The Fiddler's Secret (19 page)

Pa refused to back down. “My dear Christina, my beloved wife and Libby's mother, would wholeheartedly approve. Now go. Don't let me see your face until you're standing at the gangplank, ready to get off this boat.”

As Vi reached the door, Pa spoke. “Two more questions,” he said. “When did Annika give you the note? Before or after you told her she would always be second best?”

“Before.”

“And when you told her she would always be second best, what did she say?”

Vi sniffed. “She lifted her head in that way she has. She said, ‘Tell the good captain and his Libby goodbye from me.'”

Without another word Vi swept through the door. When Pa closed it firmly behind her, the room was so still that Libby could hear herself breathing.

Pa dropped down in his chair. Elbows on his knees, he braced his head with the palms of his hands. When his shoulders trembled, Libby wrapped her arms around him.

Her father's words cut through to her heart. “Oh, Libby, what should I do?”

As he began to sob, Libby remembered that she hadn't seen Pa weep in that way since her mother died.

When at last he looked up, Libby said, “You could send Annika a telegram.”

Pa shook his head. “The telegraph hasn't reached St. Paul.”

For a minute Pa sat there, deep in thought. “I'll write the best letter I can,” he said at last. “I'll explain everything that happened. I'll tell her that—” Pa broke off.

“That you love her,” Libby said softly.

Pa smiled, and his eyes cleared. “That my love for her is a different kind of love than it was for Christina. That my love will be even deeper because I know what it means to lose a wife. Do you understand, Libby?” he asked gently.

Libby wasn't sure that she did. Yet in that moment of seeing Pa weep, her concerns about having a mother had fallen away. She just wanted the best for Pa. “You and Annika could be happy together.”

“Yes,” Pa agreed. “We could. And you would be a very special part of our happiness.”

As Libby left the cabin, Pa took up a pen, ready to fill a clean white sheet of paper.

Near the mouth of the Galena River, Caleb asked Libby to help him know when it would be safe for Jordan to leave the
Christina
.

“Go up on the boiler deck,” he said. “Stay close to where Riggs has his room.”

In the darkness of night, Libby waited next to the railing. Soon a man stopped nearby. He made Libby jumpy.
In just a few miles—as soon as we reach Galena—Jordan has to leave. How will I know if it's safe for him?

When the stranger moved closer to Libby, she edged farther away.
I'm on my father's boat
, she told herself. Quickly she glanced around. There were plenty of passengers on the deck.
If I scream, I'm okay
.

The stranger looked straight ahead over the river and began speaking.

Libby felt sure he was talking to himself.
What an unusual man!
Then she heard his words.

“I am a slave owner,” he said quietly.

Libby's heart leaped into her throat. As she turned to see his face, he said, “Don't look at me. Look down at the water.”

His voice was even quieter now. “There's much about being a slave owner that I regret. I tried to set my slaves free. I took them across the river and told them to start a new life. Some of them left, but the next morning many were back. I meant well, but it wasn't enough. All their lives I had forced
them to depend on me. I treated them worse than children because I didn't allow them to think. If I was going to set them free, I needed to let them prepare for freedom.”

The man cleared his throat. “You have a fugitive on board. A fugitive who knows how to win and use freedom. His name is Jordan.”

Libby froze, unwilling to give away by one flick of an eyelash that she knew what he was talking about.

“Jordan is a runaway slave, isn't he?”

Terrified now, Libby swallowed hard. Knotting her hands, she held them tight, afraid that her nervousness would give Jordan away. But the man talked on.

“Jordan's owner is on board. Riggs thinks you'll put Jordan off in Galena. If you want my help, I'll give it.”

Her heart beating triple time, Libby began to pray.
If I ask questions, he'll know I know about Jordan
. Yet as she stood there praying, one thought came to mind.
Lord, if You want me to trust this man, give him a good plan
.

“If what you're saying is true, how would you distract Riggs?” Libby asked.

“When the boat comes into Galena, I'll start talking about a good business deal—a deal where Riggs would make big money. I'll tell him I have to talk
now
before leaving the
Christina
.”

Libby smiled. The plan was perfect. There was nothing that interested Riggs more than making money.
Maybe that's why he started trading slaves in the first place
.

“Have Jordan leave the minute the gangplank goes out,” the man went on. “I'll make sure Riggs is in the main cabin. But I can't promise how long I can keep him if Jordan doesn't leave.”

