After a minute, Savannah appears from William’s room and leans over the baluster. “What in the world, Lucy?”
There is a Yankee soldier of rank at the front door who begs to speak to you if you please, ma’am!”
Lucy comes down the stairs and says in a low voice, “Why in the world are you talkin’ like that, Lucy?”
“Just you wait and see, Miss Savvy!” says Lucy with a twinkle in her eye.
Bewildered, Savannah grabs Lucy’s arm. “Is it trouble?” she whispers.
Lucy looks her in the eye. “I don’t know if it’s trouble or not, Missy, but you better go open that door!” she says, and jerks her head toward the door.
Savannah walks to the front door and opens it, then gasps. She has never seen a black soldier either.
“Uh…can I help you?” she asks uncertainly.
Black Yankee replies, “Good morning, ma’am! My name is John Pride and I am under orders to search for a missing Union soldier…” he trails off as William bounds down the stairs shouting, “John! John!”
Savannah and Lucy stand as stunned as two squirrels hit with a twin sling-shot as the two Yankees embrace, laugh, whoop and holler. Finally William turns to Savannah. “Savannah, meet John Pride, my best friend in the world! I thought he was dead! We were separated when we last fought on the bridge,” he explains.
John is smiling a broad and beautiful white smile and shaking his head in disbelief. “Holy Balooh!” he keeps saying over and over.
Savannah recovers quickly and shows southern grace. “I welcome you to my home, John Pride! A friend of William’s is a welcome guest here!”
John bows. “Very honored, ma’am!”
William beams with pride at his friend’s wonderful manners and plethora of charm.
“Well, it is our pleasure to have you here!” cries Savannah. “Lucy, don’t we have something in the kitchen for this handsome Yankee soldier?”
“Handsome Yankee soldier of rank!” smiles Lucy, who leads them all into the kitchen, proudly.
William smiles broadly. This is a happy moment for him. He knows how much his friend misses him, and he is mighty proud of his beautiful girlfriend. He knows John is impressed. Privately he ribs John. “Ain’t she a winner?”
“Yeah, boy!” agrees John quietly. But his gaze quickly turns back onto the delicate golden brown face of Lucy.
Savannah welcomes John to the table and then says she must excuse herself for a moment and attend to something. John says thank you and he begins to drink the water. Savannah takes William’s hand and goes back upstairs to the bedroom, trailing William after her. She sits him on the bed and stands in front of him. “William what are we to do with your friend?”
William looks up at Savannah and says, “Well, you gave him food and water, and that is all I can ask of you.”
She looks at him and says, “Now you will return with him to your company.”
But William protests, “No! My place is here with you! I love you and I promised you to stay with you until the end of time. When I said I loved you and wanted what you wanted, I meant it, and if I have to have the whole world think I’m dead then I just will.”
“But…he will report you!”
“No! Are you kidding? We’re blood brothers! He would probably rather stay here with me!”
Savannah cannot believe this. “Are you sure?”
“Oh, yes! He’s the best friend a man ever had! Our companies combined for a battle for the first time nearly a year ago. He saved my life and then I saved his. We kept each other alive. Our companies do part and then cross again sometimes. But him and me, we keep in touch and we… fight together.”
“I see.” Savannah looks away to wipe the picture from her mind of the two of them killing men in grey uniforms. She’ll not fault them for that. It’s not their fault. It’s nobody’s fault. It’s war and they all obey…and they all try to survive. That’s all there is. It’s a job, like her running the plantation and raising the twins is a job. It’s her job, and you do a job just because it must be done. You do your duty.
“But if you tell him you will stay here with me, what will he think of that?”
“He won’t care! He would never turn me in! He wants me to live. He wants me to survive. Him and me…we are an army of our own. We protect each other. Can you understand that?”
Savannah thinks of the day with the children in the nursery.
“Oh, yes. I understand it perfectly. In this house, we are an army, too.”
William smiles. “Yes, I know…and Lucy is the General!”
“Well, now we are a sort of democracy, I reckon!” Then she adds proudly, “I learned about democracy from my governess! Daddy had me educated!”
