by Jan Drexler
Slowly she turned to look into the raspberry brambles behind her. The stand was at least ten feet across, making a large mound in a sunny spot of the woods where a couple walnut trees had been cut down years ago.
Animals could hide in there, especially rabbits, and sometimes deer. She bent closer to the brambles, trying to distinguish shapes in the shadowy recesses. One shadow looked like a face . . . and then the face blinked its eyes.
Hannah jumped back, stifling a scream. The face rose out of the brambles and became a man. Dark skin scratched and muddy, with his clothes ragged and giving barely enough cover to keep warm. His face pleaded with her, his hand outstretched.
“Please, miss.” His whisper was guttural, harsh. “Don’t say anything. Please, miss.”
William stood next to Hannah, his finger stuck in his mouth, staring at the dark man. An escaped slave. He must be. “Who are you?”
The man looked around wildly, his eyes red-rimmed and scared. “I can’t tell you, miss.”
Hannah reached out to pull William closer to her, ready to pick him up and run if the man made any move toward them. “Why were you hiding in the bushes like that?”
“Mister Adam, he tell me wait here. He say it safe.”
Adam? What did he have to do with this man?
A stray breeze swirled through the branches overhead, sending brown leaves cascading down on them. The man shifted from one foot to another. He was bigger than any man Hannah had ever seen, his arms corded with muscles. At the sound of Liesbet’s voice in the distance, he started shrinking back into the bushes, sending a wild glance toward Hannah.
“If Adam said you would be safe here, then you will.”
The man relaxed as Hannah spoke. “You be a friend, miss?”
“What?”
“Mister Adam, he say there be other friends here, helping folks like me.” The man’s voice was low, urgent. “I know there be a group coming up the road, and they be needing a place to stay.”
Hannah had heard about escaped slaves making their way through Lancaster County, always fearful of being captured, even in Pennsylvania where slavery was illegal. Was Adam involved in this dangerous business? “Does Adam know about this other group?”
“No, miss, I didn’t have time to tell him. I was with them until yesterday afternoon when the bounty hunters got close, but I didn’t dare stay with them. The dogs were after my scent, not theirs.”
Hannah backed away. It wasn’t her place to get involved in this. These escaped slaves were in a wretched position, but they were breaking the law. She had been taught to obey the law unless it went against God’s express command.
“Please, miss. Can you find Mister Adam? Tell him about the others.”
Hannah shook her head. “I can’t get involved . . .”
“Miss, they’re just women and children. They ain’t strong like me. They get tired and hungry.”
Hannah glanced down at William. He had lost interest in the stranger and had sat on the ground to play with a couple walnuts from the bag. If she were traveling alone, frightened and hungry in a strange place with William to care for, how would she find food for him, and a place to sleep?
“I’ll find Adam and tell him.” Hannah could hear Liesbet and the others coming closer to the raspberry bushes. “You stay hidden. Don’t let the others see you.”
The man nodded and sank back into the shadows under the brambles.
“Come, William. Let’s finish filling our sack and find the others. It’s nearly noon and time to get dinner ready.”
Mamm was in the kitchen when they got back to the house. She stood by the window that faced in the direction of the cemetery and barely turned to acknowledge the children as they came into the house.
“Mamm?” Hannah looked to Liesbet for help, but her sister only slipped past her and up the stairway. “Mamm? We got some more walnuts. I’ll fix dinner, ja?”
Mamm shook herself a little, as if she were waking from a deep sleep. She smiled at Hannah.
“Ja, you can fix dinner. The little ones will be hungry.”
Hannah’s stomach clenched. Which little ones did she mean? Mamm’s mind often confused the past and the present. One winter she had wandered around the house day after day, looking for the baby. Finally Hannah played along with her, telling her baby Catherine was sleeping in her cradle, or that Liesbet was caring for her. Only then would Mamm become calm.
