Acts of Courage Read online

  “No…not since he left.”

  “Who’s Red?” asked Elizabeth, stepping between Laura and Thomas.

  “A friend of Laura’s, from out of town.” Thomas smirked at Laura.

  Elizabeth stared at Thomas and missed Laura’s glare. She turned to Laura and said, “You never told me about your beau.”

  “He’s not a beau. He’s just a…” Laura was furious with Thomas, for he knew how curious Elizabeth would be, and that Laura couldn’t explain about Red. She could see that Thomas was enjoying himself immensely. She had to stop him from saying more.

  “Would you like…to join us for lunch?” she stammered. Bett had packed more than enough.

  “Don’t mind if I do,” Thomas answered speedily. He was familiar with Bett’s picnic baskets.

  Thomas and Elizabeth walked ahead together through the grass and underbrush, back toward the woods. Laura held on to Mira, who said she needed Laura to protect her from snakes. In a few minutes, they stopped at the spot where Laura had dropped the picnic basket, but it was nowhere in sight.

  “I thought it was here, too, but maybe it was a little over there,” Laura said, stepping a few feet nearer to the trees. A trail led to the woods.

  “Maybe Levi is playing a joke on us. Maybe he took it,” Thomas replied.

  Elizabeth looked up surprised. “I didn’t see Levi. Was he hunting rabbits, too?”

  “He was still cleaning out the stables, the last I saw of him,” said Thomas. “But you never know. He could have started out later. The land’s not quite dry enough to cultivate. So maybe Dad let him go.”

  “I can’t think of anywhere else the picnic basket could have gone,” said Laura, “and I don’t think it’s very nice of Levi to snitch our food.”

  “Oh, for crying out loud, Laura, if Levi took it, he’ll bring it back any minute now. And I don’t really think he did. You two stupid girls probably just lost your own picnic basket.”

  Laura’s eyes narrowed into slits. “Thomas Mayo! You have no right to say that.”

  Mira ran over and gave him a kick in the shin.

  Elizabeth looked down her nose at Thomas. “That was a horrible thing for you to say.”

  “Well, I can see I’m not wanted here.” Thomas turned away, his powder horn hanging against his side. The three girls watched him disappear into the woods.

  The sun was high now as the girls looked back across the meadow. “I had planned on eating down by the river bank,” said Elizabeth. “But let’s go and sit awhile, anyway.”

  “I’m hungry,” shouted Mira.

  “We’d better look some more,” Laura said, as she wandered back to the place where she had last seen the basket. In the trampled grass, Laura spotted a piece of blue cloth that looked like the handkerchief she’d given Red. Was Red nearby? Her pulse was starting to beat a little faster. It would be just like something Red would do.

  “Well if we’re going to spend all our time looking for the stupid basket, I’m going home,” said Elizabeth.

  Laura could barely hide her pleasure. If Red were in those woods, he would never come out with Elizabeth there. The sooner she left, the better. “How would you like to take Mira with you?” she asked. “She’s hungry.”

  “No. I’m staying with you,” said Mira, grabbing Laura’s hand.

  “I don’t want you, anyway, Mira,” Elizabeth grumbled. “Goodbye, Laura.” She turned and marched sedately back to the main path.

  When Laura saw Elizabeth’s flat straw hat disappear behind a knoll, she walked over to the woods and shouted, “Hello there.”

  The sun, now at high noon, was warm, and Mira happily picked wild violets while Laura ran on into the edge of the woods. Was Red really there? She stood still in the shadows of the trees, listening for the scampering sounds of small animals.

  “Not so loud,” said a raspy voice behind her. She spun around and saw an unshaven man standing a few inches away.

  “Who are you?” Laura shot back. The man was carrying a musket in one hand with a powder horn slung over his right shoulder and, in his other hand, he had their food basket. At the sound of movement between the trees, Laura turned again. Another man with scraggly brown hair came toward her. Laura thought of running home, but she did not want to leave Mira. She could not outrun these men if she carried her sister. Besides, they had her basket, which she was not going to give up without an explanation.

