Spring Will Come (39 page)

             
“Why don’t you go home for a visit?”  Carrie couldn’t imagine not seeing her father for almost two years.  “Raleigh isn’t really that far if you take the train.”

             
“It’s not that easy,” Janie replied.  “I’ve looked into it.”

             
Carrie opened her mouth to protest, but her father spoke up, seeming to have gained control of his earlier anger.

             
“Janie’s right, Carrie.  It’s possible, of course, but travel is becoming more and more difficult.”

             
“Why?” she demanded.  “It’s not like she wants to go north.”

             
“She still has to have a passport,” Thomas responded.  “I’m afraid the Confederacy has found it necessary to impose rather strict travel restrictions.”

“ A passport?”  Carrie had never heard of such a thing.  “That’s ridiculous!” she snorted.

              “I’m afraid it’s not,” Thomas said heavily.  “However ineffective it may be, it’s seen as a defense against spies carrying valuable information north.”  He paused.  “You can get them, of course, but there is a backlog of paper work.  It is necessary to plan in advance.  Then there is the problem of the trains,” he continued.  “Our troops have first priority on every train.  It is especially hard to get a seat on a train leaving Richmond.  Most seats are occupied by soldiers.”

             
Carrie sighed with frustration.  “Is there any part of our lives this war isn’t touching?”  No one answered.  No one needed to.  She already knew the answer. 

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

              Moses pulled the boat ashore and turned away.  He and June had come as far downriver as they could.  They had managed to slip by the myriad of large boats in the river the night before, but it was getting too risky.  He had spent every second of the long night wondering when a shot was going to blast forth from one of the silent watchdogs.  He knew June was almost sick with fear, not to mention the heaving of her stomach as a heavy wind had tossed the little boat on curling whitecaps.  It was time to continue on land. 

             
Moses turned to June.  “We’ll walk from here.”

             
June sagged with relief against a tree.  “I’ll make it, Moses,” she promised.  “I know we made good time in the boat, but if I never see water again that will be just fine with me!” she declared passionately.  She held her hand to her stomach.  “My baby agrees,” she said, smiling now. 

             
Moses smiled back at her and tried to hide his concern.  He just wished he had some way of knowing where they were.  June had been wonderful - as brave and strong as he remembered her.  But there was no denying she was soon to be a mother.  She had experienced sharp pains the night before, which left him terrified she would have the baby right in the boat.  The pains had eased, but his fear had not.  He had to get her somewhere she would be safe - both she and the baby. 

             
He turned to where she was resting, sitting on the ground with her back against a tree.  “I’m going to look around.  Maybe there is a road.”

             
June struggled to her feet.  “I’m coming with you,” she announced calmly. 

             
“You need to rest!” Moses protested. 

             
“I need to be with you,” she corrected him.  “You said yourself we might be near the fort.  If you are captured by soldiers, I want to be with you.  I am
not
going to be left in the woods by myself.”  Her tone of voice left no room for argument.

             
Moses nodded reluctantly then took her arm to help her through the undergrowth.  “Let’s go, little sister.”

             
Twenty minutes later they broke out of the woods onto a road.  It seemed to be well traveled.  Moses did his best to remember the map he had pored over before leaving.  He had followed the river southeast, careful to hug the western shore.  He was sure he was somewhere near the end of the long peninsula that protruded into Chesapeake Bay.  Fort Monroe perched on the very end of the peninsula.  In order to reach it, he would have to travel northeast.  Moses studied the road they were standing on.  It seemed to head due east.  He shrugged.  At some point he would have to head north, but at least the road didn’t veer farther south.  They would take it.  It was better than crashing through the woods. 

             
A sound in the distance caught his attention.  Moses snapped his head up and listened closely.  Grabbing June’s arm, he pulled her back into the bushes until he was sure they were invisible from the road.  A few minutes later a knot of soldiers, laughing and talking, came riding around the curve.

             
“We’re going back North,” one man said joyfully. 

             
“Thank God,” another growled.  “If I have to breathe this wet stuff they call air even one more day, I think I’ll scream.  I can’t wait to get off this peninsula with all its standing water just begging mosquitoes to multiply and eat me.”

             
“Yeah,” another man laughed.  “I understand why these people want slaves to do all their work.  You couldn’t pay me enough to farm around here.  Give me my little place in upstate New York any day.”

             
Moses waited for their voices to fade into the distance before he pulled June out to the road again.  “No talking,” he said quietly.  “I have to be able to hear if anything is coming.”  June nodded and started off in the direction he pointed.  She was smiling.  Moses knew she was just glad to be on dry land again, and he knew she trusted him to take care of her.  He wished he felt the same confidence. 

             
They had walked for nearly two hours before they heard another noise and dove back into the bushes.  Moses was peering out of the bushes when he heard June suck in her breath sharply.  He spun around to stare at her.  She was settled back against a tree with a pained expression on her face.  “June?” he whispered anxiously. 

             
“I’m okay,” she whispered.  “It’s just...” another spasm of pain snatched her words as her face contorted in agony. 

             
Moses tried to calm the panic rising in him. 

             
Slowly, June’s face relaxed, and she opened her mouth to speak again.  “It’s...” Another spasm of pain ripped across her sweating face.  She raised her knuckles against her mouth and closed her eyes in a tortured expression. 

