Stowaway in Time

by Cathy Peper

  “The man who did this to me.”

  Diamond thought the guerrilla had it coming, but Janet’s set face scared her.

  “Webers protect what’s theirs.”

  Twenty Five

  Chapter 25

  Jesse and his fellow soldiers received their orders after dinner. They were to march at dawn and engage the enemy. The commissary issued every man rations of food and ammunition.

  As Jesse accepted his supplies, his stomach churned. He’d been in skirmishes, including the successful raid of the Union’s supply wagon, but had never fought in a full battle. The sieges of New Madrid and Island #10 were more a contest of artillery than hand to hand combat. In both instances, the Confederate Army had retreated when the situation grew dire.

  To his surprise, they were banding with the guerrillas. Although most of the officers disliked the lax discipline and lack of order found among the bushwhackers, the truth was they needed all the help they could get. Bands of irregular soldiers, often led by a sworn officer, roamed the state of Missouri recruiting for the Rebel cause. Other groups were little more than outlaws and vigilantes, but they kept the Union soldiers on their toes, attacking their supply lines and picking off small groups when they left the safety of the garrisons.

  Violence had escalated on both sides. No one on either side was safe. Women left to run small farms and men who hoped to remain neutral were fair game to bushwhackers and Jayhawkers. Homes were burned and crops destroyed. Civilians were even killed on suspicion of helping the opposing side. The Union responded by declaring they would shoot guerrillas on the spot, no taking of prisoners. To give some validation to the men who would accompany them, and to try to maintain a semblance of order, the army had given several of the leaders of the bushwhackers Confederate commands.

  Jesse sought out Cole and offered him some tobacco. They two men rolled a cigarette and sat to smoke it as the sun dipped below the trees. Their camp was quieter than normal as men wrote letters to their loved ones or scrawled out makeshift wills disposing of their assets.

  “You write a letter to your wife?” Cole asked.

  “Not a new one. Still got the old one, leaving her everything I’ve got. Which is mostly hers anyway.” He made a face. “The old man won’t give up anything till the bitter end. He enjoys dangling the threat of disinheritance over us. If I don’t make it back, I hope he leaves something to Diamond, but there’s no guarantee.”

  “She won’t really need it. She will have the dowry.”

  “True enough.” But other than Ari, Bryce, Victoria, and Sebastien, who were already well past their expected life spans, he was the only one who knew the truth about her. The only one she could depend upon.

  Cole took a deep drag and then blew the smoke out of his lungs. “Your sister really going to marry Finn?”

  “Father finally agreed to a dowry.”

  “Losing his hold over Janet.”

  Jesse nodded. “He couldn’t hold her forever without making her an old maid, but she’ll still listen to him.”

  “Seems to me your sister has a mind of her own.”

  “No question about that, but they see eye to eye on a lot of things. I’m the rebel. And now Jack is, too.” Jesse still found it hard to believe his brother had deserted the Union Army and joined the guerrillas. “Janet may end up inheriting everything.”

  Cole snorted. “Your father won’t let a Union sympathizer like Finn take over his farm.”

  “Depends how the war goes.” Knowing the Union would prevail, Jesse thought it not at all unlikely that Finn and Janet would end up taking it all. His father had made a tactical error assigning Jack to the Union and Jesse to the Confederacy. He savored the last of his cigarette before stubbing it out. “Diamond claims smoking is bad for you.”

  “Where did she get such a silly idea?”

  Jesse shrugged. He couldn’t tell his friend that in the future scientists would link tobacco use to cancer and other diseases.

  “Bet she doesn’t want you to drink either. Women ruin all the fun.”

  “She says it’s not as bad as smoking, but admits she’s biased since she enjoys wine—and sometimes even stronger stuff.”

  “She raided Father’s liquor stash,” a voice spoke from behind him.

  Jesse turned his head, but he had already recognized his brother’s voice. “Jack, what are you doing here?”

  “We’re riding with you boys tomorrow,” Jack said.

