"Nettie?" Delia shrieked. "Are you certain, Jimmy?"

"About as certain as I can be," he told her. "The way these folks have to travel…always by night and sometimes hidden in manure wagons…you just don't make the trip longer without a real good reason."

"And she had a baby?"

He nodded.

"Little boy…calls him Jesse."

"Jimmy, she has to know," Delia insisted.

"I know that. I just don't know exactly how to go about it. Nettie ain't the only person I got hid down in the root cellar. I can't risk their lives."

Jimmy watched as Delia chewed her lip and knitted her brows together in thought and, as inappropriate a thought as it was, Jimmy felt a terrible urge to kiss her right then. He was just about to lean in and do just that when her eyes lit up.

"I have an idea!"

She quickly relayed her plan to him and he was so overcome with the very brilliance of it that he did kiss her then. He kissed her a lot.

Jimmy stood in the clearing next to Dusty and watched for Delia. This was where they were to meet if everything went according to Delia's plan. Soon he saw two figures approaching.

"Did you have any problems?" he asked Delia once she was close enough.

"None at all," she replied with a smile.

"I don't know what you two young 'uns got planned but I don't see why I have to go all the way to this young man's place just to find out a cookie recipe. You could write it down and read it to me, Miss Delia," Jessamine protested.

"But Mammy, it's an old family recipe," Delia countered. "We can't write it down. Then just everyone and anyone would have it and then it wouldn't be so special."

The woman rolled her eyes and Jimmy had more than half a notion that she knew they weren't going to his house to have Celinda show Jessamine how to make his mama's sugar cookies. She may have never had an actual education, but Jessamine was a smart woman and she was beginning to see through their plot even if she didn't know what was behind it exactly.

The trio walked toward Jimmy's house in silence with Jessamine trailing a little behind Jimmy and Delia who walked with their arms around each other. Jessamine bit her tongue to keep from pointing out that a young lady shouldn't walk in such a familiar manner with a young man. It wasn't her place.

At last they arrived at the modest home where Jimmy and Delia led Jessamine onto the porch.

"My sisters are inside," Jimmy explained as he opened the door and held it for the two women to enter. He followed them inside and then called to Celinda.

Celinda came out from the hall a moment later with Lydia trailing behind her dragging her doll by the foot.

"Ain't it her nap time or something?" he asked with a little edge to his voice. He really didn't need this whole thing upended by an eight year old.

"She doesn't take naps anymore, Jimmy," Celinda said returning the bite in his voice with one of her own. "She's eight, not three."

They all just stood there a moment and looked at each other before Jimmy decided he'd better make the introductions.

"Jessamine," he began, "These are my sisters. Celinda is the older one and the other one's Lydia. Cel, Lyd, this is Jessamine. And you both already know Delia."

Both girls smiled and Celinda spoke.

"Welcome to our home, Jessamine," she beamed. "If you'll just excuse me, I was just entertaining another guest who would be most excited to meet you."

Jimmy saw Jessamine stiffen.

"It's okay," he whispered to her. "Ain't no one got anything to fear in this house."

Then he turned to Delia and Jessamine.

"If you ladies would like to have a seat, I'm sure Celinda will be right out."

"We ain't here about no cookies are we?" Jessamine asked.

"No we ain't," he confirmed.

Before Jessamine could ask anymore questions, Celinda came back into the front room leading a black woman with a baby.

Jessamine's brow furrowed in some sort of recognition.

"It can't be…"

"Mama?" Nettie inquired.

"Nettie? Is it you child?"

"It's me, Mama!"

Jimmy looked over at Delia to see her dabbing at her eyes with her lace handkerchief. He stood then.

"I'm going to check on the others and leave you ladies to talk," he said pushing himself off of the chair. "I'm sure you have a lot to catch up on. You wouldn't mind giving me a hand, would you, Delia?"

"Of course not, Jimmy."

Once out on the porch, Jimmy turned to Delia.

"I just thought maybe they needed some privacy," he explained.

The two young people stood on the porch a few moments before Jimmy led Delia to the barn.

"The others are down below," he told her.

"Can I talk to you a minute before we go to check on them?" Delia asked. He nodded.