William chuckles and pulls her close.
“Well, I thought there was something different about you!” he teases. Then he becomes serious.
“If I do not return to the army but stay here to protect you, could you respect that? Would you feel like I am a deserter?” he asks.
“I don’t rightly know what is truly possible for us, but whatever we do, we will do it together, for all of us!” says Savannah. “If it is best for Abe and Abigail that you stay with us or take us somewhere else, or that we wait for you here, then that is just what I plan to do.”
“And so do I! I don’t care if I go back or not! You are my family. This is my loyalty. You saved my life. John has saved my life. Others left me to die. They will leave you to die, too, and even those babies.”
“Yes, I know. Sherman would have burned this house to the ground and let us freeze. He has done it to many. I don’t know why he didn’t burn our house!”
A serious, ashen look comes over William’s face. He looks at Lucy, thinking deeply. Then he speaks quietly and deliberately.
“Savannah, the reason Sherman did not have your house burned was because of me. I was missing and my company traced me to this area. They suspected I might be in one of your buildings, or even in the house. They are searching for me, both sides. Yes, General Sherman is sending men to find me, to save me… or…bury me. And the Rebs…they want to find me, too.”
“To kill you?” she asks.
“No. Robert E. Lee wants to ransom me.”
Savannah frowns, not understanding. William goes on.
“He wants to ransom me to Sherman.”
Savannah is looking at William with alert eyes, thinking sharply, listening carefully, saying nothing.
“The south is getting desperate. These are the last days. Lee is fighting to the end. He needs an advantage. Lee is a great general, but right now…”
“But why you? Why would they ransom you?”
As she looks in his eyes, she knows he does not want to tell her. But he must. Finally he says it quietly.
“Savannah, I am the son of General William Tecumseh Sherman. I am William Sherman junior. To trade for me, my father will make a compromise to the Rebs and they know it. He will not give over the whole war, no, but he will make some compromise. It is a compromise the Rebs will kill for right now. They need it.”
Savannah suddenly feels sick to her stomach. Her knees feel weak, like they will not hold her. She drops down to sit on the bed and holds on to the post. For a moment she is light-headed.
William drops to his knees in front of her and covers her hands with his. “Savannah, does it make a difference?”
She looks at him. “I don’t know. Does it?”
“No! Except we will use it to our advantage.”
“Can you leave your father?”
“I haven’t left him! I was wounded; I nearly died! I am in a hospital here. Except for you, I would be dead! My father thinks I am dead. They are searching for my body, Savannah!”
“But you must go back when you are well. Soon.”
“No!”
“But…how? Will you lose your father?”
“No, you and I will make a plan to manipulate things to our advantage until the war is over. And it will work
. The war is nearly over. It will only be a few months. I don’t have to desert. I can just mend and…maybe serve somehow. They won’t put me back in battle again. In fact, I am trained as a…special messenger. John and I both are.”
“A special messenger.” Savannah processes that through her mind. When it hits her, she jumps to her feet.
“Oh dear God! You are a spy!”
William smiles. “I am not spying on you, little Savannah! Yes, I did have the job of delivering important information that was sent to us by spies sometimes like locations, dates, plans, and so forth. But it was just a job, an important job! I was the General’s son. I was trusted with important information for him, of course I was! I did my job and so did John. So do we all.”
“Yes, we do.” Savannah said. As she sat taking it all in, Savannah realized to her surprise that it really made no difference to her. Somehow, she didn’t care at all. She was glad he had such an “important” job in his army, and that he did it well…and that he was someone of honor. A general’s son. But Sherman’s son! She sat there processing it as fast as she could, and he gave her time to think. And he knew what she was thinking.
“I am Sherman’s son, yes. And he has burned and burned, yes, dear God, I know he has! And it’s horrible. I don’t agree with it! I’m just his son. I’m just a soldier…In fact, I asked him about it once. I said, is it really necessary?
“What did he say?” asked Savannah in amazement.
