Blood Moon (28 page)

Chapter Fifty-One

Jacob finally found a moment to go to Mercy. He was desperate to speak to her and to hold her, but until now, there had been no time for a proper reunion. He watched her for a moment and thirstily drank in the sight of her. He had not realised how much he had missed her until earlier, when he’d first seen her sitting on that horse, panting for breath and fearing for her life.

A body was consumed with the everyday drudgery of war, he realised. Only in rare moments of solitude did sweet thoughts of home and loved ones surge in the mind like crashing waves. These moments were beautiful reminders of what he was fighting for, but they also brought with them a melancholy which clung to a body, making the grind of war even more unbearable.

The death of his men today had hit him hard. There had been moments when climbing that hill, charging on the Yankees’ position, that he had expected a bullet to hit him. He was still shaking with the fear that had gripped him on that hill, blinded by smoke and deafened by the noise of firing guns.

Mercy sensed Jacob’s presence and turned to face him. She stared, not daring to smile or to speak. He was either going to be very angry with her or very happy to see her, she thought. Still, he said nothing. He was staring at her as though it were the first time he had ever seen her. She had caused no end of bother today. She had been responsible for the death of good men – Jacob’s men –and she felt wretched.

Jacob searched Mercy’s face, wondering how to handle this situation. Should he be angry with her for almost getting killed yet again? Or should he comfort her because she had just gone through a deeply horrific experience in which no woman should have to be involved? He decided to lead with a bit of both. He extended his arm, and she took his hand. He pulled her to his chest, kissed the top of her head, and then held her in silence.

She raised her face and looked into his eyes, bright with remnants of fear still evident. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry about your men,” she said.

“Thank you – I am too.”

“Don’t be angry, my love. I have a very good reason for being here,” she told him.

Jacob raised an eyebrow. He was mighty curious as to what that reason could be. He wanted to kiss her into submission and hear her most sincere promise not to put herself in danger again. But he had come to realise awhile back that Mercy Carver did not take kindly to orders, nor would she ever listen to a damn thing he said. “Love, Mercy, makes fools of us all, but I don’t believe you are here because of your high regard for me, and I cannot imagine what other reason would be so important to induce you out here alone, on a horse, in the middle of a damn war zone – so enlighten me,” he said.

“Right now?”

“Yep, right now,” he told her.

“Well, I’m sorry, but I can’t talk about my problems right now – not after what I’ve just seen and heard. I would rather you tell me what those Yankees had to say. I saw more than the five that you brought back. I’m sure I did. What happened to the others?”

“Damn it, Mercy, can you not give me a straight answer to a straight question for once?”

“I will, but I can’t think about anything else right now. I feel like a fool for being here, and your men must hate me for getting them shot at. Those poor men of yours – oh God, they would still be alive if it weren’t for me.”

“Hush. War killed them, not you, so get that out of your pretty little head right now. Warning us about those Yankees was a very brave thing to do, and you have the grateful thanks of the Confederacy for doing the right thing. But I want to know why you are here and how you managed to persuade Mrs Bartlett to let you leave Richmond. Oh, my love, why are you so hell-bent on getting yourself killed? Am I to have no peace of mind?”

“Jacob, will you stop telling me off! Do you know how hard it was to find you?” Mercy said angrily. “I didn’t come all this way to get killed or to be scolded like a child. I’ve been searching everywhere for you. You made me promise not to leave Richmond without telling you where I was going. Well, here I am, telling you that I’m going to Norfolk to find Belle and Dolly because the bloody Yankees are there and have probably thrown them out of their homes. And I’m going to visit your plantation to make sure it’s still yours – what’s so wrong with that?

“I can’t sit still in Richmond any longer. I’m sick of wearing corsets and gowns and painting my lips to please Mrs Bartlett and her husband. I don’t like living in a city surrounded by people who are talking about the war whilst carrying on with parties and silly gossip as though war doesn’t exist. I swear to God, I have more chance of dying of boredom than I have at the tip of a bullet!”

Jacob was unable to stop the laughter from bubbling up inside him. Her language was coarse at times, and she would never be a Southern lady, he thought, but she was the most amusing, infuriating, stubborn, and reckless female he’d ever encountered, and he wouldn’t have her any other way. “Well, you’ve made your feelings known, so how about you listen to mine – can you do that?”

“Yes, I think I can …”

“Captain Stone, sir, the major wants you. He ain’t gettin’ nothing out of them Yankees,” Tybrook said, appearing next to him.

Jacob nodded and turned back to Mercy. “Ma’am, I have not finished with you,” he told her playfully. “Tybrook, it’ll be dark soon. I want to get a few more miles down that road before we make camp. Tell the men to get ready.”

“Sergeant Tybrook, will you tell me what happened on the hill?” Mercy asked.

Jacob smiled and shook his head. “Tell her what she wants to know,” Jacob told Tybrook. “She’s like a dog with a cow’s carcass. She won’t give up till she’s satisfied. Is your wife as stubborn as this lady right here?”

“Sir, I reckon all women are born obstinate and there ain’t nothin’ we men can do about that.”

