On Monday morning, Belle filled the wagon bed with the last tissue-wrapped trousseau items for her client in Ann Arbor. She was going to drive over and deliver them. Since Belle wouldn’t be returning until after dark, Mrs. Best asked Adam to ride with Belle and he was more than happy to do so.
As Jo stood on the porch watching Adam and Belle load the gowns, Jo thought back to yesterday’s kisses on the riverbank and smiled.
Her mother stepped out onto the porch, took one look at her dreamy-faced daughter and asked. “And what has you so happy, Josephine?”
The voice jolted Jo back to the present. “Uh, nothing. It’s just a beautiful day.”
Her mother looked skeptical. “Mmm-hmm. The Lord will get you for lying, Jo.”
Jo’s eyes sparkled. “All right. I was just smiling watching Adam.”
“That’s what I thought.”
“He wants to marry me, Mama. Adam Morgan really wants to marry me.”
“You sound as if that’s hard to believe. You’re quite a catch yourself, you know.”
“I know, but I keep waiting to wake up.”
Her mother smiled. “It’s real, Jo. I promise.”
Mrs. Best went down to see if she could help with the loading. Jo went back to smiling.
Jo spent the rest of the morning sweeping the floor in her shop and making sure all of her supplies were up to snuff. She didn’t have many appointments this week, but she wanted to be ready for walk-ins. The last person she expected to see was Trudy, but it was the person Jo most wanted to see. Jo squealed with delight, and the two friends embraced as if they’d been separated their whole lives.
“How are you?”
“I’m fine. Mama wasn’t real happy at first, but she’s starting to come around.”
Jo stepped back and asked, “So you really, actually did it?”
Trudy nodded. “Yep. I am now Mrs. Bertram Waterman.”
Jo was impressed. “That’s wonderful, Trudy.”
“Yes, it is. I am so happy, Jo. Just wait until you and Adam get hitched.”
“That may not be for a while. We’ll have to wait until Papa returns before we can talk about a date.”
Trudy stared with shock. “I was just joking, Jo. You mean to tell me you and he are sweethearts?”
Jo nodded. “Yep, and, Trudy, being with him is so wonderful.”
“Oh, my goodness!”
“Enough about me, tell me about you and Bert.”
So Trudy did, beginning with the elopement and ending with the reaction of Mrs. Carr and Mrs. Waterman. “The Dragon Lady says she’s cutting him out of her life, but Bert’s being strong. He told her she can’t run the Waterman bricklaying business without him, so she could either accept the marriage or not.”
“He told her that?”
“Yes, so we’re living with Mama right now, but we’re going to look for a house sometime next week. I had no idea Bert had so much money saved.”
Jo was glad to hear Bert had prepared himself financially for the newlyweds’ future. “I wish you all the happiness in the world.”
“Thanks, Jo. Mama is giving us a reception on Saturday. Will you come?”
“Is Jeff Davis a Reb? Of course, silly. An army couldn’t keep me away.”
“Good. Now, I want to hear all about you and Adam!”
Jo grinned. Trudy was back and Jo was happy.
Jo was even happier two days later when Adam received a long letter from Jeremiah, who wrote that in spite of the challenges of the war, he was doing just fine.
Jo and Adam had a wonderful time at Trudy’s reception. Trudy looked beautiful in her new blue dress, and Bert stood beside her looking like the proud bridegroom that he was. Mrs. Waterman attended the affair with the intention of stopping the festivities, but was summarily shown the door by both Bert and Barbara Carr before she could start any serious trouble. Mrs. Best and Belle went home after the main festivities ended, but Adam and Jo had been given permission to stay for the dancing and party games Trudy had planned for their set.
Now Adam and Jo were driving home, as well. It was dark and the stars were out. Jo had her arm linked with Adam’s and her head rested cozily against his shoulder while he drove. “Did you have a good time?” Jo asked him.
“I did. How about you?”
“Marvelous. I hope our wedding party will be as much fun.”
He chuckled. “Let’s not invite Mrs. Waterman, though.”
“Don’t worry.” Jo was sleepy and she yawned. “It’s been quite the week.”
“Yes, it has. First Bert captures Reed, and then he and Trudy elope.”
“George gives me the boot, and I get you.”
Adam leaned down and placed a soft kiss on her forehead. “And I get you. Now that Trudy and Bert are back and married, I’m jealous.”