  Just as the second shaggy-haired man approached her, Red came running up behind them. “This is Laura,” he said. “She’ll not give you away.”

  Laura was relieved to see Red, but she backed away from the men a little. “Why did you take our food?” Laura stared furiously at Red. She wouldn’t mind feeding Red, but she didn’t want to feed two strange men who might be dangerous.

  “I went to the other side of the woods to look aroun’. I just got back.”

  “But your friends took our food.” Her voice trembled. Who did they think they were, anyway? The first man settled himself down on a tree trunk, tore the white linen cloth from the top of the basket, and threw it on the ground.

  “There’s lots of food there,” said Laura. “Help yourself. But you’d better leave the basket for me to take home or my father will be asking questions. I’ll be back for it soon.” She stood staring at the men for a few seconds.

  The first man was eating a turkey drumstick with one hand and one of Bett’s delicious buns with the other. The other man was chewing with his mouth wide open on a huge piece of white meat and a sandwich—both at the same time.

  Laura glared at Red and motioned him over to a beech tree a few feet away from his rude companions. “You’d better explain yourself and those men fast, Red.”

  “I just found them there—honest,” Red began.

  “I don’t believe you, Red.”

  “Well, they are my friends. I sorta told them you’d help us get food. They haven’t eaten for three days.”

  “Are they Shay’s men?”

  “I’ll not be tellin’ on my friends.”

  “They are, aren’t they!”

  “If you promise you won’t tell about ’em, they’ll leave tonight, and no one’ll be the wiser. I need your promise, though. And I’ll vouch for you.”

  “Do they know who my father is? He’d go after anyone who harmed his daughters.”

  “No, they don’t know who your father is, and I certainly wouldn’t want them to find out.”

  “Why? They say the fugitives are afraid of my father.”

  “You’d be in even more danger if they knew. There’s a lot of them bitter toward your father. And remember, both those men are armed. It’s best they don’t know.”

  “I want to leave as soon as they’ll let us. I suppose we’re being watched.”

  “You are that! Do you promise me you’ll not reveal their identity?”

  “I promise.”

  “Cross your heart and hope to die?”

  “I didn’t tell on you before, did I? And I won’t tell on them if they’ll just go and leave us alone.”

  Red scanned the fields and glanced back at the men. “Come dark, they’ll be away from here, but I’d like to stay in your barn overnight.”

  As Red walked over to tell the men his plans, Laura wondered what part he was playing in the rebellion now, and why he had to hide out alone. Maybe the less she knew, the better!

  SIX

  Laura looked across the tall grass to where Mira was playing. She felt a little better as she looked at her younger sister. The picnic had turned out not badly, after all. She had managed to get rid of Elizabeth without even trying, and she had found Red again. It was strange how bad beginnings turned into happy endings at times. She sighed and smiled.

  “Well
, milady, shall we be off?” Red had walked up behind her. “I’ve set the lads straight, and now I’m after a lodging place. Do you know of one hereabouts?”

  “For the likes of you? I wouldn’t count on it!”

  “Ha! Ha! Too late. I already have a reservation, you know. One night’s lodging in the finest cow stall in the county. It says right here.” Red pulled a handkerchief out of his right pocket and waved it in the air.

  “Oh, your handkerchief—the blue one I gave you—it’s lying in the grass, just a bit past my sister. Mira! Go pick up the blue handkerchief in the grass over there and bring it back to me.” As Laura watched Mira run, she noticed that someone else was in the field. She was disappointed to see Thomas Mayo. He was probably on his way to find out what Red was doing here. It wasn’t as if Red was her beau, but it would have been nice just to talk with him alone for a bit.

  “Well, hello there,” Thomas called as he ambled toward them. “If it isn’t my old potato hole companion!” He walked up to Red and clapped a hand on his shoulder. The two looked at each other in silence.

