Free A Free Heart by Amelia C. Adams Page B

back to Jane.
    “Come inside,” Jane invited. “I just put on a pot of tea, and I have some fresh bread straight out of the oven. If I’d known you were coming, I’d have done something a little fancier.”
    “You have no idea how much I’ve missed your bread,” Harriet told her. “I can’t think of anything I’d like more.”
    Moments later, they were all seated around the table in the Robinsons’ neat kitchen, a pot of tea on the table and a plate of warm, homemade bread next to it. Harriet closed her eyes as she bit into her slice, slathered with homemade butter. “Oh, Jane,” she murmured after she swallowed, “this was worth the entire train ride to get here.”
    “Tell me where you’ve come from and how you found me,” Jane said. “I’m surely glad to see you, but it’s quite a surprise.”
    “Well, I ran away from home,” Harriet said, a little bit ashamed at how childish that sounded. “The South is a very uncomfortable place right now for people like me. Sam . . .” She swallowed. She couldn’t hesitate to say his name—talking about him was one of the reasons why she’d come. “Sam had told me where you were living, and I wrote to the postmaster. He confirmed it, and I couldn’t stay away. I’ve been in Topeka for the last several days, and now I’m here.”
    “All this way . . . just to see me?” Jane said, wonder in her voice.
    “Sir, I have a new bit of land out back where I’m planning to start a garden. Would you like to see it?” Mr. Robinson rose from the table, and Tom stood as well. It was a transparent excuse to leave the two women alone to talk, but Harriet was grateful for it.
    She waited until the door closed. “Of course to see you, Jane. You meant so much to me when I was a child, and I was heartbroken when you left. And then when Sam came back to Atlanta . . .” She hadn’t expected the tears that formed, but she did nothing to stop them from falling, either. “When Sam came back, I realized that we didn’t have to stop being friends simply because the war had put us on two different sides.”“You were never on a different side, baby girl. You were just a child, like one of my own.”
    “I know that, and I appreciate it so much.” Harriet paused and took a sip of her tea. “Did Sam write to you while he was in Atlanta last year?” she asked carefully.
    “Yes, he wrote to me, and he told me that he planned to marry the most beautiful girl in the world. He was so excited to bring you home with him, baby girl. His whole letter just exuded joy.”
    “Can you read now, Jane?”
    “I can. Sam taught me himself as soon as we moved here. It’s been a blessing in my life, it surely has.”
    Harriet paused again before asking the question she most wanted to ask. “And how did you feel about us getting married?”
    Jane didn’t answer for a long while. “Kansas has been good to us,” she said at long last. “The folks here have been accepting, for the most part, and my husband has a job and we’re able to live a comfortable life. We have everything we need, and nothing extra to clutter it up. Many former slaves have found homes here, and in fact, there’s talk of creating a town of all former slaves just a bit to the north of here. Don’t know if it will ever happen—it’s all talk for now. But I think it would be a good thing.”
    Harriet was confused by this apparent change of subject, but then Jane spoke again and it all made sense. “You were always one of my favorite people in the world, baby girl. And Sam—well, you know how I felt about Sam. He was the light of my life. That boy could walk into a room and turn it into a celebration, for all the joy he brought into people’s lives. But even after all that, even living in a new state, even knowing what kind of people you are, a black man and a white woman could never truly be happy together. This world is still so full of hate. If you were able to get married, yes, you’d be happy together,