Price turned toward Silas.
“Mr. Whitcomb, we have not finished our business.”
Silas descended the steps slowly.
“My property is not part of your business.”
Thomas struggled upright in the carriage.
“Isaiah helped design the machine.”
Silas laughed.
“He carried wood.”
“He identified the fault in my first cutting arm.”
“Then you should have paid him a compliment.”
Thomas looked at Price.
“I will not work with a man who refuses to recognize the people who made the work possible.”
Silas’s face hardened.
“Your opinion does not change the law.”
“No,” Thomas said.
“But it changes what I am willing to build.”
Price stepped forward.
“I will purchase Isaiah Bell’s and Gideon’s freedom if you agree to a fair price.”
Isaiah felt the courtyard tilt beneath him.
Esther caught his arm.
Silas studied Price.
“You are offering money for two workers?”
“I am offering a transaction you can accept or refuse.”
Silas looked at Isaiah.
“You have caused me enough trouble to make you worth less than you were yesterday.”
Isaiah held his gaze.
“Then perhaps you should take the offer.”
Silas smiled coldly.
“I will not be mocked on my own steps.”
Lenora appeared behind him.
She had heard the conversation from the hall.
“Silas, listen to them.”
He turned on her.
“You have no voice in this.”
She stopped beside the door.
“I have a voice in what I did.”
Isaiah looked at her.
For weeks she had used her position to force him into silence.
Now she stood before a yard full of witnesses and spoke without a lock between them.
“I helped Curtis threaten Esther and Micah,” she said.
“I told Isaiah that I would have his sister sold.”
Silas glared at her.
“And you think confessing makes you noble?”
“No.”
“Then why are you doing it?”
“Because I cannot bear another night of pretending I did nothing.”
Isaiah watched her carefully.
Her confession might ease her conscience, but it did not undo the harm.
He refused to make her suffering the center of the moment.
He turned back to Price.
“If you are offering to buy freedom, I need you to include Esther and Micah.”
Price hesitated.
Silas laughed.
“You ask for three people now?”
“Four,” Gideon said.
Everyone looked at him.
“My mother is here.”
A woman stepped from the edge of the crowd.
Her name was Hester, and she had worked in the fields since Gideon was small.
She placed a hand on his shoulder.
Gideon looked at Price.
“I will not leave her behind.”
Price took a slow breath.
“Then we will discuss five.”
Silas stared at them.
He had expected one man to bargain for himself.
Instead, the people he controlled were naming one another aloud.
He looked toward the house as though searching for support.
No one moved to give it.
