“Jessica,” Eleanor said, “we have to accept help from someone. Look at us. All the clothes we have are our nightclothes.”
“We’ll repair them.”
“We have no cooking utensils, no table, no chairs. They destroyed the flour. We have nothing.”
“We’ll manage,” Jessica said. “We’ll repair the clothes and eat off clam shells.”
Alex entered the room. “Eleanor,” he said softly, “why don’t you go to bed? Jess, how about a walk outside?” He didn’t give her a chance to refus
e but took her arm and led her through the doorway. There was a hint of dawn in the sky. He stopped at the edge of the cove by the water.
“It was you with the Raider, wasn’t it?” Alex asked.
Jessica stood still and looked at the water.
Alex turned her to face him and gave her a little shake. “How could you do such a damnably stupid thing? Do you realize that you risked not only your life but your brothers’ and sisters’ lives as well?”
What had happened in the last few hours was beginning to penetrate Jessica’s brain. What they had lost, what they could have lost—all because of her. She lowered her head and nodded.
“From what I heard, you ran into the midst of a circle of gunpowder that was about to explode. And for what? To save the life of a man you don’t even know.”
Slowly at first, tears began to roll down Jessica’s cheeks. She could taste the salt in her mouth but she didn’t wipe them away. “I know,” she whispered. “The children could have been hurt.”
“Do you always plan to do this, to act first and think later? Oh God, Jessica, you could have been killed.” He wanted to pull her into his arms but he didn’t dare. He was torn between wanting to thank her and wanting to strangle her.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, her throat nearly closed with unshed tears. “I couldn’t let him be killed. Marianna told me it was a trap and I had to warn him. There was nothing else I could do. I didn’t mean for the children to be hurt. I didn’t mean—”
“Ssssh,” he said, taking her hands in his. He didn’t dare allow himself to touch her in any other way.
“He was hurt.” She pushed up the sleeves of her nightgown to show him the dried blood. She’d only had time to wash it off her hands before Pitman had burst into the house. “He threw his body over mine when the powder went off and he was hurt. He may be lying in a ditch bleeding to death. Pitman’s soldiers will find him and kill him.”
He tightened his grip on her hands. “If Pitman searches the houses, your Raider will have time to escape. I don’t think he’s bleeding to death.”
“How would you know?” she snapped.
“That’s better.” He smiled and drew a handkerchief from his pocket. His voice changed. “Now, Jess, we’ve got to talk business. You may be willing to eat your pride and try to clothe yourself with it, but those children deserve better. There are three trunks of clothes at my house that belonged to my mother and heaven knows Marianna couldn’t fit more than her left leg in any of those dresses. It’s time my father quit enshrining everything my mother touched. And there are trunks of children’s clothes in the attics. They were to be used for our children, but Marianna doesn’t look like she’ll have any, Adam and Kit are too busy doing glorious deeds to settle down, and no woman will have me, so you may as well take those clothes, too. No! Not one word of protest. In a way, this has been caused by a Montgomery and Pitman’s atrocities will be righted, as best they can be, by a Montgomery. Tomorrow we’ll look into finding you some furniture and something to eat. Now, I want you to go to bed and get what sleep you can.”
Jessica managed a small smile through her tears. “You really were wonderful tonight, Alex. Thank you for saving the house from being burned.” She stood on tiptoe and kissed his cheek. “Thank you,” she repeated and went inside the house. She tried not to look at the debris around her, but just as she was turning toward the mattress where Eleanor was sleeping, she heard one of the children crying.
She mounted the stairs to the loft. At first glance, all the children seemed to be asleep—but Nathaniel had his eyes too tightly shut. She knelt beside the bed and pulled the boy into her arms. He tried to do the manly thing and control his tears, but Jess rubbed the back of his neck and rocked him and he cried until he didn’t have any more tears left. Nate acted so grown up that sometimes she forgot that he was just a little boy.
“Is he going to burn our house down?”
“I don’t know,” Jess answered truthfully. Pitman had been thwarted tonight, but she didn’t know what would happen when Alex or someone else wasn’t around to stop him.
“I’m scared, Jessie. Mr. Pitman hates us. Why?”
“I’m not sure. I think he hates the Raider and he thinks we’re connected with him.”
“But you are connected with the Raider, Jessie. You see him at night and you saved him from the gunpowder, didn’t you? You’re the only woman brave enough to walk into gunpowder. Maybe Mr. Pitman knows that about you.”
“I’m not sure it’s bravery as much as stupidity. Someone had to save him. When Marianna told me—”
Nate drew away from her. “Why didn’t she save the Raider? She came to you because you’re brave and she isn’t. And Mr. Alex is brave, too.”
“That he is. Now you go to sleep. It’ll be morning soon and we have lots of work to do.” When he started to speak, she smoothed his hair. “I don’t know the answers to your questions. Maybe someday you’ll be like me and act before you think. But from now on, I’ll think of my family first. All right?”
“Yes, Jess. Good night.”