Stealing Freedom (25 page)

Her aunt pursed her lips, but didn't argue.

Everyone said this winter, the winter of 1856, was the coldest they'd had in years. The snow lay deep and quiet. Uncle William changed the wheels on his wagon to sleigh runners so he could still get into Dresden to pick up mail and groceries. By February 22 the temperature had dropped to minus fourteen degrees Fahrenheit, and school was canceled for a week because it was too cold for the children to walk to the Wallaces’ house. Ann helped her aunt sew a new dress for Margaret, who was
growing fast, and a pair of tiny britches for Elias, who had started walking. In the evenings, she helped Uncle William make plans for the garden, which would be bigger this year because of Ann's arrival.

It was April before the snow started to melt. With the warm weather came the mud, and flies, and birdsongs. Also, with the warmth, came the fugitives. Hardly a day passed that they didn't hear the church bells ring out their news: another former slave had arrived from the States.

“Before 1833, when Canada still had slavery, Canadian slaves often escaped into the United States to freedom,” said Uncle William. “Now Canada is returning the favor.”

On May 6, Mrs. Wallace brought out a walnut cake for the children at school to share in honor of Ann turning fourteen. That evening Aunt Mimi surprised Ann with a most wonderful gift: a new summer dress of sky-blue calico. “I told you I'd make you that dress someday,” said Aunt Mimi.

The weeping willow tree in the yard had sprouted buds, then tiny leaves, then a curtain of leaves that provided privacy for Ann and Priscilla when they climbed up into its branches to talk.

“My brother Samuel keeps asking about you,” said Priscilla one warm, breezy day.

The soft willow branches swayed, then settled.

“Hmmph,” said Ann. Samuel had been spending more time at school staring at her than tending to his studies lately, and had gotten rapped on the knuckles for it more than once.

“I think he likes you. Do you like him?” Priscilla asked innocently.

Ann sighed. Samuel was handsome enough, tall and lanky with curled-up eyelashes and a disarming smile. He was two years older than she, but shy as a minister's son. “He's nice….” Ann began, but couldn't say more than that. How could anyone understand? All the other boys seemed like shadows compared with her memories of Alfred. There was that first Christmas they'd danced, his hand pressed against the small of her back. There was the way he asked her how she was faring each time he met her on their walks to and from Sarah's school, and how she'd begun to feel that he was part of her family once he knew all the best stories about her life in Unity. There was the sparkle in his eyes when they sat on the grass and talked in the warm Maryland sun, and of course, there was that soft, apple-scented kiss….

“He's very nice,” Priscilla was saying. “He's not vulgar like some of the boys.”

“I know.” Ann was still at a loss for words.

She was relieved to hear her uncle call, “Ann Maria, where are you?”

“I have to go,” said Ann. “Uncle William wants the whole garden hoed before the Sabbath.”

The two girls swung down out of the willow, and Priscilla headed home.

“Ann Maria, you've got a package!” Uncle William called.

Ann ran to meet him. It was a large, fat envelope that bore the familiar return address from Washington City.

“Let me go find your aunt so we can hear the news together,” said her uncle.

She brought the package inside, and her aunt and uncle
waited expectantly while she pulled out a letter, along with the June 7 issue of the
Montgomery Sentinel
newspaper. Elias grabbed for the papers, and Uncle William picked him up, out of reach. Margaret climbed into Ann's lap as she read.

“She says the baby, Mary, had the croup but she's better now. John Junior talks all the time, and his favorite word is ‘Papa.’” Ann held up the newspaper. “The copy of the
Montgomery Sentinel
is so I can read news from home. She says my runaway notice stopped running in it a while ago.”

“Hallelujah!” said Uncle William.

“Papa is working hard, and, my goodness…” Ann's eyes widened as she read. “Catharine has decided she wants to become a nurse! She is saving her wages to pay for the schooling.”

“Wonderful!” exclaimed her aunt. Her uncle hummed his approval.

Ann opened the newspaper and glanced over the front page. But remembering her responsibilities, she turned to her uncle. “Did you want me to finish the hoeing today?”

“That old garden can wait. You go enjoy your paper.”

Ann returned to the willow tree. She hoisted herself up, got comfortable with her back leaning against the trunk and one leg dangling down, and settled in to read.

