Mockingbird's Call by Diane T. Ashley

I won’t need you any more tonight.”
    A slight smile turned up the corners of Tabitha’s mouth. “You’d look a sight for sure. You don’t know anything about fixing hair.”
    The clock on her mantel ticked away the minutes as Tabitha expertly twisted her hair up off Amelia’s neck and fastened it into place with jeweled pins. A few tendrils escaped on either side of her face and at the nape of her neck, giving her a soft but sophisticated look.
    â€œYou look real nice. You’re going to be the prettiest girl at the party.” Tabitha’s words did not match her expression, which was still drawn in a frown.
    â€œThank you, Tabitha.” A few days ago Amelia had been so excited about her new gown. It was one of her fanciest, a daring style that bared her arms and nipped in at her waist before expanding outward to form a wide bell that swayed as she moved. Now she was more concerned with the dire straits of the people hidden out back.
    She stood and went to her bureau, thankful she had thought to bring her medicine bag, and pulled out strips of bandaging and forceps. “I don’t know exactly what you may need, but this should help.”
    â€œThank you.” Tabitha tucked the forceps into the belt at her waist and dropped the bandaging into her pocket. Then she walked to Amelia’s bed and picked up the Spanish lace shawl she’d laid across it earlier. “You need this.” She arranged the soft material over Amelia’s arms to fall just below her shoulders, then pushed her toward the door. “Go enjoy your party and don’t worry none.”
    â€œPlease be careful.” Concern made Amelia’s throat tighten. She would rather have helped Tabitha than go downstairs and play the part of an empty-headed debutante. “Promise you’ll come get me if you need help.”
    Tabitha nodded and shooed her out of the room.
    Lord, please protect my friend and those poor souls she’s trying to help. Her prayer brought Amelia a feeling of peace as she descended her aunt and uncle’s narrow staircase, but she wished she could do more.
    She took a deep breath and concentrated on the designs on Aunt Laura’s flocked velvet wallpaper. It was a new pattern, forest green in color with small birds perched on wide oak leaves. Aunt Laura had glowed with pleasure when Amelia had complimented it.
    Amelia’s skirts brushed both the polished balustrade and the wallpaper as she descended. Her heart was pumping hard by the time she reached the first-floor landing, and she pinned a wide smile on her face. She pushed her worries about the slaves to the back of her mind. It was very thoughtful of her relatives to have planned this party for her, and she was determined to enjoy it. . .or at least appear to.
    Her aunt and uncle were a sweet couple, both somewhat rounded from their comfortable lifestyle. Uncle Francis, a canny investor with an eye to the future, had made a fortune by purchasing stock in such inventions as a machine for drilling through rocks, boilers for use with the new steam engines, and Elisha Otis’s hoisting apparatus that moved cargo vertically. Uncle Francis had explained to her the uses for such a contraption, but Amelia could not understand his enthusiasm. Whatever its purpose, the device had earned her uncle an ample income, enough so he could spend most of his days enjoying the company of his peers at a gentlemen’s club downtown.
    Aunt Laura was a collector. She loved filling her home with fancy furniture and stylish knickknacks. Nearly every surface held some interesting object that her aunt loved to talk about. She was like one of the birds on her wallpaper, collecting leaves, twigs, and bits of fluff for her nest. Together, her aunt and uncle made a charming couple, quite different from what she expected when Papa banished her. She had thought she’d find herself in a prison-like atmosphere, surrounded by sour