by Jana Petken
Chapter Fifty-Nine
Isaac was deep in thought as he waited for Jacob to change into warm clothes. Just as he had been leaving Hendry and Belle’s house, Jacob had insisted on going with him to the train station before he, Jacob, headed back to Stone Plantation. He had much to say to his friend, and the journey together would give him the opportunity to finally make peace after the harsh words spoken on the day Jacob left to marry Elizabeth.
Isaac’s decision to go north this morning in such dire weather had been made easier after Sheriff Manning’s announcement: the search for Mercy Carver had been officially abandoned in the Portsmouth and Norfolk area. Isaac had originally thought of making his way north in the spring, but he had changed his mind after this announcement and after considering the worsening political crisis between the Northern and Southern states. This was not a good time to be in the wrong part of the country, where the crisis could easily turn into armed conflict.
He wasn’t looking forward to the long journey ahead of him. On main lines, trains could reach a speed of twenty-five to thirty miles an hour, although he doubted that the journey this morning from Portsmouth to Williamsburg would be quick and easy, given the high probability of thick snow on the tracks.
Once he got to Williamsburg, he would change trains and head to Richmond. From Richmond, another train would go as far as Aquia Creek, and then a distance of fifty-five miles would be covered by steamboat in order to reach Washington, DC. From Washington, he’d take his time, stopping off in New York for a couple of days before taking the final train to Boston.
He had already decided to break his journey in Richmond. It was as good a place as any to begin his search for Mercy. He would employ people to look for her on the coast and farther inland, towards the west. He would order them to make their way north for as long as he thought necessary. They would report directly to him in Boston.
The two men sat in the waiting room on the train station’s small platform. The train had already arrived from North Carolina, and it was being readied after a heated debate between the driver and stationmaster on whether it was safe to run it today or not.
Isaac and Jacob sat in uncomfortable silence. Isaac began at last. “Thanks for coming to the station with me. I appreciate your company.”
“I wouldn’t have it any other way. I’m going back to the plantation right after I leave you. I wanted to talk to you. I’m glad I got back in time to see you before you left. You were right; I was an ass. I’ve made the biggest mistake of my life, and I regret it every day.”
“You’re talking about Elizabeth?” Isaac asked.
“Yep. I should have suffered the consequences and stuck to my decision to call the wedding off. Losing Mercy is far worse than anything the Coulters or anyone else could have thrown at me. They would have gotten over their hurt pride eventually, whereas I will never forgive myself.”
Isaac allowed another pause to settle between them. He had been steadfast in his resolve to make an offer to Mercy. For weeks, he’d planned what to say and how to begin a conversation leading to the question. He’d said the words often in his head: Mercy, come to Boston with me. I want to make you my wife, if you’ll have me. He would have done everything in his power to persuade her that he could offer her a good life and that she would come to love him, given time. He would have faced Jacob, damning the consequences, for Jacob had nothing to offer her now and Isaac did. But Mercy hadn’t come back …
He watched Jacob, who was staring into space, deep in thought. Jacob’s appearance saddened him. His face was gaunt, he looked as though he hadn’t slept in weeks, and it had become obvious that he and Elizabeth did not love each other. During the silence, Isaac wondered what was worse: Jacob loving Mercy, having felt her in his arms and known her love, or Isaac loving her, wanting her, and imagining her in his arms.
Isaac broke the silence again. “I take it you had no luck on your travels. Was there nothing? Not a clue or a word from anyone you met?”
Jacob shook his head. “Nope. I wish I had some good news, but Mercy seems to have disappeared into thin air. I was so sure she would keep to the coast and use boats. But God help her, she hardly had time to see my land, never mind study Virginia. Truth is, she could be anywhere by now.”
“But if she’s not following the coast and sticking to towns with lodgings and supplies, where would she have gone? Surely not west, not in this weather?”
