“Oh, Adam, he’ll be all right, won’t he?”
He looked at her trembling lips, then laid Charles down and took her into his arms. “Yes, Molly, we’re all going to be all right—thanks be to God!”
Charles opened his eyes suddenly and looked up at them, saying feebly, “If you can spare the time, lovers, I’d like to get this thing out of my chest.”
His thin voice drew Adam and Molly back to reality. They knelt beside him and Adam took Charles’s hand, as he said, “You saved my life, Charles. I guess I owe you my life now, don’t I?”
Charles Winslow’s thin lips turned upward in a smile that ignored the pain, and looking up in Adam’s eyes, he whispered so faintly that they had to lean forward to understand his words: “I guess Father would have been pretty proud—of me—do you think so, Adam?”
“Very proud!” Adam agreed, smiling down at Charles and adding, “You saved the House of Winslow this day, brother!”
EPILOGUE
Mrs. Edwards was busy trying to wash the ears of her grandson, so when someone knocked at the front door, she called out, “Jonathan! You’ll have to see who’s at the door!”
The old rambling house at the Indian reservation had been a haven for the Edwardses, for after the hectic days at Northampton the lazy Connecticut village of Stockbridge had been quiet and restful. Not the least of the attractions for Jonathan Edwards was the huge room he had appropriated for a study. Here he had written the books that were beginning to make him famous, and now as he came through the door, he carried a stack of books in his hands with papers sticking out as markers.
“I’ll get it,” he called out, and putting the books down on a chair, he went down the long, wide hall and opened the door. For one moment he stood struck dumb, for he had expected to see one of his Indian church members.
“Why! Bless my soul!” he exclaimed, and his long face lit up with a broad smile. “Adam—and Molly! Mother—here’s someone for you to see—come quick!”
Jonathan Edwards was not an emotional man, but he stepped forward and embraced Adam, then Molly, all the while beaming and exclaiming, “Bless my soul! I can’t believe it’s really you!”
Mrs. Edwards came in with young Timothy in tow, asking, “Well, who is it—why, Adam, it’s you! And Molly, look how pretty you are!”
They stood there in the wide hall, exclaiming over the young people. Finally Mrs. Edwards ushered them all into the parlor, still towing the boy at arm’s length.
There was a babble of voices as Edwards told how they had learned to love the work among the Indians. Finally his wife looked at the child who was pounding on the floor with a stick apparently made for that purpose. “This is Timmy—Mary and Timothy’s boy,” she said, a hesitation in her voice. She was thinking of how devastated Adam had been when Mary had married Timothy, and she feared that it might arouse bad memories.
Instead, Adam laughed and picked up the boy, tossing him high in the air. “Well, thank God he looks like Mary!” he said with a crooked smile. “But he may be as big as his father! Are they here—Timothy and Mary?”
“Yes, they came two days ago to visit. They’re out for a few minutes, but they’ll be back soon.”
Edwards asked curiously, “And what about you, Adam? What have you been doing?”
Adam gave an abbreviated account of his life since he’d left Northampton, ending by saying, “It’s been a good time for me.”
“And what brings you to Stockbridge?” Edwards asked with a smile. “It’s not on the way to any place else, you know, so you must have come just for a visit.”
“Well, not really,” Adam said. “You remember that Molly was a bound girl, indentured to me for ten years?”
“Yes?”
“Well, Rev. Edwards, the time ran out on her indenture last month, and it disturbed me.”
Edwards gave his wife a puzzled look, then asked in some confusion, “Well, that’s the way those things go, Adam. You wouldn’t want Molly to be a bound girl forever, would you?”
“As a matter of fact, Reverend, I would!”
“But, Adam—!”
“Yes, I’m determined not to let her go free!” Adam announced.
Mrs. Edwards suddenly laughed out loud, and came to Molly and kissed her, then did the same for Adam. Then she looked at her husband and said, “Jonathan Edwards, for all your big words and long books, you are the slowest man on the face of the earth!”
Edwards stared at her, then as Adam put his arm around Molly and smiled up at him, his face lit up. “Oh, my word! You’re going to marry her!”
“I am indeed—and we want you to do the ceremony!”
“Why, my dear boy, certainly I will!”
When Timothy Dwight and Mary came in thirty minutes later, they were as surprised to see the couple as the Edwardses had been, and just as happy. When they heard the purpose of the visit, Mary sniffed and said, “Well, it certainly took you long enough, Adam Winslow! I could have told you this would happen years ago!”
“Would have saved us some trouble if you’d made it clear, Mary,” Adam said with a straight face.
Dwight put his massive arm around Adam and laughed, “You are a lucky man, Adam!”
“When’s the wedding to be?” Mary asked. “I can help you with your gown, Molly.”
“You’d better do it fast,” Molly smiled. “We want to be married now.”
“Right now?” Edwards asked.
“If you will, Reverend.” Adam looked down at his bride with a smile and said, “I’ve wasted too much time as it is!”
There was no little confusion for half an hour, but finally, Adam Winslow and Molly Burns stood before Jonathan Edwards and recited the ancient vows. There was quiet in the room despite the fact that all the Edwardses’ children were there, and as Adam and Molly quietly promised to love each other in the sight of God as long as they lived, a sudden ray of sunlight came through one of the high windows, falling across their faces and forming a golden corona that seemed to Mrs. Edwards much like a crown. She looked at the couple and thought, They are made to love each other. They reached the end of the promises and Jonathan Edwards said, “You are now man and wife.” Adam bent to kiss his new bride, but just before he did, he whispered so softly that only she heard it: “Now, Molly Winslow, you’re my bound girl forever!” She whispered back, “And you’re my very own—bound forever!” Then he kissed her, and they were one.
GILBERT MORRIS spent ten years as a pastor before becoming Professor of English at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkansas and earning a Ph.D. at the University of Arkansas. A prolific writer, he has had over 25 scholarly articles and 200 poems published in various periodicals, and over the past years has had more than 180 novels published. His family includes three grown children. He and his wife live in Gulf Shores, Alabama.
Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
PART ONE
BOSTON
1. The Printer and the Preacher
2. The Winslow Clan
3. Disgraced!
4. A Little Latin
5. A Family Affair
6. Molly
7. The House of Winslow
8. “How Much Trouble Can One Small Girl Be?”
PART TWO
NORTHAMPTON
9. A Brooch of Silver
10. Trip to Boston
11. A Valentine for Molly
12. Charles Finds a Woman
13. “The Best of the Winslows!”
14. Brotherly Love
15. “And the Walls Came Tumbling Down!”
PART THREE
VIRGINIA
16. A Ball at Mount Vernon
17. The Bullets Whistle
18. “I Want to Belong to You!”
19. “Ye Must Be Born Again!”
20. Death at Monogahela
21. Capture the Castle
22. Death in the Afternoon
Epilogue
About the Author
The Indentured Heart Page 28