thanks for letting me know. I’ll come put out the fire.” He took off his hat and ran his arm across his forehead, making his straw-colored hair stick up. “Was there something else I can do for you, Miss Martin? You’re looking at me all expectant like.”

Harriet nodded. “You’re rather well traveled, Mr. White. Have you ever been to Salina?”

“I have. I was there for a bit before I came here. Nice place, good folks. Why are you interested in Salina, Miss Martin?”

“I have a friend out there I wish to go visit. How far is it from here?”He scratched his head, then replaced his hat. “It’s a little over a hundred miles, I’d say.”

“That far?” Harriet shook her head. “I meant to ask Mr. Brody for some time off so I could pay this visit, but I can’t imagine he could spare me for long.”

“It is a fair piece, but not impossible. A few days to come and go by train should do it, and however long you want to stay there, of course. I’d be more than happy to escort you, if you could stand my company.”

Harriet put her hands on her hips. “Escort me? As though I need escorting? Need I remind you that I traveled all the way from Atlanta to this very hotel, by myself, without an escort, and managed it quite well?”

“Miss Martin, the South is a rather genteel place, and all the areas around here are nice and civilized. The farther west you go from here, though, the rougher it gets. You’ve got down-to-earth railroad men far away from home who’ve probably never seen anything as pretty as you before, and they’re liable to lose their heads and say something inappropriate. I wouldn’t feel right about sending you out that way by yourself.”

“And you think I’d be safer with you? I hardly think so, Mr. White.”

He took a step toward her. “I think it’s time for you and me to get something straight, Miss Martin. Yes, I made a foolish mistake the day we met, and my ma would have turned me over her knee for it. But there’s not a dishonorable bone in my body. It’s true that I’ve never sat down to have tea in a fancy parlor wearing one of those tall hats like Mr. Brody wears when he’s aiming to impress someone, but I’m a gentleman at heart, and if you’d care to take a look at me sometime, a real look, you’d see that for yourself. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a fire to put out, and I believe I just heard the train whistle. Good day, Miss Martin.”

Tom moved off toward the laundry area of the yard, and Harriet just stood there, her jaw slack. She honestly had no idea what to say or even to think.

Chapter Four

Tom White got practically no sleep that night, and he was plenty ornery the next morning. Miss Martin’s green eyes had haunted him every time he tried to drift off. There was something about her that had gotten under his skin, like an itch right in the middle of his back that he couldn’t reach.

The day they’d met, she was standing by the water pump, filling up a bucket. For the smallest of moments, he thought she was his old sweetheart from Wichita, and he’d slipped his arms around her waist and given her a kiss on the cheek. He’d figured out in a right hurry that he had the wrong woman and had been trying to make up for it ever since, but he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about how it felt to hold her in his arms. He’d chided himself many a time for it, but how could he help it? She was soft and sweet, and she smelled like the lilacs that had grown outside his mother’s kitchen door when he was a boy. Even the slap she’d given him across the face didn’t take away from her appeal—in fact, he liked her better because of it. She was like the zing in a lemon tart.

And now she wanted to run off to Salina all by herself. He shook his head as he snapped his suspenders into place over his loose white work shirt. She might be an incredibly strong woman, but that didn’t make it all right for her to go gallivanting off like that. Some of those men she might encounter would take far greater liberties than just a quick kiss on the cheek, and Tom would be danged if he’d let anything like that happen to her.

He climbed down from the loft and crossed the yard to the back porch of the hotel. He’d brought over the shipment from the train station the day before, as promised, but things had gotten so busy that he hadn’t had the time to unpack those crates. They had a few hours before the next train—now was as good a time as any. He grabbed a crowbar and got to work on prying up the first lid. Ah, these were the new tablecloths and napkins. He knew the ladies would be glad to see these.

Miss Hampton stepped out onto the porch. “Good morning, Tom. Have you had your breakfast yet?”