The Gentle Rebel

by Gilbert, Morris

  When she stepped to one side, his hand shot out and caught her by the arm. “What are you doing?” she cried; then she looked up at the man—and found herself looking into the face of Aaron Sampson!

  He looked very different, for he had grown a full beard—but the eyes were the same, and there was a smile of triumph on his full lips. “Well, now, I knew I’d find you someday, Julie, but I didn’t think it’d be like this! Now I know why you’ve been able to keep yourself hidden from me!”

  “You—let me go!” she cried out, and tried to break away, but his fingers bit into her arms like steel.

  “Not likely!” he laughed loudly, and began to pull her toward the door.

  “What the devil are you doing? Let go of him!” Nathan had stepped forward and his blue eyes glared angrily at the big man.

  “Get out of the way. This is none of your affair,” Sampson growled.

  Nathan reached out and grabbed a handful of Sampson’s coat. “Take your hands off him or I’ll break your neck!”

  Sampson looked up at Nathan, and the impulse to fight was in him, but he shook his head, saying, “Sergeant, I won’t fight you—I won’t have to, because the law will see to it that you mind your own business.”

  Nathan said hotly, “I don’t know what the devil you’re talking about—and I don’t give a hang! This is Sergeant Laddie Smith of Colonel Henry Knox’s staff, and I’ll tell you just one more time—if you don’t take your hands off him, I’ll break your neck!”

  Sampson shook his head and said, “You’re wrong. This is my ward, Miss Julie Sampson of Philadelphia.”

  Nathan stared at him. “You’re insane! Come along, Laddie!”

  Sampson said at once, “I see that you have been deceived by this girl, Sergeant. But I can prove what I say with no trouble.”

  Laddie was standing there, fear washing over her, so weak that she could barely stand. She had had nightmares much like this, but she knew that there would be no awakening from this scene. She looked at Nathan, who was red with anger, and then she heard Sampson say, “Julie ran away last winter, and I’ve spent a lot of money trying to find her.” He pulled a paper out of his pocket, handed it to Nathan, saying, “I’ve put these in every major city in the country—but I see now why they brought no results. I never thought she might become a man!”

  Nathan read the description, and when he raised his eyes and looked at Laddie, he said, “You’ve made a mistake, Sampson.”

  “That’ll be simple to prove, as I said.” He looked at Laddie and said with a sly look in his eyes, “All you have to do is take your coat and your shirt off. A young fellow wouldn’t mind doing that, now would he? Of course—a young lady would object.”

  Nathan glared at him, then said, “He doesn’t have to do anything! We’re leaving here.”

  “You’re in Knox’s force?” Sampson said. “I’m sure the colonel would ask the sergeant to do this very simple thing—because if he doesn’t, I’ll be right there with civil law to get it done! But there’s a simpler way.”

  “And what’s that?”

  “Why, just look at her, Sergeant!” Sampson said with a smile. “It’s written all over her face!”

  “Laddie . . . ?” Nathan started to speak, but then he looked full in the white face of Laddie, and stopped abruptly. He had not for one second considered that Sampson might be telling the truth, but as the silence ran on, he seemed suddenly to be outside of himself, looking down from somewhere on the scene—seeing the three of them in a frame—and the look of guilt on the face of the person he’d been calling Laddie Smith was unmistakable!

  He swallowed and could only whisper, “Laddie . . . ?” And then he saw the dark eyes fill with tears.

  “It’s true, Nathan, but . . . !”

  He did not grasp the rest of her words, but wheeled and plunged out of the shop. As he fled blindly down the street, he thought he heard a voice crying his name.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  JULIE GOES TO A BALL

  The story of a young woman masquerading as a soldier in the Continental Army spread like wildfire through Boston, and the soldiers themselves spawned ribald jokes. If Aaron Sampson had taken his ward away, it would have been easier for Nathan, but that didn’t happen. As soon as Molly Winslow heard that Laddie had been discovered, she told Adam the whole story. The two of them had gone to Knox. He was thunderstruck by the affair, but after Molly gave him the extenuating circumstances, he had agreed to help. He had called Sampson to his office and told him that he would have to present legal proof of his relationship with the girl.

