The Darkness of Day: A Novel - Softcover

Hamel, Rochelle

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1450239714 ISBN 13: 9781450239714

Publisher: iUniverse, 2010

Synopsis

In 1863, when Dr. Grant McKenzie announces his enlistment as a doctor in the Union Army, his family life is turned upside down. His military career begins as a field surgeon at Gettysburg, eventually leading to his capture at Spotsylvania and imprisonment in Andersonville Prison, changing his life forever. While in prison, he becomes part of a new "family," made up of James, a tough thirteen -year- old Irish drummer boy from the streets of New York, and Gerard, a French farmer from Vermont. When Grant saves the young daughter of a Confederate captain, he repays the doctor by giving him the chance to escape, along with young James. The trip home through the Appalachians is arduous. Along the way, Grant delivers a baby, fights renegades, and faces death at the hands of two old mountain women. Meanwhile, Mattie, Grant's wife, and their five children face enormous challenges and responsibilities at home while awaiting his return. When Grant doesn't return at the end of his one-year enlistment, the family's finances dwindle, and the workload overwhelms them. In answer to their prayers for help, Adan Torson, a large Nigerian free black man, shows up one day and offers to help them. However, Adan arrives with a dangerous secret that may put all their lives at risk.

About this title

About the Author

Rochelle Hamel, a first-time novelist, holds a degree in information systems and a national fellowship (FLMI) from the Life Management Institute. Her journey through life has included nursing school, modeling, and landscape artist. The mother of four children, she lives in a log home in upstate New York.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

The Darkness of Day

A NovelBy ROCHELLE HAMEL

iUniverse, Inc.

Copyright © 2010 Rochelle Hamel
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4502-3971-4

Contents

INTRODUCTION................................................xiii1. Grant - 1863.............................................32. Mattie...................................................103. Grant....................................................194. Campbell.................................................225. Mattie...................................................336. Gettysburg...............................................357. Return to Campbell.......................................418. Mattie...................................................439. Spotsylvania.............................................4810. Preparation.............................................5411. Camp Sumter, Andersonville Stockade.....................6112. Mattie..................................................7113. Grant...................................................7714. Mattie..................................................8315. The Hospital............................................8916. Morgan..................................................10417. Adele...................................................10618. Mattie..................................................11319. Grant...................................................11520. Mattie..................................................12221. Escape..................................................12422. A New Life..............................................13223. The Mountains...........................................13724. Mattie..................................................14025. The Trail Home..........................................14526. The Mustard Seed........................................15227. Renegades...............................................15528. Night Hawk..............................................16129. Coming Home.............................................16430. The End of the Road.....................................17331. A New Beginning.........................................17932. Gerard..................................................18233. Five Months Later.......................................185EPILOGUE FIFTEEN YEARS LATER...............................191

Chapter One

GRANT - 1863

Grant opened one eye as the first rays of sunlight crossed his face. Knowing he had to face Mattie today with his decision, he felt anxiety building up, and he broke out in a sweat. Quietly, he rolled over and looked at his sleeping wife. She looked so peaceful. A surge of guilt came over him as he contemplated the position this would put his family in. But do I really have a choice? he argued with himself.

As he sat up, Mattie woke with a questioning look on her face. "I'm taking Cauchemar out for a ride. There's no need for you to get up yet," he whispered as he planted a kiss on her forehead. Sliding his long legs to the cold floor, he made his way past the chair where the night before he had neatly laid out his clothes for the day. He stretched and opened the wardrobe for his jodhpurs and shirt.

"Don't forget, Mrs. Thompson has an appointment with you for the baby at ten this morning. She's worried about his croup," Mattie said with a yawn.

"I won't be long, an hour or so. Have breakfast ready at nine," said Grant as he surveyed himself in the long mirror, brushed his thick dark hair, straightened his white shirt, turned abruptly, and made his way out the door.

Grant brushed Cauchemar down and thought back to when she was born, one totally black foal on a black rainy night. He knew there was only one possible name for her, Nightmare. But it sounded so much better in French. From that moment on, there was a special bond between the two that deepened as the breaking and training took place. "I'm going to miss you," he whispered as he caressed her neck. She nuzzled him for that piece of carrot that she knew was in his pocket. Cauchemar was not disappointed.