"I'm just feeling so emotional," she said. "I never knew. I never knew so many things. What you must have thought of me sometimes. I am sure you thought I was the most terrible and unfeeling soul alive."

"I could never think that about you, Delia."

"But you did all the same," she countered. "I know you did. And I don't even blame you. I was terrible. I see that now. You are a fine man, Jimmy Hickok. I'll never doubt that after what I've seen."

Tears were forming in her riveting copper eyes.

"I understand so much now. I see the man you are and even the one you'll be. I have never been prouder to know I'll be by your side through everything."

Jimmy could hold back no longer as he took her face in his hands and kissed her deeply. If anything had felt amiss about being with her before, it was set to rights when she said what she had. There was completeness in knowing she understood why he did what he did and was willing to be partner to all of it.

They were interrupted by the sound of the front door of the house closing sharply. Jimmy took Delia's hand and they went to look out of the barn to see Jessamine standing on the porch looking distraught.

"Oh dear," Delia lamented, "Something has gone wrong. What could have gone wrong? She should be happy to see Nettie."

"I don't know," he replied. "I would've thought she'd be happy too."

Before the two of them could even begin to head toward the front of the house, the door opened again and Nettie came out followed by Celinda carrying little Jesse. Jimmy pulled harder on Delia's arm, knowing that Celinda might not be able to handle the situation on her own. Even if she could handle it, he didn't want to make her. She'd been such a help to him that he didn't want to load that much onto her.

They reached the porch just as Nettie let out her first sob.

"Mama, I can't believe you won't come with me. I've come all this way. Don't you even want to come and be with your grandbaby?"

"Ain't about want, baby girl," Jessamine tried to explain. "I just can't. I can't come with you. I got responsibilities. I got Miss Delia here to look after."

"But Mammy," Delia piped up and then paused to think. She so would have liked to reveal her plans with Jimmy so that Mammy would understand that she wouldn't need anyone much longer but she knew she could not. Still, Delia could not face being the reason this family wouldn't be together. "Why, I'm almost grown now, Mammy. I'm fourteen years old. You've raised me. You've raised me well. I feel I can handle my life because of all you taught me. I could not have asked for a better Mammy. But Nettie here has gone so long without you. She's going to need your guidance now. And Jesse there should know you. Elizabeth's son knows Mama. It just wouldn't be right if you weren't there for them. Please, Mammy, I know you might not see the wrong that's been done but you surely must see how it can be made right."

"She sure changed her tune," Lou remarked pulling Jimmy from his memories.

"She wasn't a bad person, Lou" Jimmy snapped back. "She just never knew anything else. Once she could see things for herself and see there was other ways…"

Cody stepped in to Jimmy's aid.

"Yeah, it's easy to forget that not everyone grows up like some of us did. Took Kid here a little while to see things like we always saw them too, if you recall."

"Did Jessamine finally agree to come with?" asked Noah, not really caring about the talk of Delia's changing attitudes.

Jimmy nodded.

"It wasn't easy to convince her," he said. "But we finally did it. Well, Delia did it. She was something, she really was. I know it seems like we didn't know each other well enough or didn't have enough in common or anything but really…she was a very special lady. I did love her."

"I know you did, Jimmy," Rachel said softly as she squeezed his shoulders.

"It took some doing to figure out how we was going to get her out of the house to join us. But Delia worked up a plan. She was smart too."

Night fell on that Monday with the full moon and Jimmy went down to the cellar.

"It's time to get a move on now," he told the people down there. "Celinda's packed you up some food for the trip. And you'll be travelling in a wagon for a ways. It ain't the nicest and you'll have to hide but it ain't a manure wagon neither. We got one stop just outside of town. It won't be but a minute but there's one more joining your group. I'll be riding with you for a few miles and then I'll turn you over to the men that are with me and they'll see you safe to your next stop."

Jimmy paused and took a breath. He had heard the next part of this speech before and knew he'd never get the words just right but he could get the meaning across all the same.

