``When are you to leave?'' Kate asked, watching them both now anxiously. Their eyes betrayed too much of their emotions, she thought sadly.

``Tomorrow. Would you permit Juanita to walk about the grounds with me for a short spell, Mrs. Lattimer?''

``Stay here in the parlor where it's cool,'' she said, trying to be calm. It would be better for Joel and Uncle Randolph and Mrs. Tussle not to see them.

Kate went back and reminded the kitchen women of the supper preparations. Then she took iced lemonade to Marsh's young aide where he sat in the cool of the big trees around the flower garden. When Marsh called to his aide and the pair rode off down the River Road where the gentians burned blue, Juanita was shaken and trying not to cry. She sought Kate out upstairs, her lips trembling.

``He wants me to go with him tomorrow,'' she told Kate.

``What do you want to do?'' Kate asked, uneasy at the gravity of the girl's dilemma.

``I could go with him. He knows me as your niece, which, of course, I am. But I am a slave! You own me. It's your decision,'' said Juanita, holding her face very still, trying to contain the bitterness of her voice as she enunciated her words too distinctly.

``No, the decision is yours. I have held your papers of manumission since I married Mr. Lattimer.''