Jo leaned back so she could see his face. “Are you?”
“Of course I am. They’re married and we aren’t.”
Jo snuggled close again. “But we will be, and it will be before you know it.”
“Promise?”
“Promise.”
“Promise me you’ll love me until we’re both as old as Old Lady Donovan?”
Jo grinned. “Promise.”
Adam looked down at her and said genuinely, “I love you very much, Jo Best.”
She whispered softly, “I love you, too, Adam Morgan.”
The drive home continued, and they were both content.
epilogue
In April of 1865 when General Ulysses S. Grant and the Union Army forced General Lee and the Confederacy to surrender, the citizens of the north celebrated the end of the war. Church bells rang from Massachusetts to Kansas, but the celebration soon turned to mourning as news of President Lincoln being shot and killed spread around the world.
With Adam handling the reins, the Best women traveled to Ann Arbor to pay their respects at a memorial service being held by one of the city’s large churches. Everyone for miles around had turned out, it seemed, and the traffic was horrendous, but Adam managed to find a spot to park the wagon not too far away from the church, and the four of them joined the large crowd of all races slowly entering the sanctuary.
Once inside, Jo wondered if she and her family looked as somber and sad as the others in attendance and thought they probably did. Mr. Lincoln had kept the Union together, set in motion the emancipation of three and a half million slaves, and now his life had been snuffed out by the actor John Wilkes Booth.
The memorial was a moving mixture of hymns, testimonials and speeches touting the president’s greatness and strength of character. The finale was an emotional singing of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” that reduced every man, woman and child to tears.
A few days later, as the country continued to grieve and thousands of Americans lined the route to witness Lincoln’s funeral train make its way from the nation’s capital to his hometown in Illinois, Jo and the citizens of Whittaker set about resuming their normal routines. Jo reopened her shop and Adam began looking over drawings for his hotel, but the gloomy mood was hard to shed.
After dinner as the two young lovers sat side by side on the swing, Jo said, “I never knew one death could inspire so much sadness, Adam.”
“I know. It has hit our people particularly hard because of all he did for us, even if some of it was done reluctantly.”
“But it is done.”
He nodded. “And hopefully not to be undone. Many are worried about the direction President Johnson will take and what it might mean for the newly freed.”
Jo had been following the debate in the newspapers. Some editors were taking a wait-and-see attitude, while others were sounding the alarm and warning that Johnson was in bed with the defeated Confederacy. Jo had no idea what the future might hold, and for the first time in her young life saw clouds on the horizon. She supposed it was because she no longer viewed the world through a child’s eyes and could see the many nuances. She wasn’t sure if she cared for this new matu
rity.
As if reading her mind, Adam took her hand in his, looked down into her eyes and said, “No matter what comes, we’ll face it together, be it good or bad.”
She squeezed his hand and felt better than she had in days.
Early the next morning, breakfast was interrupted by a knock on the door. Cecilia got up from the table. “I wonder who that could be?”
“Bea, maybe?” Belle answered.
Cecilia went to the door, and when she screamed, Belle, Jo and Adam ran to her aid, but she needed none. There in the doorway stood Mr. Best with his wife in his arms rocking her in a joyous, tearful welcome. Beside them stood Daniel. Belle shrieked and ran to Daniel, who caught her up and held her tight. Once she seemed assured that her husband was alive and well, she moved from him to share a strong hug with her father, who entered next. Jo felt she might burst from so much happiness and looked over at Adam with happy tears blurring her eyes. Then Jeremiah inched his way into the room and Adam gave a shout of surprise as the brothers hastened to embrace for their own long-awaited reunion.
At dinner, Jo looked at the four war veterans. She didn’t know who was happier, but counted herself amongst the happiest. They’d all lost weight, and although they looked less weary than they had upon arrival, exhaustion was clearly reflected in their faces and eyes.
“So, Adam Morgan,” William Best said as Jo set out the dishes of ice cream for dessert, “what makes you think I’ll agree to you marrying my daughter?”
Jo stopped in midreach.
Adam froze as all eyes turned his way. He straightened, looked at Jo for a moment, then replied, “I love her, sir, and plan to do so for as long as I have breath.”
A slightly embarrassed Jo smiled at the soft-spoken declaration and a grinning Jeremiah lifted his coffee cup in tribute.
