Acts of Courage (4 page)

SIX

Laura looked across the tall grass to where Mira was playing. She felt a little better as she looked at her younger sister. The picnic had turned out not badly, after all. She had managed to get rid of Elizabeth without even trying, and she had found Red again. It was strange how bad beginnings turned into happy endings at times. She sighed and smiled.

“Well, milady, shall we be off?” Red had walked up behind her. “I’ve set the lads straight, and now I’m after a lodging place. Do you know of one hereabouts?”

“For the likes of you? I wouldn’t count on it!”

“Ha! Ha! Too late. I already have a reservation, you know. One night’s lodging in the finest cow stall in the county. It says right here.” Red pulled a handkerchief out of his right pocket and waved it in the air.

“Oh, your handkerchief—the blue one I gave you—it’s lying in the grass, just a bit past my sister. Mira! Go pick up the blue handkerchief in the grass over there and bring it back to me.” As Laura watched Mira run, she noticed that someone else was in the field. She was disappointed to see Thomas Mayo. He was probably on his way to find out what Red was doing here. It wasn’t as if Red was her beau, but it would have been nice just to talk with him alone for a bit.

“Well, hello there,” Thomas called as he ambled toward them. “If it isn’t my old potato hole companion!” He walked up to Red and clapped a hand on his shoulder. The two looked at each other in silence.

“I’ve not forgotten what you did for me, you know,” Red said after a few seconds. “I mean, it’s not every host that lays out such a spread of spuds.”

“Oh, it was nothing. We treat all our guests well.”

“Laura, Laura, I found the handkerchief!” Mira yelled, running over to where Laura and the boys were standing.

“Can I keep it?”

“No, Mira, it’s Red’s.”

“No, it’s mine! I found it! It’s mine!”

“Mira, it belongs to Red. Just give it to me, and I’ll give it to him.”

“No, no! You’ll have to catch me first!” Mira started running at full speed across the grass and onto the muddy pathway by the river’s edge.

“Mira, come back! Come back right now!”

But Mira heard nothing. She just kept running, right into the clump of pussywillows on the riverbank.

Laura ran after her as fast as she could, but when she got to the pussywillows, Mira was nowhere in sight. Laura looked down to the river and saw what had happened. Mira had lost her footing and had rolled down the bank and into the river. Laura screamed, but when she started for the water, her knees suddenly gave out, and she sank to the ground. Then she heard a splash and saw Red jump into the river.

Everything was a bit blurry, but Laura thought she saw Mira surface and Red grab her. Mira was choking, sputtering and hitting at Red. Laura could not believe her eyes. While Red held Mira, still struggling, they both disappeared under the splashing water. When they came up, Mira had stopped struggling. Red swam back to the riverbank, holding Mira’s head above the water.

As soon as Red was out of the water, he started slapping Mira on the back. He was wet and shivering, but he didn’t seem to notice. He gazed intently into Mira’s face, the crease between his eyebrows getting deeper and deeper. Finally, Mira started to breathe and cough.

“Here, put my coat on her,” said Thomas, who had set his gun, horn, and bag down on the ground and was standing above Red. “Turn her over and hit her again.”

Red did that, and Mira spit up some more water. Then she started to breathe normally.

“What is it? What are you two ruffians—” It was Father’s voice. He had returned home in the middle of the morning, and when Elizabeth had come to the house with a strange tale about a missing food basket, he had decided to investigate. He was only a few hundred feet away when he heard Laura’s screams, and he had raced ahead to the meadow.

Red and Thomas were not listening. Red was lying on his back, breathing heavily. Thomas picked Mira up and wrapped her more tightly in his coat.

“Here, Mr. Ingersoll. My friend just saved your daughter’s life.”

“Why…it’s Mira. What happened? Well, never mind. We can lose no time. Let’s just get her inside.” Father took Mira, and started running with her. He was headed back to the house.

From the woods, Red’s two companions watched Father take the child. They were only a hundred feet from the riverbank but they could not recognize him. The older one took out a small telescope and looked through it.

“Do you know him?” asked the younger man.

He nodded, and without a word, he handed the other fugitive the telescope and started to load his musket. “It’s him, all right,” the younger one said as he lowered the telescope. “We’ll need to get closer to fire. When they pass the far end of the woods, the trail is almost within touching distance, and we’ll be there ahead of them.”

