SIX
"What if he doesn’t let us eat with him?” Maggie whispered once they were in
the house.
Abigail let out an exasperated sigh. “I will not be asking for permission to eat our own food. When we serve him at the table, we’ll sit down as normal and eat.
But, in truth, I am unable to stomach anything.
My mind wanders to Elijah and our hidden friend.
I can only pray that both are faring well tonight. ”
She was right, of course. But Maggie remembered how it felt to be hungry and Abigail did not. Yet.
Abigail poured water into the bowl to wash the root vegetables and the sound made Maggie squirm. It’d been a long day, and she hadn’t thought of that problem until now.
Abigail noticed and seemed to realize at the same time Maggie did. Her eyes flickered out the window. “Use the chamber pot in the loft,” she said. “With men roaming the farm…”
She didn’t have to finish for Maggie to understand what she meant. Maggie knew all too well. Goosebumps ran down her flesh.
“Neither one of us needs to go outside alone,” Maggie finished numbly.
As it was, the meal commenced without comment.
Captain Lynch ate everything that was offered to him and asked for seconds when he finished.
He didn’t seem to mind that they ate with him.
He didn’t even blink an eye when Levi blessed the food.
The only time he looked cross was when he asked where the coffee was, and Abigail replied that there was none.
Levi appeared more vexed than anyone. He constantly glanced outside, balling his hand into a fist. The sounds of The Yellow Rose of Texas drifted in. The men were outside celebrating their bounty with rounds of singing and horseplay.
Maggie was more jittery. The anxiety constricted her chest into a tight ball.
She was aware of being surrounded outside, and the fear that the cellar cache would be discovered made her heart beat frantically.
Every time she dared to look out, the soldiers weren’t anywhere near it.
There was no purpose for them to be, now that it was empty.
But it wasn’t safe yet. Not until they left.
When Captain Lynch retired for the night, he took the Howards’ bed. Maggie insisted that Abigail accept the one in the loft. Abigail protested, but Maggie refused to listen. Abigail needed rest. None of them had gotten more than an hour or two of sleep in the past forty-eight hours.
Whether exhaustion finally caught up to her or not, Abigail conceded and accepted Maggie’s offer. Maggie followed her up to bed down on the rug. Levi wouldn’t hear of leaving his post downstairs at the table.
“Best to keep watch. I’ll lie down in the parlor later,” he’d said.
She wondered if he’d needed to be alone with his thoughts, because come morning, dark circles shadowed his eyes, making him appear older than he really was.
Abigail also didn’t look well. Maggie heard her tossing and turning all night. Only pure exhaustion rendered Maggie unconscious for a few hours.
Leftovers from last night’s meal were heated and on the table. It wasn’t much, but it was all they had.
“You should’ve hidden it,” Maggie whispered.
But Abigail shook her head. “Captain Lynch may expect a morning meal.”
Both stopped speaking when they heard the floorboards creak. Lynch appeared in the kitchen doorframe, still dressed in his uniform.
Speak of the devil.
No one addressed him. Abigail ducked her head in respect, but Levi, who was already seated at the table, remained unmoved. Rank should have required him to rise, but he did not. Nor did he offer a greeting. His haggard face stared straight at the captain.
A flash of annoyance pinched the captain’s face, but the food on the table caught his attention. Seating himself at the head of the table, he fixed his plate and tucked in. He did not offer anyone else to join him.
Abigail threw Levi a questioning glance, but Levi indicated that they should sit. Maggie and Abigail quietly took their places at the table.
The captain made quick work of his meal, and he scraped the remnants off the plate with his fork. The only food left on the table after he’d finished was a single slice of ham and a broken piece of bread.
“Fine meal, Mrs. Howard,” he complimented his host as he wiped his fingers on the napkin in his lap. Scraping back his chair, he rose. The rest of the table stood with him.
They all followed him outside. A young soldier who’d handed them the meal supplies yesterday waited for the captain with his horse.
“Are the men ready, Sullivan?” Lynch asked when handed the reins.
Sullivan nodded and said, “Yes, sir,” before rejoining the rest of the men huddled in the yard.
“We ride on to Wilmington,” Captain Lynch shouted. “Johnson and Geer, guard the wagon. Crawford, Sims, and Goldman fall into line behind them…”
Everyone obeyed their captain’s orders, and it was all done very efficiently without a blunder.
Several of the men glanced over at her as they passed.