  Jesse motioned for him to take a seat. “Want some tobacco? Diamond says it will kill you.”

  Jack lowered himself to the ground. He wore the typical garb of the guerrilla, a handmade embroidered shirt with extra pockets for his pistols. He was thinner than the last time Jesse had seen him, but then they both were from living on army rations and covering many miles a day.

  “Considering what we will face tomorrow, I think I can take the risk,” Jack said. Jesse passed it over and Jack lit up. “I never expected my little brother to beat me to the altar.”

  Cole stood. “I’ll let the two of you catch up. Make an early night of it. Dawn comes quicker than you think.”

  Jesse watched his friend amble off before replying. “Since you’ve met Diamond, I’m sure you understand how I couldn’t let her get away.”

  Jack made a sound of agreement. “I understand she came with a sizable dowry.”

  “That’s not what I meant.”

  “Just teasing you, brother. Diamond appears to be a fine woman. And you left me the delectable Amy.”

  “Why did you do it?” Jesse asked. He’d wondered about it for days. Amy also had a dowry, but he didn’t think Jack was a fortune hunter.

  “Why not? She’s beautiful, loyal to the cause, and the only daughter of wealthy parents.”

  “Why not court her? Her parents might disown her for eloping.”

  “I don’t think they will. They have no other children. And life as an outlaw leaves no time for courting. I rarely stay two nights in the same place.”

  “Does Amy like the nomadic lifestyle?”

  “She doesn’t travel with me all the time. I leave her with friends, get back to her when I can. But it’s not what she’s used to.”

  They sat in silence for a few minutes. Jesse cleared his throat. “Good to know we will be on the same side tomorrow. Often had nightmares about encountering you on the battlefield.”

  “Knew I could best you, huh?”

  “Not likely,” Jesse shot back, but he never would have been able to fire upon his own brother and hoped Jack felt the same.

  “I couldn’t do it anymore. Felt like a traitor to my people. How could Father ask me to do that?”

  “He thinks the North will win, and he’s probably right.”

  “No, we may never regain Missouri, but the South will not go down without a fight.”

  They’d fight to the bitter end, but they wouldn’t win. “We should listen to Cole and get some sleep.” He felt weird knowing the future, knowing he was fighting a losing cause. Even if he had never wholeheartedly believed in it, he hated to see his way of life come to such a bitter end. He looked into his brother’s deep blue eyes, so like his own. “Be careful, Jack.”

  “Likewise.” Jack blew out a ring of smoke. “Let’s not make our brides widows.”

  Twenty Six

  Chapter 26

  They rode into town as the sky turned pink and caught the Union contingent unaware. A few shots were all it took to subdue the unit and take them prisoner. Then the looting began.

  It was unlike anything Jesse had ever seen before. He had mostly been on the losing side, fleeing New Madrid under the cover of darkness and then experiencing the doomed withdrawal from Island #10. Since riding with General Price, he’d seen some victories, but against fellow soldiers, shooting at one another across fields or within the woods. This was something different.

  But not for the guerrillas. For all their lack of a command chain, they systematically busted down the doors of all the houses,
capturing any adult males and taking whatever caught their eyes. It didn’t take long for Jesse’s fellow soldiers to learn the drill and soon the air was full of smoke and the cries of frightened women and children as their husbands and fathers were dragged from their homes.

  “Come on,” Jack called, gesturing for Jesse to follow him into a small brick house. Jesse pulled his pistol as they entered the house, his stomach tight with dread. A woman stood by the kitchen table, a plate of bacon and eggs in her hands. The tantalizing smell of grease hung in the air.

  “Don’t shoot,” she said.

  “Where’s your husband?” Jack asked.

  “With the army.”

  “Which army?”

  The woman’s gaze skittered to the side. “The Confederate Army.”

  She was lying. “Search the house,” Jesse said, keeping his gun trained on the woman. Jack complied, returning a few minutes later carrying a pillowcase.

  “No one here but two kids. The husband’s either off fighting or he slipped away.” He walked up to the woman and grabbed a handful of bacon off the plate. “They might have some food set aside.”

