by Hines, Jerri
“I spend most of my days at the Charleston hospital. If you want to help, you can do so there. I will send a telegram and see what I can do for Derek.”
“I don’t care what you say! I am going,” Jenna railed. “Derek has no one else…not with both his parents dying of typhoid and his brother fighting Heaven knows where.”
“Jenna, perhaps Andrew is right,” Jo interceded. “I understand you are upset, but it is not reasonable…”
“Reasonable! I’m sick to death of being sensible. I have always been the obedient daughter, but if it was you, Jo…you would not be questioned! Not you! We have to keep Jo happy!”
Shocked by the venom in Jenna’s voice, Jo’s expression dropped. “Jenna, how could you say such a thing?”
“How can I not? If it had been Wade, no one would hesitate to go. Why is Derek different? He is as much family as you and has not put the family through what you have!” Jenna shouted, lifting her red, swollen face from her mother’s knee. “Tell me that you would not! Do not pretend that you have no knowledge of what I say. Not after everything that has happened because of you!”
“Jenna, that is quite enough!” Mother Montgomery gasped. “Don’t take out your unhappiness on Jo. We all have suffered these last few months.”
Rising to her feet, Jenna would not be calmed. She lashed out. “Yes…yes, we have suffered, but none like Josephine. We have to suffer in silence. I will be silent no more.”
“Lord Almighty, Jenna, hush!” Andrew said, sharp and direct.
An awkward moment of silence followed. Jo’s eyebrows rose as she stared at her sister-in-law in disbelief. She understood that Jenna was distraught, but it was a mortifying thing to hear such animosity in her voice directed at her.
The siblings faced each other; their eyes locked. Then, slowly, the tense lines on Andrew’s face eased. “Your anger should be at me, sister. Not Josephine.”
Despite Andrew’s words to redirect Jenna’s emotions, Jo was on the verge of hysteria herself. Battle after battle, disaster after disaster had well-worn on her nerves, but, now, she had come to the realization that the family resented her presence.
She wrung her hands and glanced back and forth between the three of them. For a brief moment, comprehension swept through her. Why would they not? Had her papa not forced her union with Wade and threatened to take away their way of life if they had not complied with his proposal?
With Wade’s death, Magnolia Bluff had fallen to her and her children. Reprimanding herself greatly, she had wrapped herself in a cocoon of grief, thinking only of herself…her children. Good Lord, did they not know they were her family…her only family? She choked back her own welling tears.
Taking a step back, Andrew rubbed his forehead as if his head hurt. His frown was deep and fierce. “I have tried to keep from you women our predicament, but it was foolish.” His attention turned to his sister. “You have misdirected your anger. It is not just because it is not fitting for you to travel, but it is because we have to be frugal with our money.”
“Are we paupers?” Jenna brushed away tears.
“No, of course not, but the war has caused us a hardship. We are in better shape than most plantations in the area, but Confederate money has dropped its worth and prices have risen dramatically. We have not been able to get our crops to market.”
The news was not shocking to Jo. Already, changes had occurred on the plantation. White flour had become scarce and cornbread had replaced biscuits and rolls at meals, but Magnolia Bluff had been fortunate that food was on the table for every meal, most of it being harvested from their own fields. It was not only the family who had to be fed and clothed, but the slaves as well, stretching their limited resources.
Once what had been a profitable crop, cotton had dropped to five cents a pound. Rice had suffered a similar fate, commanding no price outside of South Carolina. The blockade kept the money crops to rot in the fields or cotton to be stored to be sold after the war.
“Surely, it is not as bad as all that, Andrew.” Mother Montgomery fanned herself profusely. “You are scaring us.”
“I do not mean to scare you, Mother,” Andrew continued. “But you must face certain truths. Wade committed a great deal of money to two of Hampton’s regiments besides what we committed to the government. It would be foolish to expect the government bonds to be paid back in the immediate future. We need only to be prudent.”