Grant McKenzie, a serious young man with a sense of duty, studied medicine in America and advance medicine in Paris, France, where his widowed mother lived. But his passion was horses, and he daydreamed of one day breeding the perfect horse. Cauchemar was part of that dream.

The sun was fully up now, and it was going to be a warm day for the middle of May. Cauchemar's black sweaty coat glistened in the early morning light as Grant looked down upon his small herd of horses grazing in the green field below. A gentle breeze was blowing, bringing up the intoxicating smell of the blooming autumn olive and wild mint growing along the stream. God, how I love this scene, he thought, trying to freeze the sight and the smell of the stream and horses in his memory. Cauchemar fidgeted and pawed the ground beneath him, reminding him that he needed to get back for breakfast and the dreaded day.

The ride had replaced anxiety with a sense of peace and righteous purpose. Riding had always clarified his thinking. Even in medical school, he tried to find time for a ride. It was the one constant in his life.

Grant's father was a Scot and his mother French, spending their early years in France. When he was nine, his parents moved to New York City to expand their importing company. Its success allowed Grant a good education and a comfortable life. After college, he assumed his position as a junior partner in the business. A year later, his father suddenly died of pneumonia. Losing his father devastated Grant, and that was when he made the decision to sell the New York business and go to medical school, which he threw himself into with a fanatical determination.

After graduating with a medical degree from Harvard Medical School in Massachusetts, he returned to Paris for two more years of study in medicine. His mother had returned to her family in Paris after his father's death. She pleaded with him to stay and oversee their company affairs in France, which had been expanded with the profits from the New York sale and was being managed by her brother. But he loved the roughness and spirit of America. It was as a physician in Bellevue Hospital, New York City, that he met Mattie. Grant always thought it was destiny that brought them together. He was walking down the hall when he heard soft crying coming from the room opposite him. That was not unusual in a hospital, but something made him stop and look in the doorway.

Mattie was standing next to the bed with her mother's hand in hers against her cheek. She looked so forlorn, so vulnerable. As Grant walked in, she turned toward him, and though her eyes were red and swollen from crying, he was struck by how pretty she was. Her dark blond hair, hazel eyes, high cheekbones, and tall stature gave her an aristocratic presence, and he knew he had to know her better. They were married a year later.

As Mattie served breakfast, Grant looked around the table at his noisy family with a pained smile. His oldest son Morgan would have to assume the extra duties as man of the house while he was gone. At twelve, he was already showing signs of young manhood. Large for his age, he favored his mother's Scandinavian side with his tousled blond hair and hazel eyes. Morgan was the serious one in the family. He seemed to be born old, nothing like the twins.

I don't know who they take after, he thought. Though they weren't identical, their whole ten years were spent as constant companions, and what one didn't think of, the other did. He grudgingly admitted their dark hair and gray eyes came from his side of the family, but that was as far as he'd go for fixing blame for those two. They weren't as big-boned as Morgan but more wiry. Boone had the dimples, and Brady the big smile and lankier. Mattie has her hands full with Brady and Boone, for sure.

And his seven-year-old daughter Lisette wasn't much better. The promise of her future beauty as a woman was evident, even now, with her long dark curls and sparkling blue eyes. She did her best to keep up with her older brothers. Mattie was forever trying to make a little lady out of her and was rarely successful. She would much rather be in the barns than the house. Maybe Mattie would have better luck with little Krissy, a plump little giggly cherub. Her beguiling ways could charm me on my worst day. At nine months old, it was hard to tell, but with her brothers and sister so much older, Mattie has a chance.

Later that morning after seeing Mrs. Thompson and the baby out the door of his office, Grant went looking for Mattie at the other end of the house.