Mercy stretched her legs out on the ground and rested her back against the tree trunk she had found earlier. She watched the five Union soldiers being interrogated by Jacob and an infantry major and thought about what had happened earlier. She had not seen the Union prisoners at first. She had seen Jacob returning safely, his cavalry behind him, leading the enemy’s horses, and behind them the bodies of two dead cavalrymen draped over their horses’ backs. A few minutes later, five Yankee prisoners, flanked by four Confederate horsemen brandishing rifles, had been marched up the road. This had caused quite a stir amongst the cavalrymen, reeling from the death of their comrades.

She had stumbled away from the scene, unable to watch the bodies of the dead men being laid gently on the ground and the Union soldiers being forced onto their knees, spat at, and insulted. She had not the stomach to watch the hatred emblazoned in Confederate eyes or the look of despair on the faces of the Union soldiers.

She looked at the prisoners now. They sat on the ground, legs crossed and arms tied behind their backs. They looked pitiful, with their heads hanging in defeat. They were dirty and looked as though they had not eaten in days. One of them had been injured. A bandage was wrapped around his head and was stained with blood, still wet in patches. She had done this to these poor men, she thought. Her actions had mapped out their fate. She had halted their plans and had changed their futures with one act.

She closed her eyes and laid her head against the ragged splinters of the tree trunk. She took her hat and placed it behind her head. What she wouldn’t do for a soft bed right now, she thought.

Immeasurable guilt and sadness struck her. Sergeant Tybrook had told her earlier that they had seen nine Yankees. By the time they reached the top of the hill, the Union soldiers were already fleeing for their lives. Tybrook had chased the Yankees, shooting at them the entire time. Jacob and his men had circled around them and had cut off their escape. The Yankees fired, bolting for the cover of trees. Four of them were killed in the ensuing gunfight, hence the reason she had only seen five in the camp.

Tybrook also told her that he didn’t think any Yankees had gotten away. Mercy couldn’t stop wondering now why they had not fled the moment they had seen her make a dash down the hill. She was also mystified as to their reasons for not shooting her.

“On your feet, men! We march!”

Mercy’s eyes snapped open at the sound of the booming voice belonging to an infantry sergeant. She had dozed off. It was strange how the body could block out noise and sleep in the most uncomfortable positions, she thought. She had become very good at finding rest when and where she could. Even her lumpy old mattress in the Elephant and Castle had been more luxurious compared with some of the hard ground she had slept on in Virginia. She picked herself up and swiped the dirt off her breeches.
Onwards
, she thought,
onwards with Jacob
.

Chapter Fifty-Two

An encampment had been set up five miles from where Mercy had encountered Jacob and the Yankees. A few tents sat in a muddy field, which had at one time flourished with wheat. The recent rains had turned the soil into a watery brown slime, but the mud was also so thick in places that the wagons had to be pulled and pushed by men from behind to stop the wheels from getting bogged down.

Mercy had heard the talk of invasion abound in Richmond. There, the Yankee army had been likened to a striding giant with pounding boots shaking Virginia’s hallowed ground and devouring the miles between Alexandria and Yorktown. She wondered what Richmond’s population would think if they found out that nine Yankee soldiers had been but fifteen miles outside the capital.

Darkness had fallen, and there was an atmosphere of good-natured banter amongst the tired men. Throughout the evening, many approached Mercy to thank her for her service to the Confederacy.
Much obliged, ma’am,
she had heard all night.

The smell of coffee sifted into the air. Cooking pots had been fired up for a dinner of rice and beans. Some soldiers were singing a Confederate song, and they were accompanied by a harmonica and flute. Mercy listened to the impassioned voices, spreading in number throughout the camp.

Virginia, land of blazin’ sunsets over rivers flowin’.

Cotton fields like clouds of glory, sweepin’ ’cross the land.

Virginia, Virginia, my life is in your keepin’.

Hush now, li’l child, and don’t you go a weepin’.

Virginia, Virginia, the battle drum will roll.

Virginia, Virginia, I’ll die to save your soul ….

Jacob and Mercy sat within a clump of trees, gulping down some hot coffee and sharing a comfortable silence. Mercy braced herself for Jacob’s attack. It would come any minute, she thought. She had already determined that he would forbid her to go to Norfolk, but she was also firm in her resolve to disobey him. “Jacob, what a beautiful song,” she said. “Who wrote it?”

“Interesting question … and one I cannot answer, “Jacob told her. “I reckon we just needed a song of our own. I first heard it in Yorktown. The men seemed quite taken by it, and if they are happy to sing it, I’m all for it. God knows they don’t have a lot of pleasures in their lives.”

Finishing his coffee, Jacob looked closely at Mercy, ready now to speak his mind. “My love, will you pay me heed if I ask you not to go to Norfolk? There are a lot of reasons why you shouldn’t go there,” he said tentatively.

“I can’t think of a single one,” Mercy answered defiantly.

“Then why don’t we start with the one where you stole a Yankee horse and ran away from the fort? Have you thought that maybe, just maybe, you will be recognised by a Union soldier who might not take kindly to your being a horse thief? Your face is not easily forgotten.”