Laura couldn’t keep up to Red, who was running with unusual speed toward her father. He had saved her sister, but why was he so determined to run at her father’s heels? He had always tried to avoid her father before now. Panting and shaking, she sped along, hoping to catch up to her father and Red.

As they reached the east end of the woods, she had almost caught up to them. She could see Red, running between her and the woods. Then she remembered those men. Now she realized that Red was running beside Father to protect him from his would-be assassins. Red was directly between Father and the men. But who was to say they wouldn’t shoot anyway?

Laura circled out into the wet fields away from the path and away from the woods. She was too far away to call to her father, and she didn’t want to be captured by the men. She started running. All she could hear was her own beating heart and pounding feet. She braced herself for the shattering sound of a musket.

She kept on running and running—it seemed like forever—until she almost bumped into Red and Thomas.

“How’s Mira?” Laura gasped as they ran side by side.

“She seems fine…Your father’s…taking her…to the house.”

Laura gave Red a sideways glance. “Come on up yourself for dry clothes.” Her father could decide about this boy. Maybe she
should
tell her father about the men. She’d have to think about it.

Thomas added, “Yeah, Red…you just saved the man’s daughter. He’ll not turn on you now!”

They all stopped running a hundred feet from the back door. “I better not go in…” Red stared at the ground. “Please don’t tell on us, Laura. We didn’t harm you none ’cept for eatin’ your victuals.”

“That’s true,” she said and grabbed his hands and started to pull him along toward the house. “C’mon. You’ve got to get dry or you’ll catch your death.”

“Oh, all right.” He did not take much persuading, for he was starting to shake from the cold. “Those men will be gone come dark.”

“I hope so.”

Laura left Red and Thomas in the back shed while she went into the kitchen. Already Bett had removed Mira’s wet clothes and wrapped her in a dry blanket. The fire blazed brightly in the hearth. Bett handed Laura some dry clothes and kept drying Mira’s curls.

“It’s mine! It’s mine!” Mira whimpered as Bett set her down on the couch near the fire.

Laura slipped into the side pantry, where she changed into dry clothes. Then she hurried back to the kitchen. Father was standing by the fire, looking down at Mira. “Don’t you ever go down by the river again, young lady,” he said sternly. “And whatever were you thinking of—letting her go there, Laura? I thought you were responsible enough to watch Mira. I see I was wrong.”

Laura cringed and gulped before she said, “I need dry clothes for the boy.” Then her legs gave way, and she sank to the couch beside Mira. She put her head in her hands and started to cry.

Father’s face suddenly changed. “There, there, Laura. Don’t cry. Mira’s fine, now. I didn’t mean to be harsh. Where is the boy?”

“In the shed, and Thomas is with him.”

“Bett, have Sam get the boy a change of clothing,” Father called back as he opened the door into the shed. In the far corner, he saw a boy not much bigger than Laura, shaking from the cold. Even in this wet condition, it was obvious that the boy’s clothes were in shreds.

“Come in, you two. What is your name, boy?” Father had a feeling he had seen Thomas’s companion before.

“Red.” But the name couldn’t have been less appropriate at this moment. The only colour on his face was the blue of his lips.

Sam appeared just behind Father. “I have clothes, sir,” he said. Sam smiled as he handed Red a pair of his own large trousers and a homespun shirt.

“Thank you, Mister,” the boy said to Father and Sam. It didn’t take him long to slip out of his own wet clothes and into the huge dry ones.

“Come in and get warm. And let’s get some tea into all of you,” Father said. “Thomas, too.”

“Well, sir, I can’t stay. There’s chores I’m to do. Sir, I have to get back. But thank you.” Thomas went out the back door, turning to wave goodbye to Red.

Inside the kitchen, Father handed Red a towel to dry his hair. “Come over to the fire and sit right here. I don’t know how to thank you for what you did.”

“Laura would have rescued her if I hadn’t, Mister.”

“I’m a weak swimmer. I doubt I could have saved her.” Laura did not admit that she hated the water and had feared it ever since a boy had drowned at a town picnic the year before.

Before long, Mira was chatting away as usual, and Laura’s father did not look quite so stern. Red got up to leave. “I must go now,” he said.

