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"Oh Wade…I hate this war…will it ever end?" Beth cried.
"I'm not sure at this point. None of us thought it would last thing long."
"I'm worried. Sooner or later one of us is bound to slip up, then what?"
Wade shrugged heavily, "Then we deal with it. Never look guilty though. Never let them see how much you sweat their questions. So far, they've left you alone, except for that lady. Watch her. You are talking about the lady that was somewhat overdressed in the green silk with the fancy necklace. The one that didn't know us, but acted as though she did?"
"That's the one. Don't worry. I will. Outside of this cabin, I keep my eyes open all the time." Beth assured him. "And I do my best not to even talk about the war."
"I know, you are priceless. You really do help me in every way, Beth."
She smiled, and took his boots off for him, she rubbed his feet and he sighed. "That feels so nice…"
"I'll give you a back rub later…" she whispered and kissed him on the cheek.
"I'll look forward to it." He glanced at the baby lying asleep in his pram. "Let him sleep there a while, we'll take him for a stroll later."
An hour later Jacob stopped by and Beth and Wade talked to him about the women that seemed to group around him. "I was going to mention it earlier but the way things are, I was suspicious of one of them myself."
"Really, which one?"
"The little green eyed brunette, she kept taking my arm as though she wanted to walk off alone with me all the time. A little out of character."
"Yes, look, things are getting very tense, we may even have to quit meeting in the engine room. I'll have to think of a place that we can talk when we need to."
"I agree. Things are too tense around here."
"We may even have to talk in some kind of code. As soon as I figure out how to handle this, I'll let you know, but make regular stops here in the evening to check on your nephew!" Wade glanced at the baby. "He's not even walking and he's a part of it. That is such a shame."
Jacob nodded.
Wade glanced up at them both, "I want you both to know something. Before I let them take me, or any of us, I'll burn this boat to the ground and disappear. I didn't want this war in the first place and I'll leave it behind if I have to."
Beth gasped. "You mean that?"
Wade looked down at his son in the pram once more. "Very much so. The first time we don't have a rebel passenger, if that ever happens again, I'll inform the entire crew of it, so they will know to jump ship."
"Oh Wade, surely it won't come to that."
"I hope not too, but if it does, the four of us will be together."
"Yes!" They all said at once.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
The war rolled on, and Colonel Harrington came aboard three more times, every time with an accusing finger at Wade. Wade began to ignore him.
Finally fed up with his accusations Wade looked him right in the eye and told him, "Colonel if you wasted as much time on others as you do me, you might have already caught the culprit."
The Colonel eyed him carefully, and nodded slowly, "Maybe you are right, sir."
Beth busied herself with the boat schedules and raising her son. He was a welcome reprieve for her and Wade too. He was growing and almost walking now. Beth had a time keeping up with him and her other chores around the boat. She went to bed at night exhausted.
Jacob learned more about the boat and running it and ran messages to the union lines every other time. It gave Wade a little reprieve.
It was mid-summer in 1864 when Wade was nearly caught and for sure recognized by one of the rebel soldiers that had boarded his boat months before.
Wade ran like a wild man, they nicked him in the leg. He knew he couldn't go back to the boat yet and he knew when he did they would have soldiers waiting to arrest him. It was the end of his spying and he needed to get word to General Ransom in Natchez, all would be well, if he could.
