A Secret Refuge [02] Sisters of the Confederacy (18 page)

Blytheville Courtroom

Jesselynn rose and spoke. “Your Honor, may I—”

“No. You’ll get your turn.”

Jesselynn sank back down on the bench.

Someone stood up behind them. “Yer Honor, I think I saw what Stillwater saw.”

“Were you with Stillwater?”

“Not exactly. I was over by the livery, just bringin’ my horse out to head on home.”

“And what exactly did you see?”

“Ya know how ya see somethin’ out of the corner of yer eye, but when you turn quick, you don’t see nothin’? Well, that’s kinda the way it was, but right on the front stoop of the store.”

“Did you see the killer go in?”

“Not exactly, but I heard the shots.”

“Thank you. You may sit down.”

The judge stared around the room again. “Anyone else?”

Jesselynn started to raise her hand but found it clamped by Aunt Agatha. She glared at her aunt, but the hand held. With a jerk she freed herself and stood.

“Your Honor, Daniel Highwood was with us and has been with us since we left home in Kentucky. We were still in Springfield.” Her words tripped faster as she neared the end.

“And you are . . . ?”

“Jesse Highwood, last remaining son of Captain Thaddeus Highwood of Midway, Kentucky. Ah . . . he instructed me to . . . ah . . . join my aunt in Springfield after . . .” She paused. How to tell the tale and yet not all of the tale?

“Your Honor, may I clarify things for you?”

Jesselynn looked down to see her aunt with one genteel hand raised in the air, her voice rich and smooth like warm molasses.

The judge nodded. But when Agatha started to rise, he raised one hand as if in blessing. “No, you may remain seated.”

Jesselynn sat down, closing her gaping mouth with a snap.

“I am a widow, Your Honor. My husband, Hiram Highwood, was one of the early casualties of this terrible war. He believed he was needed by our President Jefferson Davis, and nothing anyone said would keep him from servin’ with the Confederate army.” She lifted a bit of cambric to her nose and to the edge of her eye, cleared her throat and, at the judge’s nod, continued. “Some bushwhackers burned our farm to the ground, and since I had no funds with which to pay our taxes, even our land is gone. But with my dear nephew and our few remainin’ slaves, I have determined to start over again in Oregon country. But, Your Honor, I am getting on in years, and I desperately need every hand I can get. I lived in Springfield all my life, and if you want I can send for letters from our pastor, from the doctor, and from anyone else you need, sayin’ that I was still in Springfield at that time and all my household with me.”

Jesselynn schooled her face to not reveal her surprise. Her household? They’d argued fiercely for her to accompany them. And they’d been living in a cave.

“I would be livin’ there still were it not for the passing on of my dear husband.” The handkerchief fluttered again. “Surely you would want to come to the aid of an agin’ widow, destitute due to the travesty of war.”

“And you would swear on the good book that Daniel Highwood was with you all the time?”

“I would, Your Honor.” She leaned forward. “I will do so right now if you so decree.”

“That will not be necessary.” The judge folded his hands on the desk top. He looked to the sheriff and then around the room.

Jesselynn held her breath.

The judge picked up a wooden gavel beside him and slammed it down.

She jumped, her air whooshing out.

“Free him. I find this young man innocent due to lack of sufficient evidence to convict him.”

A groan rumbled through the room, and snarling could be heard, nearly covering an expletive or two from the direction of the witness.

“Silence!” The gavel thundered again. The judge was forced to slam wood on wood again, but the room quieted down. “Now, Sheriff, remove those shackles so these folks can be on their way.” Glancing around the room, his face a study in stern lines and frown slashes, he continued. “And if I hear of disruption of any kind with the intent to harm anyone in my jurisdiction, I will personally nail that scumbag’s hide to the nearest barn. Is that understood?”

Jesselynn felt extremely grateful he wasn’t directing his diatribe at her. As soon as the sheriff had unshackled Daniel, she, her aunt, and the young man strode up the aisle, looking neither to the right nor to the left. Meshach met them at the door and closed it behind them.

“Where were you?” She kept up the pace even as she asked the big man. “We saved you a place.”

“Didn’t you see? No darkies down in the front, only in a bitty little section at de back. I stayed dere. Much better.” He pushed open the door and ushered them out to where the sun caught them full in the face.

Daniel stopped and lifted his face to the warmth. “Thank de Lawd, I can feel the sun again.”

