Love's Rescue

by Tammy Barley

  Within minutes, the smattering of houses became familiar, then the dark shapes of the prison walls emerged. Without a word, they slowed their horses to a quiet walk so they wouldn’t wake any civilians. They moved off the road to further muffle the sound of the hooves with the prairie earth.

  Though no lamplight shone from the homes, Jake led them in a wide circle around the residences to avoid being seen in the event that someone stepped outdoors en route to an outhouse.

  As they came within view of the sentries, they dismounted and began to use the moments of greater darkness to their advantage. They waited patiently behind clusters of trees or lone carriage houses, stealthily slipping closer to the western wall each time a cloud cover fell.

  When they were perhaps four hundred yards from the stockade, they entered a small grove of oak trees. There, they split up. Diaz and Taggart wended their way south, pulling their horses after them.

  Leaving their own horses tied to a tree in the grove, Jake, Jess, and Reese took their rifles and continued on foot, then on their hands and knees, and finally on their stomachs, keeping as low as possible.

  When they reached the last cluster of bushes large enough to conceal them, they stopped to study the perimeter of the stockade and the sentry box high atop it. Here and there, soldiers looked down, silhouetted starkly against the night sky, with rifles gleaming against their shoulders. Below them, other guards patrolled the fence line, several hundred feet separating one man from the next. All was quiet inside the camp.

  Ten minutes of tense silence passed. Then they heard the distant hoot of an owl.

  Diaz and Taggart had taken their position.

  It was time.

  Jake unrolled a tattered gray coat he’d purchased in town and handed it to Reese. It would be his only disguise. Reese gave Jess his hat for safekeeping and shrugged into the coat. Then he unbuckled his gun belt and passed his weapons to Jake. At this, Jess nearly protested out loud, but Jake silenced her with a solid hand on her wrist. She suddenly realized that if Reese were found by the guards, he might be able to talk his way out of trouble; if they found him armed, however, they could shoot him as the enemy.

  The two men inched forward on their elbows through knee-high prairie grass. Jess deeply wished she had never agreed to let Reese go in to get Ambrose.

  While Jake and Reese kept watch on a passing guard, Jess slowly crept up to Jake’s side. She placed a hand on his arm, and he turned his face to look at her. “Can you see any of the openings in the stockade?” she whispered.

  By way of an answer, he pointed to three stacks of lumber she hadn’t noticed—two just to the south and another much further down, nearer where Diaz and Taggart were waiting. A cloud drifted overhead, draping the camp in black. When it passed, Jess realized that the lumber lay where the wall had yet to be finished. She figured that the gap the men had found that afternoon must be behind the stacks. The shifting shadows made the openings nearly impossible to see.

  A guard rounded the corner of the stockade and headed away from them. Jake and Reese inched toward the lumber, crawling like cats on the prowl.

  Jess followed until she was within range of the first sentry box. A half-buried wooden stake was protruding from the ground before her. She was one hundred feet from the wall, no more than fifty from the roaming guards. The dead zone.

  If she moved suddenly, the sentry in the box would see her.

  Without a sound, she laid her rifle on the ground in front of her. She lifted the brim of her hat slightly and wiped the sweat trickling from her hairline with her sleeve.

  Ambrose, she thought, only a little while longer. Only a little while and you’ll be out of there for good. Oh, please don’t let anything happen to you now.

  The instant the words lighted in her mind, she knew she was sending her wishes in the wrong direction. Almighty Father, she prayed, I don’t know of anything in Your Word that tells me whether freeing Ambrose is right or wrong. Perhaps, during a war, there are no answers to that. I only know that while David hid from King Saul in a cave, he prayed, ‘Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise thy name.’ Over the past months, You’ve blessed me with countless reasons to praise Your name. Above all, You’ve given me hope of a future with Jake, and You’ve brought Ambrose back to me. You’ve given me the faith to praise Your name, no matter what comes. Now I ask that in Your mercy and in Your love, You would enable us to free Ambrose tonight and You would grant that none of us is harmed.

