Keeping Secrets (17 page)

Dizzy with fear, Peg leaned against the wall for support. There could be an easy explanation for what she’d seen. The first man had gone past, and maybe the second man was a neighbor who’d come to visit the Parkers. But neither of the men looked familiar to Peg, and she was sure she’d recognize most of the Swensons’ neighbors.

Peg couldn’t explain it, but something didn’t feel right.

“Danny!” Peg whispered. She couldn’t handle this alone. She needed Danny.

She raced into his bedroom, stopping short at the foot of his bed. Propped up with goosedown pillows, Danny’s eyes shone with hope. “At last!” he said. “Something to do! Read to me, Peg! Will you read—”

He broke off, coughing, and Peg frowned at his sunken cheeks and the dark circles under his eyes. “You look terrible!” she said.

“Oh, thanks,” he grumbled. “That’s just what I needed. Well? Will you read to me?” He coughed again, holding a hand to his chest as if it hurt.

Why, oh why, did Danny have to be sick at that
moment? Peg flopped down on the end of his bed and shook her head.

“I can’t read to you now. There’s something I have to do.”

“What? Ennie isn’t going to need you in the kitchen, is she?”

Peg leaned forward. “Danny,” she said, “listen to me! I have so much to tell you.”

Peg went through the entire story, from seeing Miss Hennessey meet James in the alley to the bushwhackers’ raid on St. Joe and the hanging.

Danny sat upright, his eyes glittering. Whether it was from illness or from the horror of the story she told, Peg couldn’t tell.

“James,” Danny said. “He must have been the man I saw with Mr. Parker.”

“I think so,” Peg answered.

“So he was a
Union
spy! Not a Confederate at all, but a spy for our Union Army!” Danny sucked in air between his front teeth in a low whistle. “And your Miss Hennessey—a Union spy, too! Think of that!”

“Danny,” Peg said, “after Miss Hennessey left me here I saw two men out on River Road. One went by, but the other made the turn into River Road. I watched from the window in my room.”

“Do you think he might have been on his way to the Parkers?”

“I don’t know. I just feel strange about it, because there never is much traffic on that road.”

Danny threw back the covers and struggled to a sitting position. “What do you want us to do?” he asked. He wavered a bit and hung on to the bedpost for support.

“I want to go and make sure Miss Hennessey and
the Parkers are safe, but
you
can’t go with me!” Peg insisted. “Look how sick you are!”

“I’m not that sick.” Danny gasped and went into a coughing fit.

When he recovered Peg said, “There’s probably nothing wrong, but I have to make sure. By this time Miss Hennessey and the Parkers may have left and are well on their way to meet the Union officer who’s expecting the information they’re bringing. But, if they’re not …” She stood up, smoothed down the skirt of her coat, and said, “Do you think Alfrid will mind if I borrow Flash?”

“Peg,” Danny said. “Why don’t we get Alfrid and maybe a few of the neighbors to go with you?”

“What if the men I saw are bushwhackers? You know what they’d do to Alfrid and the others.”

Danny sighed. “What if they’re bushwhackers and they discover you snooping around?”

Peg shuddered, for a moment closing her eyes, as though she could blot out the frightening picture that flashed into her mind. “They’d probably chase me away, but I don’t think they’d hurt me,” she said, “because I’m a … a child.”

“I can’t let you go alone,” Danny said.

“You have to. You’re sick and wobbly, and I’d have to worry about you instead of seeing if Miss Hennessey is all right.” She gave Danny a push, and he flopped back onto the bed. Swinging his legs and feet up, Peg tucked the covers around them. “You really are sick,” she teased. “Too sick to fight with me.”

Danny looked at Peg with concern. “You’ll be right back? Soon?”

Peg nodded. “Don’t worry. I’m only doing what Frances or Mike—or
you
would do. I’ll just make sure
the Parkers and Miss Hennessey are safe or that they’ve left. Then I’ll come back. It won’t take long.”

Danny squeezed Peg’s hand. “You were brave to ride with Miss Hennessey, Peg. You said that fighting wasn’t the only way to help our Union, and you were right. You helped Miss Hennessey. If she gets her message through, it will be partly because of you. I wish … I wish I could do something to help, too.”

