by Jenna Brandt
The tension evaporated, allowing the service to go ahead without distress.
Pastor Howell gave a message about making peace with the past and giving guilt over to God. Towards the end of service, he offered a time for church members to share what God was doing in their lives. Nathan felt prodding from the Lord to share his story.
After several other people went, Nathan stood up and made his way to the front of the church. "Hello everyone. Please bear with me as I'm uncomfortable doing this. I tend to keep to myself and it's hard for me to open up to people. I returned home from the war a few weeks ago. Adjusting back has been difficult, but all of you, especially the Abernathy family and my fiancée, Faith, have been patient with me. Your support means a great deal. I’m so grateful to be a member of Myrtle Grove Church."
Nathan looked out at all the smiling faces, and felt his nervousness fall away. "Most of you know I was taken captive while I was serving in the war. It's still difficult to talk about what happened while I was in prison, but it's important to share that even though it was the darkest time in my life, God was there with me. He never left my side. His strength and mercy sustained me, and when I thought I had no way out from compromising and giving into their demands, the Lord rescued me."
Murmurs formed around the room before Nathan continued. "When I say He rescued me, I mean He sent an angel to guide me out of the awful place they kept me. I know how it sounds. I was in disbelief at the time, not to mention afterwards when I had time to process what happened, but it's true. God sent a literal angel to rescue me. I was always a skeptic of the supernatural, so it astonished me when it happened."
Several loud gasps erupted from the women in the room. "The reason I'm sharing all of this with you is because I think someone out there needs to know God is always with you. Even when you think you’re alone, you're not. God has plans for you; plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Take courage in that. Don't dismiss the possibility God can and will send an angel to help you."
Nathan sat back down and a few more people got up and shared. After service, several people came up and thanked Nathan for sharing.
Faith smiled at Nathan as they headed towards the door. "I'm so proud of you for telling your story today." When they reached the bottom of the stairs, they stopped to finish their conversation. "There is power in sharing what God did for you."
"I know there is. It’s why I did it. I felt like God told me there was someone who needed to hear it.”
“There was,” an unfamiliar voice said from beside them.
Both Nathan and Faith turned towards where the comment manifested. Nathan didn't recognize the young man standing to the side of them.
"Pardon?" Nathan inquired.
"My name is Frank Anderson. I served as a medic with the 12th Infantry Division until they discharged me after I suffered an injury during the first conflict. It felt like God had abandoned me. I didn't understand why he took me out of the military before I could help anyone. I’m visiting here with my college friend, Wyatt Hammond, and when I heard you talk today, I knew the Lord was speaking through you to me. Thank you so much for getting up and sharing," Frank affirmed as he extended his hand to Nathan. "I needed to hear what you had to say."
Nathan took the other man's hand and shook it. "I'm glad my story could help."
Wyatt Hammond walked up next to them with a grin on his face. "Glad to see all of you are having time to talk. Frank and I went to medical school together, and I invited him to join us at church today."
Wyatt was Hope's cousin and the town’s new doctor, after their previous one retired. He often spent time with all of them, as the Hammond and Abernathy children had grown up together.
"I think all of us should head over to the café for lunch to celebrate Frank visiting us. I can tell I’ll like him way more than you already," Nathan jested.
Wyatt pouted in mock hurt for several seconds before all three of the men and Faith laughed.
Hope came up to the group, with Davis next to her. "What's going on over here?"
"We’re making plans to go to the café,” Faith informed Hope.
"Sounds like fun. Count us in," Davis stated as Hope nodded in agreement.
The group of six made their way across Main Street to the café where they grabbed a large table towards the back. They enjoyed an afternoon of friendship and laughter, everyone temporarily forgetting the war that raged around them.
Chapter 18
The last nail was hammered into the final piece of wood, completing the wraparound porch to the house. Nathan smiled at how successfully it had turned out. He was proud he had finished the home with his own two hands, despite having to take it slow due to his body, which was still healing. It had been a solitary project, and the work therapeutic. Along with his meetings with Pastor Howell, Nathan felt he was putting the past behind him.
Nathan made his way back to the Abernathy plantation. As he saw the house appear on the horizon, he realized it would be one of the last nights he spent in the bunkhouse. Soon, he would marry Faith and start his life with her.
He made his way towards the main house and felt a tinge of weariness shoot up his spine. As Nathan looked around, he expected to see Nancy and Jack playing in the front yard. They were absent along with the normal flurried preparation for the evening meal through the kitchen window. The farm was eerily still. Something was not right.
Nathan scanned the area in all directions. He paused before he entered the house, waiting to hear something to tell him what he would find. The quietness worried him more than the lack of motion. The Abernathy family was anything but quiet. Did that mean there were deserters or thieves trying to take advantage of the Abernathys? There had been rumors that bands of them roamed the countryside looking to take advantage of people.
With quick precision, Nathan swiveled around and sprinted to his room in the bunkhouse. He swung open the door and rushed inside it. At the foot of his twin bed was a trunk with his belongings. He lifted the lid and moved several of the top objects to the side. At the bottom was a small Colt revolver. He pulled it free and checked it. The gun still held the five bullets he had left in it for an emergency.