“Jacob, stop. What do you want me to do – live my life being afraid and watch my wits dull in Richmond? I spent the first eighteen years of my life being told not to go out, not to explore, and not to make friends, and I will never again become the sad, frustrated, bitter girl I once was. I love you with my whole heart, but not even you can dissuade me from doing what I must. You understand me better than anyone else in the world, so you should know that I won’t be trapped by your Southern traditions and live a meaningless life sipping mint juleps whilst embroidering napkins!

“Belle is asking for me. She needs me, and I will not disappoint her. You should be glad I’m taking up this cause. Anyway, why should you have the right to choose my life for me? You left your home, your slaves, and me to enlist in this bloody war. You have a wife because
you
decided you should marry her – and look at what a big fat mess that turned out to be. I am not your wife, and I’m not beholden to social rules made by men. Gawd’s truth, I would rather be shot tomorrow than watch my life unfold with nothing but trivial pursuits!”

Jacob sighed with frustration. He deserved that rebuke, yet his gut told him she was putting herself in danger. He’d been trying to figure out what it really was that scared him the most. Was it her thinking she was invincible and didn’t need to pay no mind to men who knew best or the thought of Isaac being in Norfolk? It was only a stone’s throw from Hampton, and there was every chance that Isaac had crossed the James. The thought of Mercy seeing him and spending time with him was a damn nightmare.

He had noticed pity in her eyes earlier, when she’d watched the Yankees being interrogated. He’d sensed her sympathy for the Union cause, even though she had been the one to alert him and his men about the Yankees. Damn it, she still puzzled him. He needed to give her something – some news which would make her change her mind about going to Norfolk. Drastic measures were needed, he decided, for he sure as hell wasn’t going to lose what little sleep he got every night, worrying about her shenanigans.

“You’re the most obstinate woman I have ever known, but I reckon your stubborn heart just might have saved some lives today. I found out that those Yankees were planning to cut the telegraph lines that we had just finished erecting up the road. Had you not warned us, our army might have been cut off from the command stations – leads me to believe you’re living a worthwhile life already.”

“I’m glad I could be of service,” Mercy said.

Jacob sighed again. She was still all riled up. “My love, what if I told you that the government is bringing in a law that will see me going home? Would this change your mind about Norfolk? They’re going to exempt plantation owners from the army and allow them to tend to their land. It’s not a rumour. The bill will be passed.”

Mercy’s eyes brightened with a rush of happiness. “Are you speaking the truth?”

“I am,” he said.

“Oh, Jacob, this is wonderful news. When will you go home?”

“As soon as I get my discharge papers. I figure this bill will become legislation in September or October, but they might let me go before that. Seems the government sees things the same way I do. There ain’t no use fighting a war if what you’re fighting for gets destroyed while you’re on the battlefield. This war might continue for some time, but it will end eventually, and when it’s over, the South will want to rebuild as fast as it can.

“I want you to be by my side. You make me do things I never thought I’d do for any woman. You torment me at times, but the truth is, I cannot imagine my life without you. I don’t want to lose you. Hell, I don’t want you out of my sight for a single day. I want you to come with me to Stone Plantation and live there, as you should have done from the beginning. We will have to do this at some point, so it may as well be now. I’ve seen men die and their hopes and dreams die with them. I want to wake up with you every morning and watch you sleep with your soft little hand on your cheek every night. We’ve been punished enough.”

Mercy was giddy with happiness. Was it possible? she wondered. Was fate finally being kind to them? “I always hoped for this, but I never imagined it would happen so soon. I suddenly feel as though everything will be all right. Living with you will be my biggest and best adventure.” A disturbing thought then struck Mercy. “But, Jacob, what if the Yankees have already taken Stone Plantation?”

“Word is the Union left it pretty much alone after ransacking it. They didn’t burn it to the ground. Sheriff Manning has been there recently. I got his letter only four days ago, saying that every brick is still in place and that Handel is too. My house is far from Portsmouth and even farther from Norfolk. It leads nowhere but into the swamp and forest. I doubt the Yankees will have a use for it or care about lookin’ after the slaves still living there.”

“What about your cavalry? Will you really leave it to fight on without you?”

“I will. I don’t want to back out of battle or desert my men, but the South has a powerful need for food, and I aim to supply its army. I figure I’ll be more useful feeding the men than leading them.”

“I can’t believe you didn’t tell me this before now,” Mercy said. “This is the best news you could have given me.”

“I didn’t have the chance to talk to you earlier or to kiss you properly, and to be honest, that’s the only thing I want to do right now. I want to hold you in my arms and love you. Will you let me love you tonight? Can we forget about the war till morning?”

Mercy nodded and smiled. “I can forget every bad thing that’s ever happened when I’m with you. When you hold me, there’s only light and love. Hold me tight tonight and sleep easy, for I give you my word that I will return to Richmond to wait for you.”

Jacob sighed with relief and pleasure. In three short months, they would begin a life together. The war would probably rage on, but he and Mercy were finally beating all the odds that had been stacked against them. When the three months were over, he would not let her go again, not for a single day or night.