Chapter 4- Oliver's Part

Late in the afternoon the Wednesday, five days after the auction, Oliver was pacing the parlor. Apparently he had only done this before once… or at least the Oliver everyone else knew had done this once, so Henry explained things, and showed Oliver the trap door and how to work the false bottom on the carriage he was supposed to take the runaways about five miles up the coast the next day.

"Mr. Sutton?" Mary asked from the hallway. Oliver stood to see her framed by the doorway, though she wasn't in her usual black and white serving outfit. Mary wore a gown that spread out far, much like the ones the ladies at the auction had worn, only with more frills. It was sea foam in color with white ribbons and lace. She was wearing her hair in full ringlets and pinned up nicely.

"Y-yes?" Oliver said, shocked by her simple beauty.

"I know you aren't on talking terms with Mr. Elton, but I wanted to know if I could still go to his dinner party?" Mary stumbled through the wish, her eyes filled with hope. "Mammy said I should just go, but I wanted to be sure that wouldn't make you angry with me."

"I wouldn't be angry with you," Oliver said. "I… yes, of course you can go."

Mary became very excited. "Thank you Mr. Sutton!" she said, grabbing Oliver's hands in hers and standing on her tiptoes to give Oliver a kiss on the cheek.

Oliver let a smile play on his face, "just call me Oliver," he said.

"Thank you Oliver!" she said, then turned and left the parlor, leaving Oliver to pace over his current situation again.

People would be coming here soon, and they would need to be hidden properly. The baby would need to be fed and cared for in anyway to make it sleep. There was a lot at risk here, and Oliver felt like he only knew the half of it. Mammy stayed in her own quarters at night, which is something Oliver was starting to find as routine, and it was planned for Mary to go to the party, since she liked to read in the study as long as Oliver would let her. It would seem too suspicious for him to say 'no' when he always let her any other time.

Sometimes on weekends Mary would go home and visit her family, but it took half a day's journey just to get there, so she had her own room in the house as well. Too bad we can't travel by… Oliver tried to remember what he had traveled on, but his memory seemed to be deceiving him because for some reason he was thinking about riding on a broomstick. That's ridiculous, he thought, shaking his head at his wild imagination. He was able to laugh at himself before turning his mind to the task at hand.

He went by the window and looked for the flash of light; the signal that he would need to be prepared for the runaways. He had looked out for it for the last half an hour, even though they weren't supposed to be coming until after dark, and the sun had just begun to set. Oliver still looked out the window and saw a fancy black carriage pull up to the front. He didn't bother seeing what it was doing there, figuring that it was the Keatons, Oliver Sutton's neighbors, to pick up Mary. They had a daughter, Susan, who was the same age, and a son, Trevor, who happened to be four years her senior.

Oliver didn't know what was running through him, but he suddenly hatred toward their son, even though they had never met before. He shook the feeling away and was once again brought back to what he would have to do within the next twenty-four hours. He didn't know exactly what to expect and he feared getting caught. The people he was helping would get hurt, and probably end up back where they were, but he would more than likely be killed or put into prison. He wondered what would happen then. Would he be stuck here forever? Would he cease to exist? What about his parents? Oliver tried to imagine his mum and what she would think if he didn't come back.

What would the… what kind of team was it? He wondered, only remembering that he was Captain of it and how much it meant to him, though he couldn't remember why it had meant so much. Things had been steadily slipping from his mind, but he figured those bit weren't so important, as long as he remembered that he was Oliver Wood and that he had to get back to school with at least the information of what the Underground Railroad was. He had to figure it out so that he could get back.

Oliver sat on the settee and picked up the closest newspaper and started to read what was going on in this world. There was some big election going on, and dispute between the northern and the southern states. War was being discussed, and he found out that eight years prior there had been a law passed that runaway slaves that were found in the states that considered themselves free had to be returned to their Plantation owners.

That day's paper didn't have anything of importance. A little article on homesteading in the west and different advertisements for headache powders or a fabric sale; nothing that seemed to effect him in any way. The thing he hadn't figured out is how much everything effected everyone at this time. Even the smallest outbreak between neighbors meant something. The fact that Maryland, though affiliated with the free states, had leanings toward slavery, and what that would mean later for the families all around him.