“He knocked me to the ground with one blow! He said, ‘You are a soldier. Don’t you ever question your senior officer again! You don’t ask a General whether your orders are necessary! Do you realize another general might have someone in your position shot for that? This is war, boy!’ And I never questioned him again. But I have my own thoughts. It makes me sick, but a lot about war makes me sick. They way John and his colored company are treated makes me sick. I love him. I respect him. I know him. He deserves better. But actually, because of his friendship with me, and because he saved my life, and because Sherman is my father, John has advantage now. He is treated better than his other…company. I can’t do anything about that. But I can be loyal to him and to you. I can make my choices. And we can use all our information to create our family and start over! Soon, Savannah, when the war is over! All we have to do is survive it. And wait.”
“But you will desert your father?”
“They will not send me into battle again! I am too wounded. I don’t have to desert! All we need is time. It will be over soon.”
“But how can you know how soon the war will end?”
William looks at her quietly.
“Oh,” she says, hanging her head.
“Don’t ask me,” he says. “Not until after the war. Then I can tell you.”
Savannah looks him in the face.
“No, don’t ever tell me! I don’t ever need to know!”
“That would be best.”
“You be loyal to me and I will be loyal to you!” exclaimed Savannah.
William smiled, a big, happy, relieved smile.
“Yes, darling! Exactly. We will do whatever is best for us. It won’t be hard. It will be easy. You’ll see. All we really have to do is wait.”
“Yes, William, but…even after the war, will your father accept a southern woman for your wife?”
“That makes no difference!” says William, as firmly and authoritatively as any general ever gave an order. Savannah knows he means it.
“I have made my commitment to you, Savannah. I have made my choices. It is what he always taught me…duty and commitment are everything. The war is over, Savannah. For you and me, it is over!”
Savannah sighs and drops her face into her hands. That is the most welcome statement she has ever heard.
“I am William Sherman, Jr., Savannah. I already own a house and property of my own in Virginia. You own this place. We can make our own choices. I don’t want to lose my father, but…if he leaves me because of this, I will let him go. I want to be your husband. I will leave my family and cling to you. That is how it should be.”
“Yes, it is!” Savannah agrees happily. She has found the man of her dreams. The man who thinks like she does. And she knows she can make a future with this man, with loyalty and commitment, for a lifetime. It is much like her father and mother were. She squeezes his hands tight.
“Are you sure my love? I don’t want you to regret it or hate me for it later.”
William stands up and cradles her face in his hands so she looks up at him.
“I will not ever hate you! I will never leave you; this I promise on my love for you.” He bends over her to kiss her and they lower onto the bed, William on top of her. It feels so good. She feels so safe. She feels so loved.
Meanwhile downstairs Lucy does dishes while John sits and eats. John has been admiring the way Lucy handles the dishes. In fact, John has been admiring the way Lucy handles everything. He has seldom seen a finer woman. Her pretty face is set off by a red kerchief tightly tied around her hair, an unusual patterned scarf that sets off her red-brown eyes.
Finally Lucy sits down with him at the table.
“That’s a might pretty kerchief on your head, if I may say so, Miss Lucy. It sets off your real pretty eyes.”
Lucy laughs and turns away a little.
“Oh, this old thing! I brung this back from Baton Rouge!” she says proudly, pronouncing it “Baa-TONE-rouge.”
“Do tell now! And when was you travelin’ to Baton Rouge?” John asks, pronouncing it the same way.
“Well, the family went up with Master Asher on a business trip back when the twins was still little, and the Missus needed all the help she could get with them bein’ twins, you know, and so a’ course I went along. But Lord, that is a mighty different place, Baton Rouge!”
“Yes, I have been through there,” said John.
“The colored women wears their hair pinned up like this, in these very pretty, colorful scarfs like this one, and they speaks a funny kind of talk that’s got a French accent in it, you know. Cause that’s what they is up there, you know, they is Frenchmen.”
“Yes,” said John.
“And the ones that is mixed white and colored together, they ‘s called somethin’ special…”
“Creoles,” said John.
