The second peg came free just as the guard opened the door to check on him.

Elijah dropped the chisel into his lap and pretended to be repairing a stool.

Crowe glanced around.

“The colonel wants you alive until he decides whether to sell you,” he said.

Elijah looked at the stool and replied, “Then I should finish the work he gave me.” Crowe laughed and left.

Outside, Naomi prepared to move the children.

Mercy had arranged for a laundry wagon to pass the rear yard after midnight, but the plan depended on reaching Elijah first.

Ruth carried a small bundle of clothes while Samuel held a blanket close to his chest.

Jacob remained near the gate and watched the stable lanterns.

The children had been told only that they might sleep somewhere else.

Naomi did not burden them with every danger.

She needed them to move quietly, not to carry the full knowledge of what adults had done.

At midnight a storm moved over the river.

Wind struck the shed roof, and rain rattled against the loose boards.

Elijah used the noise to lever the rear brace free.

The wall opened barely wide enough for his shoulders.

He took his shoes off, slid through the gap, and crawled beneath the overhang into wet earth.

He waited there until Crowe’s lantern passed the front door.

Then he stood and moved toward the orchard, staying low behind the hedge.

Naomi met him where the lane crossed a drainage ditch.

She did not speak at first.

She pressed her forehead briefly against his shoulder, then turned to check the children.

Elijah saw Ruth’s face beneath the hood of her coat and felt the cost of what he had asked of them.

“You should not have to flee because I chose to help,” he whispered.

Naomi shook her head.

“Richard made the danger long before you opened that wall.” She took his hand and led him toward Mercy’s wagon.

Jacob remained behind to delay the morning work call, saying he could explain Elijah’s absence as a repair at another field shed.

Elijah tried to persuade him to come.

Jacob answered that his daughter remained on the estate, and he would not leave her without a plan.

They embraced quickly.

Then Naomi climbed into the wagon with Samuel, Ruth beside her, and Elijah followed into darkness that smelled of wet linen and river mud.

Chapter 24: The Road to Miriam’s Workshop

The wagon moved slowly along the old canal road, its wheels sinking into ruts softened by rain.