But that possibility did not excuse Catherine’s actions toward him.
He could hold both truths without confusing them.
Thomas asked where the riverboat had gone.
The note named a landing south of Harper’s Ford, not its final destination.
Rose decided that they needed to contact Hannah directly.
Abram warned that the route was being watched more closely since a number of workers escaped a nearby plantation.
He would carry one more message, but not until he understood what risk he was taking.
Daniel told him the truth in measured words.
A child might be in danger, and the people seeking her had already sold and threatened the man who could expose them.
Abram stared at the ground for a long time.
He finally answered that he had a daughter and would regret abandoning somebody else’s simply because the road was dangerous.
Catherine’s next message came sewn into the collar of a coat delivered with Graves’s seal.
The coat was expensive, but Daniel refused to wear it.
Rose cut the seam with a small knife and unfolded a narrow strip of paper.
Catherine wrote that the child had been named Eleanor.
She said Richard intended to erase the baby’s existence and that Daniel must return to Virginia to prevent a terrible outcome.
She promised protection if he signed the statement Graves carried.
Daniel read the message aloud to Rose and Thomas.
Thomas asked whether Catherine believed a man could be protected by the same person who had arranged his sale.
Daniel shook his head.
He noticed that the message never acknowledged the threats or coercion that had brought him to this place.
It spoke only of Catherine’s fear, Catherine’s reputation, and Catherine’s need.
The final line warned that if Daniel did not obey, people at Red Creek might suffer for keeping him.
The threat had followed him across state lines.
Rose was furious on his behalf.
She told him that concern for Eleanor did not require accepting Catherine’s version of safety.
Thomas proposed using her fear to demand information that could be checked independently.
Daniel asked Abram to carry back a reply containing three conditions.
Catherine must identify where Eleanor had last been seen, give the names of everyone involved in her removal, and withdraw the false statement she wanted him to sign.
Until then, Daniel would not travel with Graves.
The reply frightened Abram because no enslaved man could safely negotiate with a mistress who claimed authority over him.
