The Candle Star, by Michelle Isenhoff, Chapter 19

If you’re new to The Candle Star, you can start at Chapter One.  Each week I’ll also link to the previous post. 

We’re almost to the end.  Next week is the LAST CHAPTER!

The Candle Star

by Michelle Isenhoff

Chapter Nineteen

They’d hardly started when a booming voice hailed them.  “Milford!”

Emily recognized Mr. Thatcher at once.  She willed her uncle to drive on past, but he pulled up the horses and addressed the mill owner.  “Hello, William.  What’s going on?”

“Nothing, nothing.  Just on my way to a card game.  But I ran into Burrows near your place.  He’s looking for a couple runaway kids.  Told me to keep my eyes open.”

“Sure.  He told me, too.”

“He’s a good man, that Burrows.  There ought to be stiffer penalties for helping slaves sneak through here.  What’cha got in the wagon?”

Emily gulped and prayed the others would remain still.

“Not much.  John Harrison couldn’t meet the steamer today so I picked up his order, but I wasn’t about to deliver that saw on horseback.”

Mr. Thatcher guffawed loudly.

“I’ll keep a look out for anything suspicious,” Isaac promised and slapped the lines on the horses.

Emily dared to breathe again, and too soon the wagon jerked to another stop.  Malachi tapped her knee and shimmied over the edge of the wagon bed.  She followed as quickly as she could.  Her uncle kept his eyes to the front as if, by not looking, he could protect them from other unwelcome glances.

Emily met Rachel’s eyes as she dropped to the ground.  “Good luck,” she whispered as the wagon started up again.  She took a steadying breath and caught sight of Malachi waving her into a dark doorway.

“What’s that?” he asked, pointing to the strip of linen in her hand.

She held it up.  Her hand was shaking.  “Rachel’s bandage.”  She hastily tied it around one of her shoes, praying it would fool the hounds yet hoping it would not.

Her teeth began to chatter.  The night was mild, but her shift was short and thin and her legs were bare.  “What do we do now?”

“Follow me.  Stay in the shadows as much as possible and move quickly.  The pick-up point is a few miles off.”

“What happens if Burrows finds us?”

“We run faster.  Come on!”

They fled between buildings that looked far less forbidding by the light of day.  The darkness felt heavy, and the occasional passer-by turned to watch them flee.  But the road was smooth and straight, and they covered ground quickly.  After they crossed the railroad track the buildings began to thin.

The land broadened and the road narrowed, becoming muddy and rutted as they passed between farms.  Emily tripped and slid, glancing behind, gasping for breath.  She had never raced this far, and she was thankful now for all the hard work that had made her muscles strong and taut.

Finally Malachi slowed.  “We should have some time before Burrows finds our trail.  Let’s catch our breath.”

They didn’t stop but hustled along at something less than a run.  Soon Emily’s breathing regulated enough to ask a question Rachel had prompted.  “Malachi, if our slaves at Ella Wood really hate it there, like Rachel said, why do you suppose Zeke stayed after Uncle Isaac freed him?”

“Zeke chose to follow your mother.  That’s an important distinction.”

“But if he was free, why not go do what he wanted?”

“Think about it, Emily.  Slavery was all he’d ever known.  He was an old man when your uncle freed him.  How many choices were open to him?”

She changed the subject.  “How far do we have to go?”

“Straight along this road, then cut over to the river.  We’re probably nearing halfway.”

“Good.”  She jogged along, feeling more at ease.  “I watched you change Rachel’s bandage.  I think you’ll make a fine doctor.”

He smiled.  “And I think –”

A distant baying cut him off and tightened his smile.  Fear dumped itself into Emily’s gut like it was poured from a pail.

“Let’s go!”

Malachi rocketed down the road, and Emily struggled to keep her feet under her in the mud.  She watched Malachi nearly go down in front of her.  A moment later, he clambered over the rail fence alongside the road.  “The field is flatter,” he said, helping her over.

They struggled through a meadow choked with last year’s growth and picked up speed over a hayfield.  They passed through field after field, tearing through briars, sliding through mud, pushing through woods, flitting from tree to tree – dark and silent as black moonbeams.  Emily’s legs burned and her breath came in great, gulping pants, but the memory of Rachel’s slashed leg kept her pounding ahead of the dogs, hoping Malachi knew where he was going.

The sound of baying grew steadily louder behind them.

“This way!”  Malachi veered off the road and splashed into a small creek.  “Maybe they’ll lose our trail in the water.”

The creek wasn’t deep, but the bottom was uneven, and it splattered all the way up Emily’s thigh.  She clenched her teeth against water still as cold as winter’s breath.

They followed the creek under a fence and through a field of cows.  Startled from their warm spring beds, the cows lunged to their feet and ran lowing across the field.

In the open space, the stars unrolled across the sky; the scorpion, Hercules, and the great dipper all in their familiar places.  And above them all, the North Star was the hinge that held them in position.

The North Star!  The Candle Star, guiding them, showing the way!  Now she knew Malachi was indeed holding them to their direction.  They were headed east.

The creek rounded a bend and flowed beneath a canopy of trees.  By this time Emily’s feet had gone quite numb, and in the dark she tripped over a fallen log and fell headlong into the water.

She came up spluttering and shivering, choking on the water streaming down her face.  Malachi dragged her out of the creek and up the bank and set her down in a patch of grass.

