Promises to the Dead

by Mary Downing Hahn

  He stopped at the corner, breathing hard like he wasn't used to running. I pictured him sniffing the air like a hound seeking our scent. It wouldn't have surprised me none if the man had dropped to all fours and followed our trail with his nose.

  "Abednego," Mr. Kirby called. "Come on back here. We ain't finished our card game. I aim to win back every cent I lost, you old rascal."

  The Colonel hawked a gob of something nasty into the gutter. "Don't let that Negro go," he hollered. "Him and that gal of yours are up to something, and I mean to learn what it is."

  Letting fly a stream of curses, he strode down the alley, his boot heels clicking against the stones.

  "He didn't see us, did he?" Perry whispered.

  I let out my breath in a long sigh. "That man don't miss much, but if he'd seen us, we'd be dead now, shot through the head."

  We waited a while longer just in case the colonel was lurking somewhere close by. A church bell struck the half hour and then the quarter hour. I tiptoed to the top of the steps. Didn't see nothing but a pitiful three-legged dog limping down the empty street.

  "Let's go," I said. "The Baxters' house ain't far from here."

  "Does Polly know I'm coming?" Perry asked, close to tears by now. "Is she waiting there for me?"

  I hated to tell the poor child bad news when he was already feeling low, but it made no sense to get his hopes up. "Polly's daddy sent her and her mother to his brother's place in the country. I never got a chance to tell her nothing about you."

  Perry sniffed hard and wiped his eyes, but he didn't say a thing, just tottered along beside me, weak as a baby. For a little child, he had a lot of pluck.

  "I hear you put up a real good fight when the colonel brought you to the Kirbys' house," I said.

  Perry shuddered. "The widow just about whipped every bit of fight out of me," he said. "All that kept me from dying was Mama."

  I looked at him. The moonlight silvered his face but not his eyes, giving him a ghostly look. "What do you mean, Perry?"

  "Mama was there with me," he said in a dreamy voice, "deep in the shadows, where no one could see her but me. She told me you'd come for me. I didn't believe her, but she was right."

  "You must have had a fever dream," I told him. "I've had some that seemed realer than real life."

  "No," he said. "Mama was there. She was so close I felt her dress brush against my face."

  It fair gave me the shivers to hear the child talk so. I glanced over my shoulder, half expecting to see Lydia watching us from an alleyway. But there was no sign of her. No sign of the colonel or Nate either. I urged Perry to walk faster. Never had a night seemed so dark and full of danger.

  When we got to Baxters' house, Athena met us at the kitchen door. "Oh, sweet Lord!" she cried, hugging Perry tight. "What has that woman done to you?"

  Now that I could see Perry better, I realized he'd been badly treated indeed. He was cut and bruised, and his clothes were nothing but filthy rags. From the looks of him, it seemed the widow had planned to keep the child locked up till he died of starvation. Or a beating or something even worse.

  With me following close behind, Athena carried Perry downstairs and laid him on my pallet. I watched her bathe his face the way she'd once bathed mine, fussing over him like a mother hen. When she'd done what she could, she straightened up and looked at me.

  "Why didn't Nate carry this poor child here instead of making him walk?" she asked, clearly vexed. "Where is that no-'count man anyhow?"

  "Mr. Kirby and Colonel Botfield have him," I said. "The colonel suspects him and Pamela are up to something, and he aims to learn what."

  Athena shook her head. "That don't sound good. They're bound to come here looking for this child." She studied Perry's face a moment. "Easy to tell who his daddy was," she said softly. "I knew Peregrine when he was this boy's age and never have I seen a closer likeness."

  The words were no sooner out of her mouth than we heard a loud knocking at the front door.

  "Judge Baxter," an all too familiar voice hollered. "Open up. We have your slave here!"

  Perry's eyes widened in fear, but Athena picked him up. "Don't worry, I'll hide you somewhere safe." Turning to me, she added, "Get out the back door fast. It sounds like the judge is letting them in."

  CHAPTER 11

  I scooted up those stairs like a scared rabbit, but I wasn't quick enough. At the very moment I reached the back door, Mr. Kirby and Colonel Abednego Botfield came storming down the hall toward me, followed by Judge Baxter. The colonel was dragging Nate, whose head was bleeding like he'd been beaten bad. Pistol-whipped, maybe. It made me ache to see him looking more dead than alive.