  “Why don’t you put that down, ma’am, and have a seat,” Jesse said.

  Slowly, the woman set the plate down.

  Hungry, but sick to his stomach, Jesse stepped forward and helped himself to some food while Jack raided the pantry. He kept a close eye on the woman, the skin on his back twitching, expecting at any moment an attack from behind. “Hurry up.”

  Jack filled the pillowcase and slung it over his shoulder. “All done.”

  They left the house and moved on to the next one, continuing the pattern. They found a man hiding under the bed in one house and took him to the center of town where they were holding the captives.

  “I just want to live my life,” the man complained as they pushed him along. “Don’t own any slaves, never have, but I got no beef with those who do. I keep to myself.”

  “Our orders are to restrain all adult males,” Jesse said.

  “We don’t owe him an explanation.” Jack shoved the man, although he was already moving.

  Jesse glared at him.

  “What? He should pick a side.”

  They turned the man over to the guards.

  “We should take any men wearing a Union uniform prisoner and get out of here,” Jesse asked as they headed towards another house.

  “It won’t take long to strip the town of anything valuable.”

  “This might be how you usually operate, but you’re with a real regiment now. We’re not thieves.”

  “Might as well what we can. It all goes to the cause.”

  “It’s not right,” Jesse muttered to himself.

  They entered another house, guns at the ready but perhaps overconfident from their earlier success. Jesse held a woman and child at gunpoint while Jack ransacked the place. Neither saw the teenage boy until he rose from behind the couch and fired at Jack.

  The blast shattered the quiet. Jesse raised his gun, ears ringing from the gunshot and Jack’s yell. He pulled the trigger without thinking, watching in mingled horror and relief as the boy fell, blood staining his plaid shirt. The woman screamed, a high pitched keening sound, and she ran to her son even as Jesse ran to Jack.

  His brother lay slumped on the floor, a jar of broken pickles near his hand. Blood blossomed on the back of his shirt. Jesse turned him over and Jack moaned. A larger stain marred the front. “Jack? Can you hear me? We’ve got to get out of here.” He slid an arm behind Jack’s back and raised him to a sitting position.

  “Can you stand?” Jesse slung Jack’s arm around his shoulder and lifted. As he struggled with his brother’s weight, the woman came at him with the gun, using it as a club to beat him about the head and shoulders. Jesse grunted as his vision blurred and Jack slid from his grasp. He wrenched the gun from the woman with one hand and slapped her with the other.

  “Kill her,” Jack muttered.

  “She doesn’t matter. You do,” Jesse said. Blood trickled from his head as he bent once more to the floor. This time he got Jack to his feet. His brother leaned heavily against him as they staggered out the door. Some houses had been set alight and smoke hung in the air. Screams and scattered gunfire chased them along the dusty road as they weaved back to the center where a makeshift infirmary had been set up alongside the corralled prisoners.

  One man lay on the ground, dead from the looks of him, while another swore a string of profanities as a doctor pulled a knife from his arm.

  “My brother’s been shot!” Jesse laid Jack on a stretcher.

  “Put pressure on the wound,” the doctor said. He bandaged his current patient’s arm before turning his attention to Jack. He cut open Jack’s shirt. The bullet had torn through his side, just under the rib cage. “Looks like it went straight through. Best I can do here is to bandage him up and hope the wound doesn’t go bad.”

  “Clean it first.”

  The doctor wiped a bead of sweat from his brow. “I’ll wipe the blood clear, but I’ve no time to waste. I’m the only doctor here.”

  Jesse remembered how insistent Diamond had been about keeping his injury clean. “Give me the bandage and I’ll do it.”

  The doctor’s eyes narrowed, but then he shrugged and tossed over a roll of linen. Muttering under his breath he moved on to his next patient, another gunshot victim.

  “You heard the doc, just bind it up.”

  “It’s important.” Jack tore a section off the roll, doused the wound with water from his canteen and gently dabbed at it.