She turned first to the page that held the ads—advertisements for jobs, notifications about auctions, and runaway notices. Sure enough, her own runaway notice was not there. But what she did find startled her so profoundly that she nearly fell out of the tree. “Aunt Mimi!” she shrieked.

Her aunt came running out of the house. “Good heavens!” she cried.

Ann clambered down to the ground, scraping her arm in her haste. “Aunt Mimi, look!” She ran to her aunt and shoved the newspaper under her nose.

“Gracious child, I thought you'd fallen out of that silly tree. You know I can't read without my glasses. What is it?”

Ann tried to catch her breath long enough to speak the words, “It's a runaway notice.

“‘$100 reward. Ran away from the subscriber, living in Rockville, Montgomery County, Maryland, on Saturday 31st of May last, Alfred, 22 yrs. 5′7”dark copper color and rather good looking. He had on when he left a dark blue and green plaid frock coat of cloth and lighter colored plaid pantaloons.’

It's signed by Dr. Anderson!”

Aunt Mimi grasped Ann's hands, closed her eyes, and began to pray. “Dear Lord, protect this boy. Let the slave catchers walk right by him without seeing him. Send him safely to a place where he can be free.”

Ann hummed as she dried the last of the breakfast dishes.

“You sound like your heart is filled up with sunshine,” said her aunt.

Ann smiled. “I suppose it is.”

Her aunt eyed her. “And my guess is, it has something to do with a boy.”

Ann felt herself blush. “You can't blame me for feeling good, now that I know Alfred got himself out of slavery.”

Aunt Mimi clicked her tongue. “You still got
that
boy on your mind?”

Ann looked down at the floor. “Yes, ma'am.”

“You've got to pray for him, that he doesn't get caught, and then put him out of your head.”

“I've been praying,” said Ann, “and I know he'll be safe. He'll outsmart those slave hunters, I just know it. So I'm happy for him.” She shrugged. “I can still think about him if it makes me happy, can't I?”

Her aunt gave an exasperated sigh and wiped her brow with her apron. “Lord, the sun is barely up and it's hot as a frying pan already. Why don't you take a walk over to Priscilla's house
and spend some time with her in the shade. We can get our chores done this evening.”

Ann laughed. “Aunt Mimi, if you think this is hot, you've forgotten what Maryland was like!”

“Indeed I have,” said her aunt, and wiped her brow again.

Ann knew why she was being sent to Priscilla's, though, and it wasn't to spend time in the shade. It was to give Samuel a chance to come out of his shyness long enough to speak to her.

“It doesn't feel hot to me. I'll go pull up some radishes for dinner.”

“No, you won't either,” said her aunt. “I don't want you fainting from heatstroke. Now go on and visit with the Wallaces.” It wasn't a suggestion. It was an order.

Reluctantly, Ann removed her apron. She walked through the gathering heat into town and to the Wallace house. Timidly, she raised her hand to knock on the front door.

At that moment several of the smaller Wallace children, all girls, came running around the corner, squealing and laughing. After them came Samuel, arms outstretched, fingers bent claw-style. He growled menacingly and the girls shrieked and huddled together. Samuel looked up, saw Ann watching him, and nearly collapsed with embarrassment.

“I—uh—we were playing. Um. Priscilla is—” He stumbled over a few more syllables, then stopped talking altogether and simply gazed at Ann.

“Priscilla is… here?” she asked. His gaze made her uncomfortable, just as it had during the final few weeks of school before summer vacation.

“Uh…yes. Out back. Hanging the wash.”

The three little girls giggled. “Be the bear again, Sammy!” cried Dolly, the smallest.

Samuel shook his head. Ann could feel his eyes follow her as she walked around to the backyard to find Priscilla.

Priscilla, too, seemed to be suffering from the heat. She wiped a sweaty cheek on her sleeve as she lifted her father's heavy work trousers to hang them on the line.

“You want some help?” Ann offered.

Priscilla blew at the cloud of gnats surrounding her head. “I'm just finishing up,” she said.

“My aunt told me to come over here and sit in the shade with you. Why she thought you'd be sitting, I don't know,” said Ann.

Priscilla huffed as she lifted the empty laundry basket to her hip. “Can we go to your house? If we stay here, my mum will put us both to work.”

Ann nodded agreeably.

