Patricia Rice Read Online Free Page A

learn to be a lawyer, and then he would be the one in Frankfort doing the politicking. It was about time someone around here heard a little sense, and it sure enough wouldn't come from their current backwoods mayor.
    His reason for coming to town had nothing to do with Joe or Charlie or Homer. Not this time, leastways. Pace led his horse into the livery so no one could see it tied up where it shouldn't be, then slipped off on foot down still another alley.
    The old man living in the last cabin at the very edge of town was so old and bent and grizzled that even the slave sellers didn't want him. He'd been given his freedom at his master's death, but that had been too late for Uncle Jas to enjoy it. He scraped a living by bartering with those too poor for the town's main shop and fed his soul with pursuits only a very few knew about.
    Pace was one of those few. As he stepped onto the old man's porch, Uncle Jas flung open the door and hurried him in before anyone could see him.
    "Young fool," the old man muttered, going back to the crate holding his platter of ham and eggs. "Ain't no call for you to be here when they's all up and about." He gave Pace's battered face a shrewd look from beneath bristly white eyebrows. "Reckon you couldn't make it last night."
    Pace ignored his host's mutterings. "I've got two to go tonight. Josh is taking care of our hounds. What about Howard's?"
    Jas shook his grizzled head and clucked disapprovingly. "You take too many from 'round here, and they's gonna come lookin' for you. That ain't the whole point at all, boy."
    Pace clenched his fists in frustration. "I know it, but I can't let them stay. Charlie and the boys raped Tessie last night. I can't let her stay and take more of that."
    Clouded eyes looked sad as they stared out at nothing. "That's the way it is, boy. Tessie would get used to it, just like her mother did."
    Pace nearly exploded with rage. "You mean you want her to stay here? Whose side are you on? They'll kill her!"
    The old man clucked again while Pace strode furiously up and down the narrow wooden floor. "She won't be the first, and she won't be the last. You learn that with age, boy. You cain't change the system one person at a time. You gets yo'self that fancy college learnin' and go up and meets the president, and you tell him what it's like out here. Make him change the laws. Then you'll be helpin' some. Right now, all we can do is help the little trickle that comes to us for help. And you hurtin' that trickle by bein' selfish and helpin' those you know best first."
    Pace understood all that. He knew if slaves kept disappearing from his father's house that all eyes would turn to him and pretty soon they'd suspect anyone he had any dealings with. He'd tried being patient. He'd turned his head from more atrocities than he cared to admit. He couldn't turn away from Tessie.
    "If you won't help me, I'll do it myself." He turned around to walk out, but the old man called him back.
    "We'll get Tessie out, but you gonna hafta change your ways, boy. You gonna hafta be one of 'em. You gonna hafta find yo'self a little gal and you gonna hafta go with 'em when they go out huntin' them runaways and you gonna hafta bad-mouth niggers like ever'one else 'round here or you ain't gonna be no use to me anymore."
    Pace felt the sickness fill his stomach again, but he clenched his fists and fought back the waves of nausea. He turned slowly to face the former slave and nodded slowly. "You just tell me what to do, and I'll do it."
    * * *
    Pace nodded off beneath the thick canopy of maples along the creek bank the afternoon after Tessie and Mammy disappeared across the river. He'd stayed out all night helping row the boat and guiding them to the first outpost on the Indiana side. He'd had his ribs wrapped, but they still hurt worse than the seven rings of hell. He hadn't had an ounce of sleep in forty-eight hours, and exhaustion had taken its toll. He didn't have the strength for returning to the