I could see church spires in the distance, so I knew we were about two miles from town. I waved my hand to attract Carol's attention and pointed. She saw the spires and smiled.
At this juncture, Mulholland drew his gelding to a halt, held up his hand for us to stop, and looked up and all about him.
I thought he was going to remark on the breathlessly beautiful blue sky, which reminded me of the color of one of my Sunday dresses at home. Good Lord, how long had it been since I'd worn petticoats and a dress! Two weeks? Like Dr. Ashton had said, in wartime a week seemed like six months.
Or was he looking at the jackdaws congregated on the telegraph wires overhead, probably deciding which field of corn they were going to destroy this morning?
No, he was looking at the telegraph wires.
And, while looking, he was taking a large pair of shears out of his saddlebags. He was going to cut them. Then he looked at me.
No, he was going to ask me to go up there and cut them.
He smiled his Bad Face smile. "One more thing you can do for me before you get home, Sam," he said. "I've been ordered to cut the telegraph wires when I got close to Roswell. But I thought it fitting that you should do it."
"Me?"
"Sure. Why not? You walked on the mill roof, didn't you? What's a little telegraph pole to a girl like you?"
"Please, Sergeant Mulholland," Carol said.
"You stay out of this. None of your business," he told her.
"Suppose she falls and gets hurt?" Carol reminded him. "What are you going to tell her brother? You think he'll negotiate with you if you hurt or kill his sister? You know how devoted he is to her."
Mulholland chewed on that for a moment. Then he scowled, made an annoyed sound in his throat, and spoke. "He don't negotiate, I just take you back with me."
"I don't think so, Sergeant," Carol said, not losing a bit of her poise. "What I think is that if Leigh Ann is killed in a fall, or hurt, my husband will never let you off the place alive. As a matter of fact, I know it. Don't be a fool." She said it as if she were disappointed in him.
Angrily, knowing she was right, he got off his horse and, shears in hand, climbed the metal hinges of the pole until he got up to the wires.
I felt a pang of disheartenment as I thought, Here I am sitting, doing nothing, while the people of my town are being denied wire service again. But what can I do? The insufferable brute.
I watched him reach out with the shears and cut the insulated wire. It swung out in two directions, and then back at him.
Teddy would say I was getting mean and nasty, but in my heart I hoped it would hit him in the head and knock him off the pole.
It did not. He ducked his head, avoiding it. Then he climbed down and mounted his horse, and we continued on.
As we approached the town, I still felt disheartened, and now scared, too. What would the town look like? Would it be destroyed?
On the road as we approached, we passed several people whom we did not know driving wagons filled with large pieces of iron, leaving Roswell.
"That iron must be from the mill," Carol said. "And since we don't know those men, they must be coming from other places to salvage it."
We also saw wagons filled with bricks, stacks of them, also likely from the mill. Then we sighted a whole herd of hogs being driven out of town by some Confederate soldiers.
Carol stopped one of them. "Tell me, what condition is the town in?" she asked. "Is there anything left?"
"A lot of the houses have been ransacked, ma'am, but not destroyed. The mansions and churches are in need of repair, but they still stand."
"Do you know"—Carol's voice broke, then she recommenced speaking—"do you know the Conners plantation?"
"Sure 'nuf, ma'am."
"Is it still standing?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"Have they ransacked it?"
The soldier smiled. "Need the whole Yankee army to do that, ma'am. That Conners fellow, he's a regiment all on his own, not to mention his negroes."
"Thank you," Carol said.
The soldier tipped his hat. "My pleasure, ma'am. Why, that Conners fellow, he'd just as soon blow your head off as look at you, you come too close 'round his place. Good day, ma'am."
He went on, catching up with his friends and his hogs. Carol threw a superior glance at Mulholland, but he quickly looked on ahead.
***
We came upon the long drive, which was still the same as I had left it, though for some reason I did not expect it to be. And there were the trees lining each side. How could they not have withered, or fallen, or aged? Changed somehow, after all I had been through?
Hadn't it been a hundred years, at least?
At the end of the drive was the house, as always, where I'd been a child, where I'd run and played and done mischief, when running and playing and doing mischief was all that had mattered to me.
No one was about. Was it empty? Had it all been a dream, after all?
Was there no Teddy to ask, Where have you been? You've missed dinner and you know I wont tolerate that.
No Louis to say, Look, I won't have you talking that way about our mother. No matter what she does, she's still our mother.
We rode at a slow canter, and then we heard the barking of a dog.
It was the dog who did it.
Cicero.
He came running from around back of the house, onto the verandah. For a moment he stood there barking in his best tone. Then my Buster started in, and though I tried to keep him by me he went running down the long drive toward the house, and then Cicero came charging toward him and they met halfway and started circling each other and oh, I hoped they wouldn't fight. But soon tails were wagging.
The front door of the house opened and a figure appeared and whistled. Cicero went bounding back, Buster with him.
I suppose my brother Teddy saw the blue uniform on Mulholland, for he went back into the house and came out quickly with a rifle and stood there, legs spread, waiting.
We were only about a third down the drive when Mulholland halted and stopped us. "No farther," he ordered. "You stop right here, little girl."
For I had started on. I had even yelled, "Teddy, Teddy, we're home!"
He heard me. I know he did. But he didn't move. Just stood there with that rifle at the ready.
"What now?" I asked Mulholland.
He was studying on the matter. "You go on," he directed. "Up to the house. Carol stays here with me. You have a little consultation with that famous brother of yours. No fooling around. No hysterics. We've got no time for that. I'm giving you half an hour for this consultation. You're not back in that time, I leave with Carol. You tell him that. You hear?"
"Yes, but—"
"No buts. You tell him why I'm here, what I want. How much for his woman. And if I don't get it, I leave with his woman. He comes after me, I'll kill her right off. He kills me, it's no matter, 'cause she'll be dead already. You got that?"
"Yes."
"He says yes, he's got the money, you come right away and tell me. He gets his woman when you bring the money, not before. You got that?"
"Yes."
"Now go on. Get. Half an hour."
I got.