Free The Seeker by Ann H. Gabhart Page A

but can get you in trouble on the farm.”
    Charlotte sat frozen on the bench, almost afraid to breathe, but she had to ask the question pushing at her lips. “What does she suggest? For our people?”
    “We have to cull them out the same as we would our horses. She’s already talked to Perkins about it and he’s giving her names.”
    “You’re going to sell them?” Charlotte’s voice sounded wrong in her ears. “To the South?”
    “That’s where the best market is. Selena says the plantations down there are always anxious to get Kentucky-bred Negroes. And with Mr. Lincoln’s abolitionist leanings, who knows what might happen. A person has to protect his investments.”
    “President Lincoln hasn’t put forth a plan to free the slaves, has he?”
    “Not as yet, but there are many who think it could be in the offing if a compromise isn’t reached with the Secessionist states. I don’t know what those governors and representatives down there can be thinking.” He rubbed his hands up and down his thighs as his voice got a little louder. “Just because the President spoke against allowing slavery in new territories in the West doesn’t mean he planned to ban it in states where it already existed. He won’t do that. Not if he wants to keep Kentucky in the Union.”
    “Would you vote for secession?”
    “No, no. I can’t imagine any situation where Kentucky wouldn’t stay with the Union.” He pulled his eyebrows together in a frown just thinking about it. “But at the same time I can’t see surrendering my property to the federal government without proper recompense. It’s better to leave things status quo. And not keep stirring things up like those copperheads up north with their abolition talk.”
    “I wish we could just set all our people free.”
    “My dear girl, you don’t know what you’re saying.” Her words obviously shocked her father. “No, no, my dear, that would be the ruin of us all. Perhaps them even more than us. What would become of them without us to feed and clothe them?” He shook his head at her as his look turned from indignant to indulgent. “Being so young, you can hardly be expected to understand all the ramifications of freeing the slaves, and it is something you shouldn’t concern your pretty head about. What you need to remember is that our people are well cared for.”
    Charlotte wanted to argue with him, but she knew it would be useless. Better to pick her fight. “Is Mellie mine? Mother always told me so. That Aunt Tish was hers and Mellie was mine.”
    “She did say that.”
    Charlotte opened the book in her lap and tore out the blank page at the back of the book. “Would you write that down for me? That Mellie belongs to me. And Aunt Tish too. It can be an early wedding present.”
    “Not Aunt Tish,” he said. “We have to have a cook here at Grayson.”
    “Then Mellie,” Charlotte insisted.
    He looked at the paper she handed him. “I don’t have pen and ink.”
    Charlotte reached under the bench where she’d laid her writing tools when she started reading. “I was making a list earlier. Of things I need to do before the wedding.” It wasn’t exactly true, but close enough. It was actually a note to Edwin to try to ensure there was a wedding. She dipped the pen nib in the ink and handed it to her father.
    He held the pen in the air above the paper as he hesitated. “I don’t know about this, Charlotte.”
    “You were going to let Mellie go with me when I married, weren’t you?”
    “Well, yes, I suppose so, but that was before Selena. I really should speak to her about this. Besides, isn’t there some doubt of the wedding going on as planned in May?”
    “Even if I don’t wed in May, I will wed eventually. And Mellie was promised to me by Mother.” Charlotte spoke the words with quiet firmness.
    “Yes, your mother was always sentimental about the servants. Something Selena says we can’t be. She says it could be we should have found a new