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"What do you mean, not stay?" I sat up, startled

"Perhaps it will be too much for you" His head was bent over the oars; I couldn’t see his face

"If you mean what happened at the sawmill--"

"No, not that" He heaved back on the oars, shoulders broadening under his linen, and gave me a crooked smile "Death and disaster wouldna trouble ye ower-s, day by day…I see ye flinch, when the black maid combs your hair, or when the boy takes your shoes away to clean And the slaves ork in the turpentine camp That troubles ye, no?"

"Yes It does I’m--I can’t own slaves I’ve told you--"

"Aye, ye have" He rested on the oars for aa lock of hair out of his face His eyes met mine squarely

"And if I chose to do this, Sassenach…could ye stay bythat could be done, until my aunt should die Perhaps not even then"

"What do you mean?"

"She will not free her slaves--how should she? I could not, while she lived"

"But once you had inherited the place…" I hesitated Beyond the ghoulish aspects of discussing Jocasta’s death, there was the more concrete consideration that that event was unlikely to occur for some time; Jocasta was little orous health

I suddenly sahat hemyself to live, day after day, month after month, year after year, as an owner of slaves? I could not pretend otherwise, could take no refuge in the notion that I was only a guest, an outsider

I bit my lip, in order not to cry out instant denial

"Even then," he said, answering ument "Did ye not know that a slave owner cannot free his slaves without the written permission of the Assembly?"

"He what?" I stared blankly at hio in fear of an arroes," he said "And d’ye blame them?" he added sardonically

"Slaves are forbidden to carry weapons, save tools such as tree knives, and there are the bloodshed laws to prevent their use" He shook his head "Nay, the last thing the Asseroup of free blacks let loose upon the countryside Even if a iven permission to do so, the freed slave is required to leave the colony within a short time--or he may be captured and enslaved by anyone who chooses to take hiht about it," I said slowly

"Haven’t you?"

I didn’t answer I trailedup ht about the prospect Not consciously, because I hadn’t wanted to face the choice that was now being laid before reat chance," I said,strained and unnatural to …"

"My aunt is not a fool," he interrupted, with a slight edge to his voice "She would make me heir, but not owner in her place She would use s she cannot--but I would be no more than her cat’s-paw True, she would askwould be done, and she didna wish it so"

He shook his head

"Her husband is dead Whether she was fond of him or no, she is mistress here noith none to answer to And she enjoys the taste of power too well to spit it out"

He was plainly correct in this assessment of Jocasta Cameron’s character, and therein lay the key to her plan She needed a o, to deal with the Navy, to handle the chores of a large estate that she could not e because of her blindness

At the same time, she patently did not want a husband; someone ould usurp her power and dictate to her Had he not been a slave, Ulysses could have acted for her--but while he could be her eyes and ears, he could not be her hands

No, Ja, co peers, coement of land and ation, there to do her bidding--but essentially powerless He would be held in thrall by dependence upon her bounty, and by the rich bribe of River Run itself; a debt that need not be paid until the er of any earthly concern to Jocasta Caht for words I couldn’t, I thought I couldn’t e it But I couldn’t face the alternative, either; I couldn’t urge hi it would send him to Scotland, to meet an unknown death

"I can’t say what you should do," I finally said, ular lap of the oars

There was an eddy pool, where a large tree had fallen into the water, its branches for a trap for all the debris that drifted downstrea the rowboat neatly into quiet water He let down the oars, and wiped a sleeve across his forehead, breathing heavily from exertion