“I don’t know, but it’s a possibility. If she wanted to hide, going west would be the safest bet, I reckon. All I know is that I rode and took packet boats for over seventy miles, and somehow Mercy managed to slip by every port, harbour, lodging house, and supply store without someone taking notice of her. As soon as this damn weather gets milder, I’ll head out again.”
Isaac looked into Jacob’s face with a questioning raised eyebrow. “Jacob, you went on a blind man’s trail with no direction to follow and with no information to arm yourself. You didn’t really expect to find her that way, did you?”
“I had to do something! I thought I could catch up with her,” Jacob snapped back.
“Hey, hold up. I know that, and I would have gone with you if you hadn’t been so bullheaded, running off like that. But you left without questioning the one person who could have given you answers. Damn it, you should have gone to du Pont and beaten the truth out of her before taking off like a bat. Don’t tell me you’re afraid of her?”
Jacob gave Isaac an icy scare. “Don’t be an ass, Isaac. I know what I’m doing, and I know what’s to be done, so don’t you go thinking you know what’s in my head!”
“I would have gone to du Pont’s house, but I guess it wasn’t up to me.”
“You’re right. It’s not up to you. Mercy is my responsibility.”
“She’s not. Your wife is your responsibility,” Isaac shot back.
“Do you really want to fight with me? I came here so we could part on good terms. When are you going to get it into your head that Mercy doesn’t love you? If she did, you would have found that out on the ship. God knows you fawned over her enough.”
“Well, the way I see it, if she’s not here, she ain’t in love with you either.”
Jacob sighed. Isaac was not the friend he had once known. Isaac’s obsession with Mercy had ruined any chance of continuing their relationship on an even keel. He had lost Jacob’s trust. “I came here to say goodbye and to remember the good times with you,” Jacob repeated. “Let’s leave Mercy out of this.”
“Yep, you’re right. You lost her and you’re a damn fool. Guess I don’t have any more to say either.”
“She’s not lost. She’ll be back, and when she comes home, I’m leaving Elizabeth. I’ll take Mercy anywhere she wants to go.”
“I’d appreciate a letter from you if you find Mercy. You can give me that, right?”
Jacob was silent.
“Here’s my address in Boston. Use it. We may be at odds now, but in memory of our friendship, I’m asking you to promise me you’ll write me if you find her.”
Jacob took the folded piece of paper and put it in his coat pocket. “If I get a second chance with Mercy, I’ll leave everything I own to be with her. I will find her, and when I do, don’t you go thinking you’re going to take her from me. We’re friends, but I swear on God’s green earth that I will fight to keep her.”
“Like your slaves?” Isaac said.
“Yeah, like my slaves. I’ll fight Lincoln and the Northern states to keep what’s been in my family for generations, and that includes the slaves on my land, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“Jacob, you and I both know that there won’t be any more slaves soon. Lincoln won’t back down. His policies will stand, and the North will follow him.”
“Well, it looks like some of the Southern states have a mind to secede from the Union, and I can’t say I blame them. Hell, if Virginia joins them, I’ll put on a uniform. I don’t like bullies, and that’s exactly what Lincoln is.”
B
oth men sighed with relief at the sight of the stationmaster, who strode into the waiting room with his blue cap white with snow and a ruddy face longing for warmth. He crossed the room to the log burner in the corner, rubbed his hands together in front of it, and then seemed to remember that he had a job to do. “Train’s ready, folks, so all aboard that’s going aboard.”
“How’s the track looking?” Isaac asked him.
“It ain’t looking so good farther up that line, but we’ve sent men out. Might mean you folks will get stuck a while, but we’ll try our best to keep her moving.”
Isaac nodded and turned to Jacob. “Well, I guess this is it.”
“Yep, this is it, Isaac. We’ve had some good times, you and I. You’ve been a good friend.”
The men shook hands, looked at each other for a moment, and then Isaac turned and walked towards the train.
Jacob watched his old friend board the train and then left the station with one sure thought in his mind: their friendship was over. Coming here had been a mistake. He walked to his carriage, pensive and saddened. He took Isaac’s note out of his pocket and tore it up.
