“Yes, sir. You do. So I will thank you not to lose it any time soon.”
He snorted and rose gingerly, using the wall to steady himself. He closed his eyes like the barn was spinning.
“I will go get the horse, sir.”
“I’m not going to ask how.”
“I’ll handle it.”
“I trust you will.”
I left him, still wobbly but standing, his hand wrapped around the nearby post. I heard him retch behind me and throw up the water he’d just guzzled. “Damnation,” he moaned, but I left him to sort himself out, grateful that his misery would distract him from mine.
Morris was approaching, a bucket in one hand and a loaf of bread in the other, as I hobbled from the barn.
“We’re leaving. I need the general’s horse.”
He stopped, the water sloshing over the edge, and then he handed both to me.
“Van Tassel won’t like you taking that horse. He thinks it’s his now. He’s already got a buyer.”
“Then I’ve saved him from an enormous mistake.”
“I’ll bring it and help you saddle him. But you’d best get gone. He left not an hour ago, but he wasn’t going far.”
“Just as soon as you bring the horse,” I agreed, and turned back.
General Paterson was waiting for me. His color was an alarming gray, but his eyes were clear and his gaze steady. He took a hunk of the bread I offered and watched as I refilled the canteen and gathered the few things I’d removed from the packs.
“You can barely walk,” he said.
“My calf is sore.” I said nothing about my thigh.
Morris returned, leading Lenox, and put the saddle on his back and tied down the packs without a word. I almost moaned in relief. I didn’t have the strength to pick it up off the ground. Morris held the reins as Paterson swung up into the saddle and gripped the back of his coat when he teetered. For a moment I thought the general would fall off the other side, but he held on.
“Get on, Shurtliff,” Paterson clipped.
Morris stepped up, ready to assist me too, and I let him, settling on the horse’s rump and leaving the saddle to the general. The horse shifted and I slipped, unable to clamp my thighs to keep my seat.
“Hold on to him, boy,” Morris warned, and I did as instructed, wrapping my arms around the general’s waist. He was rigid and breathing like he was about to be sick again.
“You know where you’re going?” Morris asked me, his eyes on the general’s ashen face.
“We’re about four miles east of the river,” I answered. “Peekskill is north.”
Morris jerked his head in the affirmative. “Don’t follow the road. Not yet. Van Tassel will be coming home that way. And who knows who’ll be with him. Follow the stream until you reach the fork. Then find the road. It cuts through just east of there.” He pointed into the woods, and the general thanked him.
“Should you need . . . anything . . . you come to me,” the general insisted. “We welcome good men. All good men.”
“I’ve got a woman and the boy,” Morris said. “We’re lucky to be together. Van Tassel could sell us off, any time he wants. I can’t be a soldier.”
“Tell Van Tassel the truth. We took the horse,” I reminded Morris, suddenly worried about him. “He doesn’t need to know you helped us. Tell him I threatened to shoot you, just like I did him.”
“You should go. Now.”
“Thank you, Morris,” I said.
“Don’t thank me. Just go,” he said, urgent. “And go slow or you’ll never make it.” He wrapped the reins around the saddle horn and set the general’s hands atop them. Then he gave Lenox a nudge.
I didn’t look back, but I felt his gaze as we disappeared into the trees.
Our combined misery was palpable, and for the first mile or so, the general clung to the pommel and I clung to him, my arms quaking and my legs screaming with the effort to keep us both upright. The space I’d thought I could maintain was nonexistent.
“Our Father which art in heaven,” I whispered.
“Are you still praying, Shurtliff?” The general’s voice was pained.
“Yes, sir,” I said. “You are heavy. And I am . . . weak.”
“We will go slow, just like the man said. And we will both hold on and trust the horse.”
“Yes, sir.” Lenox chuffed and the clouds shifted, and I prayed silently.
“You threatened Van Tassel with a pistol?” the general asked suddenly.