Daniel asked pointedly, “And how many other ladies have heard you say the same thing?”
“Daniel!” Belle fussed.
“I know him, Belle.”
“But do you know his heart?”
Adam met Daniel’s skeptical gaze coolly and without flinching. “Weren’t you pledged to another when you fell in love with Belle?”
Cecilia hid her smile behind her napkin.
Belle folded her arms. “Well, Daniel, what say you now?”
“I just don’t want my sister hurt.”
William added, “And neither do I.”
Ignoring the fuming Daniel, Adam said to Mr. Best, “Sir, I have already told Jo that if I ever break her heart I’ll cut out my own and hand it to her on a platter. I love her, sir, truly. I will support her, protect her and pledge to be the best example of a husband and a son-in-law you or anyone else has ever seen.”
Mrs. Best said, “If I might interrupt, I will say this. Adam has been nothing but a gentleman to Jo. He’s been respectful to me and to Belle. He’s carried his weight, helped me in ways that have endeared him to me, and if there is a vote, he gets mine.”
Jo came over and gave her a hug. “Thank you, Mama.”
William looked to his daughter. “I suppose you have something to say?”
She replied, “Only if I’m asked, Papa.”
“I’m asking.”
“I love him, Papa. I didn’t take him very seriously at first. He is a Morgan, after all.”
“Hey!” Jeremiah said, taking mock offense.
Everyone smiled, even Daniel.
“And he is still a woodenhead sometimes,” she confessed as she looked into Adam’s eyes, “but I’d like to be Mrs. Woodenhead because I love him, Papa, very much.”
William glanced over at Belle’s father, who gave him a shrug of his shoulders in response.
William sighed. “Okay. I’m willing to say yes.”
Jo ran to him and hugged him for all she was worth. “Thank you, Papa! Thank you!”
He laughed and returned her embrace with all the love he felt for his spirited, unconventional daughter.
Adam looked over at Daniel and stuck out his hand. “Pax?”
Daniel clasped it firmly and nodded. “Welcome to the family.”
On June 1, 1865, Josephine Best, beautifully clad in the flowing white dress made for her by her sister-in-law, Belle, became the lawfully wedded wife of Mr. Adam Morgan. Jeremiah stood up with Adam, and Trudy stood up with Jo.
As Jo held Adam’s hand and looked out at the smiling faces filling the parlor, she knew that regardless of what lay ahead, she would always be Mrs. Adam Morgan, the happiest young woman in the whole wide world. “I love you, woodenhead,” she said to him over the congratulatory applause.
He looked down and grinned. “I love you, too, pest.”
And with that said, the newly married couple led the way into the dining room for the wedding dinner and the start of their life together.
AUTHOR NOTE
Josephine Best made her debut in Belle, and she was such a force of nature I knew she had to have her very own book. Although Josephine takes place five years later, Jojo still possessed the same spunk and spirit that made her so well loved in Belle. I hope you enjoyed her story.
For anyone interested in more on the historical background, please see We Are Your Sisters: Black Women in the Nineteenth Century, edited by Dorothy Sterling, and for more on the key role played by African–Americans in the Civil War, please see Black Abolitionists by Benjamin Quarles and The Negro in the Civil War, also by Benjamin Quarles.
In closing, I’d again like to thank Glenda Howard and Linda Gill at Harlequin/Kimani for their faith and support. Without them, Belle and Josephine would never have been brought back to life. Thanks also to all the readers both young and old who e-mailed me, sent letters and stopped me at signings to let me know how much they wanted the books to be reprinted. I hope you’re pleased—I know I am!
Be blessed.
B
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
How is courtship different now than it was in Jo’s day?
Do you think Jo would have gone ahead and said yes to George had Adam not come back into her life?
Besides his good looks, why did Jo find Adam to be a better match?
Trudy said she loved Bert, yet Dred Reed made her forget that. Why?
Why was it important for Jo to have her own business?
Mrs. Best and many of the other women in Jo’s life can be called strong women. Who are some of the strong women in your life, and why do you think they are the way they are?
JOSEPHINE
ISBN: 978-1-4268-2745-7
A Kimani TRU title published by Kimani Press/February 2009
First Published by Avon Books in 2003 as JOSEPHINE AND THE SOLDIER
© 2003 by Beverly Jenkins
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Beverly Jenkins, Josephine
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