             
Moses looked around frantically, panic-stricken at the thought of June having her baby in the middle of the woods.  He should never have taken her from Saunders’ plantation.  At least she was safe there.  Had he rescued her only to have her and her baby die?   The nearing clatter of wagon wheels made him spring behind his bush once more to peer out.  He prayed June would not scream and reveal their hiding place. 

             
Desperately, he began to pray for a way to get her to Fort Monroe.  Even if she felt better, there was no way she could walk through this heat with him scavenging food along the way.  He should have stayed in the boat, he realized.  “God, help me!” he whispered. 

             
Just then an approaching wagon slowly rounded the curve.  Moses watched as the sturdily built conveyance, pulled by a handsome bay horse, drew nearer.  His eyes opened wide when he realized the man and woman perched on the seat were black, their light skin evidence of a mulatto heritage.  Two children sat quietly in the back of the wagon.  As they almost drew even with him, Moses recognized the pinch of concern on their faces.   Every few seconds the woman would peer around as if she were watching for pursuers.  Runaways, Moses guessed.  Should he ask them for help?  He was wracked with indecision.

             
A muted scream from behind him made the decision for him.  The wagon plowed to a stop as the man jerked back on the reins.  “You hear that?” he asked in a deep voice.

             
The woman nodded, her eyes large with fright.  “Just keep going, Wally.  You know we can’t be stopping!” she cried.  “There might be somebody after us.”

             
Moses spun around just as June screamed again.  His decision was made.  Taking a deep breath, he stepped from the woods. 

             
The woman screamed when she saw him materialize in front of their wagon.  The children’s heads disappeared in a flash.

             
Moses held his hands up.  “Please.  I mean no harm.  I’m sorry to frighten you.”

             
The man she had called Wally glared at him suspiciously, his lean, lanky body coiled for attack if Moses tried to harm his family.  “Who are you, man?  What’s that screaming I hear?”  He looked fearfully at the bushes as another scream rent the air.

             
“It’s my sister,” Moses said, knowing he sounded desperate. 

             
“She hurt?”

             
“No - she’s pregnant.  I’m trying to get her to Fort Monroe.”  He didn’t care how pleading he sounded.  “Can you help me get her there?”

             
Wally started to shake his head, but his wife stared hard at Moses as she lost some of her fearful look.  “You say your sister is pregnant?  What’s she doing out here like this?”

             
Moses shook his head.  “We didn’t think she was due for another couple of months.”  He decided to be completely honest.  “She just ran away from a plantation upriver.  I’m trying to get her to safety.  There’s no way she can walk from here.”

             
Wally broke into the conversation.  “How do we know you’re not just trying to trick us?”

             
Moses shrugged.  “I guess you could come look at my sister.”  He took a deep breath.  “Please.  I just need to get her some help.”

             
The wife was climbing down from the wagon, her stout form making her look awkward, but the care on her round face making her beautiful. Moses breathed a sigh of relief.

             
“Where you going, woman?”  Wally protested.

             
She spun on him, her eyes flashing.  “How would you have liked it if I had been out here like this having one of our fine babies?  Lord, Wally, I can’t just leave her out here.”  With those words she turned to Moses.  “Where is she?”

             
Wally was climbing down from the wagon to follow them as Moses led her back through the woods.  June was huddled against the bottom of the tree, her face glistening with sweat, her breath coming in quick gasps.  She stared up at them, her eyes wide with panic. 

             
“Lord of mercy!” the woman breathed as she dashed to June’s side.  Squatting down in front of her, she said quietly.  “It’s gonna be all right, honey.  You just try to breathe a little easier.  Squeeze my hands when the pain comes.”

             
June locked her eyes on the lady’s kind face.  “Who are you?” she gasped. 

             
“My name is Deidre.  What’s yours?”  Her voice was calm and soothing.

             
“June,” she managed to say, her face twisting again. 

             
“Well, June, you just keep on squeezing my hands.  Looks like your baby might be coming a bit sooner than you expected.”

             
Moses ground his teeth as he clenched his fist.  This wasn’t the way it was supposed to happen.  June was supposed to be safe at Fort Monroe when the baby came.  He stepped forward.  “What can we do?”

             
Deidre looked up with a calm smile.  “How about bringing a blanket from the back of the wagon?”  Now that she had decided to help, it was obvious she was going to be in control.  “Wally, best be moving the wagon off the road.  We’re going to be here a little while.  Send little Carla over here.  She can help.  She may only be ten, but she’s seen babies born.”

             
Moses sprang into action, glad to have something to do.  He was just coming back with the blankets when he heard June. 

             
“My baby... Will it be...?”

             
Deidre patted her hands.  “There no way of knowing what the good Lord has in mind right now.  But I’d say our coming along when we did is a good sign.”

             
Moses took hope from her words.

             
“Hurts...,” June mumbled. 

             
“There’s never been a baby born that didn’t make their mama miserable in the process.  This one seems to be a little more determined than most, but that doesn’t necessarily mean trouble.”  Deidre looked over her shoulder as Carla ran up, her pigtails bobbing behind then turned to the men. “I’ll call you when you’re needed,” she said firmly.