by Sarah Bird
The questions battered me. Did Wager wait at the border for me? Did he sneak back over and try to come after me? Did he return to the crossing again and again over the years? Did he question every gringo, white or black, asking, as I’d once asked if anyone had seen rows of black pearl scars like jewelry no one could ever steal?
Did Wager believe that I had broken my promise to find him?
Near dawn I was overtaken by a vision so real I knew it to be the truth of what had really happened to Wager.
In that vision, I galloped hard following Wager. The lowering sun cut into our eyes and set the Rio Grande ablaze as we crossed it. Bullets from the long-range Sharps pocked the dirt, but we paid them no mind. Wager laughed as the tiny dust devils fell farther and farther behind, never touching us. Never even coming close.
Ahead of me, Belle splashed through the river. Her back hooves crunched against the gravel bed then flung up rooster tails of drops that fanned out and shone in the low evening light. I was so close to Wager that the drops Belle kicked up hung before me bright as handfuls of gold Liberty dollars tossed into the air before they pattered down, cooling my face.
Wager reached the other bank and rode onto the free side to wait for me there.
Overhead the clouds ripened with the most marvelous blooms of color. Strawberry red and kumquat orange against a background of sky so blue it went all the way to heaven. Ahead was an ocean of rabbit brush bursting with yellow blossoms. The prairie under hoof was lavender in the dimming light.
As the sky dimmed from marigold to turquoise to darkest indigo, I drew up next to Wager and we rode, side by side, into Mexico, captives no more.
Historical Note
On August 5, 1888, General Philip Henry Sheridan died of congestive heart failure at the age of fifty-seven. He is buried beneath the Sheridan Gate at Arlington National Cemetery.
In 1892 Cathy/Cathay/Cathey Williams disappeared from the census rolls. Neither her death certificate nor final resting place has ever been found.
In 2016, one hundred and fifty years after Cathy Williams served, the U.S. military officially allowed women to enlist for combat service.
About the Author
The U.S. Army’s portrait of CathyWilliams.
SARAH BIRD’s previous novel, Above the East China Sea, was long-listed for the Dublin International Literary Award. Sarah has been selected for the Meryl Streep Screenwriting Lab, the B&N Discover Great Writers program, NPR’s Moth Radio series, the Texas Literary Hall of Fame, and New York Libraries Books to Remember list. She first heard Cathy Williams’s story in the late seventies while researching African-American rodeos. You can sign up for email updates here.
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Contents
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Epigraphs
Book One: Back South
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Book Two: Heading Out West
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Book Three: Out West
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
Chapter 68
Chapter 69
Chapter 70
Chapter 71
Chapter 72
Chapter 73
Chapter 74
Chapter 75
Chapter 76
Chapter 77
Chapter 78
Chapter 79
Chapter 80
Chapter 81
Chapter 82
Chapter 83
Book Four: Up High
Chapter 84
Chapter 85
Chapter 86
Historical Note
About the Author
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
DAUGHTER OF A DAUGHTER OF A QUEEN. Copyright © 2018 by Sarah Bird. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
www.stmartins.com
Cover photographs: woman © Rekha Arcangel/Arcangel; uniform © Judy Kennamer/Arcangel; parchment © Didecs/Shutterstock.com
The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:
Names: Bird, Sarah, author.
Title: Daughter of a daughter of a queen / Sarah Bird.
Description: First edition. | New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2018.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018010894 | ISBN 9781250193162 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781250193186 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Williams, Cathay, 1844–approximately 1893—Fiction. | United States—History—Civil War, 1861–1865—Participation, Female—Fiction. | United States. Army—African American troops—Fiction. | Cross-dressers—United States—Fiction. | Women soldiers—United States—History—19th century—Fiction. | Women slaves—United States—Fiction. | GSAFD: Biographical fiction. | Historical fiction. | War stories
Classification: LCC PS3552.I74 D38 2018 | DDC 813/.54—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018010894
eISBN 9781250193186
Our ebooks may be purchased in bulk for promotional, educational, or business use. Please contact your local bookseller or the Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department at 1-800-221-7945, extension 5442, or by email at [email protected].
First Edition: September 2018
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