“Where do you live?” asked Father. Laura glanced quickly at Red, who stared straight back at her. Father saw the worried expression that passed between them. Then he remembered the red-headed boy in Shay’s rebellion, the one who had followed behind the others, carrying their gear in the battle—the boy who had never been found. But this couldn’t possibly be the same one. After all, it was obvious that he and Laura were friends. Mind you, he was a strange-looking one.

Laura held her breath as she waited for her father to demand an answer from Red. He kept staring at the boy, who was looking down and mumbling in an unintelligible manner, “I used to live with my uncle, but he was killed in a battle. And now, Mister, I’m searching everywhere for work.”

Did her father know what battle that was?
Laura could not be sure but couldn’t think of any excuse and was too weak to try.

Red was almost hidden in the loose-fitting shirt and big twill breeches. His eyes looked even larger and his face thinner as he peered up at Laura’s father and waited.

Father’s eyes softened, and then he said, “You saved my daughter. So I’ll find you a job if you’re willing to work hard. Nobody wants an idle boy.”

The boy’s whole face lit up as he gave Laura and her father a wide smile. “I’m not afraid of hard work. I’ve grown up on hard work,” he said. “It’s like mother’s milk to me, ’tis.”

“You can help Sam around here for now,” said Father. “Come, and I’ll show you where there’s an extra bed in the servants’ quarters. If you’ve warmed up, I could take you over there now.”

“I’m fine, Mister.” Red was still shivering a little as he followed Father, but he turned back toward Laura and winked just as he was going out the door.

Part Two
Upper Canada

SEVEN

Laura rearranged the furniture in her father’s study. She’d had to bring two extra chairs from the dining room. Father had called a family gathering. Bett wasn’t able to keep up with the growing family anymore, and Laura had become a maid-of-all. Father had told Laura on the side that his announcement this afternoon was very important. Whatever it was, he was being very secretive, and that made Laura uneasy. Her father had a way of dropping news unexpectedly.

As she gave the furniture a once-over with her flannel duster, Laura remembered back eight years to that horrible time just after Father had quelled Shay’s rebellion. Her step-mother Mercy had died and, four months after that, Father had announced that he was marrying Elizabeth’s mother. Yes, that had come as quite a shock. Then, both Elizabeth and her mother had moved in.

Laura had been pleased that Father had found work for Red with Judge Whiting. Perhaps that had been the beginning of her father’s courtship of Sally Whiting Bachus. Laura had never wondered about his visits there because she thought he’d just been checking up on Red. Laura had been upset about the marriage for a long time. The way Father picked wives—Laura had thought Sally would probably die in a couple of years, too. Laura had secretly vowed that she would never become attached to another mother. But Sally was still well and had added two healthy children to this family—Charles, now four years old, and baby Appy who was just one.

“Thanks, Laura,” said Father, striding into his study and over to his captain’s chair. Right behind, Sally came along with baby Appy, and Elizabeth followed her with a struggling Charles in hand. Laura lay her duster aside and sat down on the horsehair loveseat near the fireplace.

Next, Mira came bursting in with all the energy of her almost fifteen years and plopped down beside Laura. Charles broke loose and ran over to wiggle onto the love seat between Laura and Mira.

Father didn’t waste any time beginning. “I’ve decided to move us to Upper Canada next month,” he said.

They all stared at him in shocked silence.

Then the questions began. “To Upper Canada? And why so soon?” asked Laura.

He didn’t like to have his decisions questioned. “I’ve been considering this move for two years.”

“You knew about it, and you didn’t mention a word to us!” Mira burst out. Elizabeth blew her nose with a limp lace handkerchief.

“I went to Upper Canada two years ago to look into their land offer for settlers. I made application then. I didn’t see any need to tell the family, because I didn’t know if we’d be accepted. And I hoped that affairs here would improve, so we could stay.” He looked straight into the glowing flames of the fireplace, and Laura saw pain on her father’s face that she had never noticed before.

Father put his chin in his hands as he continued. “I just can’t go on here. The court decisions that have been forced on some people have been so unfair. I can’t stand to watch it anymore.”

In the years since Father’s marriage to Sally, times had grown worse, and Father had been away more than ever. Laura and Elizabeth had finished at the local school and were busy at home helping Sally. Father could not afford to buy more slaves, and Bett was growing too old now to keep up with another baby.

“The farmers have suffered terribly,” Father went on. “They’ve worked hard all their lives. They’re honest, God-fearing, hard-working people; yet they’ve seen their family farms taken away to pay debts. It’s not their fault they can’t sell their produce for a fair price and pay their taxes.”

