Editor’s Note: This is an ongoing series which runs each Thursday morning titled the Richland Chronicles Volume 3, by author Paul Lintern. It is set in 1831 and tells the story of Richland County through the eyes of young people. This is the third in a three-book trilogy. Volume 1 was Amelia Changes Her Tune, while Volume II was Isaac and Wolf Paw Find Their Home.
“Who is he?”
“Can’t tell you,” Ermina said.
“Why not?”
“Father says it’s best not to know names.”
“What’s he doing here?”
“Listen, Autumn, if I tell you, you have to promise not to tell anyone. Anyone.”
“I’m not supposed to keep secrets from my parents.”
“You’ve got to keep this one.”
Autumn sighed. I already know more than I want to, and I don’t know anything.
“Okay, Ermina, I promise. Now why is he here?”
“Look, Papa says he’s a runaway slave, trying to get far enough away from his master down south that he won’t be found.”
“He’s a slave?”
“Somebody’s slave, and he’s running away and trying to find people that will help him get to a safe place.”
“Where is that?” Autumn asked.
“I don’t know, exactly,” Ermina said.
“But I know it’s not here.”
“So what happens next?”
“Someone will come at night and guide him to the next hiding place, until, well, just until.”
Autumn could feel herself shaking, as though she were cold, which she was not.
“Can we talk to him?” Autumn asked.
“Better not,” Ermina said.
“Better just go back out and say nothing to anyone.”
Autumn looked at Ermina.
“Especially Emily.”
She means it. Autumn nodded her head. They quietly walked out of the storage building, after Ermina remembered to grab the twine she had cut, what seemed forever ago.
The ladies were still finishing up their baskets and Emily was still talking about Mrs. Holstein as they approached.
“Wow, took long enough,” Emily said. “Couldn’t find clippers?”
“Right, couldn’t find clippers,” Autumn said.
“Well, we had better get our things gathered up, because your mamma and the aunts will expect us to help with the supper crowd,” Emily said.
“And I’d better get home,” Ermina said. “Mama’s expecting me, too.”
Emily and Autumn hopped on Chestnut and started north on the wooded path that Isaac and Wolf Paw had been building since they started playing in the woods years ago. Ermina started south back into town.
As they left, they saw Mrs. Tallman and Mrs. Big Rivers stoking the fire, to begin supper. The Day Farm was more than halfway from Mansfield to the Oakland Inn, so the trip home was quick, especially since the girls knew they were needed at the Inn and Autumn was in no mood to talk.
As they arrived at the Inn, Autumn’s mother, Peggy, and her Aunts Elizabeth and Katherine were outside, tending the fire and preparing supper for guests who already had begun arriving. Emily’s sisters – Savannah, Sylvia and Madeline – were all seated around the fire. Even Grandma Pittenger was there. It was a reunion.
“Well, it appears the Pittenger Ladies’ Club is now complete,” Aunt Elizabeth said. “We welcome our traveling secretaries.”
The girls hopped off Chestnut and Autumn took her horse into the barn. She paused before she went in, and wondered if any runaway slaves had ever hidden in there, and if they did, where. I’ll probably be seeing him everywhere now.
Where will he go next? I wonder if Father would ever let him stay here. Autumn knew she couldn’t bring up the subject without putting a lot of people in danger?
As she walked back to the fire, she could hear Emily talking about Mrs. Holstein.
“Mrs. Osbun said she saw hundreds of crows circling the barn, then landing on the roof, making a design in the shape of a scarecrow. It’s like they weren’t even afraid.”
“I always thought that about Mrs. Holstein,” Elizabeth said. “I knew she wasn’t quite right.”
“She also said that she saw some children sneak in one night, and Mrs. Holstein turned them into night people,” Emily said.
“What?” Katherine said.
“Blackest people she had ever seen. You know, like southern slaves,” Emily said.
“It could also be that Rachel Osbun’s imagination is even more active than Emily’s,” Katherine said.
“I’m only telling what I was told,” Emily objected.
“I know, sugar. Some people are just naturally skeptical,” Elizabeth said.
“And some are just naturally gullible,” Katherine said.
“And some just need everyone to pitch in and help with supper,” Peggy said.
Autumn’s mother did not like when her sisters argued, and this was likely to last all night. It was at times like these that she piped up with her favorite saying: Being nice matters.
“We have to be heading home anyway,” Savannah said. “Girls, let’s get in the wagon.”
“Take care of yourself and that little baby growing in you,” Elizabeth said.
“And you girls mind Sissy,” Katherine said. “
And don’t forget…” Peggy said.
“Being nice matters!” the girls said in unison.
Once the wagon was loaded and on its way, Peggy, Elizabeth and Katherine set about making supper while Autumn tended to the guests with drinks and table settings. Her father, always the host, made his usual appearance to entertain the guests with conversation and stories, taking credit for the food, even though the guests knew he had nothing to do with it.
He always introduced Autumn as his princess, or as the Rose of the Inn, or as his butterfly or buttercup or his work of art. Autumn scrunched her nose at him when he did that, but both knew Autumn loved it.
“Soon, my princess will be joined by another from the Far East. All the way from Boston. Are you ready to receive Miss Amelia in the next few days?” he asked Autumn.
“I’m really looking forward to it, Papa, but it won’t seem real until she actually arrives, and who knows when that will be?”
“Just remember, it will be a big change for her, and for you, but it’ll also be something neither of you will ever forget,” he said.
Autumn nodded.
“But you will always be my princess.” Autumn smiled.
That’s what I want to hear.
