Dark Shadows (36 page)

Chapter Sixty

April 1861

April arrived. Gone were the cold, biting winds and relentless snowstorms. Spring rains fell persistently upon the land. The rains caused riverbanks to slide, dislodging small trees, fallen branches, and bare trunks and allowing them to slip into the river’s path. Some of the soil, rushes, logs, and branches barricaded the natural flow of water in places, causing flooding along the riverside and into the woods, making the terrain just as treacherous as winter days, when it was too dangerous to venture farther than the eye could see.

The white landscape surrounding Lina and Charlie’s cabin finally changed. Leaves sprouted from branches, bushes flattened by the harsh winter began to straighten and rise in a kaleidoscope of colours, and the smell of spring air was glorious.

The snow during January and February had put any plans to travel northward on hold. However, Mercy had insisted that she be taught about survival in the terrain that had almost killed her. She spent a great deal of time outdoors. She hunted with Charlie and Nelson and proved herself a worthy trapper. Charlie taught her how to follow trails, even in the snow. He showed her the best way to seek shelter in the very worst of weather, how to set traps for rabbits, and the techniques used to shoot wild boar. On a couple of occasions lately, she had watched how he hunted and killed the great black bear.

She had also spent many days indoors with Lina, who taught her how to cook the local wildlife and clean and treat rabbit and fox furs. At times, the women sat by the fire and talked for hours. Lina was to Mercy the mother she had never known. Mercy was to Lina the child she had never borne.

Lina was in her late fifties, Mercy learned. She had been born a slave in the state of Mississippi. Her grandmother, also born a slave on the same plantation, had been the master’s favourite. She had lain with him when she was just fifteen, and Lina’s mother was the result. Lina spoke about her mother with pride and honoured her memory every day. She had been light-skinned and a beauty. She had gained the attention of black and white men alike.

However, it had been a neighbouring plantation owner who had taken her virginity by force. Lina had been born bordering the two races and fitting into neither. The worst day of her life, Lina said, was the day the neighbouring plantation owner, her father, took her mother away.

Lina had never seen her again. Charlie, a friend of her father’s, had swept her off her feet and paid for her freedom. They had left their home and moved here, where they had lived for over thirty years.

Mercy sat up front with Charlie on the bench seat, watching as he casually steered the horses pulling the covered wagon through backwoods trails and across shallow rivers.

Lina and Nelson sat under the circular canopied roof in the back, hidden from sight, and talked incessantly about the North and the freedom it would bring Nelson.

They had been travelling for just over two days and were heading south-east, to the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay Estuary. They would cross at the widest part of the river to Newport News. The distance from the cabin to their final destination was, in Charlie’s estimation, a little over eighty miles. However, they had broken their journey the day before in a small hunting cabin occupied by white slave sympathisers.

Mercy and Nelson had not been told the full details of the journey they were to undertake. As each mile passed, they heard the incredible stories of runaway slaves aided by the Underground Railroad. This organisation drew on a large network of volunteers, white and black, who spirited fugitive slaves to the North by using waterways, boats, safe houses, and covered wagons that crossed the shallow waters of the Potomac River.

When Lina and Charlie first told Mercy and Nelson of their plans, Mercy had been sceptical. She had already seen the dangers posed by Chesapeake Bay. But as Lina pointed out, she had been ignorant of its secrets, one being the hundreds of slaves who had escaped using the very route Mercy had discarded. Lina and Charlie had been adamant that this was the only way to fulfil Nelson’s dreams of freedom and that it had to be now, before it was too late.

Seven Southern states had already seceded from the Union – among them, Lina and Charlie’s home state of Mississippi. There was talk of war in every mouth in Richmond, as Texas, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, North Carolina, and South Carolina had also disavowed the Union in a display of solidarity against the new president’s anti-slavery policies.

Militias were practicing drills, uniforms were being produced, arms were being collected, and politicians and leaders were being chosen. In the frenzied atmosphere, Virginia waited and watched, believing that she would secede within days to join her sister slave states.

