Buckeye Dreams (21 page)

She shook her head. Like everyone else, she still couldn’t quite believe Daniel’s older brother was alive.

Like Charles, Jonah had been reported as being killed in action. But in reality, he’d been sent to a Confederate prisoner-of-war camp, none other than the notorious Andersonville Prison. Jonah had barely survived the harsh conditions and had been forced to watch helplessly as many of his fellow prisoners died of exposure and malnutrition.

When he was finally released, the army had put him and many other prisoners from Ohio on the steamship
Sultana
. The hopelessly overcrowded riverboat trudged up the Mississippi River and was just a few miles north of Memphis, Tennessee, when it exploded. Jonah had been able to jump from the ship and swim to safety, but he became ill and had to stay in a Memphis hospital for several days before finally arriving home. He’d literally just walked up the drive when Adele had come charging up on Scioto.

Father, Your timing is perfect. Thank You for protecting us
.

She heard footsteps and turned to see Daniel stepping into the shadow of the trees. He gave her a little smile. “Thought I might find you here.” He walked over and sat down next to her on the rock, slipping his arm around her.

She rested her head against his shoulder. “I needed a little peace and quiet. What did the sheriff say?”

“He said Jonah only did what he had to do to defend me. When he searched Carr’s papers, he found his will. The land will go to his nephew, Ben.”

“Does the sheriff know how to reach him?”

Daniel nodded. “He found a number of letters from Carr’s sister-in-law and from Ben. It’ll take a while to reach them. They’re clear out in the far western part of the Dakota Territory.” He squeezed her. “What do you plan to do about your brother?”

She sighed. “I’ll telegraph Aunt Ada. Most likely she’ll have me bury him here. She won’t want to have to tell Charleston society what happened.” She brushed a tear from her eye and felt Daniel squeeze her shoulder. “I had hoped Charles would have a chance to change his heart before he died.”

“I’m sorry,” Daniel said.

Katherine laid her head back on his broad shoulder, and they looked out at the soothing waters of Mill Creek.

After a while, she raised her head. “How’s Jonah?”

Daniel paused for a moment, and Katherine knew he, too, was finding it hard to believe his brother was alive. “Adele went with him just now to see Ma’s grave.” He sighed. “He’s not very happy with me, though.” He rose and walked up to the edge of the creek. “I’m not very happy with myself. I came very close—too close—to throwing away his inheritance. I should have trusted what the Lord was telling me.”

Katherine joined him and took his hand in both of hers. “ ‘If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.’ God will forgive you, and I know Jonah will in time.”

He smiled at her tenderly, reaching up with his free hand to stroke her face. “Thank you, Kat.”

She looked at him curiously. “That’s the third time you’ve called me that today.”

“It’s to remind me never to get you angry.” He pulled her into his arms. “You get as feisty as a wild bobcat.”

“Are you sure you can love such a dangerous creature?” she teased him. She caught her breath at the look in his eyes.

He lowered his head and kissed her until everything around her spun. “Katherine Eliza Wallace, I’ll love you until Mill Creek runs dry, and forever after that.”

N
ow what God hath joined together, let no man put asunder,” Reverend Warren declared. He smiled at Daniel. “You may now kiss the bride.”

Katherine laid her hands lightly on her new husband’s chest as he tenderly kissed her.

A soft sigh of approval rose from all those assembled in the Kirby parlor. No sooner had the reverend presented them as Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Kirby than it seemed the entire crowd moved forward as one to wish them well. With embraces and handshakes, one person after another congratulated the happy pair, and Katherine thought her arms would fall off before they were through.

Jonah stepped forward and, nodding to her, soberly shook his brother’s hand. “I’m happy for both of you,” he said and, without so much as smiling at them, stepped away.

Katherine looked at Daniel, and he squeezed her hand in reassurance.

Mary stepped up and hugged her and her nephew.

“I pray he’ll be all right,” Katherine said as they parted.

Mary looked after Jonah with weary eyes. “He needs all the prayers he can get right now.”

“Is he still having nightmares?” Daniel asked.

“I’m afraid so,” she replied.