”Yas, that be it! And they dances strange and beautiful around a fire at night, and sings, and wears right bright colored clothes, too. Unless they is, of course, just field hands.”
A solemn look came on John’s face and he was quiet a minute.
“You and your Miss Savannah seems to live here unprotected. Don’t that worry you?”
“We have the two field hands, Sam and Elijah, and me and Miss Savannah can handle ourselfs, you be sure of that!”
John looks thoughtful and begins to eat again. Lucy props her elbows on the table, sets her face on her fists and sighs. “It seems that anything can happen in this strange new world!” she says.
“Well, these are bad days and good days, Miss Lucy. We’ll have to take whatever comes to us.”
Lucy looks at him sharply. “We always do, don’t we?”
John hesitates before he answers. He is proud to be a free colored man, but still mighty ashamed at the indignity of the colored people. And in his eyes, Lucy is still a slave. He asks her outright.
“Are you glad to be a slave?”
“Miss Lucy is not a slave! Miss Lucy is a free woman!” she exclaims.
John’s eyes sparkled.
“Oh? Howz that?”
Lucy leans into John and speaks earnestly. Rarely does anyone ask her about herself or her opinions, cares and thoughts. She is glad and proud to tell her story.
“Well, Savannah and her family, they was from old money. They loved to travel around a lot. One year they traveled to the old place, Africa, for vacationing while Master Asher bought slaves to work on the plantation. He carried ‘em home hisself. They was healthier that way.”
John’s face grew seri
ous and he was silent. He was very puzzled as to how she talked of slavery as if it did not affect her.
“Master Asher is out one day whilst her mother, Miz Meredith, and her sister, Miss Bettina, and her goes to the local street markets. Whilst shoppin’, they spy a woman standin’ in a corner, all dirty and hurt. Savannah, bein’ curious, could not help but go to check on the woman. Her mother, she only realize Savannah has walked away when she turn around to ask her about a beautiful rainbow scarf she is lookin’ at. Frantically she and Miss Bettina go lookin’ for her. When they finally find her she is sittin’ next to the woman on the ground and holding her hand. Miz Meredith tells Savannah, come over to me, child! But spunky Miss Savannah, she says, ‘No Mummy, this woman is hurt! I want to help her.’ See, Savannah was always like that, John, always kind and helpful if you was hurtin’.”
“Miz Meredith looks at the woman and realize she is injured, and ask the woman if she can walk. The woman replies ‘Yes, Mum.’ Miz Meredith then tells her to follow them back to the house. Savannah asks her, what is your name? The girl replies, ‘The missionaries calls me Lucy, Miss.’ And that girl was just me, John!”
John’s eyes pop open. “True enough?” he asks.
“True for sure!” says Lucy with delight. “But wait, there’s more!”
Lucy continues telling her amazing story in the third person, amusing John, but he does not crack a smile. She is a strange black woman, to be sure, but he loves the unique way this traveled woman talks, sometimes sophisticated and sometimes very slave, yet always with dignity and simple truth. Her African accent is beautiful and exotic to him.
“Then Savannah tells Miss Bettina to help to hold Lucy up and they goes back to the house. Once there, Miz Meredith has a doctor come and tend to Lucy. After Savannah’s daddy come home, he was told of what happen while they was out shopping. Master Asher ask, is little Lucy going to be well? That’s what he call me, little Lucy! Miz Meredith, she reply, ‘I had the doctor come and tend to her wounds, and she is resting in the spare bedroom,’ just like I was a lady visitor invited to her home! I knew then they was good white people!”
“As they continue to vacation, Savannah would ask to stay behind to stay with me. At first her mother is uneasy, but she allows it. As the months pass, me and the family grew very close-like, and Lucy—what was me--become a care keeper to Savannah, since she was the younger of Bettina and her. Master Asher tells me I is free to come home with them or stay in the old country. ‘On the Dark Continent,’ he call it. But my village is burnt and my Secondi people all gone…”
Forbidden Plantation Passions Ebook, Parts 1, 2, and 3 Page 6