  “I’ve not forgotten what you did for me, you know,” Red said after a few seconds. “I mean, it’s not every host that lays out such a spread of spuds.”

  “Oh, it was nothing. We treat all our guests well.”

  “Laura, Laura, I found the handkerchief!” Mira yelled, running over to where Laura and the boys were standing.

  “Can I keep it?”

  “No, Mira, it’s Red’s.”

  “No, it’s mine! I found it! It’s mine!”

  “Mira, it belongs to Red. Just give it to me, and I’ll give it to him.”

  “No, no! You’ll have to catch me first!” Mira started running at full speed across the grass and onto the muddy pathway by the river’s edge.

  “Mira, come back! Come back right now!”

  But Mira heard nothing. She just kept running, right into the clump of pussywillows on the riverbank.

  Laura ran after her as fast as she could, but when she got to the pussywillows, Mira was nowhere in sight. Laura looked down to the river and saw what had happened. Mira had lost her footing and had rolled down the bank and into the river. Laura screamed, but when she started for the water, her knees suddenly gave out, and she sank to the ground. Then she heard a splash and saw Red jump into the river.

  Everything was a bit blurry, but Laura thought she saw Mira surface and Red grab her. Mira was choking, sputtering and hitting at Red. Laura could not believe her eyes. While Red held Mira, still struggling, they both disappeared under the splashing water. When they came up, Mira had stopped struggling. Red swam back to the riverbank, holding Mira’s head above the water.

  As soon as Red was out of the water, he started slapping Mira on the back. He was wet and shivering, but he didn’t seem to notice. He gazed intently into Mira’s face, the crease between his eyebrows getting deeper and deeper. Finally, Mira started to breathe and cough.

  “Here, put my coat on her,” said Thomas, who had set his gun, horn, and bag down on the ground and was standing above Red. “Turn her over and hit her again.”

  Red did that, and Mira spit up some more water. Then she started to breathe normally.

  “What is it? What are you two ruffians—” It was Father’s voice. He had returned home in the middle of the morning, and when Elizabeth had come to the house with a strange tale about a missing food basket, he had decided to investigate. He was only a few hundred feet away when he heard Laura’s screams, and he had raced ahead to the meadow.

  Red and Thomas were not listening. Red was lying on his back, breathing heavily. Thomas picked Mira up and wrapped her more tightly in his coat.

  “Here, Mr. Ingersoll. My friend just saved your daughter’s life.”

  “Why…it’s Mira. What happened? Well, never mind. We can lose no time. Let’s just get her inside.” Father took Mira, and started running with her. He was headed back to the house.

  From the woods, Red’s two companions watched Father take the child. They were only a hundred feet from the riverbank but they could not recognize him. The older one took out a small telescope and looked through it.

  “Do you know him?” asked the younger man.

  He nodded, and without a word, he handed the other fugitive the telescope and started to load his musket. “It’s him, all right,” the younger one said as he lowered the telescope. “We’ll need to get closer to fire. When they pass the far end of the woods, the trail is almost within touching distance, and we’ll be there ahead of them.”

  Laura couldn’t keep up to Red, who was running with unusual speed toward her father. He had saved her sister, but why was he so determined to run at her father’s heels? He had always tried to avoid her father before now. Panting and shaking, she sped along, hoping to catch up to her father and Red.

  As they reached the east end of the woods, she had almost caught up to them. She could see Red, running between her and the woods. Then she remembered those men. Now she realized that Red was running beside Father to protect him from his would-be assassins. Red was directly between Father and the men. But who was to say they wouldn’t shoot anyway?

  Laura circled out into the wet fields away from the path and away from the woods. She was too far away to call to her father, and she didn’t want to be captured by the men. She started running. All she could hear was her own beating heart and pounding feet. She braced herself for the shattering sound of a musket.

  She kept on running and running—it seemed like forever—until she almost bumped into Red and Thomas.

  “How’s Mira?” Laura gasped as they ran side by side.

  “She seems fine…Your father’s…taking her…to the house.”