Jonah walked into the empty dining room and was soon followed by Adele. She laid a hand on his arm, and the hard look left his face for a moment.

“He seems a little better when she’s around, though,” Mary added.

Adele and Jacob were staying with the Deckers, but the young widow came out to the Kirby farm nearly every day to help Mary.

“A soothing presence,” Daniel said, looking at his new bride. He looked around the room before turning back and smiling at her, a spark in his green eyes. “Mary, Katherine, come here. I have a little surprise.”

“Daniel Aaron Kirby, what else have you done?” Katherine asked as she lifted the full skirts of her new dress. It was made of cream-colored linen that Ruth Decker had special ordered just for Katherine. With Jonah having taken over the farm, Daniel had accepted the position as a classics professor at Ohio Wesleyan alongside Professor Harris. He’d already surprised her with their new house in Delaware and news that they would honeymoon in Maine. He also promised they would visit with his good friend General Joshua Chamberlain and his family while they were there. How could there possibly be more?

She and Mary looked at each other in confusion as Daniel led them over to where the Johnson clan stood. It had been months since they had seen Simon Peter and his sons. Jonah had taken over what was left of the planting when he came home, and they had been busy out at their own farm.

With a broad smile, Simon Peter took her hand in his. “How do, Mrs. Kirby?” he said. “Things been so busy you haven’t met my wife, Celia, yet.”

“I’m so glad to meet you,” Celia said, clasping Katherine’s hands. The woman smiled at Daniel and then looked back at her. “Mrs. Kirby, I believe you already know my sister.”

Wondering what she could mean, Katherine looked to see a young woman step out from behind Simon Peter’s tall form. “Katherine, I’m so very glad for you.”

“Chloe!” Katherine and Mary both gasped, and they quickly embraced her.

Katherine held her at arm’s length, her eyes swimming with tears. “Oh Chloe, I’m so sorry—”

“Oh no, Katherine, don’t blame yourself. I never did.” The two of them embraced tightly once more.

Katherine looked at Daniel. “How long have you known she was Celia’s sister?”

“A while,” he admitted. “I wanted to tell you right away, but Chloe wanted to surprise you.”

As the guests began to slowly leave, Katherine stepped out into the courtyard for some fresh air and to breathe a quick prayer of thanks. October was starting out a bit chilly, and she shivered.

A moment later, she found herself being wrapped in something warm. Looking down, she saw her Irish Chain quilt that Mary and Adele had lovingly finished in time for her wedding day. Daniel’s strong arms soon followed, and she leaned back against his chest as they watched the sun slowly dip lower over the fields.

With a sigh of contentment, she turned her head slightly to glance back at her husband, and he turned her in his arms and kissed her with a passion that rivaled the horizon’s fiery glow.

“How ever did I manage it?” Katherine eventually murmured.

“Manage what?” Daniel smiled.

“How did I, of all people, manage to capture a Yankee heart?”

After the Civil War, only men with extreme symptoms of what is now known as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) were sent to soldiers’ homes and asylums to recuperate. The rest worked through their war experiences as best they could with the help of family, friends, and faith, a circumstance I have tried to portray here. I wish to thank Lee Strobel for his book
The Case for Faith
, which was instrumental in creating Jonah Kirby. To my editor, Aaron McCarver, and dear friend Sally Bayless, this book is all the better for your input. Thank you. And many thanks to those men and women who suffered and died for our country from its birth up to its present conflicts. To those same men and women, this book is respectfully dedicated.

A
dele Stephens, you haven’t heard a word I’ve said in the last five minutes!”

Adele looked up.

Her friend, Mary O’Neal, was sitting next to her in the parlor of Mary’s nephew, Daniel Kirby, and her warm brown eyes held a look of reproach. The older woman set down her teacup and picked up a quilting square from the side table between them. “I asked what you thought of the quilt I’m working on.”

“I am sorry, Mary,” Adele said, taking the square from her. She held it up, but as her mind wandered again, she looked right through the pretty green- and brown-print squares. Suddenly the fabric disappeared, and she looked up in surprise.

Mary had taken it out of her hand and was now looking at her with genuine concern.

