“They would have seen fresh digging marks, so they wouldn’t have to search very hard.”
“But they were kids. Would they apply that kind of logic?”
Aury jumped off the stump to examine the bark more closely. After a few minutes on her hands and knees, Aury said, “Does this seem like a natural mark to you?”
Scott jammed the shovel into the growing pile of dirt and walked to where Aury was pointing. The line in the bark was perpendicular to the ground and darker than the area surrounding it. A shorter line cut across the top to form a cross. It was shallow and would have easily been unnoticed if they weren’t hunting for it.
“The lines are too straight to be natural,” Scott confirmed. He grabbed his shovel and started digging at the base of the cross.
“What do you think it is?” Aury asked when Scott’s shovel thudded at the bottom of the hole.
“Another clue.” Scott grunted as he scooped the dirt from the hole. He pulled out a tin box, corroded with only faint signs that there had once been a design. He tapped it against the shovel head to break off some of the rust and handed it to Aury.
Sitting down on the stump, Aury pried the lid off the ten-inch square box.
The paper was brown and thin. Holes appeared along the creases where it had been folded for so long. She read it aloud.
“Stay on dry land
With water under your feet.
As we carefully planned
Stay out of the heat.”
“How many clues did this lady leave for her kids?” Scott said as he filled the hole.
Aury shrugged. “Guess we need to keep searching. What do you think about this clue?”
“Dry land with water under your feet sounds like a bridge.”
“You’re right. Do you have any bridges on your property?”
“Not anymore. I don’t know why they would have needed one in the 1800s either. We have a few streams, but you can step over them.”
“Stay out of the heat,” Aury mused aloud. “Think that means in the shade of the trees?”
“There are so many trees on this property, that doesn’t help to narrow things down. I think we need to let this one simmer for a while. In the meantime, I have some things to get done.”
“What can I do to help?”
Scott grinned at her. “You’ll be sorry you asked.”
They climbed into the cart, heading to the fallen debris and Scott’s chainsaw.
After picking up work gloves for Aury, they proceeded to clear the path. Scott cut away limbs and branches, and Aury dragged them off the road into a pile for burning later.
They worked in companionable silence, interrupted only by the buzz of the saw.
With their task completed, Scott loaded the tools into the cart. “Thanks for your help. That went much faster with two people.”
“Of course. I wish I could do more.”
“The Army Corps of Engineers are coming to inspect the hole in the road tomorrow. They’re going to assess the damage and let me know if I need to repair it or find another way in.”
“The Corps? How did you rate so high?” Aury asked.
“A friend of mine works for them. They’re coming out to inspect the power lines in this area, and I told him we have some vehicles blocked out here. They may be able to put up a temporary bridge so we can get equipment in and your cars out.”
“I thought they only did things for the military.”
“Nope.” Scott started the bumpy drive to the cabin. “During emergencies, they work for FEMA.”
“Hey, I mentioned the Eastover library to the archivist, and he’s excited to see some of your old books. Hope you don’t mind,” Aury said.
“Not at all. He’s welcome to them. I can’t imagine there’s anything that interesting,” Scott said.
“You would’ve never imagined a treasure hidden on your property either.”
“We aren’t sure there actually is a treasure. Don’t get your hopes up.”
Aury smiled. “Too late. Do you mind if I take a few books for him to scan through?”
“Help yourself. They aren’t doing anyone any good here.”
Aury entered the cool, musty interior of the manor house. Before going to the library, she went upstairs to check the labels on the quilts—Gran was right. Each was labeled; one was dated 1846 as a wedding gift to Mary and James. Flipping over the corners of each, she took snapshots with her phone.
She made a mental note to talk to Scott about washing these since the ladies had used them during their stay. Her grandmother would know if they needed special care.
She went to the library and took her time running her hand along the book spines. She selected a few titles and added them to the growing pile. She felt she had a decent sampling to take to the library. It might be a while before the archivist could make it out here himself.
Her eye stopped on the title The Children of the New Forest. As she tried to take it from the shelf, it stuck to the book next to it. She gently tugged until it pulled free.
The edges of the book were dented and the board under the cover showed through in places. It was obviously well-loved. Gently opening it, she saw scrawled in curly penmanship, “To my darling Frederick. I hope you enjoy this book as much as I have. Love, Mother.”
Retreating to the nearby sofa, Aury instantly got lost in the story about the four orphaned children being raised as the grandchildren of a forester. Just as they were about to rescue the gypsy boy Pablo, Aury turned the page to find a piece of loose, yellowing paper tucked into the book.
“You about ready to go? It’s getting dark,” Scott said from the doorway.
Startled, Aury looked up. “Sorry, I got sidetracked by this old book.” She tilted it to show Scott the colorful, although somewhat faded, cover. “Mary gave it to one of her sons. I found another note inside.”
Scott came closer to peer over her shoulder.
Aury unfolded the paper. “The handwriting is different on this one.”
