Her eyes blinked and her throat worked itself in a deep swallow. “Yes, we should.”
They grasped hands and headed for the door, but Manfred stopped short as an idea took form in his head. He remembered the gold coin his grandmother had given him on his sixteenth birthday. Perhaps it could be melted down for a ring. “Sallie, I just thought of something. I do have a way to get you a ring for our wedding. Charles and I will go down to Baton Rouge and take care of it. You won’t be disappointed.” He kissed her fingertips. “I love you with all my heart and soul, and I’ve waited so many months to tell you. Thoughts of you strengthened me and kept me alive, and finally brought me home.”
She peered up at him with eyes so full of her love he could drown in them. His arms went around her and pulled her close. She lifted her head as he bent his and their lips met in another kiss that said everything he held in his heart. And in that moment the dreadful past fell away, and their future together appeared as bright and promising as the dawn of a new day.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
A NUMBER OF YEARS ago my father gave me a packet of letters belonging to my great-grandmother Sarah Louise Dyer Whiteman. Those letters sparked my interest in genealogy and led to this story. In my family research I found wills, marriage licenses, baptismal records, death records, and books with information about the Whiteman and Dyer family line. Other information about them came from my grandfather and great-aunt Alice’s memories of their parents and from parts of a journal from that time. Although this story is loosely based on the love story of Sarah Louise Dyer and Manfred MacDaniel Whiteman, many incidents taken from letters and notes from journals have been expanded and fictionalized to complete the story. Real names have been used for many of the characters. And while this first book is based on the facts we have on our family at that time, we are still gleaning information for the following years. Therefore books 2 and 3 in this series are strictly fiction.
Sallie Dyer and Manfred Whiteman met in St. Francisville, Louisiana, when she visited her grandparents there. I am not sure of their ages at the time, but I do know it was before the war and that Manfred had shown affection for Sallie just prior to his leaving to join the Confederate Army in 1861. In a letter Manfred mentions seeing her before he left to rejoin his regiment in the summer of 1864. I used an excerpt of that letter in the story as the one he sends to Sallie to declare his love for her. The wedding ring Manfred had made from a twenty-dollar gold piece is still in the family. It was passed down to their youngest son, Thomas Dyer Whiteman, and has been used in several wedding ceremonies of family members since then.
Manfred’s father, John Whiteman, owned a shipping company at Bayou Sara on the Mississippi River down the hill from St. Francisville, Louisiana. I’ve been down to the river that now covers the old settlement of Bayou Sara and found a map of the former town and the location of the company. Both black men and white men helped load the ships coming into the port at Bayou Sara, but none of the documents showed any slaves being owned by the shipping company.
Manfred came from a family of five boys. His brother Henry came home from the POW camp with snow-white hair and died a little over a year later. His story has been passed down through the generations. Although Manfred moved to Texas, his remaining three brothers stayed in the St. Francisville area, married, and had families. Most of them are buried at Grace Church in St. Francisville.
Sallie’s father, Thomas Dyer, was a cotton merchant in Woodville, Mississippi, about twenty-five miles north of St. Francisville. As a businessman, Thomas Dyer used hired hands to handle the cotton sales. I found one of his letters to Sallie when she went to finishing school in New Orleans before the war; it reveals that he regarded women with high esteem and he wished her well in her endeavors to become whatever she chose in life. Sallie’s maternal grandfather was known as Judge Woodruff, so I assumed he must have been a lawyer. None of Sallie’s family owned slaves at the time of the war. Sallie’s grandmother, Mary Woodruff, had two housekeepers, and from their ages I assumed they were sisters, but I made them mother and daughter in the story and put them in Sallie’s household.
In this story I have included real towns and actual events from the war, such as the attacks on Grace Episcopal Church during the battle of Port Hudson in 1863; the day the war stopped for a Masonic burial at that church on June 12, 1863; Susan Allen putting out fires to save the covered bridge in Marion, Virginia, in December 1864; and the deplorable conditions at the prisoner of war camp in Point Lookout, Maryland.
