Her strategy was therefore built around information rather than violence. Anonymous messages began creating suspicion. Documents appeared at carefully chosen moments. Statements were passed from one person to another until the plantation’s private conflicts became impossible to contain. What had once been a quiet rivalry between powerful men began developing into something more dangerous. William suspected Crawford. Crawford suspected William. Neither could determine exactly who was moving information behind the scenes.
By September 12, the tension had reached a breaking point. Armed men were present at Magnolia Grove, and the two rivals confronted one another with the kind of hostility that could easily have ended in bloodshed. But then Ruth stepped forward. She was still only seventeen, and by the standards of the society around her, she was supposed to be powerless. Yet she knew something the two men had forgotten: both of them were vulnerable.
The Two Men Who Owned Her Suddenly Needed Her
