Daniel approached the minister after a Wednesday prayer service held at the small meetinghouse outside Blackwood land.
He waited until the final congregants had left and the lamps were being extinguished.
Avery looked surprised to see him.
“What can I do for you, Daniel?”
“I need to ask whether a letter can be sent without the colonel seeing it.”
The minister closed the door.
“Whom is it for?”
“A woman in Richmond who may know where my mother is.”
Avery studied him.
“That’s a dangerous search.”
“It’s been dangerous since the day she was taken.”
The minister sat on the bench beside the hymnbooks.
“I can carry a message, but I won’t promise it can travel safely.”
Daniel told him about the false transfer records without revealing the location of his father’s packet.
He spoke about Margaret Vale, the forged signatures, and the people hidden beneath the mill.
The minister listened without interrupting.
When Daniel finished, Avery took a long time to answer.
“I’ve suspected wrongdoing,” he said.
“Suspicion isn’t proof.”
“Nor is it innocence.”
Avery nodded.
“You’re right.”
Daniel took a breath.
“I need someone outside the plantation who can hold copies.”
“Who would you trust?”
“Someone Richard can’t dismiss as a disgruntled servant.”
Avery considered the question.
He knew a bookseller named Lydia Foster in Richmond who preserved correspondence for families seeking lost relatives.
She maintained a quiet network of couriers, some of whom moved between free Black communities and church congregations.
She did not advertise the work, because public knowledge would endanger those she served.
Avery could not promise she would receive Daniel’s message.
He could promise to try.
Daniel wrote a short letter on paper the minister supplied.
He did not include names of people still imprisoned at the mill.
Instead he asked whether Foster knew Ruth Carter or Margaret Vale’s companion Hester.
He enclosed a copy of the unusual star symbol carved into the bone button.
Avery folded the paper and sealed it.
“Daniel, if these accusations are true, we may need to go beyond my acquaintances.”
“We may,” Daniel answered.
“But first I want to know which of your acquaintances would hand the letter to Blackwood.”
The minister received the rebuke without anger.
He knew Daniel was justified in doubting him.
“I have eaten at Richard’s table,” Avery said.
“I have accepted his money for the church.”
“That doesn’t make you guilty of everything he does.”
“No, but it has made me too willing not to ask.”
