The Abolitionist’s Secret Read Online Free Page A

face. She wished he would release her from his intense gaze and just answer her inane question.
    “The ball is certainly one of my reasons for being here, after your mother so graciously extended me the invitation last fall. But I am also on a mission for my father, which was why I was with those men in the restaurant the other night.”
    “You said your home is in the south?” Heather squeaked out another question.
    “Yes, near Savannah. My father owns a plantation there.”
    Heather looked at her mother. Charlotte raised an eyebrow in her direction, and then turned her attention to David. “So you grew up on a plantation? I thought I detected a bit of an accent when we met last fall, but I had no idea your family is in the slave trade. You’re just who we need to talk to.”
    David smiled at his hostess. “We own slaves, yes, but we are not in the slave trade. That’s an entirely different matter. I’d be happy to answer any questions you might have. What can I help you with, Mrs. Fitzpatrick?”
    “We northerners are struggling to understand slavery, Lieutenant. I’m curious to hear the rationale a plantation owner uses to make sense of one person owning another.”
    David drew a deep breath. “Well, first and foremost, my father owns the plantation, not me.”
    Heather expelled a breath she’d been holding. “So, are you saying if you owned the plantation, you would not have slaves?”
    David glanced once more at Heather. She could feel her blush deepening as he locked eyes again with her. “I’ve been gone from my home for four years. The time away has caused me to question whether the plantation life is the best possible way to run a farm. It’s worthy of some thought. I’m going to have a discussion with my father about some of my ideas when I return home. He wants me to settle down and take over the running of the plantation, but I can’t do that until some changes are made.”
    “I realize that talking politics is not good parlor conversation, but we really are so eager to hear a southerner’s side of the argument.” Charlotte continued to prod.
    “The most troublesome part for me is dealing with the darkies. We feed them, clothe and house them, treat them with kindness, yet still they want to escape. Not many have left from my father’s plantation, since he treats them fairly, but there have been one or two over the years. Then, we have to pay bounty hunters to round them up and bring them back to us. It’s a constant headache.”
    Heather couldn’t keep her emotions in check any longer. “Is that what you were doing the other night in Downing’s? Working with those bounty hunters to find a slave?”
    She held up her book. “I’m re-reading
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
right now, and I have so many questions about slavery. Would there ever be a case where a Negro couple would be split up even after having children together, like what happened to George, Eliza, and little Harry in the book?”
    David shook his head. “You sound so much like your sister, Ginger, when we talked last year about the Indians out west. Such innocent questions to which there are no easy answers.” He shifted uneasily in his chair. “In fact, yes, the men I was with the other night are bounty hunters. We had a tip that our missing slave might be at Downing’s. But we lost the trail. I’m staying in town a bit longer to see if I can find it again.”
    Heather’s fan took on an even more furious pace as she risked taking another look at her mother. Charlotte rose and went to the teacart, busying herself pouring tea into the cups. Her hand shook slightly, spilling some of the liquid onto the cart itself. When she turned back around though, her face was composed and her hands calm. She passed a cup to her guest, and then to her daughters.
    Jasmine picked up the reins of the conversation. “Well, I, for one, am totally bored with the subject at hand. Slavery has no part in our world, or in our parlor, so why are we