"I know I don't have to tell you that it ain't right how you all got your starts in life," he began. "But your whole lives ain't going to be that anymore. It ain't always dignified how we ask you to travel. I wish I could put each and every one of you on a stagecoach but we know that can't happen. I know you've traveled with animals and even rode in their filth. But I just want to remind you that dirt can be washed off. Once you are free, that freedom cannot be washed off or taken from you ever again. I hate that you have to exist how we wouldn't even ask livestock to live just so you can someday know the dignity all men should. But you will live the rest of your days like men and women as all people should. Of course, I say all that and it don't mean that I won't try to make this as dignified as I can for you. I hate the way you've been treated and I hope I've done something to show that to you."

Before he could turn to leave, he felt a hand on his arm.

"Mama's coming, right?"

Jimmy looked into the pleading eyes of Nettie.

"She's coming," he confirmed. "Delia'll make sure of it. I don't think she could rightly stand it if anything kept the two of you apart any longer."

"I don't think I can thank you enough," Nettie said as her voice cracked and her eyes shone at him. "I wasn't even sure how to find her. I thought she was here but then when I got here, I was afraid to ask."

"I'm just glad I could get the two of you together again," he told her.

Jimmy and the two men who came with him, Nate Peterson and Henry Cousins, got the whole procession moving. Once they'd been moving a little while, Nate sidled his horse up to Dusty.

"You sure we should be stopping where we are, Jimmy?" he asked. "Your pa don't normally stray too far from the plan."

Jimmy felt nearly sick for a moment but then shoved his shoulders back and began to speak.

"For one thing, Nate," he said, emphasizing his use of the man's first name. "My pa ain't here. He left me in charge, not you. And for another, ain't no way my pa would turn anyone away trying to head to freedom. I ain't going to be the first Hickok to refuse to help one either."

Jimmy wasn't sure if he managed the assertive tone he was trying for but Nate backed off and didn't mention it again. It made Jimmy smile to himself that he could command such respect from a man more than twice his age. He had been concerned about taking a man's role in supporting Delia but now he was beginning to see, his age wouldn't limit him as long as he acted the right way.

It wasn't much longer before they came to the copse of trees where Delia and Jessamine were to meet him. He was surprised to see Sundance lightly tethered to a tree as well. He had expected Delia to come on foot.

Jimmy quickly dismounted Dusty and closed the distance to where the women stood. Henry came with him.

"Henry, this is Jessamine," Jimmy explained. "The girl with the baby is her daughter. We're reuniting a family here."

"I'll see to her," Henry replied.

In the full moon, Jimmy could see Delia's eyes welling with tears as she watched Jessamine walk away toward freedom and the child she should have been raising. He placed an arm around her.

"This is what's right," he reminded her.

"I know," she said. "I'm not sad…not really. It's a happy thing."

"You look sad," he whispered.

"Okay…maybe I'm a little sad for how much I'll miss her," Delia conceded. "She's been everything to me. And I feel a little guilty that I got what Nettie deserved and should have had."

"You couldn't've known," Jimmy tried to comfort her. "And you're doing what you can to make it right now."

He leaned down and kissed her softly before straightening up.

"It's going to be a late night for me but I'll be around in the morning," he said trying to sound much surer of himself than he felt. "I would imagine that we won't see each other right away for the ruckus that'll come from her being gone. But it'll make it even easier for us to go in a couple of days."

He brushed his fingers over her face and smiled fondly at her before squaring his shoulders.

"It's time you best be going," he told her. "We'll be together again soon and then I won't ever have to leave you."

"I can't leave you, Jimmy," she declared. "I can't. Daddy and his friends are out looking for runaways on the move tonight."

"They're what?"

"You think your father is the only one committed to a cause?" she asked him simply. "If people like my father weren't just as diligent, your father wouldn't have a cause to fight for. Things would have been changed a long time ago. It's his night to go on patrol. They're coming this way. It's not like I could tell him to go another way. What possible explanation would I have for knowing which way slaves were moving? And if I did misdirect him and he found Mammy gone in the morning…well, everything really would be lost then."

Jimmy closed his eyes to think a moment and then opened them again. When he spoke, his words were very deliberate.

"You warned me," he stated. "I'm glad you did. Nate and Henry and I can handle this. There's only ever two or three guys on those patrols and we're pretty decent shots if it comes to that. We'll get them through. You go on home now. I'll send Celinda over in the morning maybe with a message to let you know I'm alright."

"I am not leaving you, Jimmy," Delia was adamant. "I love you and I will stay by your side through anything and everything."