Mercy knew very little about the politics. However, after she learned about the possibility that Virginia might also secede, her thoughts turned to Jacob and what this might mean for him, Belle, and Hendry. Jacob was never far from her thoughts. She still felt his closeness even after these months apart, and she had never stopped believing that they would be reunited.

As they neared the harbour, Charlie halted the wagon. He and Mercy climbed in the back to sit with Lina and Nelson. Charlie was pensive. Sadness crossed his face as he looked at the others.

“Now, I know we’ve all come to care for each other, but I also reckon this is the last opportunity we might have to get this boy to safety. Nelson, son, I ain’t coming with you. I have some very important business to attend to, so I’m leaving you in Lina’s care. My Lina knows these river crossings like the back of her hand. She’s helped dozens of slaves to freedom, and I can’t imagine you in better company. She’s a much better guide than I could ever be.

“Lina will drive the wagon, but you, Nelson, you’ll stay tucked away. You’ll sit behind these old wooden crates until Lina tells you to come out. You hear? I reckon there ain’t much cause to worry because I’m betting just about every other person you meet will be thinking about our country being ripped apart soon. They won’t be paying no heed to this wagon or who’s in it. The most important thing is to keep you out of sight until Lina meets her first contact.”

“Charlie, can’t you come with us?” Mercy asked.

“Nope. Like I said, I got business. You just do like Lina tells you and I’ll be back here in six days. I’ll meet you in Newport News – Lina knows where.”

“I guess this is the last time I’s ever gonna see you,” Nelson said miserably. “You knows I want to stay with you at the cabin. Best home I ever had. I ain’t thinking freedom can get any better than what you gave me. How can I repay you, Mr Charlie?”

“Nelson, if the good Lord is with you and you reach freedom, well, that’s payment enough,” Charlie said. “Just promise me that you’ll learn to read and write. Then you can let us know how you’re doing. We’re gonna miss you, but you’re gonna be free – free, Nelson – and that’s what you should be thinking about.”

Mercy was afraid to speak. She didn’t want Nelson to see her sadness. He had seen enough tears in the last days at the cabin. She had spoken at length to him. She didn’t know if he would heed her words, but she hoped that when he got into Pennsylvania, he would remember her words and act upon them.

She had given him enough money to buy himself a new suit of clothes and provide himself with food, lodgings, and a horse and wagon. Watching his expression now, she could see that he was afraid, yet there was a spark of excitement there too. She sat closer to him and held his hand.

“Nelson, remember what I told you. You don’t have to be alone. When Lina and me get you where you have to be, I want you to do as I said. Mr Isaac Bernstein is a good man. We are very good friends, him, and I. I know he’ll be in Boston by now, and I believe he will want to help you. Boston is far to the north. You might not want to go all that way, but I can’t bear to think of you being alone. Just remember that Isaac’s father is the chief surgeon in the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. You ask for him at that hospital and give him the letter I gave you, along with the address Lina gave you to write to. You keep that letter and that address safe. If you can’t write to us, Mr Isaac will do it for you. I’m sure – no, I know –that Isaac will find you a job and make sure you have a good life.”

“I don’t have no place else to be, Miss Mercy. I done told you that, so I reckon I will go find your Mr Isaac. If you say he’s a good man, then I believe you. Don’t you worry none about ole Nelson.”

Charlie and Lina had a brief and private discussion. After Charlie left them, Lina took over the driver’s seat and headed straight to the harbour.

Darkness had descended, and the roads were clear. They had about a mile to go until the first harbour, which sat next to a small trading station. Lina smiled at Mercy. “Mercy, this is what I live for – this and my Charlie. I think about all the slaves I’ve helped and wonder what they’re doing with their lives right now. I imagine my mother being one of them. I often wonder if she’s happy, but I doubt it. I was lucky. My Charlie loves me, and I love him, but my mother was used. I reckon she’s still slaving away on my father’s plantation. He’s probably had a whole bunch of children just like me by now. But I’ll always love my mother.”

