Death in the Great Dismal

  Table of Contents

  Cover

  Also by Eleanor Kuhns

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Chapter Forty

  Chapter Forty-One

  Epilogue

  Author’s Note

  Acknowledgments

  Also by Eleanor Kuhns

  The Will Rees series

  A SIMPLE MURDER

  DEATH OF A DYER

  CRADLE TO GRAVE

  DEATH IN SALEM

  THE DEVIL’S COLD DISH

  THE SHAKER MURDERS *

  SIMPLY DEAD *

  A CIRCLE OF DEAD GIRLS *

  * available from Severn House

  DEATH IN THE GREAT DISMAL

  Eleanor Kuhns

  This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly

  This first world edition published 2020

  in Great Britain and the USA by

  SEVERN HOUSE PUBLISHERS LTD of

  Eardley House, 4 Uxbridge Street, London W8 7SY.

  Trade paperback edition first published

  in Great Britain and the USA 2021 by

  SEVERN HOUSE PUBLISHERS LTD.

  eBook edition first published in 2020 by Severn House Digital

  an imprint of Severn House Publishers Limited

  Copyright © 2020 by Eleanor Kuhns.

  The right of Eleanor Kuhns to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988.

  British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

  ISBN-13: 978-0-7278-9023-8 (cased)

  ISBN-13: 978-1-78029-722-4 (trade paper)

  ISBN-13: 978-1-4483-0443-1 (e-book)

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are

  either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  Except where actual historical events and characters are being described

  for the storyline of this novel, all situations in this publication are

  fictitious and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business

  establishments, events or locales is purely coincidental.

  This ebook produced by

  Palimpsest Book Production Limited, Falkirk,

  Stirlingshire, Scotland.

  PROLOGUE

  ‘You want me to do what?’ Rees asked, staring at the man next to him. He had not recognized Tobias at first. When taken by the slave catchers, Tobias had been a young man. He was still a young man in Rees’s opinion, but he no longer looked it. Now gray threaded his hair, grooves scored his forehead and his eyes were haunted. He looked as though he’d experienced the worst of what man had to offer. Rees felt a burst of sympathy.

  ‘I want you to accompany me to Virginia,’ Tobias repeated. ‘To the great swamp.’

  ‘That will take five days at best,’ Rees said, sitting back in the creaky porch chair. ‘Maybe as long as a week. Maybe even longer.’ With the coming of winter, the days were growing shorter.

  ‘Please,’ Tobias rushed on. ‘Ruth is pregnant and wouldn’t come north with me. She was afraid. And it was difficult, so difficult, even with the help of the Quakers. I don’t dare go south to fetch her without help.’

  ‘But you made it back home,’ Rees objected. ‘Won’t the Quakers help you again? I don’t understand why you need me.’

  ‘I don’t think they run the railroad south,’ Tobias said with a faint smile. ‘Besides …’ His eyes drifted away from Rees to the yard and the barn behind it. It was late September and the hills behind the farm were a mosaic of gold, orange and red interspersed with the rich dark green of the firs.

  ‘Besides?’ Rees prompted. Tobias was keeping something back; Rees knew it.

  ‘Besides, it is even more dangerous now.’ Tobias’s gaze returned to Rees. ‘A man named Gabriel Prosser led a slave revolt. Planned it, anyway. Right around Richmond. Everybody real tense. They’re planning to hang him in October. I need a white man beside me. Ruth trusts you. You were kids together here. You’re the only one I know who will travel.’ He swallowed, his expression beseeching.

  ‘How did you find me?’ Rees asked, instead of acknowledging Tobias’s request. He was tempted, no denying that. Most of the harvest was in and he’d finished his final weaving commission. After a summer spent working on the farm, he felt restless and was ready to do something different.

  ‘I went to Dugard first. It was your son that told me where you were. He said you gave him your farm.’

  ‘Yes. We moved to this farm.’

  ‘Will you help me?’ Tobias asked, leaning forward. Rees looked at the eagerness on the dark face peering into his. Rees hesitated. He should say no, he knew he should.

  ‘Maybe,’ he said instead. What would Lydia say? His journey would leave her alone on the farm with the children for several weeks; he couldn’t see her agreeing to that.

  ‘I think you should go,’ Lydia said, stepping through the front door.

  ‘Really?’ he asked in surprise.

  She nodded. ‘I know the signs; you’re getting restless.’ She paused but Rees did not speak. Since the circus had come to town in the spring and he’d been attracted to the beautiful rope dancer, the relationship between him and his wife had been strained. She was edgy with him. Sometimes he caught her staring at him and lately she’d become prone to crying fits, for no reason he could see. ‘But, if you go,’ she continued, ‘I want to accompany you.’

  ‘What?’ Rees jumped to his feet and the chair crashed to the floor behind him.