It felt odd to hold a gun in his hands again. After his imprisonment in the North, he thought he had left that part of his life behind him. It seemed he still had a job to do with it. As he gripped the gun in his hand, he trotted back towards the main house; his intuition told him to be prepared.
Nathan crouched down and moved along the backside of the house, keeping his body below the window line. He inched up the several steps of the back porch stoop and stopped just outside the door which was ajar, allowing voices to bleed through as Nathan listened. His blood ran cold at the sound of the Northern accents.
“I asked you once already, where is Nathan Maddox?” He recognized Christopher Berns’ commanding voice, and knew instantly that his family was in trouble.
Sweat broke out at the edges of Nathan’s forehead and neck. Unwanted memories came flooding back of the time he spent under the cruel control of the other man. Nathan forced himself to push the thoughts away and focus on the present. To save his fiancée and her family, he needed to concentrate on what was going on in the other room.
“We told you, we don’t know where he is at,” Thomas stated firmly.
“Come now, don't play ignorant with me. This is the home of the woman Nathan planned to marry. It would be the first place he would come to once he was free.”
“I’m not arguing the fact we know him; I'm informing you we're unaware of his location at the moment.”
“You had better hope for your family’s sake he makes a quick return. We only need to keep you alive long enough to force him to come with me. If he figures out what is happening and runs off, your family will pay the price.”
"He wouldn't behave that way. He'll never let anything happen to us," Faith insisted resolutely.
Nathan’s heart tightened at the sound of Faith’s voice. His stomach
clenched in anticipation, knowing he needed to live up to the trust she put in him. What was he going to do?
Before he could decide, there was a feminine yelp from the other room. Thomas shouted, “Keep your hands off my daughter!”
Chairs scraped against the wooden floor as the little girls wept and Tabitha begged the man not to harm her family.
A few seconds later, Christopher warned, “May I remind you that my men and I have the power in this situation.” With a menacing tone, he added, “Be careful what you say and do next.”
The threat must have worked because there was no more commotion. Nathan’s grip on the pistol tightened at the thought of Christopher hurting the Abernathys.
“We will sit here and wait until he returns. If any of you warn him, I promise you’ll dislike the repercussions.”
Christopher had mentioned “his men” which meant he was not alone. If it were just Christopher, the fight would be fair; after all he had trained him and could anticipate his every move. However, if he had soldiers with him, Nathan wouldn’t be able to handle multiple assailants at the same time. He needed to separate Christopher from the other men if he stood a chance of saving the Abernathy family.
Covertly, Nathan turned around and crept from the back porch. Once outside again, he grabbed a nearby rock and moved along the edge of the house until he was out of sight. He took a deep breath to steady himself and sent up a silent prayer for protection while tossing the rock at the side of the house.
A few moments later, he heard the shuffling of feet and saw the screen door swing open. Nathan peeked from around the corner and watched two men stand at the bottom of the steps, looking from side to side.
They didn’t wear Union uniforms, but he suspected Christopher was here on an unofficial mission. If that was the case, they would have dressed in civilian clothes to blend in.
“Where do you think the noise came from?” the taller blond man asked the shorter brown-haired fellow.
The shorter man answered, “It was probably just a raccoon or something. Captain Berns gets paranoid on these types of missions.” He leaned towards the other man and lowered his voice, “The captain talked headquarters into this assignment, spouting this Maddox was worth the risk for the information he knew. I suspect, however, it’s more about revenge for making the captain look like a fool when Maddox escaped his custody.”
Christopher was here for revenge. It sounded right. Christopher didn’t like being bested, and even if Nathan told him the truth about how he’d gotten away, Christopher wouldn’t believe him, anyway.
“We’d better make sure,” the taller man stated. He pointed in the opposite route. “You go around that way and I’ll circle in the other direction.”
The shorter man shrugged. “If you think it’s necessary.”
“I'm not getting on the captain’s bad side,” the other man said with a shudder. “He’s killed men for less.”
“Fine, but we also don’t want to leave the captain too long alone in there, in case that family gets any ideas about fighting back.”
The taller man released a blood curdling sadistic laugh. “Did you see their faces after the captain slapped the oldest girl? I don’t think we need to worry about that.”
“True, but I still don’t want to take any chances.” The shorter man grumbled, “Let’s make this quick.”
Heated anger flooded through Nathan. He wanted to march right in the house to punish Christopher for putting his hands on Faith; however, he needed to think about the entire situation. It was imperative he was strategic in how he reacted, or he could risk harming the very people he was trying to protect.
Nathan was grateful that the two soldiers unwittingly divulged the information he needed to know. It was only three of them in total. It made sense. Christopher couldn’t bring a large force this far past the southern border without being detected. Nathan suspected he had used what few contacts and resources he had left in the Confederacy to get this far.