Jenna regained a small bit of composure. Silent tears fell from her eyes. “Dear brother, my heart can’t accept I can do nothing. I fear for Derek.”
His head shook in a slow manner. Andrew said in a subdued voice, “I wish there was more that I could do.”
Clutching her hand to her heart, Jenna visibly flinched and seemed to lose her balance. Andrew gripped her arm and helped her sit.
“I have to go to him.” Jenna sobbed.
“Quite impossible,” Andrew said firmly.
As she looked into Jenna’s face, Jo saw herself. If it had been Wade, nothing…nothing would have kept her from him…if only Wade had been injured. What if Derek didn’t survive his injuries? What would she have done to see Wade one more time!
From the corner of her eye, she saw Percival run up the steps to see what all the commotion was about, followed by a worried Anna. Poor Mother Montgomery could do little to comfort Jenna.
“I think she should go.” Jo spoke in a soft voice, but all eyes turned on her, shocked and in disbelief. Jo reaffirmed her statement. “I think Jenna should go to Richmond.”
****
The trunk was packed and locked; the tickets bought. Jenna was prepared to go north, accompanied by Rosa. The journey would be arduous; the railroads were in bad shape. Jo watched the carriage loaded up with Percival at her side. His pout proved the little one wasn’t happy at being left behind.
Already seated, Andrew waited to take his sister to the train. The arrangements had been made. Telegrams sent. Mrs. Reese was to meet Jenna at the train station and Jenna was to stay at the same boarding house.
Good-byes said, Jenna gripped the carriage door and then hesitated. She ran back to Jo and hugged her tightly. “Thank you…thank you.”
“Go and bring him home,” Jo encouraged.
Standing with Mother Montgomery, Jo watched until the carriage was out of sight. A moment later, she felt her mother-in-law’s hand grip hers.
“She will be fine. Have faith.”
“I know she needed to go. It is hard, though…” Mother Montgomery’s voice faltered.
A moment of silence ensued. Jo prayed that Jenna’s journey would be safe. She would not be able to live with herself if something happened to Jenna now that she was the reason Jenna was allowed to journey to Richmond.
Jenna’s bitter attack had stunned Jo, but the harsh words had woken Jo from the slumbered daze that Wade’s death had caused. For so long, she had had Wade…before him, her papa…to protect her from the rapacious world about her. She had no one now…only herself.
She had wanted to cry out. Have you forgotten that it was my inheritance that saved Magnolia Bluff? Instead, she finally accepted the truth she had long denied—Wade was gone forever. It was now her responsibility to keep the family together.
Despite knowing that Jenna lashed out her hurt upon Jo, it was humiliating nonetheless to hear the words spoken about one’s self. Pushing back her wounded pride, she did the only thing she knew to do to draw the family back together.
The gold coins Wade had left her in case she had need of them were hidden in her room. She reprimanded herself that she had not done so before. She took them all and gave them to Andrew for the family’s use, alleviating the financial burden of Jenna’s venture.
The final epiphany dawned upon Jo. The war was not only on the battlefield, but on the home front. Jo prepared herself for battle to maintain Magnolia Bluff and the family.
* * * *
Surprisingly, the summer at Magnolia Bluff passed peacefully. The war seemed a distant rumbl
e. Somehow…someway life found a way to continue and sometimes joy filtered into the void within Josephine.
Jenna returned with Derek and the family rejoiced. For two and a half months, Jenna nursed the gravely ill man. Shortly after she arrived in Richmond, the two married at his bedside, not knowing whether he would survive or not. He had.
Derek had been shot twice: once in the back left shoulder—shattering his left arm—and once in the leg. He lost his arm. Moreover, he developed a life-threatening fever. Jenna never left his side during his long recovery and was thankful he improved enough to return back to Charleston.
The family celebrated, but Jo found Derek a different man than the one who had left so enthusiastic for the war. His appearance had changed. He had lost weight and his face was gaunt from his illness. Like so many other soldiers, he had grown a long, thick beard, but it was more than his physical features. Derek’s once outgoing personality had become reclusive, dark and brooding.
