The Soldier's Lady (38 page)

Now it was Micah's turn. One by one he said a few words to each of us, hugged us, then turned to Jeremiah. They embraced and spoke for several seconds, but I couldn't hear what passed between them and Jeremiah never told me. When they stepped apart, Jeremiah sniffed and rubbed at his eyes. Micah shook Henry's hand. Henry was weeping like all the rest of the women, and I knew he felt no shame to let his emotions show.

Finally Micah turned to the two Daniels men. He shook their hands with such a look of respect and affection. I knew he had come to think of them, as did Emma, like either of them could have been the father he had never known.

“You get to Oregon, son,” said my papa, “and you build a place, and you make this lady happy. And you keep in touch with us, you hear? Maybe one day we'll come out there and visit you!”

Emma and Micah turned to board the train. Papa stepped forward and handed Micah an envelope. Micah took it with an expression of question, then opened it. Inside were six new fifty-dollar bills.

I don't think I'd ever seen Micah Duff speechless until that moment. He looked back and forth between Papa and Uncle Ward in disbelief.

“But . . . but, Mr. Daniels,” he said, “there's . . .
this is three hundred dollars!”

“That's right, son. That might not be enough to build you a whole house, but it ought to get you started.”

“We want you to have it as our wedding gift to the two of you,” said Uncle Ward.

“You're family, don't forget that,” said my papa. “Besides, Emma's picked a lot of Rosewood cotton, haven't you, Emma?” he added, throwing Emma a wink.

“Dat I hab, Mister Templeton!”

“So you take that money, Mr. and Mrs. Micah Duff, and you have a good life!”

Swallowing hard, and blinking back his tears, Micah now embraced Papa and then Uncle Ward. “I don't know how to thank you,” he said.

“Look, son,” said Papa, “the happiness in Emma's eyes is thanks enough.”

“All aboard!” called the conductor behind us.

Emma climbed onto the step, cast one last look at us all, and smiled. She was radiant in her new traveling dress and hat. She even looked like the lady she had become!

Then she stepped inside and Micah followed.

They were in the last car of the train, the colored car, and a minute later Emma appeared at one of the windows, waving and talking at us from inside.

A couple minutes later the train started to move. We walked slowly along the platform beside it, and followed as long as we could next to their window, everyone waving and yelling and talking at once. But
it began to pick up speed as it left the station, and finally the caboose sped past us.

Still we stood there on the platform waving as the train disappeared from sight.

“Good-bye, Emma . . .” I whispered. “Good-bye!”

And then they were gone.

E
PILOGUE

T
HE CLANDESTINE MEN'S VIGILANTE CLUB KNOWN
as the Ku Klux Klan had spread throughout the South, dedicated to the preservation of white supremacy, Southern tradition, and exacting retribution on whites who embraced the new order . . . and on blacks who did not know their place.

The Klan had begun in 1865, primarily at first to intimidate potential black voters on behalf of Democratic candidates and to keep that party in power. But quickly its rituals and organization throughout all the Southern states turned it into a secretive force of terror and death. It was often led by the most stalwart male citizens of every community—doctors, lawyers, businessmen, farmers, and even politicians. Securing the Democratic vote soon became a lesser objective beside the cruel tactics of intimidation and violence. Everything the Klan did was aimed at keeping blacks in their place.

The Klan was not the only such vigilante group that roved the counties of the South, tormenting and killing “uppity niggers,” but it was the most powerful. With its members clad in white sheets and hoods, and the hooves of
their horses padded, the very thought of the silent night riders awoke dread and terror.

The Klan's weapons of choice were three: the gun, the torch, and the rope.

In the North Carolina communities of Greens Crossing and Oakwood, some twenty miles north of Charlotte, there were perhaps twenty of the local citizenry, including several of the more prominent among them, who had been initiated into the mysteries of the Klan. Their mischief thus far had produced no deaths, though not for lack of trying. That fact, however, seemed likely about to change.

On this particular day in the fall of the year 1869, they had decided to change their tactics. They would strike in broad daylight, in full view of the entire town, in order to teach a lesson none in the community would soon forget—to the black man they had known for years but who was now walking a little too high and mighty for their tastes, and to the white man who employed him.

The burning torches in their hands as they rode were not for the purpose of illumination as they might have been had this raid been planned, like most, for the middle of the night.

They intended to put the fire to another use.

A
UTHOR
B
IOGRAPHY

C
ALIFORNIAN
M
ICHAEL
P
HILLIPS BEGAN HIS DISTINGUISHED
 writing career in the 1970s. He came to widespread public attention in the early 1980s for his efforts to reacquaint the public with Victorian novelist George MacDonald. Phillips is recognized as the man most responsible for the current worldwide renaissance of interest in the once-forgotten Scotsman. After partnering with Bethany House Publishers in redacting and republishing the works of MacDonald, Phillips embarked on his own career in fiction, and it is primarily as a novelist that he is now known. His critically acclaimed books have been translated into eight foreign languages, have appeared on numerous bestseller lists, and have sold more than six million copies. Phillips is today considered by many as the heir apparent to the very MacDonald legacy he has worked so hard to promote in our time. Phillips is the author of the widely read biography of George MacDonald,
George MacDonald, Scotland's Beloved Storyteller.
Phillips is also the publisher of the magazine
Leben,
a periodical dedicated to bold thinking Christianity and the legacy of George MacDonald. Phillips and his wife, Judy, alternate their time between their home in Eureka, California, and Scotland, where they are attempting to increase awareness of MacDonald's work.

Books by Michael Phillips

Is Jesus Coming Back As Soon As We Think?

Destiny Junction   •   Kings Crossroads

Make Me Like Jesus   •   God, A Good Father

Jesus, An Obedient Son

Best Friends for Life
(with Judy Phillips)

George MacDonald, Scotland's Beloved Storyteller

A Rift in Time   •   Hidden in Time

Legend of the Celtic Stone   •   An Ancient Strife

Your Life in Christ
(George MacDonald)

The Truth in Jesus
(George MacDonald)

A
MERICAN
D
REAMS

Dream of Freedom   •   Dream of Life

Dream of Love

T
HE
S
ECRET OF THE
R
OSE

The Eleventh Hour   •   A Rose Remembered

Escape to Freedom   •   Dawn of Liberty

T
HE
S
ECRETS OF
H
EATHERSLEIGH
H
ALL

Wild Grows the Heather in Devon

Wayward Winds

Heathersleigh Homecoming

A New Dawn Over Devon

S
HENANDOAH
S
ISTERS

Angels Watching Over Me

A Day to Pick Your Own Cotton

The Color of Your Skin Ain't the Color of Your Heart

Together Is All We Need

C
AROLINA
C
OUSINS

A Perilous Proposal   •   The Soldier's Lady

Never Too Late   •   Miss Katie's Rosewood