Read Online Promise Bridge by Eileen Clymer Schwab - Free Book Online

it,” I stammered, reassuring myself aloud, “he may pay it no mind. Someone stoking a fire in the woods is as natural as rain falling from a passing cloud.”
    “We can’t take the chance, Hannah.”
    The pounding of my heart told me he was right. When we plunged back through the rocky wall, our concern and anxiety were reflected back at us from shadowed faces. Most of the group sat about nibbling morsels from the food rations Colt had supplied them. The pouches slung over their shoulders were weighted with enough cornmeal for a week’s worth of ashcakes. The sight made me grateful they would not be sent away empty-handed, and that their unexpected stop in Echo Ridge would somehow better their chance of finding their way north. But once my eyes settled on Livie passed out in the corner, any self-righteous thoughts I had about having done these people any favor was washed away by a wave of remorse. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Colt approach Marcus.
    “It’s time for you to leave,” he ordered. Marcus stood nose to nose with Colt and offered what amounted to a restrained bark of protest.
    “Livetta can’t be moved yet. She be dead ’fore we get to the next pass.”
    “It is too dangerous to stay,” Colt said, not backing down. “It’s only a matter of time before a group this size is discovered here. I insist you move on.”
    “In a few days . . . when Livetta is stronger.”
    Colt leaned into Marcus’s puffed chest. “If you don’t leave at nightfall, you could be hanging from a tree by midday tomorrow.”
    A scuffle of arms and legs broke out between them until Raizy and her son pulled the two apart. Both huffed and snorted at each other with fiery eyes, but neither raised a fist to continue the battle. Marcus shook Raizy off his arm and ran his hands up over his tight curls, as if raking through his thoughts with his fingers.
    “Marcus,” Raizy pleaded. “You said if someone can’t go on, they gots’ta stay behind. That goes for yo’ sister, same as the rest of us.”
    “I will not leave Livetta,” he shot back. “Go on without us.”
    “We don’t know the way,” the oldest of the group countered. “Ain’t right to bring us this far and then send us on blind.”
    “You jes’ follow the drinking gourd in the night sky. You know that, old woman. Or watch for the moss growin’ thick on the north side of the trees.”
    “But the drinking gourd ain’t gonna show us where the safe passes are through the mountains or where the favorin’ light burns for us. Boy, you gots’ta lead the way, or we is doomed to die.”
    Marcus detached from the pressure by crouching beside Livie. She was awake now, and from the jumpiness in her eyes, it was clear she heard most of what was said.
    “You ain’t leavin’ me, is you, Marcus?” She labored to a sitting position, until the pain leveled her onto her back. He tugged the blanket and smoothed it around her trembling body as she pleaded, “I’ll be fine, Raizy. Ya’ll see.”
    “No, Livetta,” Marcus said, firmly. “You spilled a lot o’ blood, so you is mighty weak. Pushing on will kill you fo’ sure.”
    On my knees next to Marcus, I was mesmerized by the raw devotion between brother and sister. I never thought much about what transpired in the cabins of Mud Run, but the general opinion of my social peers was that familial bonds and intimate caring was not in the nature or of particular value to the slave population. But as witness to their pain, I could not stand by and leave them to their suffering.
    “I will care for her,” popped from me like an unexpected hiccup. Their heads turned to me in stunned silence. Words came quickly and without contemplation. “You can make safe passage for the others while I look after Livie. Then you can come back for her when you are able.”
    “Hannah, you are not . . .” Colt began, until my determined glare made him swallow his thought.
    “It makes perfect sense,” I continued, before any more