It was an hour more of constant looking for the sign before it came. Oliver almost leaped, like his heart, when he saw the signal. A light flashed from the nearby farm house where the runaway slaves were now leaving to come here, into his home. Oliver wondered if he had what it took to do this and if he could handle the nerves running through him. This is the only one, he told himself, realizing how hard this would be if he had to do it over and over. As Oliver waited for them to get there he planned what he would tell Henry and how to break the news that he wouldn't be a part of whatever chaos this was.

There was a light knock on the front door. "I'se a get it," Mammy shouted loudly from her room.

"No, you stay I'll get it," Oliver shouted out, hoping he didn't sound to anxious about it.

"All right," Mammy said, going back to whatever she usually kept herself with.

Oliver opened the door cautiously, as if some huge monster was behind it. There were two people, both having their heads covered with hoods, one that was a few inches taller than him. The taller personage had his arm around the shoulder of a woman almost a head taller than Oliver. She had a small child in her hands. Oliver was relieved to find that the baby was already asleep. "This way," Oliver said, leading them quickly to his study. He opened the door to the hideaway behind the bookcases. "Right back here," he said allowing them to go in there. They both took off their hoods and turned around.

"Than' you," the man said, though Oliver's eyes were glued on the woman.

An image of a girl his age handing him a cup of tea ran through his mind, and the same girl congratulating him on a good game. She looked just like the woman in front of him, but then he realized the woman in front of him was around his age.

"Angelina?" Oliver got out through his shock.

"Yes sir," Angelina said, wondering how this stranger knew her name.

"T-that's your child?" he asked. The man looked old enough to be a father, but something in him couldn't imagine this scenario for Angelina at this age.

"Yes sir," Angelina answered.

There was something different here. Her voice, Oliver thought, remembering the usually cadence and accent to the way Angelina talked.

"You… Have you ever tried to leave before?" Oliver asked, directing his questions still at Angelina.

"Yes sir," she said again. "Befo' Hope was born."

"What happened?" Oliver asked.

Angelina's eyes started welling up with tears as she shifted the baby into her left arm and lifted her shabby shirt slightly to show an area of skin on her lower back. She had revealed two burn scars, both with different symbols encircled indicating two different owners. The one to the right still looked fairly fresh, as if it had been received within the prior year. Angelina held up the shirt for a moment, but let it down once Oliver had had a good look at the horrific marks.

Oliver snapped back to what Henry had told him to do. "If you need anything, pull on this string and I will hear the bell from my room. There are some blankets in the cupboard right behind you and the water in the pitcher is fresh. I'm sure you know about the bed pan, and, as I said before, anything else you find yourselves in need of, just ring."

"Thank you sir," the man said, putting his arms around Angelina again.

She started to turn into the man, and Oliver was about to leave, but quickly put a hand on Angelina's arm, "I'm sorry," he said, then left to his room as fast as was possible.

When he got into the room he sat on the edge of the bed, put his elbows on his knees, and put his hands together. "God help them please," he repeated over and over. "Please, they need it more than anyone, help Angelina and her family make it to safety…" He prayed like this for nearly half an hour, sobbing into his hands at the same time. "I'll do my part," he promised in his prayer. "I'll do my part…"

A/N: I'm almost in tears. You have to understand that even though I'm some white girl, I really have a lot of sympathy for situations like this, and tend to get really emotional over the subjects. I've really tried to put myself into Oliver's shoes in this one. I think it was a real sacrifice for the people who helped, and that's the perspective I took. Hopefully you now all know why this had to be between Ginny and Oliver… if I had used Ginny I probably would have had this same scene with Angelina, and I had been thinking it would have been interesting if Dean had been a server in her house, but I ended up using Oliver.

I had also considered there being some relationship between Angelina and Oliver, but decided against it since there is enough controversy in the situation without adding a multiracial relationship taking place in that time. I do think that pairing is a good one, so don't think it's a personal preference. There were going to be some things going on along those lines anyway. Sorry, I'm just thinking out loud…. Hope you liked it….

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