Manfred returned to St. Francisville from Point Lookout with his brother Edwin in June of 1865 and married Sallie that same June. He became a doctor and stayed in Louisiana until 1880, when he moved to Texas with his family to practice medicine in Victoria, Texas. That move became a part of the tree that formed the future and led to my being a fifth-generation Texan.
Coming in January 2014
from Martha Rogers . . .
Love Finds Faith
CHAPTER 1
* * *
Stoney Creek, Texas, June 1877
WHERE WERE SALLIE and Manfred? They were supposed to meet her here at the station. Manfred she could understand, as doctors had emergencies arise all the time, but her sister, Sallie, didn’t have such an excuse.
Hannah Dyer patted her damp brow with a handkerchief and tapped her good foot on the wooden platform where moments before she had stepped down from the afternoon train. She breathed in and then exhaled in a puff of air. The train whistle blew, and others now boarded the train. Waving away the soot in the air, she hobbled over to the luggage cart. Her baggage sat neatly stacked, ready to be picked up.
Mercy, the men had already unloaded the baggage car. Sallie should have been here by now. Resisting the urge to sit on her trunk, Hannah stood with her weight on her good left leg, resting the toe of her heavy, thick-soled boot on the platform. No matter how hard the cobbler tried when making her special shoes, her legs were never quite the same length, and the shoe for her shorter leg was always heavy and cumbersome. Even this new pair gave her an awkward gait as she walked.
Someone shouted her name, and Hannah shaded her eyes against the sun to find Sallie pulling up with a wagon. She hopped down, picked up her baby, and ran to Hannah.
“Oh, my, I’m so sorry. I couldn’t get the children together, and Manfred is delivering Mrs. Fairchild’s baby, and . . . ” She stopped to stare at the trunk and other bags. “Goodness, is all that yours? How will we ever get it into the wagon?”
“I’ll be glad to help you with it, Mrs. Whiteman. That is, if you’ll introduce me to the lovely young lady here.”
Hannah turned her head to gaze into the warmest brown eyes she’d seen since leaving Mississippi. The speaker removed his light tan cowboy hat and grinned at her.
Sallie shifted her baby onto her hip. Her brow furrowed and she bit her lip. “Micah Gordon, I didn’t know you had come home.”
“Just got in. I was on the same train with this young lady.”
“Oh, goodness me. Micah, this is my sister, Hannah Grace Dyer. She’s come from Mississippi to help the doctor as his nurse. Hannah, this is Micah Gordon. His father has one of the larger horse ranches around these parts. Um . . . he’s . . . he’s been gone awhile.”
Hannah smiled at the cowboy. His boots, hat, tan shirt, and string tie fit him perfectly, and she had to raise her head to meet his gaze. Funny she didn’t remember seeing him on the train. Certainly she would have noticed this handsome face. Heat rose in her cheeks. “It’s very nice of you to offer to help with the baggage.”
He picked up two of the valises. “I take it you want them in the wagon over there, Mrs. Whiteman.”
“Yes, yes, of course.” Sallie scurried back to the wagon and the two children there.
Six-year-old Clara said nothing but stared with clear blue eyes at the aunt she most likely didn’t remember. On the other hand, eleven-year-old Molly stood with hands on her hips in the bed of the wagon. “Auntie Hannah, it’s about time you
got here. I’ve been waiting and waiting for you to come.”
Even at a young age Molly showed signs of the beauty her mother possessed. Two stiff plaits held her red hair in check, but still strands and wisps escaped to frame Molly’s heart-shaped face and blue-green eyes. Hannah crossed to the wagon trying to minimize the awkwardness of her gait so her heavy shoe didn’t thump on the hardwood platform.
“I’m so glad I’m finally here too, Molly. You’ve grown so much since your last visit to Mississippi.” She hadn’t grown but an inch or so, but Hannah remembered how much she liked to hear such praise when she’d been Molly’s age. Sure enough, a wide grin split Molly’s face.
