Thorns in Eden and the Everlasting Mountains (52 page)

For
a long time they were silent. Then he pulled her up. She fell against his arm
and he held her fast. He kissed the hand that she had laid across his chest,
then her cheeks and her lips. He brushed her hair back from off her face, and
wiped away her tears.

Nash
buried Black Hawk where he had fallen, and he and Rebecah spoke a prayer over
that lonely place.

* * *

When
they reached the cabin, they smelled venison roasting on Mrs. Monroe’s spit. There
was Maddie sitting on the porch with her hand waving. In her arms, she held
Abby, whose tiny hand rose too.

Nash
carried Rebecah in his arms across the span of meadow grass. “Abby waits for
us, my love,” he said. Then he paused. Beyond the bank of trees came riders.
“Look, it’s Robert. He has Joab, Mr. Boyd, and Dr. Pierce with him.

 Theresa
came out onto the porch. When she saw her father, she ran toward them. Pierce hurried
to her, lifted her hands to his lips, and then took her to her father who wept
tears.

“Oh,
Jack,” Rebecah sighed. “There is joy this day regardless of our grief. I
believe he loves her.”

Sorrow
was felt by all at the loss of Black Hawk. Theresa knew he had loved her, and
so she went and stood a ways off from the others beside the stream to think of
him. Nash’s heart was broken and bleeding, but the presence of his wife and
newborn daughter overshadowed the grief.

Together
with the Monroe’s they sat together inside the cabin with a good fire, eating
good food. Rebecah washed Nash’s wound and bandaged it. They spoke of their
ordeals. But John and Rebecah Nash did not speak, for they felt that precious
solemnity of happiness as they sat together, Rebecah cradling their baby in her
arms and Nash gazing at the sweet face belonging to his daughter.

At sunrise, they
journeyed with the others into the woods as one, down a path leading to a great
valley and home.

Laurel Hill, the following year

Rebecah
stood by the window. Snow fell through the haze of moonlight, the land soft
blue, covered in frost.

Nash’s
hand caressed her forearm. She leaned back against his chest. His arms went around
her and pulled her close. Together they looked out at the fields and the
everlasting mountains beyond them. His cheek lay against hers until their lips
touched.

Her
eyes looked into his, moist with happy tears. Happiness and love had slain
sorrow. She did not speak. Her look told him everything. The war with Britain
would reach the wilderness, and he would leave her for a time. She knew. She
understood.

Joab
would die at Laurel Hill. Maddie would follow months later and be laid to rest
beside him. Theresa would marry Dr. Pierce and have six children. Robert
Maldowney traveled on into the wilderness to preach the Gospel. And by the time
Great Britain and America were at peace, Lady Margaret came to live at Laurel
Hill. The Harcourts sailed with her to America, and David set up a law practice,
Lavinia a welcoming home to all that stood on Court Street.

Abby
would grow up to marry a lawyer, live in town, have a houseful of children,
support her husband’s practice, and become an accomplished portrait painter.

As for John and
Rebecah Nash, for the rest of their lives they would bear the burdens of the
other. For, dear reader, a three-fold cord, whether made of scarlet thread or
brown jute, is not easily broken.

Outside my back door, I can view the rolling Catoctin
Mountains. I’ve tried to imagine what life was like in the days when they
loomed over what was referred to as the Wilderness. Fredericktown was a
Maryland frontier village in the 1700s, nestled in a peaceful valley. Through
these novels, I have endeavored to paint with words images of a time long ago.

The story of Chief Logan’s family is based on historical
events though there are conflicting accounts of what actually happened, as well
as the massacres at some of the homesteads, and the sinking of the Peggy
Stewart. John Wesley’s sermon is from an account in his diary.

There are other characters who lived and breathed in
the time of the American Revolution mentioned in this book that I have fictionalized.

Archibald Boyd
~ Fredericktown’s town clerk.

Logan ~
Indian
chief and peacemaker.

Mellana
~ Chief
Logan’s wife.

Koonay
~ Chief
Logan’s sister.

Shikellimus
~ Chief Logan’s father.

Thomas Johnson
~ Frederick County lawyer, delegate to the Continental Congress, Brigadier
General during the Revolution, supplier of ammunitions from the Catoctin
Furnace, and first governor of a free Maryland.

John Hanson
~ Deputy Surveyor, sheriff, county treasurer and Chairman for the Committee of
Observation in Frederick County, Maryland. One of Maryland’s leading Patriots.

Thomas Stone
~ Maryland delegate to the Continental Congress and signer of the Declaration
of Independence.

Samuel Chase
~ Maryland representative to the Continental Congress and signer of the
Declaration of Independence.

William Paca
~
Annapolis lawyer, along with Chase co-founded the Ann Arundel chapter of the
Sons
of Liberty,
signer of the Declaration of Independence.

Anthony Stewart
~ Co-owner of the ship the
Peggy Stewart
, burned in the second American
Tea Part in Annapolis Harbor.

Michael Cresap
~ Maryland frontiersman.

Jacob Greathouse
~ Believed by many sources to be the leader in the massacre of Logan’s
family.

John
Wesley ~
English preacher and evangelist.

The Rebel’s Pledge

Surrender the Wind

And

THE
DAUGHTERS OF THE POTOMAC SERIES

Before the Scarlet Dawn

Beside Two Rivers

Beyond the Valley

Rita Gerlach’s  website

www.ritagerlach.blogspot.com