WE WERE RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF SINGING and dancing and had been making so much noise that we hadn’t known anyone else was within miles.
All of a sudden we heard a knock on the front door.
We all froze. Katie’s hands looked like they were stuck to the piano. The sounds of the music died away. I glanced over at her, wondering if I had just heard what I thought I’d heard, or if she’d kicked the piano or something. But the look on Katie’s face told me instantly she’d heard it too.
Then the metal knocker sounded again on the wooden door.
Bang! Bang! Bang! it echoed through the house.
“There’s somebody at the door,” said Aleta. “Aren’t you going to see who it is?”
Whoever it was had come to the front door rather than the back at the kitchen, where most folks came. So it must not be someone who came regularly.
“Quick, Aleta,” said Katie, jumping up from the piano stool, “run upstairs to my room and be as quiet as you can.”
“Why?”
“Never mind why. I’ll tell you later.”
Luckily Aleta didn’t argue about it and ran for the stairs.
Katie glanced at me, and I knew we were both thinking the same thing—what to do with Emma!
“Emma,” I whispered, “pick up William and come with me as fast as you can.—But,” I added, quickly putting my finger to my lips because I saw that she was about to start talking, “—don’t say a word. We can’t make a sound.”
I think she saw the danger from Katie’s and my reaction to the knock on the door, and by now a terrified look came to her face and she did what I said. A few seconds later me and Emma, with William in her arms, hurried from the parlor into the kitchen and out the back door to go light the fire in the slave cabin, hoping we’d be good and out of sight from the front of the house.
When we were both gone, Katie tried to calm herself and walked to the door. There stood a man she had never seen before.
“Good day, miss,” he said. “I’d like to see the mistress of the house.”
“Yes, sir … my mother’s not here.”
“Will she be back soon?”
“Uh … probably not, sir.”
“Well, I need to inform her of a serious disease that has infected the colored folk of this region,” the man said.
“With all the changes after the war and all, and with the coloreds moving about looking for work and going up North, we’re trying to get word to everyone, especially plantation owners, to be on the lookout for any coloreds with newborns.”
Katie tried to stay calm, but at the word “newborn” her eyes shot open wide.
“Why is that, sir?” she said, hoping her voice wasn’t trembling.
“Because the disease affects only babies. You ain’t got any blacks with infants here, do you?”
“Uh … no, sir. But how do you know what to look for?”
“We’d have to see it for ourselves. But what do you care … you sure you ain’t seen no colored babies? Nobody’s come by asking for help, nothing like that?”
“No, sir. I was just curious.”
The man eyed her carefully.
“Well, just the same,” he said. “I’ll be back in a day or two to talk to your ma. We’re trying to spread the word roundabout to be on the lookout for girls with babies so we can help them and put a stop to this thing.”
“What happens if you don’t?” asked Katie.
“The disease is fatal, miss. If they don’t get to us for help, the babies will die.”
Katie drew in a sharp breath of shock at the words. The man turned to go.
“I’ll be back to see your ma,” he said. “You tell her I’m coming and I’ll explain to her all about it.”
“But I told you,” said Katie, trying to recover her composure, “we’ve got no baby here.”
“I’m under orders to tell everyone, miss. So tell your ma I’ll be back.”
By the time I was walking up from the slave cabin, the man was coming around back on his horse on the road north. I kept my head down and shuffled slowly by, but I don’t think he even noticed. I’m not sure he saw the smoke from the fire either. As soon as he was past me I picked up my pace and hurried back to the house. Katie was hurrying out toward me at the same time.
“What did he want?” I asked.
“Where are Emma and William?” she asked excitedly, answering my question with a question of her own.
“Back there in the cabin,” I said. “They’re hiding. He won’t see them.”
Finally Katie started to calm down. Then she told me everything the man had said.
I thought about it for a minute. “I don’t know,” I said. “It sounds a mite suspicious to me.”
“Why?” asked Katie.
“Because of everything Emma said about those men chasing her and trying to kill her. It sounds to me like somebody’s trying to find her baby.”
“But what if there really is a disease? Should we tell Emma what the man said? What if William is in danger?”
I thought for a minute more.
“I don’t know,” I said. “I don’t like the thought of her getting all upset. I wish we could find out more about it first.” As I said it, I glanced along the road to see which way the man had gone.
“We could go ask the doctor in town,” suggested Katie.
“And call more attention to ourselves at the same time,” I said. “I’d rather know more about this thing before we did that. If William really is in danger, why didn’t that fellow say anything about a doctor?”
“That’s right,” said Katie, “he didn’t.”
“And if they’re just after Emma, then we have to be careful because anything we do could put her in danger.”
I glanced down the road again. The man was just disappearing from sight.
“Miss Katie,” I said suddenly, “I’m going to go saddle two horses. We’ve got to follow him!”
“Why … you mean you and me?”
“Yep,” I said, then I turned and ran for the barn.
“What about Emma and Aleta?” called Katie after me.
“They’ll have to take care of themselves. You talk to them. We’ve got to know what’s going on. But don’t tell Emma why. She’d come orful streaked if she knew. Just tell them we’ll be gone for a few hours.”