Derek tried to be cordial and smiled to the point his face was fixed with a hardened expression of embarrassment and exasperation. A proud man, he had no desire to be coddled by the women on the plantation.
Only recently had Derek begun to leave his room and interact with the family. He had not added much to the conversation at dinner, but everyone was pleased with his company. His efforts gave Jenna hope he was healing.
As she neared the end of her confinement, Jo relaxed most evenings in the cool, languid breeze on the piazza. The sound of tree frogs and chirping crickets was laden with peaceful serenity. From her view, she watched her young son toddle behind his grandmother.
By the massive live Virginia oak, Mother Montgomery glanced over her shoulder and then nodded to her maid, Louise. Louise sat down a bundle package and to the delight of Percival, began digging a hole with a shovel.
“What is Mother Montgomery doing?”
Breaking her gaze, Jo turned to find a solitary figure in the open parlor doors, watching the scene. The next moment, Derek eased into a chair across from her.
“Our neighbor, Cora, told Mother Montgomery that she had buried her silver in case the dreaded Yankees invade.”
A strange expression crossed his face. “But she is doing it in full view of everyone on the plantation.”
A small laugh escaped Jo. “We haven’t the heart to tell her that if the Yankees ever made it to the plantation, there would be little doubt that one of the slaves…or Percival…would show them exactly where she had hidden them.” She looked back at the sight. “We have Amos dig it back up after Mother Montgomery comes in the house. We have used one excuse after another why the bundle appears back on the dining room table in the morning…there are only so many times you can tell her that the dogs dug it up.”
“She doesn’t question it?”
“I believe it is more of a distraction for her. We all have a need to find something to take our minds off the conflict.”
“For me, it seems the war is so far away from here,” he said in a distant voice. “It is my hope that it never rears its ugly face around these parts.”
“It is impossible not to feel the effect of the fighting.” Jo swallowed back her obvious pain of losing her husband and refused to let melancholy overwhelm her. “Our spirit will endure, for our cause is just.”
“Do you not fear that it will get worse…much worse before it gets better?”
Jo turned back to her brother-in-law. There was no mistaking a distinct bitterness in his voice. “I wake each morning and face the day because it was Wade’s wish and to ensure his sacrifice was not in vain. His children, family, and Magnolia Bluff are my focus. I have control of little else.”
“You must realize that the war isn’t going well for the Confederacy,” he pressed. “In Richmond, the residents are frustrated and anxious, especially now with Lincoln’s proclamation he intends to free the slaves.”
Taken back by his frankness, she met him with her own. “I am not a fool, Derek. At last count, seventeen of our slaves have run off to Beaufort. Grace Ann wrote me that it is worse at Whitney Hall. Three hundred of their negroes have gone over to the Yankees.”
“That does not concern you?”
“Andrew and I have made no effort to stop any who want to leave,” Jo acknowledged. “If we tried to contain their leaving, it would only facilitate an undercurrent of resentment that we don’t need.”
Derek scratched his nose and twisted the end of his beard in an anxious manner. “Sometimes it feels hopeless…all of this. My sweet Jenna believes everything will work out…that everything will go back to the way it was.” His voice echoed his despondent thoughts. “It is I who have been a fool. To come back here…marry Jenna. I am a burden. It would have been better if I hadn’t survived.”
“Dear God in Heaven!” Jo cried. Gripping her swollen stomach, her heart went leaden upon the utterance. “How dare you even think such a thing!”
Stunned by her reaction, he rose and waved his hand down toward her in a vain effort to calm the distracted woman. “Miss Jo, I didn’t mean to upset you. It was only…”
Gasping for air, she breathed out with an anger she had no knowledge she held within her. “Do you not believe that I would not change places with Jenna quicker than a heart could beat? I …I have dreamed that it had been a lie…that Wade did not die…but then I wake and realize it is only a foolish dream and have to face life without him.”