Daed had stroked his beard. “I think God can forgive this little lie.” And then he had gone back out to the barn, as helpless as Hannah.
Now Mamm glanced out the window again. “It will be cold again tonight.” She took Hannah’s hand. “Denki. You are a good daughter to take the little ones out while the good weather holds.” Hannah looked into her eyes. She smiled at the calm she saw there—no sign of madness.
“I’ll make some rivel soup for dinner, and we can have the rest of the corn pone from breakfast.”
Mamm nodded and went into the weaving room. Hannah walked over to the window where she had been standing. From here, the sunshine looked warmer than it really was. She could see the corner of the cemetery where the children were buried. If Daed took them west, perhaps Mamm could leave the past behind.
To the left of the cemetery, Hannah could see the little grove of blackberry brambles where Adam usually left his signal for her. It would be like Adam to help escaped slaves. He was outspoken against slavery, especially after he attended those camp meetings last summer. He came back full of fire, as if he had seen a different world while he was gone. His enthusiasm had tempered somewhat since then, but not the look in his eyes when he spoke about the abolition of slavery, or what he had read in the Scriptures, or about the work God was doing in his life. All strange ideas to Hannah, but she listened, even though she didn’t understand. That was Adam. On fire for every new idea that came his way. It was a good thing he wasn’t Amish. He would never submit easily to the Ordnung.
But this man in the walnut grove—how deeply was Adam involved? She had never seen escaped slaves around Conestoga Creek, although many freemen lived and worked in Lancaster.
A whirlwind swept through the clearing between the house and the barn, catching dried leaves as it went and spinning them into the air before releasing them to shower down on the grass again. Hannah shivered, even in the warm kitchen. She wondered about the group of women and children the man had told her about. Where would they sleep tonight? Who would feed them?
As soon as dinner was over, she would go to Adam and tell him. She had promised that man she would do it. And she would, but that would be the end of her involvement.
Hannah ignored the look Liesbet gave her as she slipped out the door into the cool afternoon air. Think what she might, Liesbet was wrong. Nothing was going on between her and Adam.
Pausing at the edge of the Metzlers’ clearing, she debated where he might be. Just like the last time she had sought Adam, going to the house would bring all kinds of questions. Questions she wasn’t ready to answer.
The big barn doors were open and she saw Adam’s daed there, but no Adam. Had he gone to the walnut grove already? Had she missed him?
Then the door of the smokehouse opened, but just a crack. Just enough for someone inside to peer out. That’s where Adam was.
Careful to keep out of sight of both the house windows and the barn door, Hannah got to the smokehouse door just as it opened wide and Adam came out with a large bundle in his hand.
“Adam, wait.”
He froze, looking past and around her. “What are you doing here? Are you alone?”
“Ja.” Hannah’s heart was thumping harder than her short run across the bare garden allowed. All doubt was gone. Adam’s bundle contained food. He was helping an escaped slave. “I had to see you. I met a man in the walnut grove this morning.”
Adam looked quickly around, grabbed her arm, and pulled her back into the smokehouse with him. Stripes of sunlight seeped through the loosely fitting door, crisscrossing hi
s face with bars of dark and light.
He pulled her close with one hand still grasping her arm. “What do you mean?”
“We were there this morning, gathering walnuts, and there was a man. He said you had told him to hide in the brambles.”
Adam swallowed. “Did anyone else see him?”
“Only William. Liesbet and the others were on the other side of the grove. He wanted me to tell you there are others, and he’s worried about them.”
Adam released her. “Others?”
“He said there were women and children, and that they had been together until the dogs got close.”
Adam shifted from one foot to the other. If they weren’t in such a confined space, he would have been pacing the length of the room.
“You can’t tell anyone about him, right? You have to forget you even saw him.”
Hannah poked the front of his shirt with her finger. “He is an escaped slave, isn’t he?” He shifted his gaze away from her. “I know what you’re up to, Adam Metzler, and it’s a dangerous business.”
