In the distance, I hear dogs barking.

“Sarah!” I scream. I sprint toward the noise, which gets louder and closer every second.

Bursting up over a ridge, a man charges toward me. He sees me and swerves toward the edge of the woods where the men wait with guns.

“Not that way,” I shout waving my arms, but he ignores me, or can’t hear me. Maybe he thinks I’m one of them.

Behind him three dogs come howling and charging over the ridge. I don’t see Sarah or Red, and I’m afraid they’ve already been caught and that’s why they’re hunting just the one man. I run after him with no idea how I can help. He bursts out of the woods to shouts and gunfire. When I get close enough, I spy through the trees the posse of five men. They’re off their horses in a huddled, frenzied heap. I hear the thud of fists and boots on flesh. I hide myself, pressed against the trunk of a pine, as the shouts of three more men trailing behind the dogs echo through the woods. When the other three reach them, the posse of five back away, revealing the bloodied and bludgeoned body of a dark-skinned man. The eight of them flip him over on to his stomach and stretch out his legs. He doesn’t struggle. I’m not sure if he’s conscious.

“Your running days are over, boy,” the rifled man, Earl, says.

He takes out an ax and with four swings, hacks off the man’s toes. His scream is something to freeze you up and melt you down.

Earl wipes his blade in the grass and spits a wad of tobacco chew.

Bile rises in my throat. I turn away, headed back toward Jubilee. I can’t spare a moment to grieve for this man. I have to find Sarah.

Chapter 61

Sarah

It’s evening by the time we get back to the plantation, but there’s no break from the heat we been suffering under all day. The back of my dress is soaked through with sweat from just sitting up between Red and Bessie. The front of my dress is covered with road dust, and the baby’s been having me feeling sick for miles.

When Red pulls the carriage up in front of the Big House, I’m relieved to be done with all that jangling and jostling, but I’m so anxious I’m about to split in two. Red helps me down and I stand there trying to think of what next. Finny will have gotten to the green house by now. And Henry will know I’m still stuck here. I’m hoping Finny knows to tell him that I didn’t get cold feet, I just didn’t have no choice. Or else I hope that Henry knows it on his own. When he comes back here looking for me, we can run together.

“He’ll make you a good match,” Master says, and I jump, pushed out of my thoughts. He’s looking at Red unloading the cases, thinking it’s him who’s got me forgetting myself.