Shaking his head slightly, he pressed his lips together tightly. “Pardon me, Miss Jo. I am sorry for your loss, but I am a cripple. Plain and true. I will only add to your misery.”
“You, sir, are part of this family.” Indignation swept through her and she pulled herself to her feet. “I’m frightened to death, but look around you! Too many people depend on me…and you also. We need you…Jenna needs you!”
Derek bit his lip and his jaw hardened. With a blank expression, he said nothing, but walked backed into the house. Jenna appeared at the door and wrapped her arm about him. Glancing back, she gave Jo a questioning look.
Disheartened, Jo sat back down. Oh, I have gone and irritated Jenna once more! The poor man had not asked for the brunt of her veiled frustrations, but he had weighed on her already frayed nerves. How could he think he wasn’t needed?
Jo looked back at Percival, who sat in the middle of the fresh turned dirt and played without a care in the world. She watched his face glow with his evident delight and with the realization these moments were too short-lived.
* * * *
The Earth turned. Another season had once more begun to transform the landscape of Magnolia Bluff. The September sunrays of the late afternoon filtered into the room, but Josephine was unaware of anything but this moment.
She basked in the joy of the sounds of the healthy baby girl she delivered earlier in the day. Her newborn’s cry resonated through her like a song from Heaven. Her prayers had been answered and Wade’s dream a reality.
She had picked out a name long ago for her daughter, Madeline Marie. She had thought Wade would have been pleased to have his daughter named after his mother. Never had Jo seen a more beautiful baby. Fairer than Percival had been, she was perfect, with ten little fingers and ten little toes and quite a strong set of lungs.
Cradling Madeline in her arm, Jo wiped away happy tears that escaped down her cheek as the baby suckled upon her breast. The ever resourceful Percival climbed up in bed and snuggled against his mother. The warmth that contentment brings suffused through Jo; she had her children.
Chapter Three
To the chagrin of the war-torn South, Lincoln held to his stance on slavery and kept his promise. On January 1, 1863, he signed the Emancipation Proclamation. According to the federal government of the United States, slaves within the rebellion states were freed. The South was outraged, but Jo heard that celebrations were reported in Beaufort.
Once the Charleston newspapers boasted the just and mighty Confederacy would vanquish their oppressors quickly and decisively; now questi
ons in the Southern leadership began to be asked. While never questioning that the soldiers in gray had done their duty and honored their new nation, headline after headline boldly declared that the statesmen had forgotten the interest of the people they represented.
Nowadays, Jo gave little thought to politics. The plantation claimed all her attention that wasn’t directed for her babies.
Life had a way of carrying on even with the war raging in the background. Magnolia Bluff entertained visitors and the family visited Charleston. Despite the drain on their resources, Jo resisted the urge to curtail the friends and neighbors from calling. Mother Montgomery took such pleasure with her friends and there had been so little that made her smile.
Magnolia Bluff seemed to suffer less than their neighbors. Jo credited Andrew. He had done such a good job of running the plantation in the midst of the most turbulent of times.
Relieving one burden on the family, Derek slowly began to take an interest in the demands upon the plantation. At times, he was still aloof and distant, but the dark moods had become less frequent. Quite determined, he had trained himself to use his one arm to do most tasks any two-armed man could do.
Jo found her days busy. She rose before sunrise and did not stop until well after she put the children to bed. Exhaustion would set in by late evening. The moment she laid her head on the pillow, she slept soundly—at least, until Madeline would wake for a feeding.
This night had been no different, except before she could ready for bed, Rosa informed her Andrew requested her presence in the study. Jo found him at his desk with his head braced between his hands. His eyes rolled up slowly on her entrance. His somber look caused her to slip quietly into a chair across from him.
“Josephine, word has come in from Whitney Hall. There has been a slave revolt.”
Immediately, her blood ran cold. Grace Ann!
Andrew reached down and took hold of the telegram on top of the desk. He handed it to Jo. “There is not much information. Your cousin, Grace Ann, has been injured, but was fortunate to have survived.”
