I keep that to myself and I nod at Master.

Standing on my left, Henry leans in closer. “You’ve been avoiding me.”

I inch away till I bump into Bessie on my right.

“We need to talk,” Henry whispers.

I shake my head. “Ain’t nothing to talk about, Mister Taylor.”

“Sarah, please.”

Bessie, standing on my right, gropes her way around me and puts herself in between Henry and me. Master don’t pay her no mind at all. Then Red steps up from where he’s been standing, close to Henry’s left, and leans in like he’s straining to hear. They’re warning him off.

I should be feeling grateful, but I’m angry. This here’s between Henry and me. Ain’t got nothing to do with Red, or Bessie, or nobody else. I look over Bessie’s head at Henry and he’s looking back at me. I see how much he’s been missing me, and, truth be told, I’ve been missing him too.

“Now, you all may have heard about a runaway slave from over on the Gantlys’ plantation. Well, that there runaway slave is just like Philemon’s slave in the Bible. A slave who ran away from his lawful master.” He stops and looks round at us. “Now, I’m not going to pretend that he didn’t have cause to be unhappy. Arthur Gantly is a hard taskmaster. And he doesn’t believe in sparing the rod. But the slave had no right to run away. By running like that, he has stolen himself from his legal master. That was wrong. It was a sin. And God punishes your sins by throwing you in the fires of hell.” Master looks around the gathering, lingering on anyone he thinks might have gotten it in his head to run. “Now, if he thought he had it bad as a slave, he’s going to think he was in heaven when he gets to those hellfires. There’ll be a lake of fire and brimstone. That’s a burning hot stone. And when a sinner gets thrown in they burn forever and ever and ever. He’ll be screaming and weeping and gnashing his teeth like a rabid dog, but he’ll never burn up. He’ll just keep on suffering forever.” He looks around, lets that sink in.

Back behind him at the house Missus comes out on to the back porch and stands between the first two pillars. She’s got a wide pink dress on and lace gloves with no fingers. Church clothes.

“You about done there, Matthew?” she calls to him.

He turns to her and waves that he’ll be right over. “But there’s good news,” he carries on to us. “Because if that slave comes on back, like in the Bible, God will forgive him and he can go on up to the Promised Land. In fact, that’s why God made him a slave in the first place, so he could hear about the gospel of Jesus Christ and be saved for all eternity.” He nods his head as he scans the crowd. “So that’s good news, right there. Good news from a good God.”