She hurried and opened the case, grabbed a rifle, loaded it, then went back to the door and opened it again.
“You come with me, Twila,” she said. “You shall hold a lantern in the canoe as I paddle. We’re going to search for Dorey.”
“Me?” Twila said, wide-eyed. “I ain’t nevah been in a canoe before.”
“You won’t be able to say that after tonight,because you are going with me,” Lavinia said. She determinedly took Twila by a hand and hurried with her out into the dark. “I need you to hold the lantern while we search for Dorey. I won’t return home without her.”
They ran to the stable that sat back from the house and hurried inside.
Lavinia snatched up one of the lanterns that the stable boy had lit for Hiram’s return and ran with it down to the river, followed by Twila.
Soon they were traveling down the dark channel of water, Twila in the front, lighting the way with the lantern. The light revealed that her whole body was trembling with fear.
“You will be much safer with me, Twila, than at the plantation,” Lavinia said to reassure the child.
Lavinia silently paddled down the cooling stretch of water that seemed to go on endlessly before her. Her eyes searched constantly through the darkness, and she shuddered as the canoe entered the Everglades.
When she heard the screech of a panther somewhere deep in the thickness of the trees, Lavinia fought off debilitating fear. She knew that more than one panther roamed this swampy land.
Lavinia did not fear the mysterious white panther. But there were other panthers out there, black ones that would not hesitate to pounce on her and Twila.
“Twila, keep that light high enough to penetrate the foliage alongside the water,” Lavinia said, not missing a stroke with the paddle.
The rifle was close by, resting against the inside of the canoe, ready to fire, if needed.
“We’ve got to find Dorey,” Lavinia went on. “We must!”
“I feel so guilty for havin’ put off tellin’ you that Dorey didn’t come home when she should have,” Twila said, tears spilling from her eyes and half blinding her. “But I am so afraid of Massa Hiram. I’m just waitin’ for him to run me off your home now that my pappy is gone. You knows how he must hate me bein’ there.”
“Just remember that I also have a say in the matter,” Lavinia said, again thrust back in time to the moment when she saw Hiram carrying Virgil in his arms.
Somehow it still did not seem real…that Virgil was gone from her life.
Heaven forbid if she were to lose her precious Dorey, too!
Chapter Twelve
Ask me no more; thy fate and
Mine are seal’d.
I strove against the stream and
All in vain.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
The flame of the torch which had been tied to the front of Dorey’s canoe fluttered in the soft breeze, casting wavering light around the canoe and into the water.
As Dorey paddled onward with the light of the torch her only guide, and with fear her only companion, relief flooded her when she suddenly saw a golden glow up ahead in the low-hanging clouds. Surely that light came from the reflection of an outdoor fire.
She was even now aware of the savory smell of roasted meat, making her stomach growl fiercely. She had not taken time to eat the fruit the two young braves had left in the tree house for her.
The urge to escape had been the strongest drive she felt at the time, not for food.
Thus far she had escaped being attacked by panthers, alligators, or snakes, but she had almost lost hope of finding civilization again as she became more and more lost in the maze of swampy waterways.
Now she finally began to believe she might survive after all. Following the light in the sky, she paddled harder.