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Federal prisoner, she’d have been in real trouble.”
    â€œWhen they found out my father was an officer in the Stonewall Brigade, and that I was the drummer boy, they didn’t waste any more time.”
    â€œThings went all right the rest of the way?”
    â€œYes, sir. They went fine,” Jeff answered. Getting fed up with Leah and all the time she spent with Ezra didn’t really count as trouble, he guessed.
    â€œHere, have some more cornbread. I know how much you like it.”
    Soon Jeff was spooning the last crumbs of cornbread soaked in rich buttermilk out of his cup—a treat he had enjoyed often at Silas’s home.
    â€œThat sure was good!” He sighed with satisfaction. “You make the best cornbread I know of.”
    Silas shrugged, replying with a modest grin, “Anybody can make good cornbread, if they’ve a mind to.” He leaned back in his cane chair, stared at the boy, and noted with pride, “Looks to me like you’re kind of a hero, Jeff, the way you saved Leah and Ezra.”
    Jeff shifted uneasily in his chair, reached out, and pulled the bowl containing blackberry cobbler toward him. He took a bite and shook his head. “I don’t reckon I’m any kind of a hero. I didn’t want Leah to get caught, is all.”
    â€œWell, you sure saved her neck and that young fella Ezra too. I know he’s grateful to you.”
    â€œDon’t know about that.” Jeff cut himself off before he said anything unkind about Ezra. He had no reason to, not really, even though he included him in his lingering anger at Leah.
    Jeff’s discomfort seemed to puzzle Silas. “They’re all right, aren’t they—the folks back in Kentucky? I sure think a lot of that nephew of mine, Dan. How’s he doing? You’re not keeping anything back, are you, son?”
    â€œNo, sir. There’s nothing wrong with anybody. Mr. Carter’s about the same—not too well but doingwell enough, like always,” Jeff answered slowly, taking another bite of cobbler. “He’s going to follow the Union army as a sutler again.”
    â€œThat’s pretty hard work. A sick man doesn’t have any business doing a thing like that.” Silas’s concern for his nephew was plain on his weather-beaten face.
    â€œThat’s what Mrs. Carter says, but Mr. Carter says that God’s told him to do it, so he’s going to do it. When Mr. Carter gets something in his head, he doesn’t change his mind just because he doesn’t feel very sprightly.”
    Silas chuckled. “That sounds like Dan, all right. He always was a strong Christian. Stronger than me, I think. How’s the rest of the family? How’s that little sister of yours?”
Jeff spent the next hour telling about life on the farm in Pineville.
    Silas Carter sat back and listened. Finally when Jeff came to the end of his story, Silas said, “You’re not talking much about Leah, Jeff. Time was, your best friend and your escapades with her used up almost all your talkin’ time.”
    â€œNot much to say,” Jeff replied shortly.
    â€œYou sound like you’re put out with her.”
    Jeff suddenly nodded. “Well, I am, to tell the truth. I don’t mess in other people’s business, Mr. Carter, but I think she’s making a big mistake. Maybe all of them are.”
    Silas leaned forward, his bright blue eyes fixed on Jeff. “This have something to do with Ezra?”
Jeff felt himself flush, but he kept his head high. In for a penny, in for a pound. He wouldn’t clam up now. “Yes, it does! They’ve taken him in like he’s family, and he’s nothing but a Yankee.”
    â€œWell, their son, Royal, he’s a Yankee too. He’s in the Union army.”
    â€œWell,
Ezra
ain’t their son,” Jeff snapped. “And besides—” He broke off and bit his lip angrily.
    â€œWhat is it,