“We need to thank Him for all He has done.” Aunt Agatha stopped at the wagon and waited to be assisted to her chair. “I sure do wish we could leave that camp right now and, as the Lord’s Word says, ‘shake off the dust’ of this place from our feet. You think it might be safe to travel during the day?”

Jesselynn took the reins and backed up the horses, since they were hemmed in on both sides with other teams and wagons, then headed them up the street and toward the camp. “All we need is for someone to see the horses, and then we’ll have more trouble than a fox in a henhouse. Stealing them and selling them to the army would net someone better’n a year’s wages. I sure do pray the sheriff keeps his deputy under lock and key for the next several days. He didn’t look like he took too kindly to the judge’s final speech.”

“I heard the sheriff say somethin’ ‘bout one more misstep and he was fired.” Daniel huddled right behind the wagon seat, casting fear-filled glances back down the road. “I surely do hope the sheriff keep him busy in town.”

“What if you and Daniel take the horses and head out across country? Surely you could stay away from farms and such, and we’ll go the roads with Benjamin as lookout. We could meet up the Kansas Road aways. Anything to get out of here safely.”

Meshach sat, his elbows propped on his knees, and stared at the rumps of the team. He shook his head slowly, teeth worrying his lower lip. “I don’t know. If we get stopped without you, we in bad trouble.”

“I know. But if I take the horses, then you’d have Aunt Agatha to ward off any unwanted attention.” She turned to her aunt. “You were magnificent in that courtroom.”

Agatha looked up from her knitting. “Thank you. If you ask me, I think we need to travel on right now, and if you go with the horses, the rest of us will manage. If need be, I know how to use a firearm too. Hiram—may his soul rest in peace—taught me before he left for the war.”

Jesselynn shook her head. “Aunt Agatha, you’re just full of surprises today.” She could feel the smile stretching cheeks that hadn’t found a lot to smile about lately. “What do you think?” She glanced at Meshach.

“Don’ seem like no best way. Just hope God’s sendin’ angels around us, ‘cause we might be needin’ dem.”

“Hope doesn’t do anything, young man. Prayer does it all.” The word came from over their shoulders.

“Yes’m.”

“Yes, ma’am.” They spoke at the same time.

Jesselynn felt like whistling. Daniel was free, and so were they.

When they reached camp, Ophelia had a meal waiting and all the boxes packed. As soon as they ate, they loaded the wagon and hitched the team of Chess and Roman back in the traces. Standing in a circle, they bowed their heads while Meshach prayed.

“God in heaven, we thank you for saving Daniel from the hangman today. Thank you for watching over us so wise and good, for keepin’ us safe. Thank you dat you are puttin’ legions of angels all around us to protect us from de enemy. De Bible say you are our sure defense, and we thank you for dat. Keep us safe, Lawd, so we can praise yo’ holy name. Amen.”

They echoed his amen and helped Aunt Agatha up into the wagon, tossing the boys in after her. Daniel, with one of the guns at his side, took up a seat on a box in the rear with Meshach and Ophelia on the wagon seat. Every time they loaded, the wagon seemed heavier laden. Jesselynn had already decided they would need two wagons and four teams of oxen to transport all the needed supplies for the long march to Oregon. Nightly she stewed over where the money would come from. The stash from the sale of the horses dwindled every time she went to town.

Benjamin held the lead ropes to the mares and filly while Jesselynn mounted Ahab.
Lord, I sure do hope this is what you want us to do
. Jesselynn took the lead lines and watched the two foals galloping and kicking up their heels. They darted around their dams and then charged off again. “You two better save your energy. You’re goin’ to need it later.”

“Dey feisty all right.” Benjamin took one of the lead lines. “We might shoulda broke dem to halter. Keep ’em safer dat way.”

“Tonight when we stop.” She rode up beside the wagon. “Once we reach the road, we’ll find a good place to camp and wait for you. Watch for a white rag on a branch.”

Meshach nodded. “Go with God.” He flapped the reins, and with a groan and screech the wagon eased forward. Chess and Roman pricked their ears forward and plodded on out of the camp.

“You too.” Jesselynn and Benjamin waited for only a moment before heading north to go cross-country. She’d asked one of the shopkeepers where the other roads ran and had drawn Meshach a rough map for the best way to stay away from Blytheville. While it would take longer that way, she knew it was for the best. They should meet up by nightfall, but just in case, she and Benjamin had saddlebags of supplies and their quilts rolled in deer hides tied behind their saddles.

