Read Online Beverly Jenkins by Night Song - Free Book Online

Railroad. Rosetta Sterling and Harriet Bat found homes for fifty-five other parentless children. They continued to search for John and picked up children throughout their tours of the contraband camps of the South. In 1864, Cara became one of them.
    Under the care and love of Rosetta and Harriet, Cara grew from a nightmare-plagued, silent child to an educated young woman of poise and conviction. By the age of seventeen, she’d been arrested twice in rallies on behalf of causes, had more thana few letters printed in local newspapers, and been banned from the local Freedman Society offices for her fiery tirades over the disgusting conditions of the local schools under their jurisdiction.
    But neither woman was there now to see how far her life had come. Both were dead, killed in ‘78 when nightriders torched the free school they’d established not far from the original site of the old orphanage. Cara, working with a relief society in Ohio, had been heartbroken at the news. And she still missed them. Always would.
    An hour later, Cara seriously wondered if she’d chosen the right profession after all. The noise and commotion in the schoolroom could only be described as bedlam. The “Indians” dressed in their colorful paint and buckskins were in one corner practicing their war whoops, while the “buffalo soldiers” ran back and forth brandishing their homemade wooden sabers at any girl standing still long enough to be a target. As a result the girls were running and screaming. For what seemed to be the fifteenth time, Cara cautioned little Rilla Walker to stand still so she could repair the hem on her dress. If not for the three mothers who were volunteer helpers, the children would have been in even more of an uproar.
    After placing the last stitch in Rilla’s hem, Cara removed the pins from her mouth and yelled at two of her more rambunctious eight-year-olds. “Becca Franklin, if you jump from one more desktop, I’m telling your parents. Buffalo soldiers do not abuse property. Or point sabers at their sister’s eyes, Frankie Cooper.”
    Cara wished she’d chosen a nice, quiet Bible play for the children to perform tonight. “Okay, boys and girls, line up. We’re going over to the town hall now,” she called out wearily. The eveninghad just gotten under way, and she and the mothers were already exhausted.
    While the volunteers scooted the squirming, excited children into a passable line, Cara turned to her desk to gather up her things. She glanced up and went stock still at the sight of Chase Jefferson standing in the open doorway.
    “Evenin’, Miss Henson.”
    Every eye in the room focused on the two of them. A moment ago there had been enough noise to mask cannon fire, but now it was silent enough to hear a pin drop on cotton.
    Into the breach sounded Rilla Walker’s awe-filled whisper. “A real buffalo soldier!”
    This would be the children’s first close look at one of their heroes.
    “Come in, Sergeant Jefferson,” Cara invited.
    It seemed impossible to deny the effect he had upon her senses. She shook herself, desperately trying to keep in the forefront of her mind that the man would be leaving soon. She turned back to her staring students. “Children, I would like you to meet Sergeant Jefferson of the Tenth Cavalry.”
    A buzz of excitement went through the children, and she had to clap her hands to restore order. When they quieted, she added, “Now, we have no time for questions this evening, but if you’re very well-behaved at tonight’s performance, and I know you will be, perhaps we can convince Sergeant Jefferson to come over to school and pay us a special visit before he and his men leave next week.”
    Cara turned to him. His eyes were riveted on her with such intensity that she seriously doubted he’d heard a word.
    She was right.
    “I’m sorry, ma’am. What did you say?”
    His eyes were working her over unmercifully. Cara heard one mother discreetly clear her throat. “I asked if