  “But—I’ll have to go to Philadelphia! The wench will run away again!” Sampson was livid with anger. He had been on the verge of leaving with Julie as a prisoner, and he glared at Knox.

  “I’ll have her detained. She’s officially a member of my staff and under my authority. She’ll be here when you get the evidence. That’ll be all!” Knox snapped. He did not care for Sampson’s looks, and after the man left, he stared at the small figure before him and shook his heavy head. “Well, by Harry! I never thought I’d be taken in by a snip of a girl!”

  Julie looked up at him and saw that he was grieved, but not angry. “I’m so sorry, Colonel Knox,” she whispered, and tears glittered in her eyes as she said, “Will you let him take me when he comes back?”

  Knox was a gentle man, giant though he was, and he hated to hurt the girl anymore—but he had to tell her the truth. “I think the law will be on his side, Laddie—Miss Sampson, I mean.” He came over and put his hand on her shoulder, adding, “Before he gets here your friends will think of some way to help you, I’m sure.” Then he said briskly, “Now, I’ve talked this over with Mrs. Winslow, and since you have to stay somewhere, you can stay with her and Captain Winslow.”

  He had sent her to the Winslows, accompanied by Lieutenant Wilkins, who had given her a curious glance, but said only, “I hope things work out for you, miss.” Molly had met her and when the door closed, she opened her arms and instantly Julie fell into them, the tears she had held back flowing freely. The older woman held the weeping girl, and finally said, “Well, that’s done! Now we’ll have some tea and talk.”

  Her matter-of-fact manner did as much as anything to calm Julie, and by the time Adam came in, she was able to greet him without a sign of distress. He took her hands, and there was a fondness in his dark eyes as he said gently, “This has been pretty bad, hasn’t it?” Then his eyes twinkled and a smile touched his lips. “Going to be a little hard to get used to having a young woman around—Julie, is it? You must think all the Winslows are blind as bats, eh? Can’t tell a young woman from a man!”

  She knew he was trying to find some way to make her feel better, but the mention of Nathan disturbed her. “I don’t think Nathan will ever forgive me, Captain Winslow.”

  “Nonsense! Of course he will,” Adam said quickly. “He just needs a little time, child.”

  But three days went by, and while Julie grew to love the Winslows more than ever, Nathan did not come once to the house. Daniel, who was there every day, commented on it only once. “He’s taking it pretty hard, Julie. Thinks the whole world sees him as a fool. But he’ll come around—worse luck for me!”

  But two more days went by, and Julie said sadly to Molly, “Nathan’s never going to forgive me, and I—I love him so, Molly!”

  “I know, Julie.” Molly wanted to give some comfort, but doubt had filled her own heart, and there was nothing she could say.

  But that evening before supper, Adam had come in and Molly saw at once that he was disturbed. “What’s the matter?”

  “Nathan—he’s coming here tonight.”

  “How do you know, Adam?”

  “Because I ordered him to come!”

  “Oh, Adam, you shouldn’t have done that!”

  “I know it, Molly, but he’s going to get himself in bad trouble if he doesn’t pull out of this. I’ve tried to talk to him several times, but he just freezes up and says nothing. T
his morning one of the sergeants from the Maryland brigade made a remark about this thing—a dirty remark, and Nathan just about killed him! The man doesn’t have a tooth left in the front of his head!—and it would have been all the same to Nathan if it had been an officer!” He shook his head and added, “He’s acting like a child about this, Molly! He’s got to act like a man—and like a Christian.”

  “And you think ordering him here will do that?”

  “It can’t be any worse than it is,” he said grimly. “You see how hurt Julie is by the way he’s acting.”

  Molly was disturbed by what Adam had done, but she said nothing to Julie, and when Nathan walked in that evening, she saw the girl’s face turn pale as paper. But she had risen at once, and going to stand in front of him, she had said quietly, “Nathan, I’ve been wanting to tell you how sorry I am—for what I did to you.”

  Nathan stared down at her, searching her eyes to find something, and there was a combination of hurt and bitterness in his face. He said briefly, “I suppose it was something you had to do.”

  The coldness of his reply and the harsh light in his face struck her like a blow, and she bit her lip and said, “I’ll never forget what you did for me, Nathan. I—I hope you’ll be able to think of me a little more gently—after a while.”