After a mile or two, Jesselynn took all the lead lines and let Benjamin travel a bit ahead to keep them out of some farmer’s territory. When they crested one of the many rolling hills, he’d steer them away from the secret valleys where cattle grazed and wheat and hayfields glinted green in the dancing breeze. A dog or two barked at their passing as they bypassed swamps in the lowlands and ponds where blackbirds sang and bullfrogs bellowed their spring love songs.

“Fish taste mighty fine for suppah.” Benjamin reined in his stallion and let him drink at a shoreline. Jesselynn let hers have a few mouthfuls before pulling Ahab and the mares back. One of the foals stuck a foot in the water and leaped backward as if he’d been bitten.

“That they would.” Jesselynn studied the terrain ahead of them. The land glowed golden in the setting sun. They had yet to come across the Kansas Road, and since they’d been traveling more or less west by northwest, she was beginning to feel niggles of apprehension. Had the shopkeeper been less than honest with them? Or had they not made the time she thought they would?

Most of all, had they made a terrible mistake in splitting the family and going two separate ways?

She dismounted and, removing Ahab’s bridle, let him graze along with the mares. Both foals now had turned to nursing, their brush tails flicking from side to side. “If you think you could catch some fish in a half hour or so, give it a try. Surely we’ll find the road pretty soon, and we’ll get a fire started right away.”

Benjamin took his fishing line and hook from his saddlebag and made his way farther up the bank. She could hear him cutting a willow branch for a pole and knew he would look under rocks in the shallows for periwinkles for bait. She trapped a grasshopper with one hand but let it go. True, grasshoppers made good bait, but she dared not leave the grazing horses to go look for Benjamin. Both foals flopped over on their sides, ribs rising and falling with their sleeping breaths. Legs straight out, they looked worn-out, like toys a child dropped when tired of them.

Jesselynn propped her back against the trunk of a willow tree, knowing that if she lay down, she’d be out just like the foals. The contented crunching of the grazing horses worked like a lullaby, the blackbirds’ trills drifting on the cooling air.

She jerked awake and forced herself to her feet. What was she doing nodding off when who knew how many miles they had left to go before reaching the Kansas Road? She whistled and waited for Benjamin to answer. When no answer came, she sighed. He’d probably found a good fishing hole beyond earshot. The thought of fried fish for supper made her forgive his carelessness.

She whistled again and listened.

Nothing but a blackbird answered. A swallow swooped by, its open beak catching bugs over the water. Ahab lifted his head, ears pricked to the north. She clamped a hand over his nose just before he whinnied.

“Marse Jesse?”

Jesselynn let her breath out on a sigh, not aware she’d been holding it until her shoulders sagged. “Over here.” She stroked Ahab’s soft nose and let him return to his grazing. She should have known that he recognized the person arriving even if she couldn’t. He hadn’t acted as if it were a stranger, come to think of it.
Silly goose,
she scolded herself,
to get in a bother like that
.

Benjamin swung into view, grinning wide as the Missouri sky with a string of perch over his shoulder. “Told you we have fish for supper.”

“We should have left a while ago.” She tightened the saddle girth and buckled the chin strap to Ahab’s bridle.

“Sorry. Dem fishes bitin’ so good, I din’ want to stop.” Benjamin handed her the lead lines and mounted Domino, tying the string of fish to his saddle. “Least de horses had a good rest.”

The evening star hung in the western sky when they trotted out on the Kansas Road looking both north and south. No sight of Meshach and the wagon—not that she’d really expected any. Still, she’d been hoping. Could the wagon have gone by this point already? Not likely. While she and Benjamin had made many detours, still they’d followed a fairly straight route—she hoped. At least they found the road, but then any route west would have eventually done just that.

Another thing—how far south of Fort Scott were they, and finally, where should they set up camp? The questions buzzed like angry yellow jackets in her mind.

“You think they’ve gone by?”

Benjamin, who’d been studying the surface of the road, shook his head. “Roman ain’t. Can always tell his prints.”

“Could another wagon or wagons have wiped those out?” She wished she’d been paying more attention to tracking, but then since Benjamin was so good at it, why did she have to? Questions, questions.

They could hear a dog barking off to the west. The road ran along the eastern edge of a gently rolling open prairie with a series of hills and draws, the likes of which they’d come through to the east. They’d crossed a creek a mile or so behind, but what could they hang a marker on out here?

Benjamin returned from a jaunt north. “Farms ahead, both sides of de road. We make camp back on de creek?”

“I suppose so.”

