Sarah’s pulled herself upright, watching the whole thing, looking like a rabbit in a trap. I kneel in front of her and hold her. Her heart’s racing and her breath is coming in little pants.

“I have you now. Put your arms around my neck,” I tell her, “and hold tight.” I lift her and carry her in my arms to the coach house.

I climb the ladder to my loft space one-handed and lay her down on my hay bed. I hold her hand and lie next to her. The whole time I’m whispering to her that I’m going to get her out of here. That the two of us are going away together and we’re going to leave all this behind us. And I mean every word of it.

Chapter 38

Sarah

I spend the whole day hiding out from the overseer. Tomorrow, Master’ll be back to keep him in line and Lord knows what lies he’s gonna tell. He’s already been boasting up and down the fields that he had me on my back yesterday. He’s saying I did it for a yellow ribbon. I been saying it ain’t true, but seems like everybody knows I spent the night up with Henry. So now it don’t look like it ain’t true.

“Guess you’re open for business now,” Maple says when she sees me in the morning. She don’t talk to me for the rest of the day. Just scowls, looking mean. Willa won’t come near me, and Annie elbows past me saying, “Never thought you’d go so low.” Bessie turns away from me when I try to talk to her.

I know they think they know what happened, but at least one of them should have asked. They got it all figured out between them enough to be judge and jury over me.

I work all day preserving and jarring runner beans and tomatoes from the garden so that they’ll keep for the winter. It keeps me from having to talk to any of them and far away from the overseer.

When I go back to the cabin I share with Bessie at night, she’s got my pallet rolled up and set outside the door. She done pulled her bed into the middle of the floor with her table and chairs spread apart and her spinning wheel taking up the last of the space. There’s no room for a pallet.

“You got to put all that back,” I say. “I got to sleep here.”

She grunts at me and keeps combing through her cotton, spinning on her wheel. For someone who can’t see, she sure knows her way around that wheel.

“Where I’m supposed to sleep?” I try again.

“You can find a white man around here to hire yourself out to. Get yourself some more ribbons and sweets and headscarves. I know you don’t want to waste the night.”

I’m so shocked I can’t find the words to tell her she’s got no cause to turn ugly on me.