Thomas Ingersoll talked on, still staring into the fire. Laura had never heard him say so much in one conversation. She had not realized that his work had been so hard or that times had been so difficult.

‘There are men who are willing to go to Upper Canada with me. They have already lost their land here, and their hope along with it. I must persuade them they can still have hope—in Canada. Rugged it may be, but there is law and order there, and a man will receive justice. The British seem to have learned from their mistakes with these colonies.”

“Was the revolution for nothing, then?” Laura asked. “Didn’t the colonies fight to stop the harsh taxation?”

“No, the war was not in vain,” Father spoke more evenly now. “Freedom and justice will come, but it will take time. A new country always has growing pains. But I’m too old to go through those pains. I want more security for my family.”

“But Canada is still under British rule,” Mira objected. She had been only three years old at the end of the Revolutionary War, but she had learned about it in school and from her father.

Father’s face brightened now. “They are offering settlers a good deal. Two years ago, I travelled to Newark—that’s the capital of Upper Canada near Niagara Falls—and I made a petition to Lieutenant Governor Simcoe for a land grant there. I agreed to take forty settlers over a seven-year period. Each family will receive two hundred acres for a nominal fee. My friend, Captain Brant, the Mohawk Chief, has agreed to help me choose a stretch of fertile land for my settlement.”

Father had first met the great Mohawk chief before the war on a visit to Moor’s school in Connecticut, and Captain Brant had visited the family at Great Barrington three years ago. He was on his way home from a meeting with General Washington, with whom he had discussed the Muskingum River boundary for the dissenting tribes still on American soil. The chief had told Father then of the great opportunities in Upper Canada. But Laura had never once thought that the family would actually settle there.

Sally handed the baby to Elizabeth and went over to sit in the chair beside Father. She was frowning. “But the land grant is just the beginning, isn’t it?” she said. “The settlers will have to break up the land, and build houses and barns, and start from scratch just like our great-grandfathers did. It will not be easy.”

“No, it will not be easy,” said Father. “But life never is. It hasn’t been easy here, either. In fact, it is impossible now. My own resources have dwindled, and I have just enough left to take us to Upper Canada. We’ll have to sell almost everything before we go—I simply can’t afford to transport more. We must go. We have no other choice.”

“We do have a choice. Papa will take us in.” Sally suddenly turned away from Father, grabbed the baby from Elizabeth, and rushed out of the room.

“Never!” Father boomed as he stared at his wife’s retreating figure.

Elizabeth blinked back tears.

“I know this is not easy,” Father said, “but we must be brave. I have to get to work now. I have so much to do before we go.” He turned to Laura. “Please try to reason with Sally.” Laura nodded and hurried the girls and Charles out of the study. She hadn’t accepted the idea herself yet, but for her father’s sake, she would have to try.

“Well, I still don’t like it,” Mira grumbled.

“Father has been planning for two years. So it’s not a sudden decision. We’ll manage fine.” Laura hoped her voice sounded more confident than she felt.

“I don’t know,” Mira began. Her deep brown eyes were brimming over with tears.

“Well, I don’t like it,” said Elizabeth, “and I don’t know why you do, Laura, unless maybe you hope to find a beau up there.”

“Yes,” said Mira, “I’ve heard there are lots of unmarried men up in Canada.”

Laura blushed. She would be twenty in September, only five months away, and it was true that she had no beau. Elizabeth already had a beau. Now that she was eighteen, Thomas was calling on her every week. But Laura had little time to attend social events. As the oldest of the family, she was always busy.

Laura smiled mischievously and responded, “I hadn’t thought about that, Elizabeth, but perhaps you’re right. I may just marry a Canadian and leave you two to do the work without me.”

Mira looked even more distressed, and Laura regretted her joke, but she was pleased by Elizabeth’s deflated expression. “Stop worrying about Canada. You may just be surprised. You may like it there.” She smiled across at Mira’s shocked face as she walked out of the room. And maybe it was true. Maybe she would like it. Since there wasn’t really any other choice for any of them, they had better make the best of it.

As she passed the hall mirror, she stopped for a moment. Her fine, straight features and long, thick, wavy hair told her that she was not unattractive. But she had never gone to a party escorted by a young man. Many girls younger than herself were married, and quite a few were already mothers. But Mercy and Sally had both been past twenty-five when they had married Father, so there would be time yet.