“Of course it is.” He didn’t deny it like she had hoped he would. “But these people—don’t you see? If they’re captured and taken back, they might as well have drowned in the river.”
“But they would be alive and safe, wouldn’t they?”
“The slave owners won’t welcome them back with open arms. A man like Tom would be beaten within an inch of his life before he was put back to work.”
“But it’s against the law, Adam.” She turned from him, trying to resist his plea. “We shouldn’t even be involved in this. We keep to ourselves.”
“Maybe you were taught that way, Hannah, but I know better. Helping these people is exactly what I’m supposed to be doing.”
Hannah didn’t answer. Couldn’t answer. Her thoughts whirled in her mind. Of course she should help someone in need . . . but what about the law? What about submitting to the authorities God had placed over them?
In the distance a dog barked. The bark turned into a howl. Dogs on the hunt.
“Those dogs are getting close, Hannah. I have to go. Tom needs me to show him the way to the next station.”
“Station?”
Adam nodded. “Like a railroad station.” Then he gave her a sudden smile and reached up to pass his thumb along her cheek. “I hope someday you’ll understand why I have to do this.”
Without another word, Adam opened the smokehouse door, looked carefully around, and then slipped out.
10
The distant baying told Adam the dogs had picked up Tom’s trail, but they were a good ways off. If he hurried, Tom would still have enough time to escape.
Adam glanced behind him as he entered the woods. Hannah watched him from the smokehouse door, but made no move to follow. It was best she stayed out of it for now.
Tom had heard the dogs and hovered near the opening in the brambles. His huge body sagged with relief when he saw Adam.
“Them dogs—they caught my scent.” Tom’s voice was hoarse with panic.
“They aren’t close yet.” Adam pulled a loaf of bread out of his bundle and handed it to Tom. “You need to eat and keep your strength up. I have a boat down at the creek, and we’ll take that as far as the outskirts of Lancaster. Once we’re on the water, the dogs won’t be able to get your scent.”
Tom nodded and dug into the bread. He ate as if he hadn’t had a meal in a week.
“Did the miss find you? She tell you about the others?”
“Yes, she did. Who are they?”
“My sister, another woman, and their children. I told them to come this way, and what sign to look for, but I couldn’t stay with them. Them dogs, they looking for me. I hoped they’d leave the little ones be if I went on alone.”
Women and children alone in these woods? “How many, and where are they?”
“Two women and six young. The boy’s pretty old—old enough to help—but the others . . . ,” Tom shook his head, shoving the rest of the bread back into the bundle, “. . . the others are just babies. Just babies. I left them hunkered down under some fallen trees, about two miles from where I saw your sign.”
Adam nodded as his mind raced. He knew the place Tom described. But if he went with Tom to Lancaster, made sure he reached the next leg of the journey, those women would be left to fend for themselves. If they found his signal, would they even recognize it? He needed someone who knew the woods, who could find them and bring them to the farm. But there was no one else he could trust. Tom would have to go on alone.
“Are you ready?”
Tom nodded, his muscles corded like wound springs.
Adam retraced his steps out of the walnut grove and along the road, Tom following. He skirted the farm—if Tom was right and the dogs were on his trail, he didn’t want to lead them straight to the only real safe place for miles. He and Tom jogged along the road, then doubled back and headed for the creek downstream from the Hertzler place. He had hidden his flat-bottom boat in some bushes along the stream near a rocky outcropping.
“Can you go on alone? Do you know how to handle a bateau?”
Tom looked at the little boat. “I sure can. I’ve used one many times.”
“Good. Just follow the creek. With the oxbows and winding, you’ll be on it for a good ten miles before you get near the town. After a couple hours, start looking for a stone house on the right-hand side of the creek. There’s a gate along the creek—iron, with a dove in the center.”
Tom nodded. “I look for a dove on the right hand.”
