Free Love Rules by Rita Hestand Page A

Maggie’s baby.
    ***
    Maggie found the place the captain had located on the map for her. She’d gathered all her possessions and started out. One of the soldiers, a black man, gave Abby a homemade doll. Her daughter clutched it happily. But her leaving wasn’t completely peaceful. An ex-guard showed up as she was mounting her horse, Abby in her arms. She swung up and held Abby close.
    “You ain’t goin’ nowheres, girl. You might’ve escaped the hangin’, but I’m here to see you dead. Too many of my kin died because of you and your big mouth. Pea Ridge, Cane Hill, and Prairie Grove, I lost kin in them battles. Heard them Federal prisoners tellin’ how you gave the information to the generals each time.
    That’s all the proof I need that you are as responsible for their deaths as any soldier. Now, I’m gonna take pride in killing you and that half-breed kid of your’n.” He pulled the gun on her as Maggie felt for the small derringer that Louisa had given her as she was leaving.
    “Don’t do this. I can’t bring your kin back, and killin’ me won’t either.”
    “Maybe, but it shore will make me feel better.” He spat in the dirt and aimed the gun. “I believe in a person knowin’ why they are dyin’. This is for Papa Joe, Cousin Sol, my brother Dwight and the multitude we buried on that field that next day.”
    Without a second thought, Maggie aimed the small gun at his heart. He couldn’t see the gun under her skirt, and she hoped the fabric would muffle the sound of the shot.
    She didn’t need to wait to see whether he would survive, she shot him stone dead, point blank. It was dark and inside the barn, and she prayed no one had heard. The look in his eyes told her he was dead. She put the gun back in her

    small leg holster and grabbed Abby tightly. “Mama didn’t want to do that, but I had no choice. I couldn’t let him hurt you.”
    Without another word she rode out of the fort that night alone and scared, watching over her shoulder to see if anyone followed.

    ***
    They’d been traveling for a couple of days, and Maggie and the baby were bone weary. She couldn’t travel fast because the baby rode with her in her lap. Abby was too big to tie on her back, so she sat in front on the horse.

    Stopping at an old Negro’s shack on her way, Maggie asked about Jesse’s place.
    Most people knew their neighbors, and she figured the old man might give her better directions than the captain had. She’d seen him sitting on his porch looking out on the meadows. He seemed to live alone as there was no sign of others about. He invited her in and waited until she sat at the table before saying anything. The Negro man had eyed her carefully. “Yeah, I know the place. It’s about fifteen miles up the road from here. Don’t nobody live there now. Ain’t for some time. It belonged to the Coleman’s. Heard tell the last son went into the army. He ain’t been heard from since. Oldest one they said died at Shiloh. What you so interested in a white man’s place for?” the old man asked. “You gonna squat on the land or something? That ain’t a very wise thing to do.”
    Maggie didn’t trust the old man. It wasn’t his business, but his eagle eye seemed to bore right through her. His constant frown told her he didn’t like her.
    The fact that Jesse hadn’t returned from the war yet bothered her. The idea of him dying in battle sent a chill up Maggie’s spine. If he were dead, then she would be a squatter. It felt like a knife going into her heart at the thought. For a moment she didn’t say anything.
    “I-I plan to work there. He sent me here to work the place for him, during the war.”
    “The war’s been over a spell. You’s a little late, ain’t ya? But a single white man, hiring a black woman.” He shook his head as though he didn’t believe her. He offered her water to drink. Maggie took it and shared with Abby, then drank the

    rest herself. Her eyes flitted about the small cabin