Crossing (55 page)

“I will write to Mrs. Jackson and to Reverend White to thank them,” Daniel promised. “It’s good to have faithful and caring brothers and sisters in the Lord.”

“Even if they’re not in the community?” Zemira, the lifelong Amish woman, asked suspiciously.

“Well?” Daniel countered, grinning. “Even if they’re not?”

“Hmm. Even if they are those English, I suppose,” Zemira agreed. Somewhat.

“Which sorta brings me to the next thing I want to tell you,” Yancy said. “I’m sorry to say, Grandmother, that I have asked this English to marry me. And she’s been fool enough to say yes.”

With glad cries, Zemira and Becky jumped up, pulled Lorena to her feet, and hugged her so many times that she felt bruised. Daniel and Yancy stood and solemnly shook hands as men do.

Finally they all regained their seats, Yancy and Lorena glancing at each other and exchanging beaming smiles. Happily Becky asked, “When? When, Yancy?”

He sobered, though he didn’t wear the same desolate face that had so marked him a few days before. “I have to go back, you know. After the funeral. The Yankees at Chancellorsville are still making noise, and General Lee says that we have to stay and be vigilant, for no one knows when the next battle will be.”

Zemira sighed. “Very true. All we know is that there will be another, and another, in this wicked old world. But”—she brightened—“you children look so happy. I know that you will have a good life together. And won’t you have some pretty babies!” Both Lorena and Yancy blushed, and Zemira laughed at them.

“Anyway,” Yancy continued, “just as soon as I can, when we may see a few days of peace ahead, I’m going to ask for a furlough. Then I’ll come home and bless Reverend White again. He said he’ll marry us anytime, even if it’s only with an hour’s notice. But you know that I’ll try very hard to make it a time when you all and Dr. and Mrs. Hayden can be there. Neither Lorena nor I can imagine getting married without our families.”

“Then we’ll pray for days of peace ahead,” Daniel said. “Many of them.”

They talked long into the night before Daniel, Becky, and Zemira finally headed off to bed.

Yancy and Lorena sat out on the porch for a few minutes before they retired. They stood close together at the porch steps, looking at the vast tapestry of stars blanketing the blessed valley. “New moon,” Yancy murmured. “New love. New life.” He turned to her and took her in his arms.

Lorena said, “I knew I had already found true friends in Becky and your father, but now I know that they and your grandmother have already begun including me in the family. I don’t think I’ve ever been happier. I will never forget this day.”

“And I will never forget you again, Lorena,” he promised. “And I will never leave you again. No matter what happens. No matter where I am. I’ll be with you always.”

“And I with you,” she whispered. “For always … beginning now.”

O
n the next day—another innocent, pretty Virginia spring day—General Stonewall Jackson took his last journey. Reverend White conducted a short service. Then the procession went to the Lexington Cemetery. In the shadow of the hills he knew so well, in the valley that he loved so much, Stonewall Jackson was finally at rest.

After the earthly good-byes were said, Anna Jackson, crying softly beneath her veil, turned and walked away from her husband’s coffin. She didn’t look back. The attendees followed her out of the cemetery ….

Except for four boys, whom Stonewall Jackson had taught to be men. They came to stand by his coffin, with their beloved flag draped over it. Mounds of flowers surrounded them, the air heavy with their heavenly-sweet scent.

“Atten–tion!” Yancy ordered in a low voice.

Together, very slowly, they raised their hands to give one last salute. They held it for long moments then together snapped back to attention. In silence they stood.

“I will always believe we were closer to him than the others,” Peyton said quietly. “Guess no one else would believe it.”

“I do,” Chuckins said staunchly.

“I do,” Sandy agreed.

Yancy said, “It’s the truth. We were Stonewall’s Boys.”

A
ward-winning, bestselling author, Gilbert Morris is well known for penning numerous Christian novels for adults and children since 1984 with 6.5 million books in print. He is probably best known for the forty-book House of Winslow series, and his
Edge of Honor
was a 2001 Christy Award winner. He lives with his wife in Gulf Shores, Alabama.