Savage Flames

Even Franklin Owen, the white overseer hired by Hiram, came and stood among them, his hands on his hips as he looked from one to the other.

“It’s time we show that man a thing or two,” Franklin said, his bright red hair picking up the light of a lantern held by one of the slaves. “I’ve had enough of Hiram Price. He ain’t nothin’ like his brother Virgil. This man is out for blood if anyoneso much as looks at him sideways. I feel too threatened to stick around, and my skin ain’t even black like yours. Hiram is a madman. Didn’t you just hear him shouting like someone gone crazed?”

“He was shoutin’ for Miz Lavinia,” one of the women said. “What has happened to her? Where could she be?”

“I saw her leave in a canoe with Twila,” another woman said. “As far as I know, they still gone. Even Dorey. All that’s left in that big plantation house is those who work there, and Massa Hiram hisself.”

“Don’t you see?” Franklin said, placing his fists on his hips as he gazed from one slave to another. “Lavinia left because she was afraid of Hiram. Surely she took both children with her.”

“But where could dey have gone?” asked Caleb, a tall black man. His wife Nada stood beside him, clinging to his arm.

“I don’t know and I’m not stickin’ around to find out,” Franklin said. He lifted his suitcase. “I’m leavin’ now. You all are welcome to go with me. You know that I came by hired buggy but I’ll be forced to leave on foot. I can’t take the time to arrange for transportation. You can leave on foot with me. I’ll see that nothin’ bad happens to you as long as you are with me. When we get separated, you are on your own, but at least you will have escaped Hiram. Those of you who want to go with me, step forward. Those that don’t, return to your cabins and pay the price when that madman sobers up and sees that some of his slaves and his overseer are gone. Just remember this. You know as well as I that he kills for the pleasure of doin’ it.”

Caleb looked around the circle of worried men and women. “I ain’t goin’, nor is my wife Nada,” he said stiffly. “I believe that Massa Hiram will not beat us for the wrongdoings of others.”

“And surely if we stay, our massa will treat us better,” another man said, holding his wife protectively to his side.

“That’s your decision. You’ll have to live with it,” Franklin said. He gestured with a hand. “Come on. Those who want to go with me, come. We’ll get far down the road before Hiram wakes up and finds us gone.”

Several slaves hurried to follow Franklin as he walked past the huge house and onto the gravel drive that led away from the plantation. Those who stayed behind scurried back inside their cabins.

Caleb smiled at Nada as they stood in the light of a candle in their cabin. “We’s done right, Mama,” he said. “We’s done right.”

He looked over his shoulder at his two sons, who were staring back at him, their eyes wide with fear. That was when Caleb doubted the sanity of what he had just done. But he would stay firm and hope for the best.

He prayed to himself that Lavinia would return home. When she was there, Hiram Price at least maintained the appearance of sanity.

Chapter Eighteen

All for love and nothing for reward.

—Edmund Spenser

The morning sun filtered down through cracks in the domed ceiling of the garita, settling onto Dorey’s face and awakening her with a start.

She leapt to her feet with alarm. When she looked around, she remembered where she was, and why.

She began to tremble, for never had she been as afraid as now. Surely with daylight she would be discovered, for someone in this village would come to the storage house, either to take something from it or bring something there after the women began working in the garden.

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But for now, there seemed to be only a stirring of people down below in the village as the Seminole awoke to a new day.

She was so afraid of being discovered. What would these people do to her when they found a stranger in their midst?

If only she could find a way to get back home. Surely by now her mother knew that Dorey had notreturned to the plantation. Yet when her mother did realize Dorey was missing, she would be so distraught, she might make herself sick with worry.

Dorey must find a way to get home, and today. She didn’t want to cause her mother any more grief than she had to.

Dorey wondered if her mother would go to Fort James to ask Colonel Cox for help locating her daughter. Dorey’s father had never had anything good to say about that man. The colonel was known for his corruption.

No, Dorey doubted that her mother would seek his help. Instead, she would probably set out on the river, alone, to try to find Dorey. If her mother found Dorey’s abandoned canoe, she would think the worst…that her daughter was more than likely dead!

“But, Mama, I’m not,” she whispered.

She went to the door and leaned out just far enough so she could look down upon the village. The hut where she had spent the night was higher than all the other buildings except one.

She gazed at the unique home, which was two-storied, yet otherwise similar to the other huts in the village. She wondered if the larger home was the chief’s. Wouldn’t a chief have better lodging than everyone else?