  She had left the room, and Molly saw that Adam was as angry as she had ever seen him. Before he could speak, she said quickly, “Nathan, try to see it from her side—she was so alone, and you helped her as nobody else could. I’ve never seen a human being as grateful as she is to you.”

  “You knew about her, didn’t you?”

  “Well, yes—”

  “And I found out that Daniel Greene and his mother knew. Why was I left out?”

  “Oh, for heaven’s sake, Nathan!” Adam exclaimed. “You sound like a spoiled brat, crying because you got left out! I’ve been so confounded proud of you—but now, I’m ashamed to see you filled with hate for a girl who’s been through a terrible time!”

  His words struck Nathan hard, for he treasured the approval of his father as much as anything in the world. But stubbornness pressed his lips together, and he said tightly, “I don’t hate—her.” Both of them saw how difficult it was for him to even mention the thing, and Molly knew the sensitive spirit that was in him. He was, to Adam, a man come to full strength, but she was aware that beneath the militant air, Nathan had a childlike quality.

  The atmosphere was tense, and Nathan soon left, his head high and with a pallor under his tan. “Well, that wasn’t exactly the best idea I ever had, was it, Molly?” Adam sighed, staring after him.

  “I think you did the right thing,” she said promptly, and came to put her arm around him. “He’s so confused, Adam. But he’s good at heart, so we’ll just have to be patient until God gets him through this thing.”

  “There’s not much time, though. Sampson could be back with those blasted legal papers any time.” He sighed and turned to go look out into the darkness through the window. “I wish the Lord would do something quick.”

  “You know, I have an idea,” Molly said slowly. “Maybe there’s a way we can hurry things up.” There was, he saw, a far-off light in her gray eyes; he had learned long ago that when his wife got such a look, things usually happened.

  * * *

  “Oh, Molly, I can’t do it!” Julie wailed. She was standing in the middle of the floor staring at herself in the mirror. “Everybody will stare at me!”

  “That’s the idea, Julie—or part of it.” Molly was on her knees working on the hem of the beautiful white dress that she and Julie had bought that afternoon. She stood up, stepped back, and gave the girl a critical look, then nodded. “You’ll be the best-looking girl at the ball. But when—” A knock at the door interrupted her, and she said, “There’s Friend Daniel. Now you mind what I told you.”

  “It’ll never work!” Julie moaned, and she thought back to the day when Molly had come to her with the idea. Nathan can’t think of you as anything but a man, Julie—so we’ll have to let him see you as a woman! There’s a ball in three days, and Nathan will be there. We’ll buy you the prettiest dress in Boston, pretty you up, and when Nathan sees you as a young woman, he’ll just have to think differently!

  Julie, reluctant, had finally agreed, but now that the time had come, she stood there filled with apprehension as Molly admitted Daniel. “Why, Julie . . . !” Daniel came into the room, and stopped dead still as he caught sight of her, his eyes widening.

  “Isn’t she beautiful?” Molly beamed.

  “Very.” Daniel came closer, and Julie’s color rose as he stared at her as if he’d never seen her before. Then he shook his head and smiled. “Well, I told thee, Mrs. Winslow, I feel pretty strange, a Friend going to a worldly ball.” His eyes crinkled with humor and his smile broadened as he added, “But I reckon this young lady is going to need some protection—looking like that!”

  “I don’t want to go!”

  “You have to,” Molly said firmly, and began herding them toward the door. “I’d love to see Nathan when he gets his first glimpse of you in that dress! You’ll have to tell me all about it when you get home.”

  Daniel had a carriage, and he helped her into it, then climbed in and took the lines. “We’re going to be late.”

  “Dan, let’s don’t go to the ball!” she pleaded. “We can just drive around and talk.”

  He didn’t answer for a time, waiting until they had passed along the wide streets lined with elms. Finally he glanced at her, huddled up and looking completely miserable. “To tell the truth, Julie, that’s what I was going to try to talk thee into doing. Thee knows how I feel about thee, and it’s a mark of grace that I’m willing to let Nathan see thee.”

  “He won’t care, Daniel.”