  ‘I’d like you to join us,’ Tobias said eagerly, turning to face her. ‘Ruth will join us readily if there’s another woman.’ Then, catching sight of Rees’s expression, he added, ‘If possible.’

  ‘It’s too dangerous,’ Rees objected.

  ‘Predictable,’ Lydia muttered.

  ‘It’ll be easier to travel through the South if everyone thinks you are just a man and wife with your slaves,’ Tobias said, grimacing. Rees leaned forward to
clap the other man’s shoulder in commiseration, but before he touched him Tobias flinched away. The involuntary cringe made Rees himself jerk back. What had happened to Tobias in Virginia?

  ‘It would be a long trip for my horse,’ Rees said. ‘Especially pulling my wagon.’

  ‘We could take the cart,’ Lydia suggested.

  ‘You couldn’t get them through the swamp anyway,’ Tobias said. ‘Unless …’ He paused a moment, thinking. ‘You could leave them at a livery in Norfolk.’

  ‘Hmm,’ Rees grunted. He didn’t like the thought of leaving his horse and wagon anywhere. ‘We’re finishing up the harvest. Even if I wanted to help you, this isn’t a good time.’ He made that one final objection.

  Tobias turned to look at the fields. The corn and wheat were cut to stubble, but pumpkins spotted the fields with orange, and buckwheat, the second planting, waved in the breeze. ‘You wouldn’t be gone long,’ he pleaded, his eyes reddening as though he might weep. ‘Plenty of time to finish this.’ He waved his hand at the fields.

  Rees, who could not abide tears, especially in another man, held up his hand. ‘All right, I’ll think about it.’ Of course he couldn’t go. It was a long distance and even if they hurried, they might not return until mid-October or later. By then Maine could see snow.

  ‘Please,’ Tobias repeated, sensing Rees’s longing and pressing his advantage. ‘Most of your crops are in and you got help bringing in the last of them.’

  Since that was true, Rees did not argue. The Shakers had made good on their promise to assist him, and some Brothers were even now in the fields. Besides the Shakers, Rees had hired a few of the landless men who wandered the roads looking for work. ‘If I were to accompany you,’ he said, ‘and that’s a big “if”, Lydia Rees must remain here.’

  ‘If you go, I go,’ she said. Rees shook his head, but she ignored him. Turning to Tobias, she said with a smile, ‘I know Ruth well. Let my husband and I confer. Come back tomorrow for our answer.’

  His face lighting up with hope, Tobias rose to his feet. ‘Tomorrow then.’

  As Tobias jumped off the wooden deck and began crossing the yard, Rees said to Lydia, ‘You know this isn’t possible.’

  ‘If you leave without me, I will follow. You know I will,’ she said.

  Rees frowned at her. Always watching him, that was his wife. He felt a combination of shame and irritation that she still did not trust him. ‘Lydia,’ he began. But she interrupted him.

  ‘We need to talk about last spring and what happened,’ she said. ‘Here, at the farm, we are too busy and always distracted.’

  ‘It will be a long and grueling journey,’ Rees warned, hoping to discourage her.

  ‘You know some of the Shakers are traveling south to check on their Georgia and Florida communities,’ Lydia said. ‘We can follow them in the cart. And Annie and Jerusha can watch the children.’

  ONE

  Rees felt a trickle of sweat roll down his back. Although it was now early October, the heat and humidity in Virginia slammed down like a hammer. He wasn’t used to this heat, especially at this time of the year. In Maine the weather was already cooling, and the air was as crisp and tart as a fresh apple. Here every breath was thick with the cloying scents of a hundred different plants.

  Rees looked back over his shoulder at Lydia. They’d been walking over three hours, but she seemed to be bearing up well. As Tobias had suggested, they’d left horse and cart in Norfolk. The Shakers had brought them the rest of the way, dropping them off within walking distance of the swamp. Now that they were off the road – and preparing to hike through the swamp – Lydia had taken shelter behind a bush and changed into her boy’s clothing. Once belonging to Rees’s eldest son, the shirt, vest and breeches were worn, almost tattered, but thoroughly disguising. She’d put her auburn hair up under a hat as Rees stowed her dress in the satchel he carried over his shoulder. Rees also had changed – from his better breeches, shirt and jacket to old and worn breeches and shirt.

  Now Tobias waited for them several paces ahead. Rees hoped the other man knew where he was going. As far as Rees could tell, there was no discernible path through the tall pines and the thick undergrowth below. Although they’d passed fields of tobacco and cotton, Tobias had been careful to stay within the bands of trees.

  ‘We’re going to cross a road,’ Tobias said now. ‘Be real careful there.’

  Rees did not think the drops of perspiration on Tobias’s brow came from the heat; he was nervous. No, he was scared. Rees began looking around, waiting for some large animal to jump out at them. But except for birdsong and the faint whisper of the wind through the trees within the patch of woods, it was silent.