  "Fetch that wench of yours," Colonel Botfield was hollering at Judge Baxter. "She's got that slave child hid in this house, I tell you."

  When the colonel saw me struggling to unbolt the back door, he dropped Nate to the floor with a thud. Grabbing my shirt, he lifted me clean off my feet and shook me like a feather pillow.

  "This is the very brat that hid the woman and her boy from me in Talbot County," he yelled.

  Judge Baxter looked from Colonel Botfield to me and back to Colonel Botfield again. "I've never seen that guttersnipe before," he said, clearly astonished. "I have no idea why he's in my house or where he came from."

  "If Jesse Sherman is here, the child I'm seeking is here, too." Colonel Botfield gave me a few more shakes hard enough to break a chicken's neck. "Give me a Bible, and I'll swear on the Holy Evangels of Almighty God that this here rascal and your no-account slave broke into Mr. Daniel Kirby's house tonight and stole a child that belongs to your son's widow."

  Flummoxed, Judge Baxter stared at Colonel Botfield. I noticed he made no move to fetch a Bible. "You must be mad or drunk to say such a thing. Why in heaven's name would Nate steal a slave and bring him here?"

  Growing more wrathy every second, the colonel shook me again, causing me to bite my tongue something awful. "Just give me permission to search the house," he said. "You'll soon see I'm telling the truth."

  Judge Baxter drew himself up tall and straight, shoulders back and chin up. "No one searches my house, Colonel Botfield, least of all a scoundrel such as yourself."

  Ignoring the insult, the colonel said, "As I've already told you, the slave in question belongs to the widow of your deceased son! I should think you'd want to help the bereaved reclaim her property."

  Instead of shaking me again, Colonel Botfield commenced to twist my collar as if he meant to choke me to death.

  Judge Baxter looked at me. "Loosen your grip on the boy," he said slowly to the colonel, "before you kill him."

  Colonel Botfield let me go with a box on the ears that made my head ring like a church bell. "Will you or won't you give me permission to search the house?"

  "In the name of God, Horatio," put in Mr. Kirby, "let the colonel do as he asks. Ain't you and me friends as well as in-laws?"

  "It's not you I object to, Daniel. It's the company you keep." The judge eyed the colonel with contempt. "That man may be your wife's brother, but he's no gentleman. Furthermore, I don't appreciate him telling me what to do in my own house. Nor do I appreciate the way he's beaten my slave."

  Just then Athena came upstairs, doing her best to look puzzled by the commotion. She drew in her breath at the sight of Nate lying on the floor, but she didn't say a word.

  Judge Baxter frowned at Athena. "My son's widow is apparently missing a slave child. Do you know his whereabouts?"

  Athena looked at the floor. Instead of speaking up the way I expected her to, she just shook her head. "No, sir," she whispered. "I don't know nothing about it, sir."

  "How about this boy?" The colonel grabbed me and gave me another teeth-rattling shake. "What the devil is Jesse Sherman doing here?"

  Athena's face softened. Turning to the judge, she said, "Oh, sir, that poor child showed up this evening, begging at the back door. I fed him a few scraps and let him shelter by the fire. I didn't think you'd mind, sir."


  The colonel cursed. "That's a damnable lie. I left the rascal for dead in the street at least three weeks ago. You been caring for him all this while, aiding and abetting him to steal the widow's slave child."

  "Please let us search this house, Horatio," Mr. Kirby put in. "Henrietta is beside herself, she loves the child so."

  I wanted to call the man a liar, but, if I spoke up, they'd all know I'd seen Perry. So, like Athena, I kept my mouth shut.

  The judge sighed heavily and headed for the cellar door. "Come with me," he said to the men. "You'll soon see I have nothing to hide."

  The moment the judge's back was turned, Colonel Botfield grabbed my arm and twisted it pretty near out of the socket. "No matter how this little scene plays out," he whispered, "you ain't seen the last of me, Jesse Sherman. As sure as the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, I'll be your death, boy."

  I broke away, my nose full of the brimstone smell of his smoky breath, and moved closer to Athena. Shaking with fear, she put her arm around me.

