CHAPTER SEVEN B: THE PRICE OF AN ANSWER
The first light of morning appeared while the group remained inside the cottage.
Thomas sent one stable hand to fetch a carriage and ordered the other to guard Ralston.
Elias noticed that the guard stood closer to Thomas than to the former overseer.
If Thomas changed his mind, the man would obey him instead.
Jonah understood the danger and kept Martha near the door.
“We should leave before the road fills with workers,” he said.
Thomas barred the way with his walking stick.
“You have accused a man in my service of crimes,
” he said.
“You will remain until I decide what happens.”
“You dismissed him two winters ago,” Jonah replied.
“He is not in your service tonight.”
Thomas’s mouth tightened.
“You are standing on my property.”
Elias heard his mother calling him from years earlier, warning him never to let an argument about property erase the people standing in front of him.
He stepped beside Jonah.
“If you hold them here, the children will be in danger again,” he said.
Thomas raised the stick a fraction.
Adelaide caught her husband’s wrist.
“Enough,” she said.
“If you strike him, you will have to explain it to every person who witnessed this night.
”
Thomas stared at her hand until she released him.
“You seem to have forgotten who pays for your comfort,” he said.
Adelaide glanced at the ruined ceiling.
“I remember exactly who pays for it,” she answered.
Elias looked at Ruth, whose face revealed the same astonishment he felt.
Adelaide’s words did not make her trustworthy, but they marked a change in what she was willing to say aloud.
Ralston saw the opening before anyone else.
“She has lied to you for years,” he told Thomas.
“She has a daughter by another man, and she used your house to conceal the proof.
”
“I have not concealed Beatrice in this house,” Adelaide said.
“I concealed her existence because I knew you would threaten her.”
Ralston smiled.
“You cannot prove that.”
“You threatened her tonight,” Elias said.
“I heard you demand the north cottage key.”
Ralston turned on him.
“You hear whatever suits you.”
“I heard you tell Thomas that the child was hidden here,” Elias replied.
“You knew she was elsewhere, and you wanted Adelaide frightened enough to surrender something.”
Jonah took a step forward.
“What did you want from her?”
Ralston looked toward the door and said nothing.
Martha spoke from the threshold.
“He wanted the names of the families who took the children.”
Ralston’s eyes narrowed.
“You cannot know that.”
“I know because he followed my sister last winter,” Martha replied.
“He questioned a man who delivered flour to her village, and he offered money for the name of anyone sheltering a child from this estate.”
Peter Hales looked up sharply.
“He offered me money too,” he said.
“He promised another payment if I found a box with names.”
Thomas seemed to grow smaller inside his heavy coat.
“Why would you pay for names?” he asked.
Ralston straightened.
“Because those people belong to somebody.
”
Elias felt the words strike the room like a door slammed in a sleeping house.
Thomas did not object to the claim.
He objected only to Ralston’s assumption that he could act without permission.
“You had no authority to make those arrangements,” Thomas said.
“I had every authority when I was your overseer,” Ralston replied.
“You signed whatever I brought you.”
Elias watched the master’s expression change.
Thomas was not shocked by the suffering being described.
He was frightened by the possibility that his own decisions might be examined.
“You will leave this estate under guard,” Thomas said at last.
“I will decide what to do with you when I have spoken to the magistrate.”
Ralston laughed bitterly.
“You think a magistrate will thank you for admitting you lost people you claimed to own?”
“I will not discuss this with you,” Thomas answered.
Jonah moved toward the door.
“Then we have heard enough,” he said.
Thomas lifted his stick again, but Adelaide stood in his path.
“Let them go,” she said.
“They have children to protect.”
Thomas looked from his wife to the faces of the people he had spent years commanding.
He lowered the stick.
Martha left first, carrying the slate beneath her shawl.
Caleb followed with the spinning top and the small iron restraints wrapped separately in cloth.
Jonah lingered long enough to meet Elias’s eyes.
“We will speak beneath the orchard wall,” he said.
Elias nodded without answering.
He understood that the promise of another meeting was itself dangerous.
The group dispersed before the sun rose above the trees.
Elias stayed behind because his mother was still inside the estate.
He also knew that his choice to stay for a few more hours might be the most dangerous decision of the night.