Chapter Sixty
April 1861
April arrived. Gone were the cold, biting winds and relentless snowstorms. Spring rains fell persistently upon the land. The rains caused riverbanks to slide, dislodging small trees, fallen branches, and bare trunks and allowing them to slip into the river’s path. Some of the soil, rushes, logs, and branches barricaded the natural flow of water in places, causing flooding along the riverside and into the woods, making the terrain just as treacherous as winter days, when it was too dangerous to venture farther than the eye could see.
The white landscape surrounding Lina and Charlie’s cabin finally changed. Leaves sprouted from branches, bushes flattened by the harsh winter began to straighten and rise in a kaleidoscope of colours, and the smell of spring air was glorious.
The snow during January and February had put any plans to travel northward on hold. However, Mercy had insisted that she be taught about survival in the terrain that had almost killed her. She spent a great deal of time outdoors. She hunted with Charlie and Nelson and proved herself a worthy trapper. Charlie taught her how to follow trails, even in the snow. He showed her the best way to seek shelter in the very worst of weather, how to set traps for rabbits, and the techniques used to shoot wild boar. On a couple of occasions lately, she had watched how he hunted and killed the great black bear.
She had also spent many days indoors with Lina, who taught her how to cook the local wildlife and clean and treat rabbit and fox furs. At times, the women sat by the fire and talked for hours. Lina was to Mercy the mother she had never known. Mercy was to Lina the child she had never borne.
Lina was in her late fifties, Mercy learned. She had been born a slave in the state of Mississippi. Her grandmother, also born a slave on the same plantation, had been the master’s favourite. She had lain with him when she was just fifteen, and Lina’s mother was the result. Lina spoke about her mother with pride and honoured her memory every day. She had been light-skinned and a beauty. She had gained the attention of black and white men alike.
However, it had been a neighbouring plantation owner who had taken her virginity by force. Lina had been born bordering the two races and fitting into neither. The worst day of her life, Lina said, was the day the neighbouring plantation owner, her father, took her mother away.
Lina had never seen her again. Charlie, a friend of her father’s, had swept her off her feet and paid for her freedom. They had left their home and moved here, where they had lived for over thirty years.
Mercy sat up front with Charlie on the bench seat, watching as he casually steered the horses pulling the covered wagon through backwoods trails and across shallow rivers.
Lina and Nelson sat under the circular canopied roof in the back, hidden from sight, and talked incessantly about the North and the freedom it would bring Nelson.
They had been travelling for just over two days and were heading south-east, to the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay Estuary. They would cross at the widest part of the river to Newport News. The distance from the cabin to their final destination was, in Charlie’s estimation, a little over eighty miles. However, they had broken their journey the day before in a small hunting cabin occupied by white slave sympathisers.
Mercy and Nelson had not been told the full details of the journey they were to undertake. As each mile passed, they heard the incredible stories of runaway slaves aided by the Underground Railroad. This organisation drew on a large network of volunteers, white and black, who spirited fugitive slaves to the North by using waterways, boats, safe houses, and covered wagons that crossed the shallow waters of the Potomac River.
When Lina and Charlie first told Mercy and Nelson of their plans, Mercy had been sceptical. She had already seen the dangers posed by Chesapeake Bay. But as Lina pointed out, she had been ignorant of its secrets, one being the hundreds of slaves who had escaped using the very route Mercy had discarded. Lina and Charlie had been adamant that this was the only way to fulfil Nelson’s dreams of freedom and that it had to be now, before it was too late.
Seven Southern states had already seceded from the Union – among them, Lina and Charlie’s home state of Mississippi. There was talk of war in every mouth in Richmond, as Texas, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, North Carolina, and South Carolina had also disavowed the Union in a display of solidarity against the new president’s anti-slavery policies.
Militias were practicing drills, uniforms were being produced, arms were being collected, and politicians and leaders were being chosen. In the frenzied atmosphere, Virginia waited and watched, believing that she would secede within days to join her sister slave states.
