The next morning, JoBeth came down for breakfast, murmured, “Good morning,” then took her seat quietly. Amelia, looking as though she hadn’t slept much, nodded and smiled absently. The colonel was drinking his coffee and reading the newspaper when Delilah brought in the mail. She laid it beside Amelia’s plate, and distractedly Amelia sifted through it. Suddenly she came upon an envelope that caused her to jerk slightly. With a quick look down the table at her husband, then at JoBeth, she slid a letter over to her. At the same time, she signaled with her eyes and an imperceptible shake of her head. Immediately JoBeth was warned and slipped the envelope into her sleeve. In an agony of impatience, she had to wait until the colonel finished his breakfast and bid them both good-bye for the day and left the house. She then pulled out the letter and ripped it open with her knife.
It was the long-awaited letter from Wes. A direct answer to her prayers, and a much more prompt one than she had any reason to hope for. Hungry for details, she skimmed rapidly down the page. Although he could not give her the exact day and time, it would be within the week, sooner rather than later, so she must be packed and ready to leave at a moment’s notice.
JoBeth looked up from the letter in her shaking hands. “Oh, Amelia, it’s come! It’s from Wes. He’s coming to get me.”
Amelia’s reaction was a mixed one. She seemed both relieved and a little sad. “You have become very dear to me, JoBeth, even in this short time. And now you will be leaving.” Her eyes brimmed with tears. “I worry about what you are going into and what may become of you.”
JoBeth was too happy, too excited, to hear the note of sadness in the older woman’s voice. Nothing could darken the elation she felt. “You mustn’t worry, Amelia. I’ll be fine. And I’ll be so happy. You’ll see. Wait until you meet Wes. You’ll understand why I love him so. You’ll see he’s everything I told you.”
Two days later another brief note came. He would be there within the next forty-eight hours. Almost two more days to live through! How could she bear it? The two days of waiting passed with agonizing slowness. Then in the late afternoon of the third day, Delilah knocked on the door of the bedroom, where JoBeth was packing. “Miss JoBeth, this jest come fo’ you.” JoBeth dropped the shawl she was putting into her valise and eagerly took the folded slip of paper the maid was holding out to her. “Oh, thank you. I think it’s what I’ve been—,” she said breathlessly and tore it open.
She read what she had so longed to know, in Wes’s dear, familiar handwriting.
My Darling,
I’m in Richmond but of course in hiding. I cannot come in daytime, because of where you are staying. I’m sending this by a trusted servant in the house of a Union sympathizer. I’ll be there this evening after dark. I have our passes and we can travel back to Washington as sister and brother going to see a sick relative. Not entirely true, I know, but of necessity. Be ready, be brave. Soon we will be together.
Hardly able to contain her joy, JoBeth ran down the hall to Amelia’s room and knocked gently. To the answering “Come in,” she entered.
Amelia was lying on the chaise, resting before dinner. She had a book on her lap but looked up as JoBeth approached her and said. “I hate to disturb you, but I have wonderful news.”
“From the look on your face, I can only guess what it is,” Amelia replied, unable to hide the tinge of regret in her voice.
Breathlessly JoBeth told her the contents of Wes’s note.
While they discussed just how his arrival and her departure should be handled, they heard footsteps on the stairway. Colonel Brooke had arrived home unexpectedly early. The two women exchanged wary glances. Amelia squeezed JoBeth’s hand and mouthed the words “Leave this to me.”
After greeting the colonel, JoBeth excused herself and went back to her bedroom and in breathless excitement continued happily packing.
However, down the hall the scene was anything but that of happy anticipation. In her anxiety, Amelia’s voice was unconsciously raised. “But what else could I do, Jacob? She is the daughter of my dearest girlhood friend. We were at school together.”
“Perhaps it is a case of choosing between loyalties,” came the stern rejoinder.
“My dear husband, I beg you, don’t put it that way.”
“What other way can I put it? This is wartime, woman. We should have no choices like this to make. Our allegiance is to the Confederacy. I have taken an oath on it, and as my wife, you—” His tone was harsh. “You expect me to stay calm when you propose harboring an enemy in my household?”
“Surely you don’t consider JoBeth an enemy.”
“No, I consider her a foolish, uninformed young woman who does not realize the hazards—not only the risk she is taking but the danger she has put us in.”
“Danger? What possible danger?”
“If it were known that there is to be a rendezvous of a Union sympathizer and her Yankee lover here, in the house of a high-ranking Confederate officer—why, I might even be court-martialed.”
“But who is to know?”
“Richmond is full of spies. They are everywhere.”
“But I can’t refuse to help now, Jacob. Plans have already been made—”
“Plans? What plans?” he demanded. Then, as if understanding had suddenly burst upon him, he exclaimed angrily, “No! Don’t!” He got up and stalked over to the window. With his back to her, he stared out into the street for a full minute before speaking again. “Whatever it is, I don’t want to know about it, you understand? Whenever the time comes, give me some signal, and I will go back to my headquarters for a meeting—that evening.”