When Mattie had become pregnant their first year of marriage, Grant started looking for a place where he could set up a medical practice. He wanted a place that would be more suitable than New York City for raising a family and keeping a few horses. A friend's uncle wanted to retire from practice in Denton, a small upstate town in New York. Everything seemed to fall into place, even to finding this sprawling property at the edge of town. With thirteen rooms, it was big enough to have his medical office and adequate private quarters to raise a family. But the barns and two hundred acres of land were what really excited him. It was at this point that he started to think of more than just "a few horses."

Just outside the kitchen door, Mattie was at the water pump at the side of the porch pumping water into the glass vase. The ice-cold water from the deep well steamed up the outside of the vase. Grant watched as Mattie arranged the fresh picked tulips and lilacs. For a moment, he forgot what the real reason had been for searching her out as stirrings of passion overcame him. After five children, she is still beautiful. I love her so much! How can I tell her! Oh, God, please help me find the right words, and please help her to understand, he thought.

"Mattie? Could we sit down and have a cup of coffee together? I need to talk to you about something."

Mattie looked up from the flowers with a big smile. "I'll be right in. Oh, Grant, aren't they beautiful? And they smell so sweet. I think this is my very favorite time of the year. Everything is so new after the long winter-new leaves on the trees, new flowers, and new life all around us." She paused to push back a wisp of hair from her eye and continued. "I was thinking, it's such a nice weekend, let's take the children and have a picnic lunch down by the creek this afternoon. The children would love it, and so would I. Besides, it would be good for you too! Well?"

Grant held out his hand for hers. "Come, Mattie. I have to talk to you."

Mattie's smile faded. Something is wrong, she thought as she placed the flowers in the middle of the table and poured them each a cup of coffee from the pot that was always ready on the stove. She sat down and waited silently.

Grant looked down as he took a long sip of the coffee. Finally he looked up and stared directly into Mattie's eyes. "Mattie, I have volunteered for one year in the Union Army as a surgeon. I will be joining up with the 122nd Regiment, New York Volunteers." He saw the alarmed look come over her face. He quickly hurried on. "In good conscience, I just can't ignore this war any longer, knowing there are men wounded and dying out there that I might be able to save." Her stark look of disbelief was still there, but she said nothing, making it hard for Grant to continue. "I took an oath when I entered medicine, Mattie. My neighbors and their sons are out there fighting for the Union. I couldn't face them when they came back if I had not contributed my skills to bringing them back in as good health as possible. Please, please understand."

Mattie sat there staring at Grant, but words just couldn't seem to come out.

"Please, Mattie, say something. I know how hard this is for you. But let me assure you, I will provide for you while I'm gone, and it's only for a year at the most. The war could end way before that when the Confederates realize the futility of this whole secession thing. I'm not volunteering just to help our Union soldiers. I believe that slavery is wrong, whether it's black or white. Seceding from this country is wrong, and I can't sit by any longer and not do what I can for my adopted country and the cause that it's fighting for. God was with the Jews when they tried to end their slavery in Egypt, and God will be with us now. You'll see."

Mattie reached over and started to rearrange the flowers on the table. Grant sat waiting. This habit of hers of temporarily escaping an unpleasantness, seemingly oblivious to the situation, was extremely frustrating for Grant. It was his nature to confront the facts, deal with it, and move on. Mattie, on the other hand, shied away from changes. Anything that changed her routine threatened her sense of security.

"What about your patients, Grant?" Mattie's voice was barely a whisper. "What about them? They need you too. How are the children and I supposed to get along for a whole year without you? Krissy is only nine months old. She won't even know you when you get back, if you get back!"

Just yesterday, she had heard that May Jones's husband had been killed. And with that thought, she began to cry.