  Jess pressed her cheek to the ground as another guard strolled by. Then when he had passed, she carefully looked about for Jake and Reese. She saw nothing but the tops of the grasses blowing in the breeze.

  Her gut wrenched with the realization of just how deeply she loved Jake. What if he were discovered? A picture flashed through her mind of him lying, shot, in a circle of Federals, his eyes staring dully at the stars. Jess had to fight the urge to go to him. She wanted to know what it was to be his wife. She wanted Jake to hold her close on long winter nights. She wanted to swim with him in the creek on balmy summer evenings. She wanted to continue working the ranch together and to give him children to fill the emptiness left by Sadie’s absence. Jake Bennett brightened her life and brought her joy, and he loved her. Jess sent one more prayer heavenward, asking the Lord to protect them for one reason more: she wanted to be with Jake, and she wanted forever.

  Silently letting out her breath, she searched again for signs of Jake and Reese. Another guard passed. There was a movement in the grass about twenty feet away. She gasped when Reese’s head emerged. He and Jake were too near the opening—they might be seen! Yet Reese looked first to one side and then to the other, noting the positions and distances of the guards. Jake leaned close to the boy and whispered something as Reese nodded, listening. Then, flat on his belly, Reese moved forward.

  Jess was breathing hard now, trying to stifle her gasps.

  It had all come down to this.

  She watched him go. Forward, forward. Another hoot sounded—Jake signaling to Diaz and Taggart that Reese was going in.

  A shadow spread over the land. She saw Reese crouch down, hidden by darkness. When the clouds slid by, the place where Reese had been was empty. He was in.

  Jess breathed a tentative sigh of relief. The first goal had been achieved.

  Keeping her eyes level with the grass, Jess reached back, pulled open her holster, and slid the revolver free. Bringing it up in front of her, she waited, heart pounding against the ground.

  Minutes passed, turning into a half hour. Then another half hour. Two of the guards stopped to chat directly in front of the opening. Her nerves stretched as tight as banjo strings.

  The six of them would need to be well away from here by daybreak, her mind screamed, or the guards would be able to see them—and follow them. They were running out of time.

  In the next instant, Jess watched in horror as the two guards readied their rifles and swung the stocks to their shoulders.

  They were moving in Jake’s direction.

  Jess nearly cried out. She stifled her panic and forced herself to think.

  Diaz and Taggart were positioned hundreds of yards away near the second break in the wall. They were nowhere near enough to help Jake. She was much closer and fully able to help him.

  The two Yankee guards began to sweep the grass with their rifle barrels as they moved along. Using her elbows, Jess turned herself until she faced them head-on. Carefully, she drew back the hammer, grimacing when it clicked loudly in place.

  The guards didn’t appear to have heard.

  Jess laid her finger along the trigger guard, bracing her gun hand firmly on the palm of her other hand.

  One of the soldiers called up to the sentry above, who moved to the outside edge of his box and looked down where the other man was pointing. While he scanned the field from his vantage point, the two on the ground moved further apart.

  Jess sighted along her barrel. One of the guards motioned to the other. Suddenly, bot
h rifles swung into position to fire.

  Jess took aim at the gun hand of the soldier nearest her. She curled her finger over the trigger.

  One of the Federals shouted and kicked at something with his boot. He stared down at the grass, but the other muttered something and then burst out laughing, apparently teasing his alarmed partner. Both of them moved away. The laughing one shouldered his rifle in unconcern, but the other persisted in searching the ground until he had almost reached the wall. After they exchanged a few more words, they waved up to the sentry and resumed their rounds.

  Jess lowered her revolver with a sigh far shakier than the last. Jake had been no more than a body’s length from those guards, she knew. That they hadn’t seen him was nothing short of a miracle.

  Jess uncocked the revolver and rested her head on her arm.

  The air felt cooler now, and damp, as if a storm were rolling in. She raised her head, then nearly jumped out of her skin to see Jake beside her.

  “Shh, it’s me.”