  Tobias paused at the edge of the dirt road and peered through the thorny greenbrier vines. Seeing nothing, he cautiously circled the brambles. Pausing within the undergrowth, he looked up and down the road once again. Seeing nothing, he burst out of the shelter and started across the road. But a white dust cloud at the top of the hill heralded the arrival of something – or someone. Two riders came over the hill. When they saw Tobias they increased their speed, galloping straight at him. He tried to reach the other side of the road, running for all he was worth, but the horses easily caught up. The riders reached him as he plunged into the underbrush on the other side.

  ‘Stop runnin’, boy.’

  ‘Massa,’ Tobias shouted.

  Taking the musket off his back and pulling his powder horn and shot bag from his satchel, Rees turned to Lydia. ‘Stay here,’ he said before leaving the shelter of the trees in his turn and racing across the road.

  As the white riders dismounted and went after Tobias, Rees followed the sound of voices into the underbrush.

  The two white riders had Tobias in their grasp. ‘What’re you doin’ out here alone?’ the tallest of the men asked in his slow drawl. He wore a buttercup yellow coat, despite the heat, and a white waistcoat. Tall black boots, now dusty from the road, went almost to the knees of his newly fashionable trousers.

  ‘Nuthin’.’ Tobias sounded different, his speech losing the crisp Maine consonants. His posture had gone from upright to a kind of servile crouch. The young, shorter man, dressed more casually but wearing a top hat, shook Tobias threateningly.

  ‘Where’d you get those boots?’

  ‘Hey,’ Rees said loudly.

  ‘Go about your business,’ the tall rider told Rees.

  ‘He’s mine,’ Rees said, trying to mimic the other man’s leisurely dialect.

  Both men examined Rees, their gazes fixing on his musket. ‘Out huntin’?’ The speaker turned to look at Tobias. ‘He looks like a strong young buck. I’ll give you fifty dollars for him.’

  ‘Not for sale,’ Rees said curtly. He thought for a moment that these men would not listen to him but after a brief pause the two men brushed past him and returned to the road. Rees followed them, making sure their horses galloped away. Then he pushed his way back to Tobias.

  ‘You all right?’ he asked. Tobias nodded although he had collapsed to the ground. Perspiration glistened on his skin and big damp moons darkened his shirt under his armpits.

  ‘You took a big risk,’ he told Rees in a shaky voice. ‘Just because you’re white doesn’t mean you’re safe. They could have figured you for an abolitionist and whipped you just as hard as they would me.’

  ‘I’m going to get Lydia,’ Rees said. He was trembling so hard he wasn’t sure he could hold his musket. Instead of sprinting across this dusty lane, he walked on legs that shook uncontrollably. Lydia came out to meet him, taking his arm.

  ‘Esther was right,’ Lydia said. Rees nodded.

  Sister Esther, an escaped slave who’d made her way north to the Shakers, had scolded them when they left. ‘You’ve no business going south,’ she’d said. ‘You’re totally unprepared. I hope and pray you don’t get Lydia killed on this mad adventure.’

  ‘We’re committed now,’ Rees said.

  Tobias had recovered enough to stand up. ‘It
’s not far now,’ he said in a shaky voice as Rees and Lydia reached him.

  ‘What happened?’ Lydia asked.

  Tobias and Rees traded glances and wordlessly agreed to say nothing. ‘We don’t have time now,’ Rees said. ‘I’ll tell you later.’ He was still trembling and Tobias was clenching and unclenching his hands, whether from fright or anger Rees couldn’t tell.

  Tobias started off, setting such a punishing pace that neither Rees nor Lydia could keep up. He began to worry that they would lose their guide; the thickness of the trees, the brambles and other plants meant that Tobias disappeared within a few yards.

  The third time that Tobias waited for them he said tersely, ‘We need to get out of sight while it’s daylight. Hurry.’

  ‘We’re going as fast as we can,’ Rees said, turning to look at his wife. Both of them were panting and her cheeks were scarlet. ‘We’ve been walking for hours.’ And he was hungry. None of them had eaten since breakfast that morning and it was now several hours past noon. Tobias grunted.

  ‘We’re not that far from the lane,’ he said, turning and disappearing once again in the greenery.

  It wasn’t just that he was fast. He snaked his way through the underbrush without making a sound or breaking any branches. Rees, taller and probably two stone heavier, couldn’t do that. Even his steps were noisy, crunching over the leaf litter on the ground with crackling thumps.

  Tobias led them toward a large downed tree. Rees couldn’t understand why – until the other man lifted a board artfully covered with branches and leaves, revealing a hole underneath. ‘This way,’ he said, squirming through the opening. Rees struggled to press his huskier body through, discovering that the small cavity opened up to a much larger hollow. A rough ceiling had been formed above their heads and tree roots poked through the dirt that made up the walls. Stone steps led down into the gloom. Ducking his head against the low ceiling, Tobias descended into the darkness underneath.