“Do you ever think about going to find her?” Mercy asked.

“Yep. Charlie promised to take me this summer, but all those plans we made last year might be thrown out the window on account of what’s going on. I ain’t never heard so much hatred spoutin’ from men’s lips. But I don’t reckon we’ll all be shootin’ each other soon.”

“I love Virginia, Lina. I know it almost killed me, but I love it all the same.”

Lina patted Mercy’s knee and said. “While we’re on the subject of love – I know you love Jacob Stone. God knows I do. So take some advice from an old woman who knows about being happy with a man. Life is too short to worry about what you are to him. You might not be his legal wife, but if that man loves you, and you love him like you say you do, it don’t matter a damn.”

“I know, but it seems to matter to everyone else. I want to see him more than anything. I still love him with all my heart – but I have been through so much. How can I go back to Portsmouth knowing that I will be hated by everyone for being his mistress? And what if I see Madame du Pont? I want to kill that woman or destroy her life. I need revenge, and that’s not good – it’s evil. I sometimes think I’ll go mad just thinking and wondering.”

“Child, I believe in fate. It might be good fate or bad fate, but the good Lord knows what we need to be doing and where we need to be when we journey through this life of ours. All I’m saying is that love is more important than reputation, money, and fear of the unknown. If fate gives you love, you grab it. Love, child, will get you by in just about every rotten situation life throws at you. You got a decision to make; there ain’t no more time for you to sit around wondering.”

“I’m scared, Lina. I’m scared
she’ll
still be there.”

“Don’t you go worrying none about that du Pont woman no more. You hate her all you want. Jacob will protect you.”

“You don’t know her,” Mercy said with bitterness. “She’ll kill Jacob too, if she has her mind set on it.”

“I know enough about her by now to know that you’re tough enough to best her. She’s a bully, but I reckon she ain’t got no power left, not after you got rid of that Eddie you been tellin’ me about. You’re a strong woman. You knows you shoot better than any man. If you see that du Pont woman, you just look her in the eye and tell her she ain’t nothin’ to you now. There ain’t no use in killin’ her, Mercy, but you can best her just by making her feel real small.”

In the ensuing silence, Mercy digested Lina’s words and thought about fate. She didn’t really know the city of Portsmouth. The only memories she had of it were nightmarish flashes of fear. She hated the thought of going back to the street where Eddie abducted her, but she was not the same person now. She was passionate about life. She was stronger in body and mind. She was no longer in a strange country, for life in the backwoods and journeys up the rivers were more familiar to her than anything she’d seen or experienced in the Elephant and Castle. She hadn’t lived there. She had existed.

Her joy at discovering new adventures each day had convinced her that her fateful journey had been necessary. Some of it had been horrific, but it was necessary all the same. She wondered what she would be doing right now had she not crossed the River Thames on that fateful October day. What if she had not ended up in Liverpool? She would never have met Jacob. If Eddie had not abducted her a second time, she would not have met Nelson, Lina, or Charlie. These events had played a pivotal role in her life. She was not afraid anymore. Fate was like a giant invisible hand that lifted her from place to place in order for her to be exactly where she needed to be.

Where she was supposed to be going or what she was supposed to be doing next, she didn’t really know. She knew she loved Jacob. She just didn’t know how to get back to him. Portsmouth was where he lived but it was not where she wanted to live. “I hope fate comes to guide me now.”

“Fate always guides. You just don’t see it doin’ its job.”

Mercy cast these thoughts aside and asked, “Who will meet us at the harbour?”

“Well, if I’m right, it’ll be an old friend of mine. We call him the captain. He’s been on the river for fifty years, and there ain’t nothin’ he don’t know. He’ll take us across to Newport News – always works at night, the old coot. He’s taken countless men and women just like Nelson across to the bay. We call it the Chesapeake Station.”