  Unable to stop herself, she grasped his shirt and leaned over, embracing him as best she could from a horizontal position. “I thought they’d found you! I thought that was the end of it!”

  He hugged her close. “We’re not out of this yet,” he reminded her.

  Steeling her nerves, she let him go and moved slightly away. “The guards found something,” she said. “I saw one of them kicking at the ground. What was it?”

  Jake looked around. “A few pages of newsprint the wind had blown in. I found them in the grass and took them with me, thinking they might come in handy. The pages fluttered just enough to keep the guards’ attention away from me.”

  Jess nodded, still battling her fright. The newspaper might not have worked, she thought. The soldiers might have captured him.

  “I have to get back now. I just wanted to be sure you were all right.”

  All right? Jess searched his face, noting the steadiness in his eyes. Jake Bennett was a man calm of purpose. He was undaunted by fears, even now, and he was watching out for her. How, she wondered, could she ever be afraid with this man by her side?

  “I’m fine, Bennett,” she said, her tone confident again.

  Jake leaned forward and kissed her. Then he looked toward the opening where Reese had entered the camp. “They’re ready.”

  Jess turned her head to see two shadows emerge through the fence—the slender form of Reese and the taller silhouette of her brother. Hope collided with tension inside her as she resumed her place.

  Jake was already moving away.

  Jess scanned the dead zone for the enemy. Unexpectedly, a single guard rounded the corner, patrolling in the direction opposite of that in which the other guards had been walking all night. Stranger still, Jess thought she recognized something familiar in the way he moved. Her eyes flew to the guard box. It was empty. The sentry!

  Desperate to call to Jake, she maintained silence and clamped her jaw shut. With the rifle in one hand and the revolver in the other, she began pushing herself away from the man.

  He was coming straight for her.

  Jess shook her head, denying what was happening. Obviously, he had seen her from the sentry box. Why hadn’t he simply alerted the guards on the ground? Why had he come after her himself? Earning points toward a higher rank? Going for his big chance to be promoted to paper shuffler?

  Not at her expense.

  He was less than ten feet away. Eight feet. Six.

  Jess dropped her rifle. She rose up on one knee, pulling up her revolver.

  His rifle was aimed at her heart.

  In the next second, she envisioned Jake, her brother, and the other three men whose lives would be affected forever by the choice she would make in the next moment. She recalled Jake saying, “We’ll go in slow and quiet,” and she remembered Reese going in without his guns.

  Jess took a deep breath.

  And threw her revolver away.

  The man lifted his boot to her stomach and forced her back down in the grass.

  Jess avoided glancing toward her rifle. She hoped he didn’t see it—hoped he no longer saw her as a threat.

  The guard was searching her face. His own was hidden in the shadow of his forage cap, but she thought she saw a frown. He lifted his rifle and pushed her hat off her head.

  Her braid tumbled free.

  To her surprise, the man immediately withdrew his boot. She saw amusement on his face when his head turned to scan the area.

  What was more, she recognized the pale hair and the lines of sympathy around his eyes. He was the young soldier who had first stood guard in the room in the headquarters building.

  “I’m sorry, ma’am,” he said softly. “I thought you was that big feller.”

  There was a loud double click beside Jess. “Shoulder your gun.”

  At the tone of Jake’s command, the soldier swiftly obeyed. In the open space beyond him, Jess saw Ambrose, Reese, and several other shadowy forms hurrying away from the prison wall. Evidently, the Yanks would be missing not one but nearly a dozen of their prisoners come morning.

  The young soldier dropped his gaze to the bore of Jake’s gun. Doing his best to ignore it, he turned his attention back to Jess.

  “I couldn’t help but hear what you told your brother today, ma’am. I sure am sorry for you, losing your family and all, and if you’ll allow me to say so, ma’am, I haven’t heard a voice as pretty as yours since my mama died when I was a boy. My pa’s family is from Michigan, and I’m nothing more than a farm boy, ma’am, so I don’t much know if what I’m about to do here is right or wrong. All I know is, it seems right to me.”

  Jake eyed him. “What do you mean?”