“What’s the matter? I’ve never seen you so distracted,” Mary said.

“Oh Mary, she barely touched her dinner.” Katherine, Daniel’s wife, sat on the other side of Adele. She grasped Adele’s hand and squeezed it, her gentle face worried. “You aren’t taking ill, are you?”

The young widow smiled at her. She had grown to love the lilt of Katherine’s Southern accent. It was a perfect match to her warm and kind personality. “
Nein
,” she replied in her native German. “I am sorry. I have many things on my mind.”

“What sort of things?” Daniel asked lightly as he walked into the room. He stood next to his wife’s chair.

Adele turned her blue eyes toward him, struggling to find the right words. She had known Daniel and his family since she was ten—he was practically a brother to her.
I must tell them
. She clenched her hands in her lap and remembered the words of the psalmist: “
Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the Lord
.” She opened her mouth, but Katherine spoke first.

“Oh, of course, you’re worried about where you and Jacob will live, aren’t you?”

Adele and her nine-year-old son, Jacob, had been living with a family in Ostrander, eight miles from Delaware, Ohio. But the Deckers were leaving the area to live closer to their newly married daughter. Adele’s parents had passed away when she was a child, and her brother, Erich Braun, had gone west several years ago.

Katherine looked at her husband. “Daniel, this house is so large. Couldn’t they stay here?”

Before he and Katherine had married several months ago, Daniel had bought his bride a house in Delaware, not far from Ohio Wesleyan University where he served as a professor. As much as she loved it, Katherine thought the house too large, too reminiscent of the plantation house in which she had been raised in South Carolina. Mary had assured her it was only half as large as that, and Katherine knew the older woman was right. Before Sherman’s march rent destruction through the Carolinas and drove her to return to her home state of Ohio, Mary had been Katherine’s neighbor.

Adele smiled. “Your home is not as large as you think. What if you have twins in the fall? Now that Mary is here to help, it will seem not large enough.”

Katherine reddened at her friend’s mention of her condition. “Adele!”

“Don’t scare me, Adele.” Daniel laughed. “I’m not sure Kat could handle twin boys.”

“I could more than handle twin girls,” his wife teased.

“Male or female, one or two, I pray the child will be healthy,” Mary said. She leaned toward Adele and laid a hand on her knee. “I’m thankful the Deckers allowed you to stay on in their house until that bachelor cousin of theirs moves in, but he’s coming this week. Do you and Jacob have a place to live?”

Adele took a deep breath. “Yes. In fact, that is where Jacob has been today.”

“So you did move in with the Warrens,” Daniel said. Reverend Paul Warren officiated at Mill Creek Church where Adele attended. Daniel took a sip from his cup. “I’m glad. I know you’ll be comfortable with Paul and Minnie.”

“We are not staying with them, Daniel.” Adele turned in her seat to look him straight in the eye. “We are living with Jonah.” Adele watched his eyes widen and heard Katherine gasp.

Daniel stared at her a moment before answering. “Adele, I know you’ve been going out to see my brother, to help him with the housework since Aunt Mary came to help Kat, but … well, what kind of example is that for Jacob?”

“It will be a good one. We were married yesterday, Daniel.” The three stared at her, and Adele took a sip of her tea. The cup jingled slightly as she returned it to her saucer. Frowning, she carefully laid the cup aside and squared her shoulders.

After several minutes, Daniel found his voice. “Adele, you could have borrowed money from us, stayed with us until the baby came—you didn’t have to do this.”

She shot him a meaningful look. “That is not why we married, Daniel.”

He stiffened. “Adele. You didn’t.”

“You cannot send Jonah to an insane asylum. It is not what he needs. I know.”

“You know?” Daniel said. “You haven’t heard the half of what’s been going on since he’s been back from the war. His mind isn’t the same.”

“
Ach!
Daniel, I’ve seen him for myself. He is angry, he is troubled, but he is not crazy.”

Daniel began to pace. “I can’t believe Paul Warren went along with this.”

“He did not know. Jonah insisted on driving to Marysville to have a justice of the peace perform the ceremony,” Adele replied. “I told him and Minnie before I came this afternoon.”