"It's too dangerous," he argued.

"I don't care. I'll not leave the man I love."

"Delia, if we do meet up with your daddy, you'll have to tell him about us. It'll be over. We'll be lucky if he doesn't pack you off to school in the night…or even pick up and move the whole family overnight."

"Jimmy, these people don't have time for you to stand here and argue with me. I am coming with you. You know I can ride so I won't slow you at all. You can't stop me. You might as well know now that you're about to marry a stubborn woman."

Jimmy wanted to argue further but she was right. Time was wasting and time was a commodity they sorely lacked, especially in light of her news. He swung himself onto Dusty's back and rode over to the other two men.

"Keep an extra sharp lookout," he told them. "Got it on good authority that the patrols are headed in this direction tonight. I will not lose this package. Do you fellas understand that?"

They both nodded at him and the party was once again off. Henry drove the wagon containing the runaways while Nate and Jimmy kept a sharp eye out for trouble. Jimmy truly hoped that Nate was an observant man as he knew his own attention was distracted by Delia's presence. He worried for her. This was a dangerous enough a job without her along. But she had made it clear she would not be dissuaded. And she had as much at stake in seeing Jessamine free as anyone else, maybe more than most. Just because she was a girl and a girl he loved didn't mean she shouldn't be able to stand up for things she believed in as he did. Or, at least, that's what Celinda would say and he knew she was right. He didn't have to like it but he'd asked her to accept him and his beliefs. She understood that meant putting himself in danger. That couldn't have been easy for her. He owed it to her to return the gesture.

It didn't stop him from worrying though. If anything happened to her, he wasn't sure he could go on...with this mission or anything else for that matter.

It came as no surprise to him that it was Nate who sensed something amiss up ahead. They were just about to come out into a clearing that was nearly bright as day with the moonlight. They would be exposed while they crossed the meadow. Jimmy was trying to listen for everything but couldn't hear a single thing over the pounding of his heart. He halted Dusty and signaled for Henry to bring the wagon to a stop as well when Nate lifted his hand.

"We're being watched," Nate whispered. "They're waiting on us."

Jimmy swallowed hard and hoped to all that was good and holy that his voice didn't pick now to crack. It did that less and less these days but still could betray him from time to time and he could not afford such a thing right now.

"Delia," he said turning to her as she sat rigidly on Sundance's back. "Hang back with Henry here. Stay close to him. He's got the rifles and a pistol."

She looked to protest but then just nodded.

"Henry, I need you to stay still for a couple minutes. We need to see where they all are. There usually ain't but two or three of them. That means that if we can distract 'em, you could hightail it to the old Mill road. I know it ain't the fastest path but it might be the only safe one."

He then turned to Nate.

"It's up to you and me to draw them out. We can take 'em. I don't doubt that. But only if we can see them which means we have to get them out of the shadows and into that moonlight."

Jimmy looked around him. The path they were on was a lesser known one and hard for the wagon to travel. It provided some dense cover and, if the slavers were waiting for them to come into the open light of the meadow, then the wagon was still out of their sight. He hoped it was at any rate.

As it turned out, it didn't matter if the wagon could be seen from the meadow as a man jumped out from behind a bush not five feet from where Jimmy sat upon Dusty's back. His gun was drawn.

"That's about far enough, son. Now why don't you show my friends and me what you have in that wagon."

Nate opened his mouth and the simple act of Nate trying to usurp the power his father had given him got Jimmy's own mouth working again.

"I ain't your son," Jimmy spat. "I'd be shamed to be any part of you. What's in that wagon is my concern, not yours. Still a free country where a man can ride his horse or pull a wagon anytime and anywhere he's a mind to."

"Maybe so," the man sneered. "But there's things that a man can't haul in that wagon without involving the law and I 'spect even someone green as you knows that."

"Don't see no badge on your chest," Jimmy countered. That's when the other two men emerged from the brush. One of them he knew to be Mr. Bell. Jimmy tried not to stare. In another time or place, he would have sat nervously in this man's parlor asking for permission to properly court his daughter. In this one, he had to plan to run off with her like thieves in the night.

"I've had enough of this," Mr. Bell growled. "Show us what's in the wagon and maybe we don't shoot you."