Ecstatic with anticipation, JoBeth was only vaguely aware of the high drama being enacted in the Brooke household as the hour of Wes’s coming grew nearer. However, the undercurrent was high. Only someone totally insensitive to the electric atmosphere could have remained unaware of it. Late in the afternoon, Colonel Brooke came home briefly and left again after curtly telling Amelia to send word when it would be safe for him to return to his own home. Outside, the autumn dusk gathered quickly. In her bedroom, JoBeth ran back and forth from the window, where she watched anxiously for some sign of Wes’s arrival, to her bedside, where she fell on her knees in frantic prayer that nothing would prevent Wes’s coming.
Just after dark a tap came on the door, and Amelia stuck her head inside. In a whisper, which was no longer necessary, she said, “Your young man is here.”
JoBeth’s feet barely skimmed the steps as she flew down the stairway. In the hall stood a tall figure illuminated by the oil lamp on the table. Wes! Before she reached the last one, he was at the bottom holding out open arms, and she flung herself into them.
She pressed her cheek against the coarse greatcoat, smelling the damp wool smell, breathing in the fresh scent of rain and cold air. “Oh, Wes! Wes!” she cried, her voice smothered as he held her in a crushing embrace. “I can’t believe you’re really here!”
“Well, I am, my darling. Believe it!”
She hugged him tight, then drew back. “Let me look at you, see if you’re real!” she exclaimed. “Oh, my goodness! You’ve grown whiskers!” she giggled.
“You don’t mind, I hope!” he laughed. “I thought it gave me more dignity, made me look more like an officer and a gentleman.” He grinned, then added quickly, “I’ll shave it off if you don’t like it.”
“Let me see.” She smiled and kissed him on the mouth. Their kiss was long, tender, infinitely sweet. Then JoBeth laughed softly. “It tickles. But I think I like it!” She hugged him.
Wes gave a low chuckle. “It’s so wonderful to be with you again. To see you smile, hear you laugh. You don’t know how I’ve missed that. Missed you!”
“I think I do know, as I’ve missed you,” she said, “Oh, Wes, it’s been so long. I didn’t think it would ever happen!”
“Well, it has,” he said almost solemnly.
For a long moment they simply looked at each other. Then she lifted her face and they kissed again. There was a difference in this kiss. It was the fulfillment of what had been only a hope, a longing. When it ended, Wes said, “Now, dearest, we will have to leave as soon as possible—you have your papers and I’ve brought your pass. It is best we leave when the sentries who have been on duty all night may not be as alert. There won’t be too many questions when we show our passes. There is always a risk that if my true identity as a Union soldier should be discovered, I’d be considered a spy in enemy territory.”
His words fell like heavy stones on JoBeth, briefly blotting her first happiness at their reunion. Stark reality of what they were facing hit. This was wartime. He was the enemy. They must flee under cover of darkness, like fugitives. Her heart thundered.
“How soon can you be ready?” he asked.
“Right away. I’ve most of my things packed.”
Amelia, who had been standing at the top of the landing and had watched their meeting, overheard Wes’s anxious question and came down a few steps, saying, “Come along, JoBeth. I’ll help you get everything together. There’s no time to waste.”
Although Amelia had many doubts about this elopement—and was worldly enough to know that love did not conquer all, in spite of all the poems written, the ballads sung—she still felt exhilarated. These two star-crossed young lovers had excited her romantic imagination. JoBeth hurried back up the stairs and with Amelia’s help put the last items into her valise. They both had to sit on her trunk to get it closed. Amelia held the gray melton cape for her to put on and hooked the corded frog fastenings under her chin. JoBeth pulled the hood over her hair. “Well, this is it!” she said breathlessly.
Suddenly tears sprang into Amelia’s eyes as she looked at JoBeth. Then she placed both hands on the girl’s cheeks, gazed at her for a moment, then kissed her fondly, saying, “Dear child, I wish you the best, all the best, and as much happiness as it is possible to find. God bless and keep you, my dear.”
Impulsively, JoBeth put her arms around Amelia. “Thank you, thank you, for everything! I shall always remember your kindness and be grateful.”
There was no more time to say anything. JoBeth went to the top of the stairs and called Wes. He took the steps two at a time and came into the bedroom to shoulder her small trunk. Quickly they went down the stairs and out into the night.
Wes helped her into the carriage, then carefully arranged the rug over her knees. The sound of the carriage wheels against the wet pavement mixed with the hollow clip-clop of horse hooves. As she looked out the window of the cab, the whole world seemed wrapped in the mysterious yellow light from the street lamps. As the Brooke house faded into the rainy mist, JoBeth felt the same farewell she had the morning she left Hillsboro. Who knew when she would ever see it again?