Peg leaned over to kiss Danny’s forehead, even though she knew he’d scrunch up his eyes and pretend to hate it. But this time, to her surprise, he didn’t.

“Be careful, Peg,” he said.

“I will,” Peg told him.

She crept down the stairs, avoided the kitchen, and made her way to the barn, where Flash was stabled. When she lived with the Swensons Danny had shown her how to put a bridle over a horse, slipping the bit into his mouth, so she quickly did as she remembered and climbed on Flash’s back, holding the reins tightly.

With a nagging sense of urgency Peg urged Flash into a trot, clinging with her knees to his sides.

In just a short time she arrived at the Parkers’ house and was surprised to see two large dappled horses tied to the hitching post. Were these the horses the men she’d seen had been riding? Peg had been watching the men, not the horses, and she couldn’t remember.

Suddenly a tall, heavyset man jumped up beside her and grabbed Flash’s reins from her hand.

“Quiet!” he ordered. “Just do what I tell you.” He led Flash to the hitching post, fastened the reins, and roughly reached up, jerking Peg from Flash’s back.

“Go into the house,” he said as he gestured with a large handgun.

Her heart pounding so hard that her chest hurt, Peg
managed to stumble up the steps of the porch and enter the house. In the parlor Miss Hennessey and her sister sat together on the old sofa, their ankles and wrists bound. Both women were in tears.

“What did you do to them?” Peg demanded. She whirled toward the man in anger, hating the smug satisfaction on his face.

“We ain’t done nothin’ … yet.” He pushed her toward a narrow, ladderback chair. “Sit down, and stay put.”

Peg did as she was told. For a few moments the only sound was the heavy breathing of the man with the gun.

Then a deep voice called from the kitchen, “Sully, you want somethin’ to eat?”

“Keep it down, Floyd.”

“No one’s gonna hear us. Come on. There’s some meat and some bread.”

Scowling, Sully left the room, and they could hear the rumbling of two voices in the kitchen.

“Where’s Mr. Parker?” Peg whispered.

“They took him away,” Miss Hennessey answered in a low voice.

“We … we heard a shot,” Mrs. Parker murmured and burst into tears again.

Tears flooded Peg’s eyes, too, and for a while she couldn’t speak. But she knew they couldn’t just sit still and wait for what might happen. “Are they bushwhackers?”

Miss Hennessey nodded.

“Some of the bushwhackers who hanged James?”

“Yes. They bragged about it.”

“How many of them are there?”

“There were five, but three of them left. Those two, who call themselves Sully and Floyd, stayed.”

“They seem to be waiting for the others to return,” Mrs. Parker whispered. She shot an anxious glance toward the kitchen.

Peg lowered her voice. “What happened to the information you were bringing to your Union officer? Did the bushwhackers get it?”

Miss Hennessey’s head shot up, and she shook it in warning. “Shhh!” she said.

Content on that score, Peg turned her thoughts to the problem of Sully and Floyd. What were they going to do? And when? “We have to get out of here,” Peg whispered.

“We’ve begged and pleaded. We’ve even tried to bargain, but nothing has helped. There’s not much we can do.” Mrs. Parker held up her bound wrists.

Peg didn’t answer. She was busy thinking. It would take too long to untie them. The men might come back at any minute. Finally she pointed toward a door in the hallway that connected the parlor with the kitchen. “Is that the cellar door?”

“Yes,” Miss Hennessey said.

“Shhh!” Mrs. Parker hissed. “We can’t hide in the cellar. And if somehow we did manage to get down there we’d be trapped.”

Peg slid out of her chair and picked it up, carrying it to the cellar door, which she opened wide. With a clatter and crash she threw her chair down the stairs, then flattened herself against the wall, the open door covering her, and screamed as though all the banshees in Ireland were after her.

Floyd and Sully pounded into the hallway.

“She fell!” Miss Hennessey screeched. “The little girl fell down the cellar stairs! Help her!”

Peg heard one of the men start down the top steps. Hoping his partner was right behind him, and she’d
catch them both off balance, with all her force she swung the door.

But as the door slammed shut, Floyd jumped out of the way. Cursing loudly and rubbing his left arm, Sully shoved the door open and crowded into the hallway next to Floyd.