  Laura gave Red a sideways glance. “Come on up yourself for dry clothes.” Her father could decide about this boy. Maybe she should tell her father about the men. She’d have to think about it.

  Thomas added, “Yeah, Red…you just saved the man’s daughter. He’ll not turn on you now!”

  They all stopped running a hundred feet from the back door. “I better not go in…” Red stared at the ground. “Please don’t tell on us, Laura. We didn’t harm you none ’cept for eatin’ your victuals.”

  “That’s true,” she said and grabbed his hands and started to pull him along toward the house. “C’mon. You’ve got to get dry or you’ll catch your death.”

  “Oh, all right.” He did not take much persuading, for he was starting to shake from the cold. “Those men will be gone come dark.”

  “I hope so.”

  Laura left Red and Thomas in the back shed while she went into the kitchen. Already Bett had removed Mira’s wet clothes and wrapped her in a dry blanket. The fire blazed brightly in the hearth. Bett handed Laura some dry clothes and kept drying Mira’s curls.

  “It’s mine! It’s mine!” Mira whimpered as Bett set her down on the couch near the fire.

  Laura slipped into the side pantry, where she changed into dry clothes. Then she hurried back to the kitchen. Father was standing by the fire, looking down at Mira. “Don’t you ever go down by the river again, young lady,” he said sternly. “And whatever were you thinking of—letting her go there, Laura? I thought you were responsible enough to watch Mira. I see I was wrong.”

  Laura cringed and gulped before she said, “I need dry clothes for the boy.” Then her legs gave way, and she sank to the couch beside Mira. She put her head in her hands and started to cry.

  Father’s face suddenly changed. “There, there, Laura. Don’t cry. Mira’s fine, now. I didn’t mean to be harsh. Where is the boy?”

  “In the shed, and Thomas is with him.”

  “Bett, have Sam get the boy a change of clothing,” Father called back as he opened the door into the shed. In the far corner, he saw a bo
y not much bigger than Laura, shaking from the cold. Even in this wet condition, it was obvious that the boy’s clothes were in shreds.

  “Come in, you two. What is your name, boy?” Father had a feeling he had seen Thomas’s companion before.

  “Red.” But the name couldn’t have been less appropriate at this moment. The only colour on his face was the blue of his lips.

  Sam appeared just behind Father. “I have clothes, sir,” he said. Sam smiled as he handed Red a pair of his own large trousers and a homespun shirt.

  “Thank you, Mister,” the boy said to Father and Sam. It didn’t take him long to slip out of his own wet clothes and into the huge dry ones.

  “Come in and get warm. And let’s get some tea into all of you,” Father said. “Thomas, too.”

  “Well, sir, I can’t stay. There’s chores I’m to do. Sir, I have to get back. But thank you.” Thomas went out the back door, turning to wave goodbye to Red.

  Inside the kitchen, Father handed Red a towel to dry his hair. “Come over to the fire and sit right here. I don’t know how to thank you for what you did.”

  “Laura would have rescued her if I hadn’t, Mister.”

  “I’m a weak swimmer. I doubt I could have saved her.” Laura did not admit that she hated the water and had feared it ever since a boy had drowned at a town picnic the year before.

  Before long, Mira was chatting away as usual, and Laura’s father did not look quite so stern. Red got up to leave. “I must go now,” he said.

  “Where do you live?” asked Father. Laura glanced quickly at Red, who stared straight back at her. Father saw the worried expression that passed between them. Then he remembered the red-headed boy in Shay’s rebellion, the one who had followed behind the others, carrying their gear in the battle—the boy who had never been found. But this couldn’t possibly be the same one. After all, it was obvious that he and Laura were friends. Mind you, he was a strange-looking one.

  Laura held her breath as she waited for her father to demand an answer from Red. He kept staring at the boy, who was looking down and mumbling in an unintelligible manner, “I used to live with my uncle, but he was killed in a battle. And now, Mister, I’m searching everywhere for work.”