F,
I had to put things away, but only you, Mother, and I will know where. It is crucial to keep Father’s papers and Mother’s special gifts away from anyone stopping at Eastover. We do not know which side they will be on. Better not to take chances.
Leave them hidden until all is safe. Then keep going with Mother’s game.
If I am not here, you have to take care of the little ones. Mother needs us to be strong.
S
“S? Could that be the oldest daughter?” Aury asked.
“Makes sense. Who else would know the secret hiding places?” Scott said.
“What happened to their mother? Why couldn’t she care for the kids?”
“I don’t know. Was it in the diaries you found?”
“No. They just ended in March 1862. I’ll go to the library and see if I can find out what could have interrupted Mary’s writing.”
Chapter 25
April 11, 1862
But why do you have to go?” Thomas whined.
“Many people are getting hurt. Someone needs to take care of them,” Mary answered gently. Sitting in the safety of their cozy parlor, it seemed unreal that people were dying across the river.
“But who will take care of us?”
“Sarah will watch after you.”
“I’ll do it,” Frederick argued. “I’m the man of the house. Papa said so when he left.”
“You can do it together,” Mary said to him. “I won’t be gone long. Just a few days at a time. I’ll come home often and bring you news.” And food. She didn’t want to voice her concern over the lack of supplies.
The news brought by the rider from the Army of the Potomac was just in time. They were looking for women to help the soldiers in the hospitals. The army would pay in food for the assistance rendered.
Mary could tend the wounded. She had never been squeamish around blood, even when Noah had put a nail through his foot while working on the barn.
She could write
letters for the men who couldn’t write themselves. Overall, she would be helping the injured and helping her family at the same time. Part of her hoped to get word about James and Noah, but she was also afraid of what she might discover.
“You have chores to do, and Sarah will continue with your lessons.”
The boys groaned while Emily clapped her pudgy hands.
“I’m going to be a soldier. I don’t need to learn my letters,” Frederick declared.
“Then I don’t either,” Thomas added.
Mary sighed. Why do little boys think war is glamourous? “Your father is going to expect you to be ready to help him with the books when he gets home. You don’t want to disappoint him.”
Thomas threw himself against the sofa cushions, his arms across his scrawny chest.
Sarah was trying to be brave, but Mary saw the wetness in her eyes threatening to spill over. “We will be fine, Mother. Do not worry about us. How will you get to town?”
“The soldiers are sending a wagon for me, along with other women in the area. They will pick us up at the church building in the morning and drop us off there in a few days. They will keep this rotation going for as long as needed.”
“You won’t sleep here?” Thomas asked, on the verge of tears.
“I will sometimes. It will be easier if I stay in town a few nights rather than spend so much time on the road traveling back and forth. I need you all to be brave while I’m gone.”
“It will be an adventure,” Sarah said. “We will pretend we are grown, and this is our homestead to keep.”
“It is ours,” Thomas said.
“Yes,” Sarah agreed. “But now we make the decisions without having a mother telling us what to do.” Sarah winked at Mary.
Mary smiled at the courage Sarah was showing. She would get her siblings through this stage of their lives. Mary just hoped it would end soon enough to allow Sarah the chance to play without the heavy burden on her shoulders now.
“Get changed for bed. Go now. There will be time for a story before we put out the light. What do you want to hear?” Mary asked.
“The children in the forest!” Frederick said before the others even had a chance to think about their choice.
Mary laughed. “Fine. We’ll read The Children of the New Forest. Go wash. I’ll tuck you in.”
As Sarah picked up Emily and ushered the boys to the stairs ahead of her, Mary stood and ran her hand along the books on the shelf. She loved when her mother read to her. Even now, she could imagine her mother’s arms wrapped around her as they snuggled together for a story.
Books were a luxury, but Mary’s father was a firm believer in education for girls as well as boys. He was an astute businessman who knew where to invest his money. His textile factory in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was doing a good trade. Mary never wanted for anything—books especially.
She wanted to give her kids the same luxuries but living on a farm in Surry County was not turning out to be what she expected. She didn’t mind the labor. She enjoyed tending the soil and toiling beside her husband on various projects. While he felled the trees in the forest, she kept the books and prepared the invoices for payments.
Now she would have to pass the bookkeeping chores to Sarah along with the keeping of the house. With no one to continue the logging work, only household records would be required. She would have to give Sarah a journal of her own to keep track of these trying times.
Chapter 26
Present Day
As Aury scribbled furiously in her notebook, her elbow hit the stack of books next to her, toppling them to the floor. Multiple heads whipped up to stare at her as she whispered her apologies in the quiet of the library.
History was never her strong suit, but she was fascinated by what had taken place in this very town. She knew Colonial Williamsburg as a tourist attraction and had walked through the museums at Jamestown and Yorktown, but those excursions only impacted her on a surface level.