On their way back to her house they passed a group of older boys from town. Ann had seen two of them at church.

“Hello, girls,” one of the boys called. “Are you going swimming? Maybe we'll come watch,” he taunted.

“Then we can steal their clothes!” another blurted out.

The group of them hooted and slapped each other on the back.

“Leave us alone!” Priscilla clenched her fists and scowled at them.

“Oooh, look out. She's going to fight us,” another boy teased.

Ann rolled her eyes and took Priscilla by the arm to lead her away. “They're like babies,” she said. “Come on.”

The girls walked away, and the boys lost interest and headed toward town.

“I told you some of the boys around here are vulgar,” said Priscilla.

“I know, and your brother is not like them,” Ann said in a tired voice.

“It's true,” said Priscilla defensively.

“It's just that he's so
quiet”
said Ann. “Don't you have to be able to talk with a boy if you want to get to know him?”

“Yes,” said Priscilla. “So you could come to my house for supper one evening, and you two could sit out on the porch together. Then he'll talk to you.”

Ann sighed. “Maybe,” she said.

As they neared Ann's house, Priscilla groaned. “Lord, it's hot. I don't even think the willow will be cool today.”

“We could go dangle our feet in the river,” Ann suggested.

Priscilla said that sounded perfect.

“I'll go tell my aunt and uncle where we're going,” said Ann.

The Sydenham River was not like the rivers back in Maryland, with their rocky banks, clear, fast-running water, and straight courses. The Sydenham wound lazily through the flat plain, with so many turns and curves that Ann thought it seemed as if it had lost its way. The water was deep, muddy, and slow-flowing. With its steep banks and narrow course, the river looked like a filled-up bathtub. Willow, ash, and elm trees crowded one another for space along its banks and provided
a thick curtain of privacy for anyone who wanted to sit there. One bend in the river wound right onto the edge of Uncle William's land, and Ann thought of it as her own piece of the Sydenham.

Ann plopped herself down on the bank and sank her feet into the cold water. Priscilla did the same. Their movements sent ripples out in all directions. Ann leaned back and looked up at the sky between the canopy of branches overhead. “This is better than doing the wash, eh?”

Priscilla grinned. “Except I want to get all the way in.”

Ann covered her mouth and giggled. “Priscilla!”

“Why not?” Priscilla splashed one foot in the water.

“What if those boys come find you—and your clothes?” Ann warned.

“They're all the way to town by now,” Priscilla assured her. “You said yourself this is part of your uncle's farm. No one will bother us.”

Ann's eyes widened. “
Us?
I'm not taking my clothes off out here in the middle of…”

“Of nothing,” said Priscilla. “Shhh. Listen.”

They sat very still. The slow-moving water made a very soft swishing sound around their bare legs, and the only other sounds were the larks and whippoorwills.

“No one will even know. I promise,” said Priscilla. She sounded in urgent need of a partner to join in her daring idea.

The two girls exchanged one mischievous glance. Then, suddenly, they were both on their feet. Calico dresses, slips, and bloomers fell to the ground, and they leaped off the bank into the welcoming river.

Ann felt the rush of icy water over her body. When she popped her head up, she could scarcely breathe, from both the excitement and the cold.

“Isn't it glorious?” cried Priscilla, her black hair wreathed in shiny beads of water.

“Glorious and cold!” Ann tossed her head and sent silver droplets flying.

Priscilla splashed and swam easily into the middle, where the water was deepest. Ann's toes found the mucky bottom close to the steep bank, and she grabbed on to some roots for balance.

“I'll teach you how to swim,” Priscilla offered.

But before Ann could answer, they both heard it: male voices, and twigs snapping underfoot.

“Help!” cried Priscilla. “It's the boys—they'll steal our clothes!”

Panicked, Ann scrambled up the bank and onto the shore, with Priscilla close behind her. They pulled on bloomers over muddy feet, and yanked their slips over their heads.

“They were coming out here to dangle their feet in the water.” It was Uncle William speaking.

“You've got a right nice piece of land here, Mr. Bradley,” came another voice.

“Quickly, Ann—here!” Priscilla thrust Ann's dress at her and frantically pulled her own calico on.

But Ann had stopped, transfixed. She held her dress up under her chin, but made no effort to put it on. She had heard that voice before….