Page 86 of Because I Could Not Stop for Death

He buried his head in the corner of the stall.

I placed my left hand on his neck. “Terror, please.”

His left eye rolled back and looked at me.

I held the carrot out to him. “Please take it.”

Gingerly, he took the carrot in his teeth. He held it in his lips for a moment and I scratched his forehead. “I’m Henry’s sister, and I know that he would want you to eat and be well. I know it’s hard—” My voice caught. “I know it’s hard to go on without him, but it’s something we have to do. It’s hard for me, too, but Henry would want us to take care of ourselves, to have a long life.”

Then the horse walked over to his feed trough, dipped his head in, and began to eat.

Emily stared at me. “You have a way with animals.”

“Maybe, but not like Henry.”

“What did you do to him?” a male voice asked.

I stepped through the gate to find Jeremiah staring at Terror with his nose in the trough. He pointed at the horse. “How did you make that happen? He hasn’t eaten for days.”

“I asked him.” I closed the gate.

Jeremiah pushed his glasses up his nose. “You asked him?”

I nodded. “Yes, I asked him to eat, and he did.”

Jeremiah shook his head. “Johnson was talking about having the horse put down because he would not eat. You might have saved his life.” He studied me. “And you saved his life after knowing what he did your brother?”

I petted Terror’s mane. “It wasn’t his fault. It was the Reader’s.”

Jeremiah gasped. “How?”

Emily folded her arms. “Yes, we know about the Reader. We also know that you and Henry were working with Elmer Johnson to find out his identity since he was directing runaways into the slave catcher’s hands. And we know that you have lied to us. You said it was a wealthy man who paid Henry to spy on Mr.Johnson, when in fact, Mr.Johnson hired Henry as a spy within the railroad to find the Reader.”

He hung his head. “I felt like I had no choice but to lie. I needed to throw you off to protect you.” He looked at me. “Henry spoke highly of you, Willa. I knew that he would have wanted me to protect his sister any way that I could even if I had to lie.”

Emily lifted her chin. “Well, the lies didn’t work. They rarely do. We know everything but the Reader’s identity. Do you know it?”

Jeremiah swallowed hard. “We don’t know who the Reader is, and it’s eating me up inside. Henry knew, and it got him killed.” He looked over his shoulder. “I can’t sleep at night. I’m afraid that I will have the same fate because the Reader will believe that Henry told me, but I tell you that I don’t know. Henry didn’t tell me.”

“I know. The package you gave me was Henry’s diary.”

Jeremiah nodded. “I thought as much.”

“He didn’t reveal the Reader’s name in the diary. He was too afraid the diary would fall into the wrong hands. However, he did say he knew who it was.”

“I expected that. Henry would be far too smart to write down the Reader’s name, but oh, how I wish that he had. I wish I knew it.”

“He was going to tell you and Mr.Johnson that night he died,” Emily said.

Jeremiah’s shoulders sagged. “Do you know how many times I have wished that I hadn’t left the stables that night? It’s constantly in my thoughts. If there had been two of us here, he might have had a chance, a real chance.”

A door slammed somewhere in the stable.

“You both had better leave,” Jeremiah whispered. “Mr.Johnson is coming, and he will not like to see you here.”

I glanced back at Terror. He continued to eat like he was afraid that he would never be fed again.

Mr.Johnson came around a neighboring stall. “You got the horse to eat. Good work, Jeremiah.”

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