Benjamin swung down from his horse and, with the reins looped over his arm, set about gathering stones.

“What are you doin’?”

“Makin’ dem a marker.” He piled the stones on the right-hand side of the road and then, a couple of feet due east, piled a few more. Wiping his hands on his pants, he mounted Domino again and headed east. A willow thicket both signaled the location of water and hid it from sight. Rotting stumps showed where settlers had taken out the larger trees for firewood or lumber.

The horses pushed through the willows to drink, Ahab raising his head and looking back the way they had come. When he dropped to drink again, Jesselynn felt her shoulders relax.

Within a short time, they had hobbled the horses to graze, the foals had nursed, and Jesselynn dug in her saddlebag for the flint to start the fire. She and Benjamin gathered dead branches from the thicket, and after clearing out a patch of grass down to the dirt to keep from starting a prairie fire, they laid the wood and soon had a fire blazing. Jesselynn hunkered down on one of the stumps and studied the flames. She should be scaling fish. She knew that, but the knowing and the doing were two different things.

What if someone had stopped the wagon? What if the deputy had come after them in spite of the sheriff’s orders? She about gagged on the
what if
s and threw herself to her feet. Digging a hunting knife out of her saddlebag, she set about the scaling, using the stump as a table. Work always held worrying at bay.

“How are they goin’ to see those stones in the dark?” She turned to Benjamin, scale-covered hands on her hips.

“Dey won’t. Meshach pull up someplace to wait till dawn. We wait here till dey find us.”

“I wish we’d never split up like this.” She dug down in her saddlebag for a tin of grease and dropped some in the frying pan. They’d be eating mush if it weren’t for Benjamin and his fishing. She dusted cornmeal over the fish and laid them one by one in the sizzling pan. She had to add wood often, since the branches were so small, but the fire was hot enough to fry supper, and that was all that mattered.

“I’se gonna set me some snares. See what we kin get.” Benjamin spoke from directly behind her, making her jump.

“Can’t you warn me? You’re quieter even than Meshach.” She knew she sounded grumpy, but frying fish didn’t keep her mind occupied, and the worries crept back in. No wonder Ophelia sang a lot. Kept the mind busy so she couldn’t worry.

“Sorry. I’ll whistle when I come back so’s you don’ go and shoot me.”

“Thanks.” The quiet but for the grazing horses should have been peaceful. Frogs sang in the bulrushes. The fried fish smelled heavenly. She set her mind to thinking of how to keep the fried fish overnight so the others could have some when they arrived in the morning.

Supper seemed extra quiet without Sammy and Thaddeus with all their giggles and Thaddeus’s eternal questions. She even missed Meshach’s reading from the Bible, and since she’d left her writing case in the wagon, all she could do was stare into the fire until her eyes refused to stay open any longer. Since Benjamin said he’d take first watch, she wrapped herself in her quilt and tried to sleep.

Praying didn’t help. She’d asked God’s blessing and protection for every person she’d ever known and still she lay awake. Until Benjamin started singing to the horses. His rich voice singing the songs of his people, of glory by and by, overlaid the songs of the frogs and peepers, and she slept.

Ahab whinnied halfway through the morning. The answering bray could only come from Roman. Jesselynn whooped and danced a shuffle step around the fire pit. She stirred what ashes remained, added thin twigs, and blew on the few glowing coals. A couple of dry willow leaves, an extra puff, and the embers came to life, sending up a tendril of smoke before bursting into flame. They’d have coffee before long.

“Jesse, we’s here.” Thaddeus, standing beside Meshach on the wagon seat, waved, his face one big smile.

Meshach stopped the team on the first level spot and set the brake. Thaddeus scrambled over the wheel and hit the ground running, straight into Jesselynn’s outstretched arms.

“Why you left us?” He put one hand on either side of her face and stared into her eyes. “You don’t do that no more.”

She kissed his cheek and stood up with him in her arms. “You know we have to keep the horses hidden, and when the wagon is traveling during the day, what else could I do?”

His frown said he was thinking hard. When he shrugged and squirmed, she set him down and, after greeting the others, looked up at her aunt.

“Everything all right?”

“Right as rain. Help me down, please. I about rocked my legs to sleep.” Once on the ground, she settled her skirts and looked around the camp, if it could be called that. “We drove until near dark before we found a good place to stop, but other than a wave from a couple of wagons passing by, we talked to no one. Meshach kept looking for a marker, but I never saw a thing when he pulled off the road. How did he know?”

