“Keep your mouth shut, niece, or you’ll be hauled up to theattic and bolted in until you forget what the sun looks like.” LeBeau jabbed his finger at her.
Thea leaned over the banister. Had she been hovering there all along? Auburn curls spilled from her nightcap and down her back. “I knew Beth was too cozy with that slave girl. Defending her over her own kind.”
Devon clenched his jaw. Maybe Miss Thea and her father would have a change of heart if someone took a whip to their backs. But it wasn’t his place. Confronting LeBeau wouldn’t help anyone. Devon set the log down on the sideboard.
A slight clunk. They all pivoted toward him.
Devon moved into the lamp-lit foyer.
Lucy lifted her face, tears streaming down her cheeks. What did he see there? Pleading? Fear?
“What are you doing there, Reynolds?” LeBeau’s brow furrowed. “Did you see a man run out the back?”
“No. I heard the scream?—”
The front door rattled. Flora opened it.
The overseer, Owens burst in, hair awry and rifle in hand, as ready as ever to enforce his employer’s orders. His shirttails hung over his trousers, and one suspender looped loosely over his arm. “What’s wrong?”
LeBeau swore. “Thea went down to ask Lucy for a warm compress for her headache and found her in bed with a man. Get out back and look for him. Get the hounds if you have to. I’ll not have any whoring in my house.”
Lucy raised her hands in supplication. “No, master, please. Weren’t no one.”
Owens sneered and stomped out the door.
What would happen if there was someone, a slave, and Owens found him?
LeBeau shoved his revolver into his wife’s hand and grabbed Lucy by the hair, dragging her up to a stand.
“No,” Morning Fawn cried out.
“Get upstairs.” LeBeau bellowed at her.
Acid crept up Devon’s throat. He had to do something. “It was me.”
“What?” LeBeau pivoted toward him, mouth agape, his fingers still locked in Lucy’s hair. She stumbled against her master, and he shoved her to the ground. “What did you say?”
The three ladies at the foot of the stairs stared at him wide-eyed.
“I said, it was me.” The lie soured in his mouth. God forgive him. But he couldn’t let this girl be beaten and her lover possibly killed.
Thea scrunched up her face like a prune.
Mrs. LeBeau paled and crossed her arms over her bosom. “We’ll not have such goings on in our home, Mr. Reynolds.”
But on her hands and knees, Lucy gazed up at him. New light shone in her eyes. She mouthed two words.Thank you. A new round of crying shook her.
Devon flinched beneath Morning Fawn’s stare.
Flora swung the door open. “Mr. Owens, we found the man.” She threw her lungs into it. “We’s found the man.” Her voice probably echoed all the way to the slave quarters.
“Stop your hollering and get back in here.” LeBeau scowled.
Somewhere, a clock chimed one.
LeBeau flexed his hands at his sides, curling and uncurling his fingers into fists. “You ladies get upstairs.”
“Gladly.” Thea spat out the words. “I wouldn’t want to soil my feet with the dirt from his boots. Maybe that’s how he got his eye poked out.”