  "Come along, Abednego," Mr. Kirby called from the cellar door. "Forget the boy for now."

  But Colonel Botfield caught hold of me again and dragged me down the stairs behind him. "I ain't letting the scalawag out of my sight," he said.

  Those three men searched the cellar from one end to the other, peering into every corner, poking and prodding, but they found nothing. It seemed Athena had spirited Perry away. Or conjured him right out of his shape. Delia had told me tales of a witch woman down in the marsh who had the power to change people into frogs or mice or whatever she chose. Maybe Athena had the same magical arts, for there wasn't a sign of Perry anywhere. I glimpsed a mouse in the corner, though, watching us with bright eyes.

  At last Judge Baxter turned to Colonel Botfield. "I hope you're satisfied," he said. "Didn't I tell you the child was not in my house?"

  "No, I ain't satisfied. That wench of yours has got him hid in some hidey hole only she knows about." The wily old scoundrel scowled at me and added, "This boy knows more than he's telling. If you was to hand him over to me for a few hours, I'd get the truth out of him fast enough."

  To my relief, Judge Baxter shook his head. "In your hands, there's no telling what would become of him," he told the colonel. "If the boy aided and abetted, I'll see he goes to court, where he'll receive a fair trial."

  "At least promise me this," the colonel said. "Lock him up and keep him till we get to the bottom of the affair. Him and your slave both."

  Judge Baxter merely shrugged and said he'd consider it. "And now, gentlemen," he concluded, "if you'll excuse me, I wish to go to bed. I have a full schedule at the courthouse tomorrow."

  With that, the judge led Mr. Kirby and Colonel Botfield to the back door and opened it as if he was letting out a pair of no-'count hounds. To Mr. Kirby, he said, "Daniel, our friendship will be sorely tested if you bring your brother-in-law to my house again."

  After the door slammed shut behind the two, Judge Baxter bent over Nate. Athena had wiped the blood from his face and was bandaging his head. I was glad to see Nate's eyes were open but sorry to see the damage the colonel had done to him.

  "I don't know who or what to believe," the judge said to Nate, "but as much as I hate to agree with Abednego Botfield, I smell the rank odor of mendacity."

  Fearing the judge would lay all the blame on Nate, I thrust myself between them. "It ain't Nate's fault," I said. "He was just helping me, sir. I'm the one who stole Perry and you should be glad I did, for he's your own kin—"

  That got the judge's attention all right. Towering over me as wrathy as one of them kings in the Bible, he roared, "My kin? What do you mean by that?"

  Too late I recalled what Athena had told me about saying such things, but there was no taking the words back now. "Perry's daddy was the late Peregrine Baxter," I hollered, too wrathy myself to care what the man did to me. "That makes Perry your grandson. Your own flesh and blood."

  Whilst I was talking, the judge was hauling me to the door. "Liar," he roared. "My son would never miscegenate with a slave!"

  "If you saw him," I yelled back, "you'd know I'm telling the truth!"

  The judge was so mad I doubt he heard a word I said, let alone believed me. With one last curse, he threw me out the door like I was no more than a bundle of rags.

  I hit the ground so hard it knocked the wind right out of me. For a second I thought I was dead or paralyzed, but then I got my breath and picked myself up. The door was shut fast, but the kitchen window showed the lamp was still lit. I sneaked up and looked inside. The judge was talking to Nate, his face grim. Athena hovered nearby, wringing her hands with worry. There was nothing I could do but wait till the judge went to bed. Then, if I was lucky, Athena might let me in and tell me where Perry was.

  It seemed like a long time, probably because I was cold and tired and wanted nothing more than a warm place to sleep, but at last the kitchen door opened and Athena peeked out. "Jesse?" she whispered.

  I scurried into the house. "Where's Nate?" I whispered.

  "The judge sent him to the cellar and told me not to go near him," Athena said. "He's mighty angry at both of us."

  "And Perry? Where's he?"

  "Come on," Athena said, "I'll show you."

  I followed her down to a small storage room in the cellar where she put me to work moving a stack of barrels and crates. I recalled the judge poking around in the same place, but he'd contented himself with shining his lantern here and there. I guess Athena knew more about the cellar than he did, for the barrels and crates hid a tiny room the judge had missed altogether.