Grant went over to her chair, kneeled down, and put his arms around her. He was grateful the boys were busy in the barns and Lisette had Krissy out in the pram. He knew this was not going to be easy. "Come," he whispered in her ear and held her tight as he led her to the sun porch, one of her favorite places. "First of all, I will be back. Have I ever let you down? Second, I have planned very well for this year of separation. I realize I will be missing all the new little things that Krissy will be doing, but compared to lives being saved, it's more than justified. I have already talked to Doc Harris about filling in for me while I'm gone. Since most of the patients were his before he retired, the patients will be comfortable with the arrangement. Besides, I will feel more at ease knowing that he will be using my office and checking on you and the children, seeing that you are all right. There is enough money in the bank for your expenses for this coming year. Jeb Nellis will be doing the haying this year, and the boys are quite capable of taking care of the horses and milking. I feel confident that Morgan is responsible enough to assume the duties as man of the house while I'm gone. I will be talking to the boys this afternoon. It will be all right! The hardest thing for me will be being away from you! This will be the first time we've ever been separated for any length of time since we were married." Grant took her face in his hands and wiped a lingering tear from her cheek. Tenderly, he kissed her on each cheek, her forehead, then passionately on her mouth. Mattie returned the kiss, melting into his strong body. All resistance melted away as the passion of their bodies made them as one. Grant swept Mattie into his arms and carried her up the stairs to their bedroom.

Chapter Two

MATTIE

Mattie looked at her husband asleep in her arms. Her heart seemed like it was swollen to the point of bursting with love and pride for her husband. They had made love that had all the passion of the first time on their wedding night. How odd, she thought, that we could make love to each other this way, when our whole world as we know it is about to be turned upside down. She still did not want to think about that, only what she had just experienced with this man who was the center of her whole life circled by her children. The voices of Boone and Brady taunting each other drifted through the window. Smiling, she thought how much they reminded her of her husband, especially Boone.

The warm breeze riffling the curtains caressed her face as Mattie remembered the first time she ever saw Grant. She had never felt so alone and abandoned as she did at that moment. Her mother was dying, her older brother Frederick and her father were working on the railroad in Ohio, and Lars, two years younger than herself, was wrapped up in his own world working for the New York City police department at the horse stables. Grant stepped into the hospital room and asked if she was all right. He seemed so kind. And certainly very handsome! His tall slim stature, dark thick wavy hair, and gray eyes were eye-catching. But his wide smile was the most captivating. Of course a kind word from anyone would have been welcomed. But there was something different about this person. It was the strangest thing, but it was as though she had always known him, and a quick thought went through her mind, So that's the face you're wearing! It puzzled her long after that first meeting.

Mattie was born Matilda Ella Swenson on February 26, 1832, in Stockholm, Sweden, to Hilma and Anders Swenson. She, her older brother Frederick, younger brother Lars, and her mother and father came to New York City when she was ten years old. Leaving the familiar behind and coming to a strange country with a strange language was very upsetting to Mattie. She missed her cousins, was wretchedly sick on the boat trip over, and found the people in this noisy city ever so rude. She decided that absolutely nothing good could ever come out of it and promptly broke out in hives. Her lower legs were a mess as she couldn't stop scratching, and the stockings only made it worse.

Education had always been important in the family, so the children were tutored in basic English by a family friend that had come to America three years before. They were then put into school. That first year was very frustrating for Mattie. It was so difficult trying to understand the lessons. English was very hard and confusing. One word would sound the same but could be spelled different ways and have different meanings. As she and her brothers became more accomplished in the language, they taught their parents. Her father was reduced from being an engineer for the railroad in Sweden to sweeping out the train station in New York, so it was imperative that he master the language if he was to get a good job railroading in America.

Mattie was seventeen when her mother died and she had first met Grant. The small funeral was at the Lutheran church. It was a sparse gathering of a group of friends. All of the family was still in Stockholm. Mattie, with a deep loneliness, was entertaining thoughts of going back to Sweden. She and her mother were very close, and she felt like she had lost her best friend. As she was sitting there with her father and brothers, she felt a presence behind her. Turning around, she was surprised to see that handsome young doctor who stopped by her mother's room every day at the hospital. Grant wasn't her mother's doctor, but Mattie looked forward to his head popping in the door, asking her how she was doing and showing kindly concern. Mattie had felt his hand reach across the back of the pew and gently squeeze her shoulder. An excitement ran through her, leaving her guilty to be feeling anything even remotely resembling joy at her mother's funeral of all places.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from The Darkness of Dayby ROCHELLE HAMEL Copyright © 2010 by Rochelle Hamel. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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Edition details

• Publisher: iUniverse
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1450239714
• ISBN 13: 9781450239714
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 212