Hannah waved her hand toward the trunk. “I brought everyone gifts from Mama and Papa. They wanted to come, but Papa said it was too far right now. They’ll try to come for Christmas.” She cast her gaze to Micah, who handled the trunk with ease. Such broad shoulders he had. No wonder her bags and trunk presented no problem for him.
Micah stepped back and swiped his hands together. “There now, it looks like you’re all set for the ride, Mrs. Whiteman.”
“Thank you, Micah. I’m glad you decided to come home. Your ma and pa are going to be so happy to see you.” She patted Hannah on the back. “You go ahead and climb up, then I’ll hand Daniel up to you.”
Hannah stared at the wagon wheel. How did one get up to the seat? Sallie had used the wheel to step down, but where was a foothold? She might balance on her heavier boot and step up with her good one, but what if she lost her balance? At home they’d always ridden in a carriage with a stepstool to help. She bit her lip as a hand landed on her arm.
“Here, let me assist you, Miss Dyer. If you’re not used to wagons, they can be difficult to maneuver.” Micah offered one hand for support and pointed to the wheel with the other one. “Put your foot right there, and I’ll boost you up.”
“Oh, dear Hannah,” Sallie said. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t even think how difficult it might be for you to climb up on a wagon. Thank you, Micah.”
Hannah had no choice but to pick up her skirt with one hand and set her normal foot on the little projection that jutted out from the wheel. Once her foot hit the wheel, Micah’s hands went around her waist to hoist her up to the seat. Thunk! Her heavy boot hit the side of the wagon and she almost lost her balance. She glanced down at Micah only to find him wide-eyed, staring at her feet.
His facial expression was no different than all the others when they first saw her ugly shoes. Her words wanted to stay lodged in her throat, but she forced them out. “Thank you, Mr. Gordon. I’m all right now.”
He stepped back and shook his head, pity lacing his brown eyes that had been smiling and friendly only minutes earlier. Hannah bit her lip again. Why couldn’t people just see her and who she was inside and not look only at her deformity? Stoney Creek would be no different than all the other places she’d been. She might as well have stayed in Mississippi with Mama and Papa or in Louisiana with Grandma Woodruff. At least there people knew of her disability and had stopped shaking their heads with pity over it.
Sallie handed baby Daniel up to Hannah then sprang up onto the wagon seat with little or no effort. Would Hannah ever be able to move like that? So far she hadn’t, but maybe here she’d have more opportunity to exercise and be less of a cripple. She’d endured stares and ridicule for all of her twenty-four years of living, so she’d manage with them in Stoney Creek as well.
Sallie flicked the reins and the wagon moved away. Hannah so wanted one last look at Micah, but as much as she desired to see his handsome face, she had no desire to see pity there. “Micah seemed like a nice young man. You say he lives on a ranch?”
“Yes, Micah’s been gone for the past five years. Told his pa he was tired of ranching and wanted to see what else life had to offer, from what I’ve heard. I do believe there was much more to it than that, but I didn’t pry or listen to gossip. I hope he’s come back to make amends with his pa. Both his parents grieved terribly when he left. Broke some young ladies’ hearts too.”
A prodigal and rogue. How intriguing. Of course he’d have the girls pursuing him with his handsome face and those penetrating eyes. Not likely she’d have a chance with him after he’d seen her foot. That sent most young men the opposite direction right away.
She moved her skirt a bit and stared down at the special shoe that helped her stand straight. The shoes she’d worn as long as she could remember now became a burden she didn’t want to bear. If only she could be normal, she might attract a young man and marry and have a family like Sallie. Still, God had been good in not letting the problem keep her from pursuing her dream of becoming a nurse. She hugged little Daniel to her chest. Instead of feeling sorry for herself, her heart should be full of thanksgiving for this opportunity to help her family.
Her sister chattered on about the town and those who lived there, but Hannah only half listened. She’d come here for a purpose. Manfred needed help with his medical practice, and she’d be the best nurse he’d ever had. If God wanted to send along a young man for her, then He would. But it would certainly be nice if that young man happened to be as handsome as Micah Gordon.
