Free Lake in the Clouds by Sara Donati Page A

Polly’s children and Daisy’s, all of them born free as the Lord meant them to be. What you cain’t know is this: that girl lying sick in the next room, she has already had a child sold away from her. A daughter. But this one she’s carrying, this is Almanzo’s child. Our seventh grandchild.
    “I’m not telling you this to oblige you any further, or to askyou for anything more than you already done. We cain’t hardly repay you as it is—Don’t interrupt me now, Elizabeth.”
    “But I must. Why did you not come to us, Curiosity? Perhaps we could have bought her papers—”
    Galileo shook his head slowly. “Now you must know we tried to see to that ourselves. Between us we got enough money saved.”
    Elizabeth felt herself flush with fear for them, and she saw the same on Nathaniel’s face.
    “Then Almanzo is already implicated, if he offered to buy her freedom and she disappeared after he was turned down,” said Nathaniel.
    “You would be right,” Galileo said. “But it ain’t our Almanzo who made the offer. There’s somebody—”
    Curiosity cut him off sharply. “No need to get particular with names, now. Don’ matter anyway, because the man who lays claim to Selah wouldn’t sell her, and there ain’t a law that says a slave owner has to sell a slave at any price if he’s got a mind to keep her. So maybe you’ll understand that we didn’t have much choice, not with a child on the way.”
    Elizabeth felt herself flushing with embarrassment. “I would never imply that you had neglected—”
    “Hush now,” Curiosity interrupted her gently. “No need to start with apologies. Just know this, Elizabeth. If I thought it would have made a difference, we would have come to ask for help. Which is what I suppose I’m going to do right now.”
    She pushed out a breath and drew in another. “Here’s the way it look to me. You took Liam in when he was half-dead and you treated him like a son. The boy out there waiting to hear if he’s welcome at your door again, and once he’s here, why there ain’t no telling what he might ask of you, or how you’ll feel about it when he do. But understand this. If anybody—Liam Kirby or President Thomas Jefferson hisself—were to threaten that young woman, we will do what need doing.”
    There was a long silence from the group around the hearth. The fire hissed to itself; somewhere not too far away the pack of wolves who gave the mountain its name began to howl. Then Hawkeye spoke up for all of them.
    “Why now, Curiosity, Galileo,” he said quietly. “We been neighbors and friends for forty years or more. Curiosity’s been at every birthing and deathbed at Lake in the Clouds since Ibrought Cora here as a bride. Galileo helped me dig her grave, and Sarah’s too. We’ll be whatever help we can to you and yours, you must know that in your bones.” He said this in the tone he used with hurt things, calm and easy, and it did its work. There was another long moment of silence, and then Curiosity smiled.
    “I do, Hawkeye. I do know that.”
    Galileo got up slowly. “That’s that, I suppose. Nothing more to say tonight, so we’ll leave you to your rest.”
    Squirrel tried to slip away again when the visitors had gone, but this time Nathaniel stopped her.
    “Is it my imagination, daughter, or are you avoiding me?”
    She turned to face him, but her gaze flickered first toward Elizabeth. “Of course I’m not avoiding you. But Miss Voyager—”
    He held up a hand to stop her. “Ten minutes more won’t hurt. Will it?”
    For a moment she hesitated, and then she came back to sit again in front of the hearth.
    Elizabeth stood there uncertainly until Hawkeye took her by the elbow and turned her toward the bedroom. “Let these two work it out without your help,” he said firmly. “You sleep.”
    She went, but only reluctantly and after sending Nathaniel a pointed look over her shoulder. “We all need our rest.”
    “I’ll be in directly,” he promised,