“It's his life if you give him away,” Libby said.

“I won't,” the man promised. “If you do what I say, Jordan's life is safe with me.”

The man turned away. Libby waited until she was sure he was gone. Then she hurried down to the engine room to talk with Caleb and Jordan. When she explained what had happened, Jordan made the choice whether to trust the slave owner.

Jordan went back over Libby's story. “You prayed?” he wanted to know. “You asked the Lord to give the man a good plan?”

As Libby nodded, Jordan grinned. Standing tall, he wore that look of royalty again. “The good Lord just told me something. He said, ‘Jordan, you trust that man. And you tell Libby she's become a good conductor on the Underground Railroad.'”

When Jordan left the
Christina
, he went as a rouster. Hoisting a small barrel onto his shoulder, he hid his face from anyone on the
Christina
who might watch. From near the gangplank Libby and Caleb watched him walk ashore. Partway across the large area filled with freight, he set down the barrel and walked away.

Just then a shadow rose from behind a big crate. Jordan stopped dead. When a second, then a third shadow rose behind him, Jordan was surrounded.

Caleb leaped to his feet. “Something's wrong!”

With one quick glance, he looked around to see if anyone was watching. In the next instant Caleb hurried down the gangplank with Libby close on his heels. Faster and faster Caleb walked, as though not wanting to attract attention by running.

He and Libby dodged this way and that between people and freight, but Libby kept sight of Jordan. Soon there were four shadows, then five, next to him. By the time Libby and
Caleb reached the last pile of freight, seven people stood around Jordan.

Men
, Libby thought, glimpsing their size in the darkness.
Who are they? Slave catchers? After all Jordan has gone through to be free?

CHAPTER 15

A
s quickly as the men appeared, they disappeared, and Jordan with them. “What happened?” Libby whispered to Caleb.

Before he could answer, she heard a soft whistle. Caleb slowed down, walked a few more steps, then stopped. “Just do what I do.”

Next to a pile of barrels sitting on the waterfront, he turned around and looked back to the
Christina
. Libby did the same. The gangplank was flooded with passengers leaving. As Libby watched them, she sensed a movement close behind her.

“Don't look,” Caleb warned, still in a whisper.

Five steamboats had tied up along the waterfront.
Five steamboats from where?
Libby wondered.
Are they going south or coming north?

In that moment Libby guessed why Caleb stood quietly and what the whistled signal meant. Waiting in the darkness, she did not move. Once, she heard the scrape of gravel as if someone wore boots.
Jordan?

Then she remembered.
Bare feet move without a sound
.

Within a few minutes, Libby heard the call of a bird. Again Caleb turned around, this time facing the business area of
Galena, and Libby knew she had recognized another signal. Walking together, she and Caleb hurried up a short flight of steps. At the top was a large building with a sign that read Union House.

Two large porches stretched across the front of the hotel, one on the ground floor and the other on the second. As she and Caleb drew close, Libby saw a man drop onto his knees and crawl under the lower porch.

Caleb stopped. Looked. Listened. Turned to the back side of the hotel. There Caleb and Libby met Jordan. Even in the shadows, Libby could see the laughter in his face.

“Remember what Riggs told me?” Jordan asked. “That a slave had never escaped from him alive?”

Libby remembered all right. The thought of it still filled her with dread.

But Jordan wiggled his shoulders with glee. “Those men you saw? They came from near where I used to live! Riggs bought them. When they heard I escaped, they thought, ‘We is gettin' away too!' All this time they've been figuring out how to do it!”

Caleb's soft laugh filled the darkness. “So you were the beginning! The first to escape. The one to lead the rest.”

Jordan clapped Caleb's shoulder. “Thanks for everything, my friend! Thanks for helping me become a conductor. I need to leave you now.”

Libby and Caleb were partway back to the river when he laughed again, then whispered, “It's more than leading his family now. Jordan will be one of the best conductors in the Underground Railroad!”

“Where will he take them?”

Caleb's grin stretched from ear to ear. “To his family, I expect, until it's safe to send them on to Freeport. Wait till Riggs gets home and hears about all the money he's lost. Some sort of justice to that, don't you think?”

As they drew close to the
Christina
, Riggs tore across the front deck. His face red with anger, he looked in every direction.