“I told you to stay put!” Sully shouted at Peg.

Floyd waved a fist near Sully’s face. “What’s the matter with you, not tyin’ up the young’un?”

“She’s only a child. I didn’t think that—”

“You didn’t think at all.”

Sully turned his anger on Peg. “You like the cellar?” he snarled. “Fine. It’s a good place for all three of you.” He and Floyd looked at each other and laughed. “Might as well have them tucked out of the way,” Floyd said with a chuckle, “when we set the house afire!”

16
 

“T
HAT
’
S NOT GOING
to happen.”

Peg gasped as Danny stepped into the room. He held his rifle shoulder high, sighting along the barrel, as he aimed at Sully.

Floyd, who was at that moment unarmed, frantically looked at his empty hands, but Sully’s right hand snaked across his chest to the revolver in his belt.

As he whipped it out, Danny pulled the trigger.

Sully shrieked, dropped his gun, and cradled his injured right hand against his chest.

“It’s broke! You done broke my hand!” he yelled.

“Get his gun, Peg,” Danny said, and as soon as Peg had snatched it up, he ordered the bushwhackers, “Go down in the cellar. Both of you!”

With two guns pointed in their direction, Sully and Floyd obeyed. Peg slammed the cellar door shut and
dragged a heavy chest up against it to secure it. As Danny untied Miss Hennessey and Mrs. Parker, Peg added more furniture to the pile at the door. Sully cursed some more and both he and Floyd beat against the door, but the door didn’t budge.

“Does the cellar have a window?” Peg asked Mrs. Parker.

“No. It’s little more than a root cellar.” Mrs. Parker stood and rubbed her wrists.

“Good,” Peg said. “Then they won’t be getting out of there for—”

Danny’s rifle fell to the floor with a crash, and Danny’s knees buckled.

“Help me!” Miss Hennessey cried as she caught him under the arms. “He’s heavy!”

“Danny! What’s wrong?” Peg shouted in terror. She wrapped her arms around his chest, and Mrs. Parker grasped his feet. Among the three of them they managed to settle Danny on the sofa.

“Danny!” Peg cried again.

Miss Hennessey sat beside Danny and began to briskly rub his hands. “Do you have any smelling salts, Nellie?” she asked. “He’s fainted.”

“Fainted?” Peg asked, bewildered. “But that’s not like Danny. I’ve never known Danny to faint.”

While Mrs. Parker hurried to fetch smelling salts, Miss Hennessey rested a hand on Danny’s forehead. “His breathing is shallow and raspy. Has he been ill?”

“Yes,” Peg said. “He’s had a cough.” She remembered the strange glitter in his eyes. “And some fever. That’s why I wouldn’t let him come with me.”

The pungent fumes from the smelling salts brought Danny around in a hurry. He tried to struggle to a sitting position, but Miss Hennessey eased him back
down and tucked a pillow under his head. “Lie here until you feel stronger,” she said.

The men in the basement beat against the door again, and Peg nervously glanced from the door to Miss Hennessey. “You said there were other bushwhackers in the group. You said they’d be back. You’ll have to leave now. You can’t take the chance of being here when they return.”

Mrs. Parker put her fingers to her mouth. “Louis,” she whispered. “I can’t go now. I have to find Louis.”

“I’m sorry, ma’am,” Danny broke in. “I found him. I’m sorry.” He fell back and closed his eyes.

Mrs. Parker began to cry, but Miss Hennessey stood, gripping her sister’s shoulders. “Peg is right,” she said. “We must leave. One of us has to get the information to—”

She broke off and took Peg aside, speaking in a low voice. “If we succeed it could mean a major Union victory. I want you to know the particulars, because you and Danny will have played a strong part in bringing about this victory.

“Confederate General Bragg holds the city of Chattanooga, Tennessee, under siege, which has caused great damage to our troops and rail shipments. I have secret information that Bragg’s right-hand man, James Longstreet, plans to leave Chattanooga and take his own troops to Knoxville. With such a large loss of manpower, the Confederates won’t be able to hold Chattanooga. If Union forces attack soon, they can defeat the Confederates and win the city. I must get this information to my contact, who’ll inform General Grant.”