Once, she might’ve looked back to see if it was Joel or Hugh.
Or Papa. But now, every soldier made her feel sick.
The muskets they wore strapped over their shoulders glistened in the sun, and she recalled the gleam of metal as James pulled the knife from his boot.
Something triggered something deep within her. Her body trembled and she drew uneven breaths.
Before she could contemplate it further, Lynch spurred his horse forward until he was right in front of them. Close enough that any one of them could’ve grabbed the horse’s bridle if they wanted to, and close enough that Lynch towered over them.
Lynch nodded over to the unit of men. “Howard. Fall in,” he said casually.
Abigail jerked as though she had been physically struck. Maggie stopped breathing.
Levi calmly met the captain’s gaze. “No.”
Maggie was flabbergasted at his calmness. He strangely appeared to have been expecting this, unlike the women.
But the captain also seemed to anticipate Levi’s response. “You will obey a direct order.”
Levi didn’t blink. “I will not be party to violence. Furthermore, thee has no right to order me. Having aged out of the draft, I cannot be conscripted.”
At his comment, the captain smirked. “You Quakers do live under a rock, don’t you?
By order of President Davis, the age of conscription has been altered.
The age of conscription is now seventeen to fifty.
As to you being unwilling to ‘be party to violence,’ the order extends to every white male living in the Confederacy.
” He pointedly looked around at the farm.
“You do in fact live in a Confederate state.”
Levi’s eyes flashed towards the woods where Elijah had fled. He wasn’t the only one who was subject to this new calamity.
Captain Lynch saw where his gaze traveled and misunderstood.
“I wouldn’t think of trying to leave.” His eyes traveled down to Levi’s bad leg.
“Originally, you may have also been looked over due to being a cripple, but men are sorely needed to fight off our enemy. And even a cripple can load a ship’s cannon. ”
Before Levi could reply further, Lynch snapped his fingers and the soldier he had called Sullivan came forward. “Be so good as to place Mr. Howard in line, Corporal.”
Corporal Sullivan reached out to take hold of Levi’s arm, but Levi stopped him.
“No. I will not, sir. My family has fed thee, sheltered thee, and given thee everything that we have. That is enough support for the army.”
The reminder clearly angered the captain. “Not by decree, it isn’t. The supplies you’ve given won’t last us more than a few weeks. The army now requires your service, Mr. Howard.”
Levi was poised to open his mouth to once again refuse. The captain saw it too and his hand twitched toward the pistol he wore on his side.
Immediately, the feeling of the situation escalated.
Abigail pushed Levi back and stepped in front of him to intervene. “Please, sir. What could we give that thee would accept?”
His hand didn’t stray from his pistol. “Frankly, ma’am, I don’t see anything of value that would qualify for an exemption. Stand aside, now.”
Abigail didn’t move an inch. Not even when Levi tried to move her himself. Levi was just about to force his way around her when Abigail blurted out, “Sheep. We have sheep.”
Levi froze. The sheep were all that would keep them from starvation.
The captain’s large mustache twitched. Sweeping his eyes around the farm, he asked, “Where? Hidden, I presume.”
“Higher up the mountain in the pasture.” Her voice was strained.
Captain Lynch locked eyes with Levi. “A detail you failed to mention?”
Levi finally moved Abigail to stand in front of her. “No doubt it escaped my memory, with all the commotion.”
Lynch gritted his teeth. “And I thought Quakers didn’t lie? You’ll take me and my men there at once. If this is a trick or ruse, you will all pay the consequences.”
Things changed quickly. Suddenly, instead of preparing to move out, the soldiers moved as though they were going into battle, forming lines with muskets at the ready.
Levi was propelled forward. All the while, Lynch kept a firm grip on the army pistol that he’d drawn from his holster.
No doubt anticipating an attack, he and Levi took the lead as they marched, with Levi serving as the guide.
Two corporals, Sullivan and a nameless man, were ordered to keep watch of Abigail and Maggie, and the loaded supplies.
The entire scene played out in front of two women as they helplessly were barricaded near the porch.
With a sense of deja vu, Maggie and Abigail watched them all disappear up the footpath into the woods. The two soldiers left in charge of them kept active watch and said nothing to them.
Maggie and Abigail didn’t dare speak or move.
An hour went by. And then another. Abigail kept staring towards the woods, anxiously awaiting Levi’s return, and she appeared to be on the verge of fainting the longer Maggie stared at her.