I hate that she explains herself. Red stares at her like he caught her misbehaving, and she backs further away from me, putting too much distance between us.

“It’s Henry,” I say, trying to catch her eye, but she won’t look at me.

“I’ll walk you back,” Red says to her.

She turns to go with him, and he takes her arm, guiding her across the lawn, with Zeek following close behind.

When they’ve gone a few paces, I hear Red’s deep voice asking, “You okay?”

And I see the tight nod she gives him as she says, “I just brought him cobbler”—almost like an apology.

Chapter 16

Maple

I can’t get another word out of Kitty about my family. And Zeek’s been hiding from me like I’m the law and he got a price on his head. I know they think they’re protecting me from something, but I got to know the worst of it. I have a guess that just about stops my heart.

I believe Master Jeremiah sold my little girl. Freddy must have tried to run after her. And Momma must have tried to stop her being sold and got herself sent to the fields. But I need to know for sure and, if Kitty and Zeek won’t tell me, I got to go to the one who will.

At the end of the evening, when his nerves’ve been softened by whiskey, I head up to Master Jeremiah’s room hoping to catch him before he’s out for the night. I raise my hand to knock, but I’m afraid he’ll turn me away, so I grip the door handle, hold my breath and ease the door open.

I peek my head in and I turn to stone.

He’s in here and he sure ain’t sleeping. He’s got Kitty bent over the bed, her blue silk dress crumpled at her feet.

He’s got one fist pulling in her hair and the other one squeezing at her neck as he ruts into her, jerking her body with his thrusts. In his beet-red face, his eyes squeeze tight.

Hers are wide as moons. With one hand, she claws at his choking fingers. With the other, she pushes up from the bed to ease the pull on her hair.

As she splutters for air, her wild eyes find me hovering in the doorway. Master Jeremiah grunts, thrusting and jerking and squeezing. The pain twisting her face crumples into humiliation.

I step back into the hall and close the door. This is what it looks like when a master holds you special.

I lean against the wall, my head swirling. I’m sorry for Kitty, but it’s Momma I’m thinking about, and all the years she spent choking on the bed.

Chapter 17

Sarah

Most of the morning, I been in the garden on my hands and knees picking out the weeds in by the squash. The brick wall around it runs higher than a man is tall and cuts a body off from the rest of the plantation till you almost feel like you’re somewhere else. If I could, I’d be here all day long, digging my fingers in the dirt.