  Jack cried out, twisting in agony.

  “Hold still.”

  “You trying to kill me? Get your damn hands off me.”

  Jesse ignored him, following the same procedure on the entry wound. He placed a wad of linen over the holes and tied a bandage around Jack’s waist. By the time he finished, Jack was gray and sweating.

  “Can you ride?”

  “Course I can ride. Been riding since before I could walk.” His words slurred together.

  “I’ll get our horses.” Jesse cast one last worried look at his brother before jogging to where they had left the horses. A surly looking soldier guarded the animals and he spit a stream of tobacco at Jesse’s feet.

  “Leaving so soon. The fun’s barely begun.”

  “I’ve had enough fun.” Enough to last him a lifetime. The face of the boy he’d killed would haunt him forever, but his only regret was that the boy had gotten the jump on them. He should have expected resistance and now his brother’s life hung in the balance.

  Holding the reins of Jack’s horse, he swung up in the saddle of his own. As he pressed his heel to the horse’s flank, another man ran up, his face red.

  The man bent at the waist, catching his breath. “Orders are to move out. Union soldiers on their way.”

  “We’re retreating?” The guard spat again.

  “How long until they get here?” Jesse asked.

  “Infantry’s about an hour out, but cavalry will be here sooner.”

  Jesse swore. “Any provision for the wounded?”

  “Doubt it. This ain’t like a regular battle. Every man for himself.”

  Jesse raced back to Jack. His brother lay where he’d left him, the only sign of life the shallow movement of his chest. He dismounted quickly and gave Jack a gentle shake. “Come on, we’ve got to go.”

  Jack roused at his touch. “Let me be.”

  “No time. Reinforcements are on their way.”

  His words got through. Jack’s mouth firmed. “They can’t get me, Jesse.”

  “I know.” Jesse helped his brother onto his horse before mounting his own. “I’ll set the pace. Let me know if you can’t keep up.”

  “I’ll keep up.”

  If willpower was enough, Jesse knew Jack would make it through. But what if it wasn’t? He dug in his heels and they were off. Other men were fleeing, kicking up a cloud of dust, but the bulk of the force still harried the town. The tob
acco-chewing guard had abandoned his post, whether to retreat or join the “fun,” Jesse neither knew nor cared. He followed the dust cloud, pushing Jack as hard as he dared.

  It was a pace they couldn’t maintain. Jack held on grimly, but they soon lost sight of the men in front of them and men coming from behind passed them up.

  “I think we should head south. Or east,” Jesse said. The army was retreating west. “We can’t keep up.”

  “Head for home. We still have friends there.”

  Friends and possibly family. “Diamond and Janet might be there by now. In her last letter, Diamond said they were moving back.”

  “They will help us.”

  Maybe. Diamond had also told him his father had banned Jack from the house and ordered the family to cut all ties to him. He’d never known Janet to cross the old man, but Jack was her brother. Surely blood would prove stronger than familial duty.

  Once again he flirted with desertion, taking his brother to safety rather than following orders. As with Diamond, he found he didn’t care. Sometimes one responsibility outweighed another. He’d owed Diamond his life. And Jack was his brother.

  This was years of training drilled deep. Family came first. Honor second. Jesse hadn’t always agreed with his father, but as the miles melted beneath their horses’ hooves, he felt the rightness. Besides, he owed Jack, too, for that long ago day when his brother had rescued him from the river.

  Though he longed to go full tilt, Jesse kept their pace moderate, still a grueling speed for Jack. After the sack of the town the Union Army would be out for revenge. They would pursue the main body of Rebels, but would they pick up on his and Jack’s trail? And even if they saw it, would they consider it worth splitting their force to go after them? Jesse had no way of knowing, but he slouched low on the saddle, trying to make his back a smaller target.

  They stopped periodically for water and when they neared a stream, Jesse refilled their canteens. Jack had no appetite, but Jesse downed a can of pilfered peaches at one of their brief breaks. The sugar revived him and they pressed on, Jesse drawing to a halt when his brother called his name.