The Union soldiers headed towards their agreed upon routes. Nathan waited a few seconds and then moved after the taller man. He would be harder to take down judging by his size. Nathan wanted to face the bigger man first while he had all his energy still intact.
With swift accuracy, Nathan tucked his gun into the back of his pants and snuck up behind the blond man, reaching up and around his neck. Nathan wasn’t short but he could barely reach the man’s neck with his arm. However, because he caught him off-guard, Nathan had the advantage. Nathan applied all the pressure he could muster and kept his arm in place across the other man’s throat. The soldier struggled but Nathan didn’t let go. He held on with all his might until the man swayed and slumped forward.
Nathan lowered the man to the ground and pulled him out of the walkway and into the bushes. The Union soldier would wake up in a few hours with a nasty headache and be turned over to the Confederate military, but at least he’d be alive.
Moving backwards along the house, Nathan headed in the opposite direction to catch the other man before he stumbled upon his comrade.
He saw the brown-haired man meandering along the path. He didn’t seem to be looking for anything but following the path out of reluctant obligation. Good. If he wasn’t paying attention, he would be easier to take down.
Nathan attacked without warning but he couldn't get a firm grip on the other man’s neck. Though he was smaller than the other soldier, he managed to shake free from Nathan’s grasp and spin around, swinging at Nathan.
Shocked he’d underestimated the other man, Nathan stumbled back before he could land the punch. This man was more aware than Nathan had given him credit for and seemed to have superior training compared to his last opponent.
Nathan raised his fists up in defense. How could he neutralize the other man before he made enough noise to warn Christopher? His hand-to-hand combat instruction flooded back, and Nathan realized the soldier was expecting a fist fight so he thrusted his left leg out and swiped under the other man’s legs. The other man tumbled to the ground as Nathan jumped on top of him. Nathan’s hands closed around the soldier’s throat as he pressed firmly. He didn’t want to kill the other man, but he needed to make sure he couldn’t interfere either. Nathan eyed a nearby rock, picked it up and thumped the man over the head just hard enough to knock him out.
Once he was certain the other man was incapacitated, Nathan scrambled off of him. He pushed his back up against the house as his lungs filled with ragged breaths. He closed his eyes and prayed in silence. Dear Lord, I need your strength right now. Please help me to keep the Abernathy family safe and to end this without bloodshed.
Rallying the strength to get up, Nathan worked his way towards the back porch. He found himself at the edge of the door listening.
Thomas was in the middle of trying to bargain with Christopher. "Why don’t you let my family go? You don’t need all of us and I’m more than willing for you to keep me as a hostage."
Nathan knew better than anyone, there was no point. Christopher didn’t keep prisoners that didn’t have strategic value, and he never let them go alive. He wouldn’t hesitate to kill the entire Abernathy family without a second thought once they weren’t useful anymore.
“Mr. Abernathy, it’s admirable you are trying to save your family, but Nathan’s past was bound to catch up with him. If you want someone to blame for what is going to happen to your family, it’s him.”
“What do you mean by that?” Thomas inquired.
“I mean, your daughter’s fiancé is as far from a saint as I am. He’s done horrible, despicable things in the name of his country.”
“I refuse to listen to you lie about my future son-in-law. Besides, I doubt you have any idea what Nathan has or hasn’t done while he served in the military.”
"I know first-hand. He trained me and showed me how to be a spy. He’s killed people, lots of them, without any remorse. He’s used and manipulated women, children, anyone that helped him complete his mission. He’s gaine
d people’s trust and then betrayed them in ways that were so debased, if it hadn’t been in the service of his country, he would have hanged for his actions.”
There were audible gasps around the room as several of the Abernathys said “no” and “not Nathan.”
With a flinch, Nathan tried to block out the dismay in their voices. He had worked so hard to keep them from knowing what he had done in his past. Now it was out in the open. What would they think of him? Would they be able to look at him without disgust? Would he be forbidden from marrying Faith, if they were even able to make it out of this alive?
“I don’t care what you say,” Faith declared fiercely. “Whatever Nathan did in his past can stay there. He has shown himself to be the bravest and kindest man since we have known him. Nothing will change my mind about the man I love.”
Just when Nathan thought Faith couldn’t prove any more devotion, she astounded him. He would spend the rest of his life trying to be worthy of her love.
Chapter 19
“Miss Abernathy, I am tiring of your constant defense of Nathan Maddox.”
Faith’s eyes grew round and her heart lurched as she stared down the barrel of the Union captain’s gun pointed at her. She hated when he talked about Nathan in such a derogatory way and reacted out of protective instinct, not even thinking about her own safety.
“Do I need to teach you another lesson?” he admonished, moving towards her in a menacing manner.
“If you lay a hand on her again, it will be the last thing you ever do.”
Faith’s eyes darted to the back door as Nathan walked into the room. He held a gun in his hand, raised and leveled at their captor.
“You finally made your way back here, did you, Nathan?” the man taunted, turning his attention to Nathan, who didn’t let it affect him.
Nathan continued to stay calm, saying, “I’ve been here longer than you’ve been aware.”
