Such a flutter in her chest. The hours could not pass quickly enough. So, he knew she was home. Esther moved to the window and scanned the garden down to the road, toward the fields, and through the long, morning shadows.
She must find something to occupy herself until the evening or go mad with the waiting.
4
HAMILTON
The idea of taking up arms did not motivate him. As a boy in Virginia, he’d observed what one man could do to another with musket in hand, and he cared not to participate.
Yet deep down, in the quiet when his head listened to his heart, Hamilton knew he could not escape this war. He ached to take up arms. Give him a reason, just one, to release his rage.
Now the four men sitting at his uncle’s kitchen table, including the captain of the Upper Ninety Six Militia, John Irwin, attempted to do just that—give him a reason.
“Ham, we need your skills.” His friend Ben Quincy propped his elbows on the dinner table, the orange hue of sunset against the window reflecting in his eyes.
“I’m not of the mind to go killing.” He let his reasoning, not his passion, do his talking.
“You’re the best shot in the backcountry,” Irwin said. “We could use you as a sharpshooter.”
Beside Irwin sat William Brown, John Brown, and Jacob Broadway, sipping coffee and thanking Aunt Mary for a bite of dinner.
“I can pick off a squirrel with a rifle at seventy yards, but I don’t care to aim at a man.” Hamilton shoved away from the table and walked to the open back door, the breeze rushing inside. “I’m sorry you all wasted your time.”
“You’re a Loyalist?” Jacob weighed in. When Hamilton firstarrived in the region as a boy of ten, scared, wounded, and alone, Jacob had been kind and fatherly to him. Hamilton respected the man. “Want to see yourself in a red coat?”
Uncle Laurence leaned on his cane, the gout keeping him from the battle. “He’s no Loyalist, believe you me.”
Hamilton returned to the table, restless. The sun drifted toward the west, and unless he rid himself of these men posthaste, he’d leave Esther alone at their willow tree by the creek, wondering if she’d been abandoned.
“What about you?” Irwin turned to Uncle. “You’ve heard what Captain Huck and his men are doing to the Presbyterian churches. Burning them. Calling them ‘houses of sedition.’ Can you come along with us?”
“We’ve heard the news of Huck, of Waxhaw and that business up in York at Hill’s Ironworks, Captain.” Uncle Laurence pointed to his foot. “But I couldn’t go the distance. I’ll do my bit here. Plus, I put in my time during the Seven Years’ War. I’m for the Cause, but I’m best here in the pulpit preaching, protecting the women and children.”
“I’ve heard your speeches, sir. You stirred my heart for my country and my God.” Irwin patted Uncle on the back, then turned to Hamilton. “Militia ain’t regular army. You come along for three months, and when your time is up, you return home if you don’t have a taste for the fight. Every American and South Carolinian ought to give some effort to the cause of liberty.”
“I have to follow my own mind.”
“Do you deny your neighbors and friends when we need you most?” Ben said. “No man in the upcountry can match your skill.”
“Don’t need my skill. What of the Virginia regulars? Word is they’re the best sharpshooters.”
“We need more. Come with us on the line. You’re quick and steady.” Ben refused to give up. The others around the table nodded as they downed their coffee.
“You’re a good Presbyterian, aren’t you?” Hamilton hated itwhen Irwin appealed to his spiritual side. “Do you want Huck to get away with his atrocities?”
“By committing some of my own?”
“Now, hold on here, son,” Uncle Laurence said. “The Lord allows for the killing that comes with war.”
“Don’t mean I have to be a part of it.”
“That arrogant Huck would claim to be the victor if the Lord Jesus Christ Himself came down to lead our side,” Ben said.
Hamilton reached for a slice of bread. “I’m sure the Lord does not need me to defend His name. He’s capable of doing that on His own.”
“You sit aside, Hamilton, and you will be forced to choose.” This from John Brown. “And you may find yourself aiming your musket at one of us.”
“We’re going after Huck in the morning, joining forces up in York.” Captain Irwin started for the door, the others following. “We’re meeting at dawn by Thompson’s farm.”