  Inside was Perry, curled up in a blanket, sound asleep and as safe as a mole in the ground. I grinned a big grin, mightily relieved to see him.

  "Crawl in there with him and get some sleep, Jesse," Athena said. "I'll fetch you in the morning after the judge has gone to the courthouse."

  As quiet as I could, I wriggled under Perry's blanket, bone weary and glad for the warmth of his body. I thought I'd tumble into sleep the minute I shut my eyes, but long after Athena moved the crates back into place, I lay awake worrying. Even though I'd saved Perry from the widow, I was far from done with him. Grandson or not, the judge didn't want any part of the boy. It seemed we had no choice but to travel on and find Miss Polly.

  When I finally managed to fall asleep, I dreamed I was sailing down the Bay toward home. The sky was blue and the water sparkled. I could see Uncle Philemon waiting on shore for me, waving to beat the band. My heart leaped with joy, but before the boat docked, the sky turned black and the wind commenced to blow. Uncle Philemon disappeared. Captain Harrison turned to tell me something, but he had Colonel Abednego Botfield's face. In his hand was a pistol, pointed at my head.

  That was when I woke up to see Nate bending over me. One eye was swollen shut and his cheek was bruised, the colonel's handiwork. "Athena send me to fetch you boys," he said. "The judge has left for the day, and we got plans to make."

  Nate woke Perry next. For a second the poor child's eyes widened in fear, but Nate told him not to worry. "You're safe now. That woman won't never get her hands on you again."

  Athena met us at the top of the stairs. She'd fixed oatmeal for all three of us and a mug of steaming hot coffee for Nate and me.

  Perry looked around the room wildly. "Are we safe here?" he asked. "What if somebody sees us through the window? What if the colonel comes back?"

  Athena drew Perry on to her lap and rocked him. "Bless you, child, nobody's coming into the backyard to peek through that little old kitchen window. Company knocks at the front door. You're as safe as bird in its nest here."

  Gently she scooped up a spoonful of oatmeal and offered it to him. "You eat this," she said. "You need to put some meat on those skinny bones and get strong."

  While we ate, Athena asked if we'd slept all right, were we warm enough, how did we feel, did we want more to eat, and so on. She felt Perry's forehead to see if he was feverish, she changed the bandage on N
ate's head, she inspected his swollen eye, she forced me take another dose of the foul concoction she'd made for me while I was sick. Truth to tell, I believe we enjoyed being fussed over, even Nate.

  The only thing I took exception to was the scrubbing she gave Perry and me. Much as I hated soap and water, it was good to put on clean clothes afterwards. Peregrine's castoffs, Athena said, still packed away in a trunk upstairs. My pants were a little short and Perry's were a little long, but on the whole we looked a sight more respectable than before.

  When Athena had done what she could, she studied all three of us, sighed real heavy, and turned to Nate. "I know you're going to take your chances with the Yankee army, but what about Pamela? She must be in bad trouble with the Kirbys. You just going to leave her to face it alone?"

  Nate shook his head. "I aim to get her out of that house one way or another. And the sooner the better. I don't think I'll have no trouble persuading her to come with me now."

  Athena gave me a long look. "Jesse, are you still aiming to take this child to Miss Polly?"

  "I promised his mama," I said once again. "I swore on her very grave."

  Athena laid a piece of paper on the table. "I drew you a map. Look at it real hard. Make sure you know what you're getting into."

  I studied Athena's handiwork, turning the paper this way and that, but I couldn't make no sense of it. Finally I said, "There must be some mistake. Surely you don't mean us to cross the Potomac River. Why, if we do that, we'll be in Virginia. That's south."

  "If you want to see Miss Polly Baxter," Athena said, "Virginia's exactly where you have to go."

  I opened my mouth to protest, but Athena hadn't finished what she was saying. Turning to Perry, she added, "You got more kin than Miss Polly, you know. Your mama's sister Hyacinth is in Virginia, too. The judge sent her to his brother's place to look after Miss Polly and Mrs. Baxter."

  Perry stared at Athena, just as surprised as I was. "Mama never told me she had a sister," he said.