Then she thought of Red, the boy who had come and gone that horrible year when her stepmother had died. She had hoped he wouldn’t go back to Ireland but, a year later, he did. Laura had made many a trip down to the Whiting residence to see if there might be a letter for her. But there was never anything. He had not even written to Judge Whiting, except for one letter, thanking him for passage money.

As the days had dragged into months, she had finally gone to Judge Whiting to ask for Red’s address but was surprised to find out that he had never given it to the Whitings. In fact, they didn’t even know his real name. Laura knew that Red must still fear being tracked down for his part in Shay’s rebellion.

Busy now with her thoughts as she hurried into the kitchen, she almost bumped into Sally, who was perched on a stool at the long utility table, peeling potatoes. Sally brushed the back of her hand across her eyes to hide the tears, but she kept her head down, intent upon her work.

Laura grabbed a paring knife and started to peel a potato. “You don’t need to help, Laura,” she said. “You spend too much time helping us all.”

“Are you complaining?”

“Why, no! Whatever would I complain for, Laura? I couldn’t have managed these last few years without you, but sometimes I feel that the household is taking too much of your time.” She wiped a hand across an eye again. “Every girl needs a life of her own.” They continued to peel potatoes in silence.

“About moving to Canada,” Laura said finally, “you know we’ll manage fine with the children. They’re strong. And we can come back on visits, too. It’s not like it was at first, after the war. Please say you’ll come with us.” Laura put her arm around Sally’s shoulder.

“Why…should I…leave?” Sally gasped out between sobs.

“Because I need you, Sally. First I lost Mother, then Mother Mercy. I can’t lose you, too.” Laura’s voice trembled and her eyes were misted with tears. At that moment, she realized how important Sally was to her. Though she had never thought of Sally as a mother, she had become like a very close sister.

Sally looked up through her tears, pulled back the long, dark hair that had fallen across her face, and stared with surprise at Laura. The afternoon sun shone through the window across Laura’s face, and Sally could see the sadness that Laura had covered up for so many years.

“You won’t lose me, Laura,” she promised. They clasped each other tightly as tears fell down their cheeks.

***

Laura watched as Thomas and Levi helped Father load the family’s belongings onto the wagon. She spotted her own small horsehair trunk near the top of the load. They would take a sloop upriver to Schenectady. From there, they would travel by boat up the Mohawk River and portage to the Oswego River. They’d end up at Oswego on Lake Ontario, where they would board a ship for Newark.

Thomas held both of Elizabeth’s hands in his. “I’ll come to Upper Canada one day,” he said, “but I can’t leave my folks right now. They need me, now that Levi has his own farm and a family to support. But sometime I’ll come, Elizabeth.” Laura stepped off the verandah and slipped quietly around the south side of the house.

Laura remembered saying goodbye to Red under that very apple tree the day he had come up to tell her he was leaving. Laura stood and looked at the bare branches of the gnarled apple tree. It looked half-dead today, but the day Red had left, it had been full of white blossoms.

“I’ll never forget you, Laura.” Red had smiled his lopsided smile, and his red hair had looked bronze in the sunlight.

“Why can’t you wait just a few more years and I could go with you, Red?” Laura had pleaded.

“There’s no future for me here, Laura,” he’d said. “Back home, at least, I have family.”

“But there are things you can do here that you won’t be able to do in Ireland. You’ve already learned to read and write, and the judge could teach you lots of other things…and I could…”

“Don’t be daft, Laura. It’s all settled, and it’ll be the best thing, in the end. I’ll see you again, too. You just wait.”

The tears had started to stream down her face then, and he had leaned over and kissed her gently on the mouth. She had never been kissed by a boy that way before, and she looked up shyly into Red’s twinkling eyes. He smiled then and left her standing there, leaning against the apple tree. At the end of the lane, he turned and waved. She waved back and watched him disappear down the highway. She had never heard from him again.

“Laura!” Father’s voice broke through her thoughts. She hurried around the side of the house. The whole family was all ready to go. Charles was sitting on the back of the wagon, swinging his short legs back and forth over the edge.

“Come sit here, Laura,” shouted Charles. He patted an empty spot beside him. Sally and the baby were sitting on the front bench with Father, and Mira and Elizabeth were just behind them. Laura put her hands on the flat of the wagon and shunted herself up beside Charles.