  He pulled off his cap. “I’m seein’ to it her brother leaves with her.” He looked again to Jess. “I sure don’t want you losin’ nobody else.”

  Jess was stunned. She could see no trace of duplicity in his eyes; she heard nothing but kindness in his voice. His stance was that of a man worthy of respect.

  She could hardly believe what was happening. After Yankee sympathizers had destroyed her family, another Yankee was making certain that its remnants were put back together again.

  The young man nervously followed the movement of Jake’s gun. He calmed a little as it was uncocked and lowered.

  Jake kept his voice quiet. “You just happen to be on duty tonight?”

  “No, sir. I took another man’s post so’s I could see that you and that Kentucky feller got away safe.”

  “How did you know we’d come back to get him out?”

  He smiled a little. “Well, sir, I didn’t exactly figure that the lady here would be comin’ with you, but I surely saw how much she cared for her brother. She, uh, she also looked as though her mind was good and set on something, and neither of you seemed like the kind of folks who’d leave a good man here to die.”

  Jake rose up on an elbow. Another guard came into view. The escaping Confederates dove to the ground. “I’m much obliged to you,” Jake said.

  The soldier nodded, pulling his cap on again. He began to back away. “Ma’am, I hope I didn’t hurt you none, but I thought I was going to have to take a gun away from your gentleman there to get him to listen to what I had to say.” He gave Jake a salute. “Godspeed.”

  Jess halted him with an urgent whisper. “Please, you said helping us seemed right. How can that be when my brother and I are from the South?”

  He kept his back to her, his eyes on the other guard. “Like I said, ma’am, I don’t want you losin’ no one else.” He rubbed his nose with a knuckle. “And my mama was from Lexington.”

  “Sergeant!”

  Their rescuer casually started toward the oncoming guard.

  Jess found Jake’s hand in the grass as the youth led the other guard away. “I feel like a durn fool,” she heard him telling his fellow Yankee. “I come all the way down here only to scare up a rabbit.”

  Jake squeezed Jess’s hand, bringing her attention around. “Ambrose an
d the boys already made it to the horses. Now it’s our turn.”

  Jess glanced skyward. “The clouds are gone!” she whispered anxiously. “They’ll see us from the sentry boxes!”

  “We’ll go slowly,” he assured her. “Besides, we have a friend up there.”

  Jess met his gaze, and Jake smiled the crooked smile she loved.

  Painstakingly, they retrieved her hat and Reese’s handgun and rifle, stopping frequently to wait for a guard to pass. They moved as fast as they dared, concerned that one of the other prisoners would be seen and thereby alert the sentries to their escape.

  Gradually, they made their way to the copse of trees where they’d tied their horses. Diaz, Taggart, Reese, and Ambrose were waiting for them. The moment they were relatively safe from view, Jess left Jake’s side and rushed to Ambrose, embracing him fiercely.

  “I love you, Jessica.”

  She hugged him tighter. Then, knowing that they were still near enough to be discovered, she pulled back, turning to thank Diaz, Taggart, and especially Reese. They had risked their lives for her, as well as for her brother, a stranger they had never met.

  Jake handed Reese his hat and guns. Without a word, they walked out, careful to keep buildings and trees between them and the sentries. When they had reached a safe distance, they stepped into their saddles. Ambrose swung onto Jess’s horse and pulled her up behind him. They left at a lope, and within minutes, Camp Douglas prison had faded into the night.

  They rode for several miles, keeping a cautious eye out behind them. But the road remained clear—no Federals were on their tail.

  Feelings of triumph ran high, and Jess almost laughed aloud in joy. She held onto Ambrose, thinking about how much had changed since they last were together. Then she glanced heavenward, where thin wisps of clouds were floating high above. Beyond them glistened stars that a young Jake had believed were the walls of heaven. Jess searched the sky, more sure than ever that heaven existed. In the next moment, she was sending God a tearful prayer of thanks, praising Him that, after all the hard times that had fallen on her and Ambrose both, freeing Ambrose from prison had been smooth and successful.