They divided only after speaking with Josephine about what her sons could endure.
Abram took the family toward the mission house.
Thomas and Daniel followed the creek bed while Rose carried the letters and the wooden box.
They agreed to meet beyond the old stone bridge before the next sunset.
Rain began before Daniel and Thomas reached the bridge.
They climbed a wooded slope where the roots were slippery and exposed.
Thomas had traveled through these hills as a wagon driver, but darkness changed familiar landmarks into guesses.
A dog barked from a farmhouse in the valley.
The men dropped behind a fallen tree and waited until the sound faded.
Daniel felt a sharp pain in his side each time he breathed.
Thomas offered to slow down, but Daniel refused to halt where the patrol could find them.
They reached the bridge at noon and discovered fresh hoofprints in the mud.
Someone had been there recently, possibly the riders who followed them.
Thomas studied the marks and recognized the narrow shoes of a horse from Red Creek’s stable.
Pike had sent pursuit before sunrise.
Daniel wondered whether Finch had noticed the missing cart or whether someone had betrayed their plan.
Thomas said they would learn the answer only if they survived long enough to ask.
A woman approached from the far bank carrying a basket covered with damp cloth.
She gave no sign that she had noticed them until she stopped beside a broken milestone.
Then she said the bridge had been unsafe since the last flood.
Thomas answered with the phrase Abram had taught him, that the river did not ask travelers for papers.
The woman nodded and motioned toward a narrow path.
She introduced herself as Miriam Cole, a teacher who worked with a network of families moving people toward safer communities.
Miriam led them to an empty smokehouse behind her brother’s farm.
Inside were bread, clean water, and dry clothing.
She made clear that help did not mean ownership of their decisions.
They could rest, they could move on, or they could ask her to connect them with another route.
Daniel was startled by the simple respect of being offered choices.
Thomas asked whether she had heard from the wagon carrying Josephine.
Miriam said a family with two boys had passed the mission house and was expected by evening.
Daniel finally opened his mother’s wooden box and placed the thimble on the table.
He explained that Catherine’s messengers were searching for him and that a baby might be hidden somewhere near Harper’s Ford.