Micah stood in the middle of the street to gaze after the wagon stirring up dust as it headed for the doctor’s home. Such a beautiful young woman to be burdened with a deformity like that. Golden hair framed a face set off by eyes so blue they defied a color description. Not that it should matter, because courting a cripple didn’t come into his plans for his future.
What that future might be remained his number one concern at the moment. Those who’d known him before would think he’d been up to no good after the way he’d left town, and they’d be right. He had spent too much time and money on women and fun in the past five years. After hitting rock bottom, he had no place to go but home, but to come home begging was not an option he had wanted to face.
He’d finally pulled himself out of the muck and mire a few months ago and found a job cleaning the livery stable in a small town. When the livery owner had trouble keeping track of his money and who had paid what, Micah discovered he had a good head for arithmetic and numbers and took on the bookkeeping for the livery. The man had upped Micah’s wages but not changed his job. If Micah had to muck stalls, he could do that just as well at home. So once he had enough money saved up for the journey, he headed for home.
As much as he hated ranching, here he was back seeking forgiveness from his parents and a chance to prove himself useful on the ranch. Of course he’d never be in complete charge of it. That job belonged to Levi someday, not the prodigal returning home.
Micah headed for the hotel to get a room for the night. After he cleaned up, he could still make it out to the ranch in time for supper. A good shave wouldn’t hurt either. A glance up and down the main street revealed not much had changed. The bank and general store still sat across from each other on opposite corners, and the hotel stood in the middle of the next block. A larger building across from the station bore a painted sign declaring the building to be Brunson’s Livery and Black Smith. Old Willy Brunson must have hired a smithy since Willy didn’t have the strength it took for that job. If his father didn’t welcome him home, perhaps he could find work with Willy at the livery until something better came along.
A midsummer afternoon on a weekday drew few people into town. Most would be at home resting or escaping the heat. The few who walked along the boardwalk stared at Micah then nodded, but no one showed real signs of recognizing him. That didn’t surprise him since he was taller and more filled out than he had been as a wayward son leaving home. At twenty-four, he had become a man.
When Micah opened the door to the hotel, the clerk looked up, and a grin spread across his face. “Well, now, if it ain’t Micah Gordon. Good to see you. What’s it been? Three or four years?”
Micah laughed and dropped his valise to the floor. “More like five, Charlie. Got a room for me?”
Charlie swung the register around for Micah
to sign. “Sure do, but ain’t you going out to see your folks?”
“I am later, but I want to be in town tonight.” He picked up the pen and signed his name on the book. No need to tell Charlie the real reason for not going home first. Without knowing how his parents would greet him, he figured staying in town was the better option, but he only had funds for a few nights. After that, he’d be back out on the streets again.
“Sure thing, Micah. Here’s your key. Your room’s at the head of the stairs, then the second door to the right. Looks out over the street. It’s one of our nicest rooms.”
Micah gripped the key in his hand and bent to pick up his bag. Next thing in order after a good bath and shave would be renting a horse. That would go over big what with his pa having some of the best horses money could buy to run his ranch, but Micah wasn’t at the ranch and had no horse here in town.
Charlie continued to grin and shake his head. “Can’t believe it’s really you. Your folks are going to be mighty proud to see you.” Then his grin turned to a smirk. “Know a few young ladies who’ll be glad to hear you’re back too.”
Micah shrugged and headed for the stairs. He doubted Charlie’s last statement. The girls he’d known must surely be married by now with families of their own. Pretty women didn’t stay single in a town like Stoney Creek where there were more than enough men for them.
After a bath and clean clothes, Micah was ready to face his parents and whatever future may be out there for him. Pa would say his oldest son needed to settle down, take over the ranch, and marry a nice young girl, but rounding up cattle and breaking horses wasn’t on Micah’s short list of things he wanted to do with his life. It hadn’t made the long list either. Not that he didn’t love horses, but he didn’t want to spend all of his time on the back of one. However, he’d do whatever it took now to regain Pa’s trust and convince him that his oldest son’s interests and talents lay in business, not cattle herding.
Love Stays True Page 24
