THREE
It was good enough for her. Maggie took the money out of her dress and thrust half of it into Ruth’s palm. “If she agrees, I’ll pay her the rest that I have when we arrive.”
Ruth returned later that evening with the good news.
Mary had agreed to accompany Maggie as far north as they could get until they came across a Union camp.
Maggie could tell that Mr. Newlin didn’t entirely approve, but he withheld his judgment.
He and Ruth worked together, drawing a new map, and filled Maggie’s pack with items from the store.
Ruth even found her a sturdy pair of boots to wear that should help with the blisters.
The only promise that Ruth made Maggie keep was her silence on Mary’s story. It was only in desperate circumstances that Ruth had broken Mary’s confidence. Understanding, Maggie agreed.
After a blissful night’s rest and morning meal, she’d thanked her hosts and promised to send word after she found Henry. Meanwhile, the Newlins would work on finding connections to help get Levi and Abigail home.
Maggie left the New Market Inn and Mary was waiting for Maggie at the bridge. Her dogs lay down beside her. Maggie side-eyed the dogs. It wouldn’t be just the two of them.
“Ready, then?” Mary asked without greeting Maggie.
“Let’s go.”
The second phase of the journey began.
Maggie had to give it to Mary—she was tough.
She pushed Maggie further and kept a fast pace.
At night, she started a small fire and baked their dinner in the coals.
As soon as it was cooked, she covered the fire with dirt, stamping out the ashes.
Despite the chill, she insisted they not risk it, and instead rolled up in a blanket like a baby and went to sleep.
Maggie shivered throughout the night, but Mary didn’t seem to be bothered by the temperature. Maybe it was her robust figure or the dogs sleeping near that kept her warm.
On the second night of their journey, Maggie woke to something sniffing her ear. She screamed and leapt up.
“Are you daft?” Mary cried. “It’s only Bob. He sniffs you first and then lies next to you once he knows you’re safe.”
Maggie looked down at Bob, the darker colored hound, watching her with droopy eyes. “Oh.” She tentatively sat back down. Bob plopped down next to her, curled up, and closed his eyes.
“I sent him over to ya, so that I could at least get some sleep. All that teeth chattering over there.”
“Sorry. Thank you.” She lay down and peered over at Bob. He was sound asleep. So much for a scary watchdog.
The heat from him must have radiated off because Maggie woke the next morning feeling much more rested. Not that she would say that to Mary, though.
“I think we are doing well enough to carry on ourselves.” Mary broke Maggie’s thought. “No need to use Mr. Newlin’s contacts unless we have to.”
“Whatever you think. But I think we should check in as we near the border. They might have heard of a camp nearby.”
“As you wish.” Mary threw on her pack. “The closest station near the border is in Halifax. That work for you, boss?”
Maggie blushed. She hadn’t intended to imply that Mary was under her direction.
Sure, she was paying her for her trouble, but Mary was still the one with more experience here.
Not knowing how to bring it up, Maggie decided to just let it go.
If anything, she didn’t want to make things more complicated by being awkward.
The dogs took the lead, tromping ahead. Often, they would return to Mary with some sort of “present” that she would tuck into her belt for dinner later that night. Maggie noticed that she always gave the dogs exactly what they had earned, usually being the largest share between them.
The more homesteads, farms, and towns they passed the more Maggie realized how bad conditions were. Everything was rundown and barren. The landscape was beautiful in its spring glory, but there were hardly any signs of prosperity. Everything had been stripped and ravaged.
Walking along an old road, they spotted a pair of children sitting on the fence rail.
It was unusual. They hardly ever saw anyone, even in the distance.
Maggie figured the dogs scared most people away.
But these children just fastened their eyes on the dogs, not seemingly intimidated by them, but curious.
Maggie’s heart dropped as she saw their faces.
Their cheeks were sunken, clothes dirty, hair matted.
Mary saw them but didn’t pay attention to them until one of the children called out, “Got any food?”
Whistling to the dogs to stop, Mary unhooked the rabbit they had caught earlier that morning and walked over to the fence with it. The older boy took it. “Thanks, ma’am.”
“Know how to clean it?” Mary asked.
The two nodded. The girl—Maggie assumed it was a girl— said, “Daddy taught us before he left.”
“Where’s your mama?”
“Dead.” The boy was the one who answered. No emotion was evident in his voice.
“Got any other kin?”
He shook his head.
Staring at them, Maggie saw what her future could have easily been if she stayed on the farm.
They were starving, parents gone, and no one around to help them.
Tears filled her eyes. “Mary, can I speak to you privately?” Stepping a few feet away, she whispered, “I can’t leave them here.