He waved his pistol for emphasis. Jimmy had quickly drawn when the first man had stepped out of the darkness and now he trained the barrel right on Mr. Bell's chest.

"Got another idea," Jimmy said flatly. "You let us pass and maybe we don't shoot you."

Mr. Bell laughed and trained his gun on Jimmy. Jimmy heard the whimper behind him and silently begged Delia to stay put. So far she had not been seen and he really couldn't risk what might happen if her father spotted her.

"Out of my way, boy!" the man bellowed. Jimmy held his ground.

"You'll have to go through me."

The sound of Mr. Bell's pistol being cocked was nearly deafening in the stillness of the night. The men with him seemed almost surprised by his actions.

"Daddy no!" Delia screamed

"Delia!" Mr. Bell exclaimed. "What on earth are you doing here?"

"What do you think? It's not right, Daddy. Owning people like they're livestock is just not right."

"The boy here tell you that?"

"He's not a boy," she asserted. "He's a man! And a good man too. And he didn't need to tell me anything. I have eyes, Daddy. I can see right and wrong myself. You're not in the right here, Daddy. You're just not. I love you but you're wrong here."

"This is more complicated than you think, Delia," he told her sharply. "There are issues here that you can't possibly understand."

"None of those issues can make it right, Daddy!"

"You!" Mr. Bell snarled turning his full focus to Jimmy. "What did you do to her?"

Jimmy might've come up with something to say but Delia was still screaming at her father.

"He didn't do a thing but love me, Daddy. He never told me what to think. He just showed me the world and let me think for myself. That's something you never did, Daddy!"

"A girl thinking for herself," Mr. Bell laughed. "I see it was a mistake to move you here. You got all kinds of crazy ideas from this mixed up place."

"There's nothing crazy about respecting people."

"Those aren't people! They are property! They are someone's property!"

"Mammy was more parent to me than you or Mama ever thought to be," Delia hollered at him. "The way I see it, she's more deserving of my love and respect than you!"

Through all of this, Jimmy's gun remained perfectly trained at Mr. Bell's heart while Mr. Bell's pistol was similarly trained on Jimmy.

Smartly, it seemed, Henry had decided to try to take advantage of the distraction to move the wagon around toward the old Mill road. It was a good idea until one of Mr. Bell's associates noticed.

"They're getting away!"

Shots rang out in the direction of the wagon from the two men who'd accompanied Mr. Bell and fire was returned by Nate and Henry.

Mr. Bell swung his pistol toward the fleeing wagon and Jimmy quickly jockeyed Dusty into Mr. Bell's path. Delia saw all of this and screamed.

"Daddy! Don't shoot him! I love him!"

Jimmy'd held his aim on Delia's father and could see the moment when his daughter's words hit home for the man. Jimmy knew Mr. Bell was about to pull the trigger. From the corner of his eye he could see Delia rushing toward them. He yelled for her to stay back although he knew it was too late for her to reverse her course. He had no choice but to pull the trigger of his own gun.

The path was a flurry of activity. Henry was pulling the wagon as fast as he could. The chase had become more a priority than firing weapons. Bell's men were in hot pursuit of Henry and Nate. Delia was frantically moving between her father and the man who held her heart.

For a moment, time seemed to pause. There was no sound but that of two pistols being fired ringing through the clear, bright, full-mooned night.

I had initially thought this chapter would be the end but as I mapped it out, I soon realized there was just too much to fit into it. Sorry for the cliffhanger but I think many of you probably have some idea what might happen next and probably have had for some time. There really is only one more chapter of this story.

I know updates have sometimes been sporadic and I don't think this has the interest level of some other stories that I have written but I want to thank all in advance for having followed this to its end.

This was not the story I thought I would be writing when I started but it was the one Jimmy told me. Poor boy. I've been terrible to him lately. I think maybe once this one is all done that he might need a nice, fluffy EH story to set him to rights. He's such a good sport to keep going with me.

So stay tuned for the riveting conclusion of A Young Man's Fancy or How Jimmy Named His Horse...Same Bat time, Same Bat channel! In the meantime, you can busy yourself with letting me know what you think...did you like it? Are you clutching your pearls? Have you known for ages what would happen and are bored to tears waiting for me to get it over already?-J