“Tell me!” He thumps his hand on the table and I jump.

“After you left,” I say, but that’s not part of the story. “In the stable,” I say. I shake my head. It don’t matter where. “He pushed me down and pulled up my skirts and climbed on top of me,” I say in a rush. Like that, it don’t sound so bad as it was. “It weren’t right what he done.” Talking about it I can feel his hands on me again and I blink back tears threatening to spill.

“I was disciplining her, is all,” Master Mulch says. “For being lazy. She was hiding in the stables when she should have been working.”

“What were you doing in the stables, Sarah?” Master’s voice strains like a rope pulled too tight.

I push my fingernails into my palms until the stinging bite in my hands settles the whooshing in my ears. “It was when you took Master Thomas, sir. I went to put the horse away, like you told me to.”

His head snaps over to the overseer. He don’t like nothing to get between his orders and folks following them. Henry sees what I’m seeing and speaks up.

“I understood that you’re a Christian man of rules and principles,” Henry says to Master. “And that you don’t tolerate that kind of behavior.”

Master drums his fingers on the table. “But was it necessary to surprise him from behind, slamming his hand into a door, breaking the bones?”

“Yes, sir, it was,” says Henry, bold as you please. “He didn’t see me coming for him because he was pulling his breeches down with the one hand and holding her still with the other.”

“He smashed my hand!”

“I’m just glad it was me that walked in on him, not Thomas, or Missus Johnson. I hate to think they might have seen what I saw.”

“Liars! Both of them are in cahoots against me. This man is wild and brutal. He attacked me twice for no reason. I’m telling you, he shouldn’t be here. You got to send him packing.”

I look at the overseer and see he’s gone tomato red and his bug eyes look ready to pop right out of his head. I hold my breath, gripping on to the rug beater.

“This is my plantation, Mulch. I decide who stays and who goes. And I have had enough of you questioning my authority and, frankly, going around my back to defy me. The blacksmith’s right. Suppose my son walked in on you, with all the time he’s been spending with the horses. I’m trying to raise him up to be righteous and you defy me by sinning with my slave on my land.”

“It wasn’t like they said. These two would say anything. They been sneaking off. I seen them. I’m telling you, you don’t know what’s going on.”

“Do you think you know more than me? About my own plantation? If there is something I don’t know, it’s because you’ve been hiding it from me. You’re fired, Mulch. I can’t use a man with a ruined hand anyway, and even without it I think you’ve outstayed your welcome. Get your things and get off my land.”