  “Well, if he doesn’t, you’ll have faithful Friend Daniel Greene waiting for thee, Julie.”

  She didn’t answer, and all too soon they pulled up in front of a huge mansion brightening the sky with a myriad of lights. Dan handed the lines to a servant, then helped her down. They passed up a walk as wide as a city street, then through a set of massive doors into a spacious foyer. Through a set of double doors on their right, they could see a large crowd, with music echoing around the two as they entered the room.

  “Well, this is a little different from our Sabbath meeting, isn’t it, Julie?” Dan said quietly, looking over the room with interest.

  The brilliantly colored dresses of the women—red, green, blue—were highlighted by thousands of small candles set in the massive chandeliers overhead. Everyone seemed to be moving, some of them dancing and others going around the edges of the room, visiting the refreshment tables or engaging in conversation, and the hum of talk and laughter almost drowned out the small orchestra that played at the far end of the room. Many of the revelers were officers, and their buff-and-blue uniforms set them off from the civilians, who wore darker colors.

  “Let’s go over to the tables,” Dan said. “Friends aren’t much on dancing.”

  As Julie followed him through the crowd, she became aware that she was the target for many eyes. A woman dressed in a scarlet dress stared at her, then asked, loudly enough for her to hear, “Who is that?” Her escort, a tall major in the uniform of the 19th Maryland, leaned down and whispered in her ear, and the woman’s eyes gleamed. “So—that’s the one!” Then she had said something to a woman on her left, and the two of them had laughed.

  By the time they reached the table, Dan had noted the sensation they were creating, and said, “Don’t let it bother you. Some people aren’t kind.”

  Julie stood there enduring the stares and the comments that were aimed at her, longing more than anything to run out of the room. Then suddenly someone stood before her, and she looked up to see Colonel Knox. He smiled down at her, then said, “My wife is a very jealous woman, Miss Sampson, so I’ll probably pay for this—but I must have a dance with the loveliest woman in the room!”

  Julie found herself danci
ng around the room before she had time to think. Knox, though large, was very light on his feet, and by the time the dance was over, Julie realized that he had asked her to dance in order to put his stamp of approval on her. “You’ve been so kind to me, Colonel,” she whispered as he took her back to Daniel.

  He gave her arm a squeeze and whispered, “You and that bunch of Christians will pray this thing out!” Then he was gone, but three officers jostled each other for her next dance, the winner being a smiling Virginian from Adam’s company. He was followed by a tall captain from Glover’s Marblehead fishermen, and then by a series of others.

  Nathan and Abigail arrived late, but Daniel had been watching for them. He went across the room before they had a chance to speak to anyone else, saying, “Nathan, I haven’t had the honor of meeting thy fiancee.” He bowed as Nathan made the introductions, saying, “My congratulations to both of thee.”

  “Are you alone, Mr. Greene?” Abigail asked.

  “No—but my partner has proved to be so popular that I’m quite left out.” At that moment, Julie passed by not twenty feet away, floating on the arm of a youthful brigadier. “I believe thee knows her?”

  Abigail straightened suddenly, her eyes narrowing, but it was Nathan that Dan was watching. His lips parted and his bright blue eyes recorded his incredulity. “That’s Laddie?” he whispered, not conscious that he had used the familiar name.

  “Not Laddie,” Daniel corrected. “Miss Julie Sampson. Lovely, isn’t she?”

  The dress that Julie wore was pure white, with a voluminous skirt and a tight bodice that revealed her slim figure. Her hair was short but Molly had arranged it into a halo that framed her face with glossy black ringlets. She wore only one piece of jewelry, a gold locket with a green stone that glittered on her neck. Her skin was flawless, and Nathan, in shock, stared at the fully curved lips, the almond-shaped eyes, and the beautifully arched brows.

  “I’m claiming your first dance, Miss Howland,” Daniel said, and with a gleam in his brown eyes added innocently, “Nathan, I’m sure thee can get a dance with Miss Sampson if thee hurry.” He moved so quickly that neither of them had time to react. “Now, Miss Howland . . .” he was saying as he took her hand and led her to the floor, “I’m just a poor parson, so you’ll have to excuse my dancing . . . !”