CHAPTER FOURTEEN — THE NIGHT WAGON
The first sound came just after midnight.
A team of horses was being led through the orchard without lanterns.
Esther heard the wheels because she had been awake beside the kitchen window, waiting for her brother to return from the cattle shed.
She woke Elijah before the wagon reached the southern lane.
He found Odessa and Thomas already outside their cabins.
The wagon carried a canvas covering and two hired men.
Pike was no longer under guard in the carriage shed.
Someone had opened the door while the household slept.
Elijah looked at the wagon and understood what Ambrose intended.
He was not taking the pottery.
He was taking the people listed in the unsigned transfer proposal.
The families had been ordered to assemble at the southern gate under threats against their relatives.
A mother named Ruth stood beside the wagon holding her youngest child.
Her older daughter was being pushed toward the tailboard by a hired guard.
Elijah moved into the road.
“Where are you taking them?”
Pike stepped down from the driver’s bench.
“Out of your way.”
“You have no signed authorization from Miss Whitmore.”
Pike laughed.
“You believe a signature matters more than a wagon already moving?”
Elijah looked at the people gathered behind the cart.
Several men were holding their children.
An old woman leaned against a post, unable to climb the steps.
The plan had been designed to scatter families before anyone could organize a response.
Elijah did not try to overpower the guards.
He called to Ruth instead.
“Ruth, do you want to travel tonight?”
Ruth shook her head.
“I want my children home.”
Elijah turned to the other families.
“Then stay where you are.”
Pike raised his whip.
Thomas stepped into the road beside Elijah.
Then Asa joined them, followed by Odessa, Esther, and several workers from the far cabins.
Nobody touched Pike.
They simply filled the narrow lane until the horses could not advance without trampling people.
Pike shouted at them to move.
Ruth took her daughter’s hand and stepped away from the wagon.
A guard grabbed her sleeve.
Esther caught the child’s other hand and pulled her back to safety.
The guard stumbled against the tailboard.
Pike lifted the whip.
“Anyone who keeps standing there will answer to me.”
A lantern appeared at the edge of the orchard.
Catherine was walking beside Harrow and Louisa Bell, who had stayed overnight after a late conversation with the creditors.
They had been awakened by the same wheels.
Catherine stopped several paces from Pike.
“You are moving people without my authorization.”
Pike lowered the whip but did not release it.
“Your uncle ordered it.”
“Where is his written order?”
Pike said nothing.
Harrow stepped forward.
“The existing creditors have not approved a transfer, and the estate inventory is disputed.”
Pike looked toward the hired men.
They were suddenly uncertain whether Ambrose could pay them.
Louisa stepped into the lantern light.
“I will give my name as a witness to what happens here.”
Pike’s horse shifted uneasily.
The lane was too crowded for the wagon to turn easily, and the men standing beside it no longer seemed willing to fight over an unsigned sale.
Elijah looked at Ruth.
“Take your children home.”
She stepped around him, leading her daughter and carrying the baby.
One by one, the other families moved away from the wagon.
Pike watched them go, anger making his mouth tremble.
Catherine moved toward the horse’s head and took hold of the bridle.
“You will return the wagon to the stable.”
Pike glared at her.
“You do not know how much this will cost.”
“I know what it has already cost.”
She released the bridle only after the hired men began turning the cart.
Elijah remained in the lane until the last family had gone.
He heard Ruth’s youngest child calling for a blanket as they reached their cabin.
The sound was ordinary and unbearably precious.
For that night, the children would sleep under the same roof as their parents.
Tomorrow would bring another danger.
But tonight had ended without a sale.
