Glory over Everything: Beyond The Kitchen House(110)

I had already peeled away my soiled clothing when Joe returned with a bucket of water and as I washed myself down, Robert told me about a waiting carriage. Then, to my amazement, he produced some of the clothes that I had left back at the Spencers’.

“How did you get these?” I asked as I gratefully slipped into clean drawers, a fresh white shirt, and my worn but clean riding clothes.

“I will explain all of that later,” he said, handing over my riding boots.

“I have Pan with me,” I said, struggling to pull the tall boots over my torn and swollen feet.

“I know. They just put him in the carriage,” Robert said, and I could have wept in relief.

“Do you have the baby as well?” I asked.

He straightened to look at me. “The baby?” he asked.

“Yes.” I turned to Joe. “Where’s Kitty?” I asked.

“I go for her now,” he said.

“A baby?” Robert asked again.

“Yes,” I said. “She is only a few weeks old. What size is the carriage?”

“It’s yours—the one I brought from Philadelphia.”

“Good! Then we’ll have room for the goat.”

“The goat!” Robert said.

“I need it for the milk,” I said.

Robert looked at me in dismay. “The carriage is already filled to capacity. There are two women along for the journey.”

“In the carriage?”

“We have no choice in the matter. They’ve come to assist us,” he said.

“Well, we need to make room for the goat,” I said.

He stared at me. “A goat!” he repeated.

Why, in all of this, was he fixated on the goat? I wondered. “The goat has to come!” I insisted.

“As you wish,” he said. I buttoned my waistcoat, and Robert handed over a pair of spectacles instead of the expected eye patch. “These are meant to change your look,” he explained.

“Are we ready to leave?” I asked, fitting them to my face.

“The carriage is ready, sir, but first we must drive over and pick up the women where they are staying at the hotel. Then we will leave.”

“You take the carriage up to the hotel and gather the women. Then come back here for me.”

“Leave you here? Are you quite certain?” Robert asked.

“Yes,” I answered. “Go ahead! I’ll be waiting for you with the baby.”

Robert left but twice turned back to see if I had changed my mind.

“Go on,” I encouraged him.

Kitty was asleep when Joe arrived with her. When I took her in my arms, I was so relieved to see her that I kissed her satin face. When I looked up, Joe had left.

I paced with Kitty as I waited for his return, wondering why it was taking him so long. I remembered the offers of money that Joe had for the goat. Was it possible that he did not mean to return? Kitty could not survive without the milk.

Carefully, I cradled the sleeping baby between two bags of grain, then hurriedly slipped out of the feed room into the barn. From there I ran out. It was farther to the water than I remembered, but when I got to the barge, I found Joe struggling with the frightened goat.

“I tryin’ to tie up her mouth,” he grunted. Together we quickly finished the job. “Here, take this,” Joe said, and reached under the pile of wood. “Careful with it.” He handed me a long sheathed knife. “It got some cut to it.”

“I’ll get it back to you!” I said gratefully, while Joe scooped up the goat and left at a trot.

“Look! There is the carriage!” I said in a loud whisper, pointing to where it stood in the shadow of the barn. “You take the goat to the carriage. I’ll get Kitty,” I said, and sprinted ahead.

I might have rushed in, but there was light from a lantern back in the feed room, and I doubted Robert would have brought it. I heard a threatening voice and dropped down to edge my way forward.

“I’m askin’ you one more time, where’s James Pyke at?”

A cold chill covered my body. I could not mistake Rankin’s voice.

“I do not know a James Pyke,” said Robert.

Where was Kitty? I moved closer but stopped when a floorboard creaked.

“You don’t know him? Somebody at Southwood say you was down there looking for him.”

“I’ve come to the Carolinas to take a young lady back to Philadelphia to attend her school,” Robert said, his voice high and afraid.

I inched forward again.

“No white girl’s gonna travel with no nigra!”

“She has her maid in attendance, sir.”

“?‘Sir’! ‘Attendance’! Listen to this nigra talk like he think he somethin’!”

Kitty gave a sudden cry.

“What’s that you got back behind you?” Rankin asked in surprise. “Give it here!”

“No!” Robert argued.

I crept forward, unsheathing the knife and gripping tight the bone handle. Kitty cried out again.

“It’s just a nigra baby! She yours?” the man asked.

“Don’t hold her like that! Give her back to me!” Robert exclaimed as Kitty screamed.

“I’ll snap her neck like a chicken, you don’t tell me where Pyke is.” He dangled Kitty by the arm.