They could die. Should we take them with us? ”
Mary closed her eyes and sighed heavily. “It’ll slow us down. How far do you want them to go?”
“How much longer until we reach Halifax? Maybe we can find a place for them there.”
Her companion pulled out the map. “Too far. They’d never make it.”
“What do we do then? We can’t just go into any town.”
Mary seemed deep in thought. “I know a place… They’ll find somewhere for them to stay.”
“Where?”
Maggie didn’t receive an answer before Mary walked over to the children. “We’re heading towards a town that is a day or so away. It’ll be some walking, but we’ll stop and camp for the night. The dogs are pretty good about finding us some dinner. Two of you care to come?”
“Would you want your rabbit back?”
Mary smiled a rare smile. “No, that’s for you to keep. I could cook it for you.”
The boy stuck out his hand. “We have a deal.”
The new party of four traveled on. The children were barefoot but didn’t complain.
When they stopped for water, Maggie dug into her pack for the extra pair of socks Ruth had given her.
She turned around to give them to one of the children, only to find Mary doing the same.
It wouldn’t be much protection, but it was something.
Mary instructed the girl to sit down on a large boulder.
She poured a little bit of water from the canteen onto the girl’s feet and gently wiped them with her skirt.
Mary held out her hand towards Maggie for the socks.
Mary slid them on her feet and then did the same for the boy.
Both children stared at their donned feet, amazed.
“You sure you don’t need them?” The boy’s eyes darted back and forth from Mary to Maggie.
“Nope. They’re yours.” Mary signaled the dogs walk on, and their break was over.
The girl was silent but came between Mary and Maggie as they walked and grabbed each of their hands. Neither Maggie nor Mary let go.
Mary prepared the rabbit as promised that night and gave the entire carcass over to the children. Their eyes widened and they dug in, licking the grease from their fingers.
Bob licked his lips, eyeing the rabbit. But when Mary whistled at him, he gave up the hopeless pursuit and sat down. Maggie, Mary, and the dogs shared a cold dinner of leftovers.
After the rabbit had been picked clean to the bones, the children curled up together, and Maggie covered them with a blanket. Bob left his usual place beside Maggie to lie next to the boy. But the boy only smiled when Bob sniffed him, unlike Maggie’s reaction of surprise.
Maggie noticed Mary staring at the children. A mixture of grief, pain, and sadness was etched on her face. When she noticed Maggie’s gaze, she quickly lay down with her back turned.
Mary definitely had a story. But Maggie wouldn’t pry. Too many people had lost loved ones.
The children revealed their names the following day, deeming Mary and Maggie trustworthy.
The boy was named Quincy. He was eight, the same age as Joseph Jr. back home.
And Susannah, the girl, was six. Maggie deduced that their parents were sharecroppers.
Their father had gone to fight for the Confederacy, leaving the mother back home with the little ones.
When their father was killed in battle, they were unable to pay rent and had been evicted by the landowner.
Their mother had planned to head into a bigger city and try to become a nurse in return for housing.
But it was not meant to be. She’d succumbed to a sudden bout of sickness.
Mercifully, the children never caught it.
Since her death, they’d been living off of favors from neighbors and scavenging.
“With most folks gone, there were plenty of empty barns and shacks to sleep in,” Quincy informed them.
Maggie tried not to pity them but found it hard not to. They’d barely lived and had endured more than she herself could take.
Susannah was quieter than Quincy, but just as tough. She marched on with them, uttering not one complaint.
Mary always acted uneasy being in the open for very long. As they neared a bridge, she directed them off the road. “Go downhill. We’ll cross the creek at a lower point.”
Mary’s intuition proved to be true. They had just reached the bottom when they heard men’s voices. Mary quickly signaled the dogs to lie still. She and Maggie pulled the children deep into the underbrush and squatted down. “Keep quiet. Not one word,” she whispered.
No one breathed as they listened and watched through the branches.
It was a small troop, only five or six men.
Confederate soldiers. The dogs watched with their ears raised.
Maggie felt a trickle of sweat running down her back.
After an agonizing minute, the men stepped off the bridge, continuing down the road.
They waited another five minutes after the soldiers walked out of sight before coming out of the underbrush. After they emerged, Susannah didn’t let go of Mary’s hand. Maggie thought the girl was still frightened, but Mary didn’t seem to mind. They walked much of the day that way, hand-in-hand.
Only Quincy questioned why they hid from Confederate soldiers. Hadn’t his father been one after all?
“Best to play it safe.”
Accepting Maggie’s answer, he didn’t ask anything else. No one mentioned the incident. But that night when they stopped, Mary whispered to Maggie that tonight they would take shifts keeping watch. They couldn’t rely on the dogs alone to alert them.