Read Online Heirs of Acadia - 03 - The Noble Fugitive by T. Davis Bunn - Free Book Online Page A

so.”
    “What if I were to give you my word as a fellow believer that I shall hold your plight in confidence?”
    Falconer longed to speak with someone. The burden felt so much greater because he was forced to carry it alone. And concern for his friend the curate added mightily to the weight.
    For over thirty years, a determined band of British Christians had fought the might of the slavers and their allies in both Parliament and the royal court. Their aim was the total eradication of slavery throughout the British empire. The planters had successfully resisted them with two essential claims. First, that without the slaves they currently owned, the entire British supply of sugar and coffee and cocoa would fail. Second, the planters did not add to the existing slaves. They simply used those they had. In time, or so their claim went, slavery would cease to be an issue.
    Falconer knew this to be a vast and despicable lie.
    He himself had piloted a slaver long after the trade had supposedly been outlawed. Slave vessels continued to plytheir tragic trade under a variety of flags. Throughout the Caribbean, the illicit commerce flourished. Planters bought the slaves they needed at clandestine auctions in out-of-the-way villages. They forged documents claiming that the slave had been owned since birth. Falconer knew this because he was carrying the proof.
    What was more, the British governor knew of this. Which suggested the Crown itself profited from the supposedly illegal trade. And if not the Crown, someone within the royal court. This was the conspiracy their friend Jaime had sought to confirm when he was caught and killed. All Falconer could say for certain was that the secret connection between the island slave trade and London was at such a high level that the Crown’s representative would do anything to suppress it.
    Even chase a suspect over a thousand miles north.
    “I have met men who would falsely give their word and swear any oath, so long as it brought them their desired end,” Falconer finally replied. He hesitated, then added, “Some even wore the cloth.”
    “Then let me confide this.” The pastor checked about him. The mission hall was emptied now of other boarders. Two ladies used a stave to lift the smoldering porridge pot off the fire. Otherwise they were alone. The pastor leaned forward and said quietly, “Word is being passed around the riverfront. A reward is offered for news of a man tall in stature and stern in demeanor. Handsome in a rakish manner, one going by the name of Falconer. A man wanted throughout the Caribbean.”
    “Wanted?” Falconer studied the face before him and realized he had underestimated the soft-looking pastor. “Wanted for what?”
    “For murder.”
    “That is a lie.”
    “You do not deny being this man?”
    “I admit to nothing save my utter innocence.” The pastor studied him with an intensity to match his own. “A man was slain the day I departed from Trinidad. A friend and abrother. But I had no hand in his killing, save that we shared the same cause.”
    “And what cause was that?”
    “Again, sir. It is a secret that is not mine to share.”
    “If you refuse to trust, you shall never know the comfort of sharing your burdens.”
    “There was a third within our band.” Falconer paused to wipe the sudden sweat from his brow. “Our curate and the man who led me to salvation. His last words to me were to take great care in whom I entrusted myself. There are turncoats and spies everywhere. Again, sir, those were the words of a believer, a friend, and my leader.”
    The pastor regarded him in silence for a long moment. Falconer felt a juncture had been reached, one where he could not see a way forward.
    Finally, the pastor sighed. “I confess this is beyond me. I feel God’s hand upon our meeting. Despite my natural reluctance, I find myself wishing to believe you.”
    “I can only repeat what I have said before, sir. I mean no one harm. And I had nothing to do