With Mary’s diary, Aury now felt connected to the past in a way she never had before. She felt as if she was reliving history through a friend’s eyes.
In her furor to figure out what actions had made Sarah hide the family treasures—whatever those might be—Aury pulled maps and old letters from the archives.
Once again, she’d become so immersed in her research, she was surprised to hear the librarian announce closing time. Aury reluctantly packed up what she had been working on and returned some of the books to the area to be reshelved. The others, she took to the checkout desk.
* * * * *
Gran put the last of her belongings into the waiting suitcase and zipped the top closed. “Let’s get going. I need to see what kind of shape my house is in after so many days away.”
Aury picked the suitcase up off the bed. “The electricity came on yesterday. The neighborhood is getting back to normal. And it’s not as noisy now that the generators have been switched off.”
“I should get one of those,” Gran commented. “Would’ve saved the food in my fridge.”
“You didn’t have that much. I threw it all away already.”
“Thank you, child.” Gran put her arm around Aury’s waist as they walked down the hall and out of the rehabilitation hospital.
“We found the next clue,” Aury said, as she slid into the driver’s seat.
“You did? Where?”
Aury told her about digging up the tin at the base of the tree. “But now we’re stumped again.”
Gran gave her a sideways look. “That was a really bad pun.”
Aury laughed. “Sorry, it wasn’t supposed to be a pun.”
“So give me the clue.”
They pulled into the restaurant parking lot where they had reservations for dinner. “You’ll have to wait until we get inside. I don’t have it memorized.”
After they were seated and had placed their order, Aury pulled out her notes and read the poem.
“Stay on dry land
With water under your feet.
As we carefully planned
Stay out of the heat.
“We think the dry land over water could be a bridge and out of the heat could mean in the shade,” Aury said.
“Could be. But sounds too straightforward for your writer. She seems to be a little trickier than that.” Gran rolled the stem of her water glass between her fingers as she thought. “What did you find at the library?”
Aury turned the page. “As part of the Army of the Potomac, the chief engineer Brigadier General AA Humphreys was sent to do a reconnaissance of the area so the Union troops could take Richmond from the east in 1862.”
She went on. “Mary’s diary says they heard gunshots and got scared. That would make sense. The Battle of Williamsburg was raging across the James River. Sound carries over water.” Aury handed her grandmother a map and pointed to the spot where Eastover was located.
“What does this have to do with the puzzle?” Gran asked.
“What if James and Noah got caught up in the fighting? That’s why they didn’t come back.”
Gran nodded along with Aury’s enthusiastic musings.
Aury glanced at her notes again. “The Confederate force, known as the Army of the Peninsula, led by General John Magruder, created ruses to fool invaders as to the size and strength of their forces. It slowed them down. What if they came up the James River? Mary or Sarah could have been scared enough to hide their valuables.”
A waiter placed their meals in front of them. “Eat your food before it gets cold,” Gran said.
Aury shoveled a bite into her mouth but kept talking. “The Civil War was heating up then. In the spring of 1862, the Peninsula Campaign saw a lot of fighting as the Union troops tried to take Richmond from the east. Surry would have been a natural place to stop and regroup. What if they did something to Mary? That would explain why she stopped writing in her diary.”
“You could be right. It was a brutal time.”
“Where would I find informat
ion about Mary and her family?”
“Churches keep birth and death records. If they were buried nearby, you could check headstones,” Gran suggested.
“That’s brilliant!” Aury jumped to her feet.
Gran gestured sternly at the chair. “Sit down, young lady. They’ve been dead this long. They aren’t going anywhere.”
Aury sat, replacing the napkin in her lap. She could barely contain her excitement as she finished her dinner.
Chapter 27
April 24, 1862
Mary was exhausted as she rested on her haunches to relieve her back. The hospital floors were in constant need of scrubbing, and all the women took shifts to keep them clean. She would be glad when this week was over, and she could return to Eastover and her children.
She thought of them constantly. Sarah would run a fine household someday, and even Frederick was taking his part as the man of the house seriously. He and Thomas had constructed a fence of sorts to keep the rabbits out of the garden. It leaned a bit where they couldn’t sink the posts deep enough, but it held.
The extra food Mary was able to take home extended their stores. While she was getting thinner, the kids appeared to have grown each time she returned home. Frederick’s pants were too short now; she made a mental note to check the general store for material. She could always write to her father but wasn’t quite ready to fill him in on their situation yet. She was sure his textile mills were busy producing uniforms for the Union soldiers.
Besides, getting a letter through the Confederate forces to the north may be too difficult under the present circumstances.
The hospital matron walked by, pulling Mary out of her reverie and to the task at hand. She leaned into her work, anxious to finish before supper rounds.
Chapter 28
Present Day
Aury pored over the old maps, searching for a bridge symbol. Scott was right; there were no markings for rivers or streams on the property. The nearest water source was the James River, and they hadn’t built a bridge over it until early 1900s.
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