Free Circle of Spies by Roseanna M. White Page A

“I doubt she’d help anyway, even if you did ask. That woman never does nothing unless it’s for herself.”
    At that, Walker grunted and chewed one of the few pieces of meat in his bowl. She hadn’t always been that way. When they were children, Marietta had been as bright and cheerful as Elsie. Always laughing and shrieking at the four boys—him and her brothers, Stephen and Hez and Isaac—when they played pranks on her.
    Surely that Yetta was still inside somewhere. And maybe, if he prayed hard for her, this shake to her foundation would set her loose.
    Cora rubbed her abdomen. “Did Mr. Lane say anything more about the amendment nonsense when he was here yesterday?”
    â€œThe House is still debating or whatever they do. But they’ll pass it. If it passed in the Senate, it’ll surely pass in the House. You’ll be free soon.”
    She kept on rubbing and gazed at Elsie, who happily spooned up a potato chunk. “What if it ain’t soon enough? I don’t want this new baby to be born a slave, Walk.”
    He didn’t either, but what could they do? “He won’t be. And even if he is, it won’t be but for a few months. They’re going to grow up in a whole new world. A world with no more slavery, where they can be anything they want.”
    Hopeful idealism. He knew it even as he said it. He had been born free, after all, and that didn’t open any doors for him. There might be white men aplenty who had a moral objection to owning another man, but there were few indeed who thought blacks equal to them. The Lanes and Arnauds were the only ones he’d ever met he could say that about.
    Obviously it hadn’t been true of his father, whoever he was. His mother never spoke of the attack, but he had gleaned enough over the years to know she had roused the suspicion of a runaway’s master and he’d found her one night. Punished her. Left her with a son on the way and no man to be a father.
    â€œMaybe we should just leave. Surely with the amendment coming, they wouldn’t hunt us down if we ran.”
    She had made the suggestion once before, when it was Elsie growing inside her. He reached across the table and took her hand. “We’re not running, Cora. You’re not going to be a fugitive.”
    Though she turned her hand so she could squeeze his fingers, sorrow blanketed her face. “We both know that ain’t why you refuse to go.”
    Little fingers landed on his other hand, and he grinned at Elsie, who was trying to reach for her mother too.
    Cora slid the bowl out of the little one’s way and clasped her fingers, but her smile was still sad. “He’s long gone, Walker. I know you miss him. I know he was your best friend, but he ain’t here no more to hold you to your promise.”
    â€œThat was the point of it, honey. He knew he might never come home to watch over her again.” He held her hand another moment and then tightened his grip on it. “And I never would have met you if I hadn’t come here like Stephen asked.”
    She released their hands and went back to her stew. “I gotta get away from this family before it gets worse. My mama will understand. She won’t leave, but she won’t mind my goin’.”
    â€œIt won’t get worse.”
    â€œIt will. When Miss Mari marries Mr. Dev, it will .”
    â€œShe’s not gonna marry him.” Funny how he said it with such certainty, when two days before he would have said the opposite and felt just as sure. But he’d seen the look in her eyes when she caught sight of that poster. The horror, the realization.
    And this being Marietta, it wasn’t something she could forget. Not to say she hadn’t done a fine job of ignoring things in the past, but this was different.
    Cora, however, had no reason to believe him. She shot him a look of utter incredulity and set about finishing her meal.
    He let