Free Daughter of Twin Oaks by Lauraine Snelling

to keep from laughing so loud that any other stragglers out on the road might hear them.
    Sheer relief, that’s what it is . Jesselynn could no more cap the gurgling laughter than fly back home to Twin Oaks. Twin Oaks . She sobered as if she’d had a bucket of water doused on her head. Had that been Dunlivey returning to watch over the home place?
    Watch! Ha! Spy! That’s all he is. A spy, and one cruel beyond measure at that .
    She flicked the reins, and the horses picked up a fast trot. They clattered over a stone bridge, echoes bouncing from the low stone walls. Before long they turned west onto the Lexington/Frankfort Pike and picked up the pace, needing to be off the pike before sunrise and miles from Twin Oaks.
    Her eyes burned as if she’d been standing in the smoke from a fire, and her rump ached from the hard boards by the time Meshach cantered back to them just as the birds made their first twitterings. The sun had yet to reach the horizon, but already she could see the features of the landscape. The trees grew taller as they drew closer to the Kentucky River, and the gently rolling hills sported pastureland with plots of trees. Stone fences, their flat capstones set on a slant, looked like gray medieval fortresses in miniature. Mist hugged the hollows. Horses whinnied. Roosters heralded the rising sun.
    “Dorsey up ahead. We takes a road off to de left,” Meshach said. She nodded and rubbed her eyes with the tips of chilled fingers. Tomorrow night someone else could drive the wagon and she would ride. She heard rustlings in the wagon bed behind her.
    Ophelia yawned and climbed over the supplies until she sat beside Jesselynn. “We stoppin’ soon?”
    “Soon.” They both kept their voices low so as not to wake Thaddy.
    Jesselynn turned on the road Meshach had indicated and saw Daniel waving at her a hundred or more yards ahead. In spite of the weariness that dragged her down, she wished they could keep on going. Farther out, maybe they could travel some during the day, when they and their horses wouldn’t be so easily recognized.
    Although looking at the team in front of her, she doubted anyone would believe the mare pulling with the mule was the dam of four Keeneland Derby winners. Two of her progeny were at stud already. And paid for handsomely in spite of the war. They were probably dead on the battlefield by now if the armies had had their choice. Unless others had already done what her father had told her to do two years ago.
    “Dey’s water here and even pasture fo’ de horses.”
    Daniel rode beside her, showing the way after they left the narrowing dirt road.
    “Meshach say we be safe here.”
    “Good.”
    Mockingbirds trilled their morning arias when she stepped down from the wagon with a groan. Squirrels chattered from the oak trees, informing them and the world of the invasion.
    Jesselynn stretched, kneading her lower back with her fists and leaning from side to side. There was indeed water. A creek burbled over moss-covered rocks and around knobby roots. Out in the open, where the sun was already stretching golden fingers across the grass, the blades sparkled green, like a welcome mat sprinkled with diamonds.
    Ahab snorted at their arrival and dropped his head to graze again, his front legs hobbled so he couldn’t run or even walk fast.
    Meshach came out of the trees with an armload of dried branches and dumped them by a fire pit that showed others had used this glen for respite. “ ’Phelia, you get dem fryin’ pans and such out of de wagon. Since you slept all night, you get de breakfast.”
    “Do we dare start a fire?” Jesselynn listened for any nearby farm sounds. Only the creek’s gurgling and the birdsong broke the early morning silence.
    “I think yes. We off de main road a mile or so, and de next farm way down over dere.” He pointed to the west. “Can’t see de clearin’ from de road.”
    “How did you find this place?”
    Meshach studied the dusty toe of his boot.