“Are you okay?”

She nodded, unable to speak through her chattering teeth.

“Emily, I’m sorry.  I never should have let you come.  It was foolish of me.”  He smacked his fist on his knee in frustration and anger.  “I sure wish you hadn’t stumbled through that barn door this afternoon!”

Emily was regretting that very thing, but there was nothing to do now but keep moving.  She raised herself to her feet, shivering violently.

“M-Malachi,” she chattered, “what will happen if w-we’re caught?”

“You will return home, to your parents’ embarrassment.”

“And you?”

He shrugged.

“You’d g-go to jail, wouldn’t you?”

“If I’m lucky.”

She gasped, suddenly realizing the cost of Malachi’s gamble.  “You could be taken as a slave!”

“Mr. Milford would never allow that.”  But his voice was strained.

“W-what if he didn’t know?”  Why had she insisted on coming along?  She was only slowing him down.

“Come on, we still have a lot of ground to cover.  And take that rag off your foot!”

She saw he had already discarded his.  She yanked the bandage loose and tucked it inside her shift.

She could hear the dogs, getting closer and closer.  She saw again a vision of the bloody slash on Rachel’s leg, and she ran.  Over fields and fences and streams, wondering just how far they had traveled.

She ran like a stalked creature.  She thought of the stories her brother told of hunting in the woods back home, of how raccoons could outwit a dog.  Sometimes they would escape by climbing above the reach of a dog’s nose and traveling tree to tree like a squirrel.  Other times they might run along a fence rail and drop back to the ground far from the point they climbed up.  They would even double back.  They were wily creatures, raccoons.

Just then they broke out of a glade of trees.  Moonlight bathed the field beyond, illuminating a barn at the far end.  A barn with an odd silhouette.  With a jolt, Emily recognized it.

“Malachi, is this where we came for the state fair last fall?” she panted.

“I think so.  Yeah.  I see the platform on top of the barn where that the fellow in the glider rolled off.”

Her heart leaped.  “Come on, I have an idea!”

She raced toward the barn, hoping the tall platform meant the heavy guy wires were still there, supporting the structure, stretching fifty yards beyond the barn.

They were!  She almost tripped on one as they approached.

Malachi hesitated.  “If we go in the barn, we’re sitting ducks.”

“Not in the barn, ON it,” she corrected.  “Climb!”

“I hope you know what you’re doing,” he mumbled as they grabbed hold of the scaffolding and began pulling themselves up.

It didn’t take long.  From the top of the platform they could look out over the surrounding fields.  The river sparkled not far away.

“Look!” Malachi exclaimed in a loud whisper.  “The dogs!”

The baying was loud and clear now.  Both animals could be seen only a quarter of a mile away.

Emily found where the guy wires attached to the scaffolding.  She grabbed hold of the thick cable, swung her legs around and started shimmying down.

“Are you crazy?  What are you doing?” Malachi hissed.

“I’m being a raccoon.”

“You’re what?”

“If we can fool Burrows’ hounds into thinking we’re in the barn, it will take some time for the men to come up and realize we’re not.”

Malachi sucked in his breath and quickly latched onto the cable behind her.  Before the dogs came galloping across the barnyard, the children were racing through the trees on the far side.

The hounds set up a racket inside the barn, and Emily and Malachi hugged each other joyfully.

“How far?” Emily whispered.

“Just down the road and to the river.  We’re almost there.”

“Good.  I’m about played out.”

Seven minutes later, a rickety barn loomed up in the darkness.  They could still hear the hounds baying in the distance.  Malachi called out and Isaac drove out of the barn.  “Get in.”

They wasted no time.  Isaac slapped the reins and the team took off down the road.  After safe distance, Isaac pulled over.  They were on a bulge of land that jutted out slightly into the river, and they had a good view of it rolling back in either direction.  Lights in Canada twinkled across the expanse of black velvet water, and Belle Isle sprawled low in front of them.

Isaac turned to them, his voice tight.  “Emily when I saw that child get out of the wagon in your dress-” his voice caught.  “What were you thinking, girl?”

She lifted her chin defiantly.  “Can’t you guess? You’re the one who told me we’re just alike.”

After a tense moment, Isaac’s chuckle dropped softly around them.  “Fool girl,” he muttered.  “I ought to take a hickory stick to your backside.  When we get home, you scoot in that house and change, and don’t you dare tell Shannon what you’ve been up to.  She’d filet us both.”

Malachi jumped out of the wagon, squinting downriver, and Emily let the silence run on.  “I don’t think Shannon would care.”

“What do you mean by that?”

Emily shifted uncomfortably on the seat.  “I’ve been pretty awful to her.”

Isaac pursed his lips and nodded.  “Yes, you have.  But she loves you.  Give her a chance.”

Malachi’s shout broke the moment.  “There!  Do you see it?”

“See what?” Emily craned her neck.

“The lights on the steamer.  It’s moving out into the river.”

“I see it!”

“They made it!  They’re all safe!”

“How can you tell?”

“See the red light up on top of the ship?  That’s the signal that everyone is accounted for.  Mr. deBaptiste will cross to Canada before heading down to Cleveland.”

They watched the lights on the ship grow smaller.  Then Isaac twitched the reins.  “Let’s get on home.  I intend to be sitting in my office when Burrows comes in the door madder than a bear with consumption.”

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