“Two small piles of rocks off the right side of the road.”

“Well, my lands.” She reached back in the wagon for the coffeepot. “Is there fresh water here?”

“A small creek. Benjamin dug out a hole so we can dip clear water. I’ll get it.”

When she returned, Jane Ellen had the boys looking for wood, Benjamin was skinning the three rabbits he’d snared, and Meshach had the team hobbled and grazing. Since they’d eaten the remaining fish for breakfast, Ophelia set one rabbit to simmering and cut up the other two for frying. The fragrance of coffee and frying rabbit soon called to them all. Hard-dried biscuits tasted much better dunked in coffee.

They took turns napping in the afternoon heat and at dusk headed north toward Fort Scott, with Jesselynn wondering how they would circumvent the fort when they got there. Just before dawn Daniel returned from one of his scouting forays to wave them off on a track heading west.

“Onliest way to get by de fort,” he reported.

They had to dry camp that night and ration the water barrel, letting only the mares get all they wanted so they would have enough milk for the foals.

“We better get another water barrel,” Jesselynn said as they ate dried biscuits and leftover fried rabbit. “I’d hoped to wait until Independence, but . . .”

“What we got, four more days?”

“Maybe six.”
I wish I could talk to someone about Independence. Is there a fort near there? How will I get enough money for two wagons and all we need? How long, oh, Lord, how long will I have to make all the decisions?

She knew the answer to that. Until the war was over. Until she could bring the horses back to Twin Oaks. She’d kept the thought at bay, fighting to keep it from living full blown in her mind. If she made it to Oregon, how would she ever bring the horses back to Twin Oaks?

Three nights later they smelled smoke before they saw the orange glow in the sky.

“Somebody’s barn burnin’.” Meshach clucked the team into a hard trot. Perhaps they could help. Riding Ahab, Jesselynn leaned forward and let him out. Within three strides, he was running free, for the first time in months. The even beat of his hooves sang to her memory of mornings on the track at home, brought back the laughter of old Joseph when he punched down the stopwatch, the smell of horse sweat and good leather. She slowed her horse, swerving to follow Benjamin into a farmyard. Not only the barn was blazing but the house too, even though the distance between the two should not have set one from the other.

Ahab snorted and tried to turn and leave, but she kept him steady with a firm hand. When Benjamin called to her, she dismounted and led Ahab over to a tree where Benjamin knelt by a woman who appeared to have crawled there for safety. But she hadn’t been safe. The blood from the gash on her head and another from a bullet wound in her right shoulder said as much.

“Who did this?” Jesselynn handed her reins to Benjamin and pillowed the woman’s head on her knees.

“Quantrill’s Raiders. They . . . took . . . our . . . cattle. When . . . John . . . my husband . . . shot one of them . . .” The pause lengthened. “Th-they . . .” Her voice grew fainter.

“Don’t try to talk. We’ll find a doctor.” She’d have missed the shake of the woman’s head had she not been watching her so closely.

As if she hadn’t heard, the woman continued. “They . . . shot . . . John . . . and . . . fired . . . the . . . house. The . . . children . . .”

Jesselynn knew no one would have survived that blazing inferno. With a crash the beams of the barn collapsed. The woman sagged, gagged, and was gone.

Jesselynn laid her back in the dust. The house, too, fell in on itself. A dog howled, a mournful lament that sent shivers up her spine.

Benjamin went to the wagon that had just arrived. Meshach joined Jesselynn beside the body. “How come no neighbors come to help?”

“Quantrill’s Raiders.” As she said the words, an idea slugged her in the chest. “They must have left just before we got here. We could have run into them. Oh, Lord, our God.” Tears gathered and broke. She wasn’t sure if they were tears of sadness for the woman and her family or tears of gratefulness that they’d been spared. Surely the raiders would have killed them all to get such horses as theirs.

“He surround us wid angels, just like we asked.” Meshach got to his feet. “You see any other bodies?”

“Ask Benjamin. I’ve been right here.” The howl rose again, eerie. “Do you see the dog?”

“Over by de house.” Benjamin joined them. “Onliest thing alive, far as I can see.”

“Get de shovel. We bury her, den get outa here.”

“No, we just leave. The neighbors will come by when they know it is safe.” Jesselynn wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “Come on, let’s get out of here.”

“But . . .”

She snatched her reins out of Benjamin’s hand and threw herself into the saddle. All they needed was to be caught here and accused of killing the family and starting the fire. They’d all be hanged.