Mercy knew very little about the politics. However, after she learned about the possibility that Virginia might also secede, her thoughts turned to Jacob and what this might mean for him, Belle, and Hendry. Jacob was never far from her thoughts. She still felt his closeness even after these months apart, and she had never stopped believing that they would be reunited.
As they neared the harbour, Charlie halted the wagon. He and Mercy climbed in the back to sit with Lina and Nelson. Charlie was pensive. Sadness crossed his face as he looked at the others.
“Now, I know we’ve all come to care for each other, but I also reckon this is the last opportunity we might have to get this boy to safety. Nelson, son, I ain’t coming with you. I have some very important business to attend to, so I’m leaving you in Lina’s care. My Lina knows these river crossings like the back of her hand. She’s helped dozens of slaves to freedom, and I can’t imagine you in better company. She’s a much better guide than I could ever be.
“Lina will drive the wagon, but you, Nelson, you’ll stay tucked away. You’ll sit behind these old wooden crates until Lina tells you to come out. You hear? I reckon there ain’t much cause to worry because I’m betting just about every other person you meet will be thinking about our country being ripped apart soon. They won’t be paying no heed to this wagon or who’s in it. The most important thing is to keep you out of sight until Lina meets her first contact.”
“Charlie, can’t you come with us?” Mercy asked.
“Nope. Like I said, I got business. You just do like Lina tells you and I’ll be back here in six days. I’ll meet you in Newport News – Lina knows where.”
“I guess this is the last time I’s ever gonna see you,” Nelson said miserably. “You knows I want to stay with you at the cabin. Best home I ever had. I ain’t thinking freedom can get any better than what you gave me. How can I repay you, Mr Charlie?”
“Nelson, if the good Lord is with you and you reach freedom, well, that’s payment enough,” Charlie said. “Just promise me that you’ll learn to read and write. Then you can let us know how you’re doing. We’re gonna miss you, but you’re gonna be free – free, Nelson – and that’s what you should be thinking about.”
Mercy was afraid to spe
ak. She didn’t want Nelson to see her sadness. He had seen enough tears in the last days at the cabin. She had spoken at length to him. She didn’t know if he would heed her words, but she hoped that when he got into Pennsylvania, he would remember her words and act upon them.
She had given him enough money to buy himself a new suit of clothes and provide himself with food, lodgings, and a horse and wagon. Watching his expression now, she could see that he was afraid, yet there was a spark of excitement there too. She sat closer to him and held his hand.
“Nelson, remember what I told you. You don’t have to be alone. When Lina and me get you where you have to be, I want you to do as I said. Mr Isaac Bernstein is a good man. We are very good friends, him, and I. I know he’ll be in Boston by now, and I believe he will want to help you. Boston is far to the north. You might not want to go all that way, but I can’t bear to think of you being alone. Just remember that Isaac’s father is the chief surgeon in the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. You ask for him at that hospital and give him the letter I gave you, along with the address Lina gave you to write to. You keep that letter and that address safe. If you can’t write to us, Mr Isaac will do it for you. I’m sure – no, I know –that Isaac will find you a job and make sure you have a good life.”
“I don’t have no place else to be, Miss Mercy. I done told you that, so I reckon I will go find your Mr Isaac. If you say he’s a good man, then I believe you. Don’t you worry none about ole Nelson.”
Charlie and Lina had a brief and private discussion. After Charlie left them, Lina took over the driver’s seat and headed straight to the harbour.
Darkness had descended, and the roads were clear. They had about a mile to go until the first harbour, which sat next to a small trading station. Lina smiled at Mercy. “Mercy, this is what I live for – this and my Charlie. I think about all the slaves I’ve helped and wonder what they’re doing with their lives right now. I imagine my mother being one of them. I often wonder if she’s happy, but I doubt it. I was lucky. My Charlie loves me, and I love him, but my mother was used. I reckon she’s still slaving away on my father’s plantation. He’s probably had a whole bunch of children just like me by now. But I’ll always love my mother.”