Love by Dawn Read Free Page A

receiving a warm, firm hand in
return. “I’ll leave now, Sir. Been a pleasure knowing and working
with you these past months,” he lied with a straight face. He had hated every minute of this and was certain Davis Pits knew
it. He hoped his face did not reveal the white
lie and quickly said, “The story of how you saved my father’s life
from a gunman’s bullet has been told so many times, I know it by
heart. My mother and I owe you much gratitude and I was happy to
help my father fulfill his promise to work by your side, helping
free slaves.” The part about gratitude and freeing slaves was the
truth.
    “Your father and I go back many years, since
he first started practicing doctoring,” Davis Pits declared. “He
saved many slaves who had been beaten and whipped. I am glad to
have known his son.” He shook the man’s hand reflecting gratitude
in his dark eyes. “Take care and when you see Josh again tell him
he should be proud of his son no matter what he does. Sorry that
you and your father have not been close these past years because of
your decision not to be a doctor, but you are your own man. Thanks
again and take care of yourself out there.”
    Blake nodded and left. What a mess! He was
as enthusiastic about this as when he had a wisdom tooth pulled. It
seemed to him now that not only had he lost the tooth, but all his
insight too. It was time to take his money from his trust fund and
purchase a piece of land in Georgia and build a home. He was still
a young man of only twenty, but he didn’t want to wait much
longer.
    The brightness of the noon sun made him
blink when he stepped outside. His palomino, Checkers, was saddled
and waiting. Shading his eyes he saw the young prisoner being led
over to him. He was slouched on a black mare, his hands tied to the
saddle horn. The bandage around Hunter’s head had telltale blotches
of blood where he had been grazed. Nothing serious, Blake knew, but
he still felt badly. No one bothered to clean the prisoner up; his
face still had mud on it from the fall off his horse. His shirt had
signs of dried blood also and his pants were torn over the left
knee. Again, Blake did not like this and was remorseful. This was
definitely all wrong even though Pits believed he was right.
    Once more, he thought about freeing Hunter,
but again he believed this was for the best.
    He mounted Checkers, grabbed the mare’s reins
and led his prisoner out of the run-down fort. The hot sun stayed
on their backs as they trotted a while, then slowed the pace.
Although he assumed the kid was in some pain, he was in no hurry to
get to where he was going. Surely the prisoner had a good size
headache at least, but the boy never complained. Hunter Walsh was
stubborn, he never talked the whole while he’d been interrogated.
But the kid was brave and he had to admire him for that.
    They camped by a lake that night and Blake
untied Hunter’s hands to allow him to wash up and relieve himself.
He then informed Hunter where he was being escorted to and no
further words were spoken by either and he didn’t mind. He was
never one for idle chatter anyway, although he did wonder if his
prisoner had a family.
    Hunter had plenty to say to the tall cowboy
but decided he probably be wasting his breath. Though a few times
he thought he saw some compassion in the other man’s eyes. Why was
he being led like a lamb to slaughter? Selling slaves wasn’t a
hanging offense. Yes, those self-righteous men were known to beat
up on slave dealers when caught but none were jailed or killed
except in gunfire, like the night he was wounded. Just his luck the
abolitionists were gun happy men. He settled down assuming that
when he was left at the fort, he’d be sent back home. But you can
be sure he wouldn’t do that again. It hadn’t occurred to him about
what he was doing, he had never before seen darkies in that
condition: the frightened look in their bleak eyes, the whimpering
of women and children.
    Dead God, he