“That’s right. If everything is safe, there will be a quilt hanging in the yard.” Adam rubbed the back of his neck. At the distant baying of a hound, sweat broke out on his forehead. “If the quilt isn’t there, don’t stop. Just keep going down the creek until you can find a place to hide.”
“You ain’t coming?”
Adam shook his head. “I’m going to try to find the rest of your family. I’ll bring them to the Penningtons’ farm, where you should be. It’s five miles by the road, so don’t expect us before dark. Keep your eyes and ears open.”
Tom climbed into the boat, and then with a shove, Adam sent him down the stream.
Adam watched until the escaped slave disappeared around the bend. “God be with you, Tom.”
As soon as the boat was out of sight, Adam erased all signs that anyone had been on the stone shingle along the creek. Keeping on the trail that followed the water, Adam avoided the road. If there were slave hunters on Tom’s trail, Adam didn’t want to meet them.
He jogged as quickly as he could. If he could find the women Tom had told him about, how would he get them to trust him?
Hannah.
Of course. If he could convince Hannah to help him, they’d trust her more easily since she was a woman.
Instead of going home, Adam went through the woods to the Yoder farm. He hadn’t told Pa about his connection with the abolitionist group yet and wasn’t sure how he’d take it. Perhaps he could persuade him to join in, himself, given enough time. But there wasn’t enough time now, with slave hunters in the area and eight women and children needing shelter and safety.
He found Hannah piling dead leaves around the blueberry bushes at the edge of the garden. She left the chore and came to where he waited at the edge of the woods.
“Is everything all right?”
“Tom is on his way to safety, but I need your help.” He looked toward the house and barn, but didn’t see anyone. “Come with me.”
He grabbed her hand and she followed him, just as if they were off on one of their childhood adventures. When they reached home, he could hear Pa and twelve-year-old Charles training the young oxen in the pen on the other side of the barn. He led Hannah into the smokehouse and closed the door.
“What is going on? Why do you need my help?”
Adam went to the barrel of supplies he kept there, out of sight of his family . . . at least until butchering time. He’d have to find a new hiding place by the
n. “Tom told me where to find the others . . . the women and children he was with. They need help getting to the next station.”
Hannah backed away from him. “Adam, I can’t get involved. I can’t help you break the law.”
“Hannah, we can’t leave them out there, cold and lost.” The smokehouse was shadowed and dim, but he didn’t need light to see her face. He knew her every expression, and right now she would be looking at him with doubt in her eyes, suspicion casting a slight frown on her forehead.
He picked up the bag filled with a loaf of bread, some carrots, and bits of smoked ham wrapped in a cloth. It wasn’t much, but it could help bring strength to weary bodies.
“I need you.” He stepped close to her, but she looked away. “They need you. If they see a strange man, they’ll never come out of hiding. But a woman . . .”
Hannah raised her eyes to him. She understood. “We can’t leave them in the woods, can we?”
“Ne, and we can’t let them be found by the slave catchers, either.”
“All right.” She nodded. “I’ll help you look for them.”
“Denki, Hannah.”
He opened the door, taking a cautious look out, and then he and Hannah both slipped out and through the woods to the road.
Hannah hurried to catch up to him as the hounds bayed again, closer than they had been.
“Why do you do this, Adam?”
“When I went to the camp meetings last summer, there was a speaker there from the Philadelphia Abolition Society. Once I heard that man speak, I knew I had to help.”
“But why, Adam? Why you?”
“I don’t know.” Adam stopped in the road and faced Hannah. “Why do we do anything? God calls us. I heard that man speak and it was as if God was using his voice to tell me what he wanted me to do with my life. These people need help, and I’m right here where they need me.”
The barking came closer, and then ahead of them, Adam saw the dogs. Three of them were lunging at the end of long leashes. Behind them were two men. One on foot held the dogs’ leashes, and the other rode a tall black horse. As soon as he caught sight of Adam and Hannah, he spurred his horse toward them.
