Ashes

Isabel locks eyes with the snake and holds completely still until it slithers under a log, but just then, she hears a gunshot. A fight has broken out between the British forces (who are supporting Loyalists in the area) and a Patriot militia. Isabel, despite her world-weariness about the fighting, is frightened: “I could hear the retreating boot steps of the men, smell the blood stench of the dead soldier […]” (24). During the gunfight, Curzon returns to Isabel’s hiding spot, but accidentally disturbs the rattlesnake again. Isabel manages to chop it into bits with the hatchet she’s carrying. 

In the wake of the battle and the snake-killing, Isabel is feeling uncharacteristically weary and disillusioned. She recounts some of her and Curzon’s recent travels. They creep into plantations at night to talk to enslaved people; a lot of former slaves went on the run during the war, looking for lost family members or seeking their own places to call home. They travelled here on the advice of another escaping slave.

Curzon and Isabel are seeking Charleston to find the house of a family that formerly enslaved Isabel. Isabel thinks she’ll find her little sister there, but there’s a snag: “Weeks earlier we’d learned that anyone in Charleston who was not white skinned was required to carry a British army certification proving the whos and whys and hows of their being” (29). While Isabel has forged documents to prove she and Curzon are free, she doesn’t know how to forge this extra document the British forces require.

With the battle ended, Curzon searches a dead soldier and finds some money and gunpowder. Isabel persuades him to leave behind the pocket watch he finds, as they’d be in great danger if they were discovered with such a treasure. The two agree to take a detour, avoiding British-controlled Charleston and seeking news in the nearby town of Riverbend instead.

As the two walk through the night, Isabel finds herself becoming oddly careless and distracted. Curzon wonders if she’s sick, but she thinks it’s something else: “The bees of my melancholy, which had rarely troubled me since we escaped that foul man Bellingham at Valley Forge, were buzzing inside my brainpan […]” (33). She thinks of her sister, but worries she’s having trouble remembering her face.

The two come to the house they’re looking for, and climb a tree from which to observe it for a day before they approach. Something feels wrong, as they don’t see any people around. As the sun rises, they see the house is in bad shape, with broken windows, but they can also smell cooking. They see a group of people around a kitchen. There’s an old couple, a little boy, and a young woman, all black. Isabel thinks she might recognize the young woman from somewhere. When the young woman laughs, Isabel is overwhelmed with recognition, and though she knows it’s foolish, she leaps from the tree and makes her way towards the group.

As she gets closer, Isabel feels that she does and doesn’t recognize Ruth, who has grown a lot since she last saw her. Ruth certainly doesn’t seem to recognize her. Isabel is horrified. She wonders if her sister might have had an attack of the “falling sickness” she was born with, hit her head, and lost her memories (42).

Isabel tries to persuade Ruth to leave with her, but the family she’s living with rushes in to defend her. Isabel tries to explain, but Ruth refuses to acknowledge her. The old couple tell her to wait in the woods and they’ll bring her some food, but warn her that she shouldn’t stay here: It isn’t safe.

Curzon emerges from the woods to back up Isabel’s story. Isabel tells of how their former masters stole Ruth away in the middle of the night, drugging Isabel first to keep her quiet. The old couple, whose names we learn are Serafina and Walter, ask Ruth if this is true. Ruth, devastatingly, tells them that Isabel was her sister, but isn’t any more, and says, “Go home, Isabel” (46).

Isabel is stunned by this rejection. Curzon must hold her up to keep her from passing out. Serafina and Walter, seeing that the two are starving, invite them in to eat. While they eat, Serafina and Walter explain what happened to the house. A Patriot militia came through and looted the place, and the house’s overseer, Prentiss, went out searching for new field hands. The boy who Curzon and Isabel saw, Aberdeen, tried to escape during the chaos, and Prentiss beat him badly for his trouble. Isabel can’t really focus on any of this story in her misery, but she’s touched by Serafina and Walter’s background, which resembles her own: Their children are dead, and they don’t know where their grandchildren were sold away to. They’ve taken in Ruth like their own child: “Indeed, she had become their own. But did that mean she wasn’t mine?” (53).

Isabel offers to help Serafina to clean peas, and finds herself in a dissociative state: A lot of time goes by without her noticing. She’s worried at this new habit of dropping out of her surroundings, which is dangerous for a person who’s on the run. Serafina asks her about an I-shaped scar on her face, and Isabel explains that she got it trying to fight Madam Lockton, their mistress, when she told her she was going to sell Ruth away. A judge sentenced her to have her face branded. Serafina commiserates: “That woman has a serpent where her soul should be” (56). She tells Isabel that Madam Lockton and her husband have fled to London to wait out the war. Isabel feels discombobulated at all that has changed in her life since the morning. She ends up telling Serafina the whole story of her adventures with Curzon. Serafina hints that Isabel and Curzon ought to marry, but Isabel brushes this aside.

Isabel breaks down in Serafina’s arms. Serafina tells her that, for all her strength, Isabel must remember to let herself feel, too: She needs to be strong enough not just to keep going, but to be vulnerable and to love. Serafina goes on, saying that Isabel and Curzon must leave tonight with Aberdeen. Before they can discuss this plan further, Aberdeen bursts into the room: Prentiss has returned, and they must leave tonight.

Deen takes Isabel and Curzon to hide in the loft with Ruth as Prentiss and two strange men approach the house. Serafina says she’ll tell the men that they all ran off days ago. Prentiss and the men walk by, shouting for Ruth, who shakes in fear. Isabel gets the sense that Prentiss abuses her. Serafina and Walter distract the men, and Walter conveys information to the hiding children through talking loudly to the horses, saying that they need to “rest up and prepare for the net long journey” (65). Isabel resists this idea, wanting to stay alert, but Curzon’s worry for her sways her, and she agrees to sleep and wait for night so they can get out of there safely. As she goes to sleep, she wonders how she can possibly persuade Ruth to trust her again.

Late that night, Serafina comes out to send the children off. Ruth is worried to see that Serafina is breathing hard and seems ill, but Serafina shrugs this off, and makes Ruth promise to stay with the others. Isabel is deeply moved: “I wanted to call after her to thank her, to pour out my gratitude at her feet. I owed her everything, for she had loved my sister as much as our mother had. But we had no time” (71). Ruth grabs a chicken to carry with them, and the children, accompanied by Walter, depart. Walter walks them to a path through a swamp, and gives them directions. They’ll travel together for a short distance; then, Aberdeen will go southwest to seek his fortune while the others go to Rhode Island. Ruth resists this plan, wishing to stay with Walter and Serafina. Aberdeen persuades her by saying that he’ll go with them, too. Tearfully, Walter and the children part.

Isabel recounts the pains and struggles of the children’s travels through the swampy wilderness. They’re sweaty, bug-bitten, and exhausted—but worst of all, Ruth won’t even look at her. When Isabel tries to compliment Ruth on her bravery and endurance, Ruth spits in her face. Curzon counsels Isabel that she can’t expect to force Ruth’s feelings to change. Isabel notes that Curzon seems increasingly irritable; she expects him to leave them soon, and feels heartsore at the thought. Though the landscape is unforgiving, Curzon and Isabel have become excellent travelers, and the gear that Serafina and Walter provided them with is helpful. They forage for berries and eat possums and catfish. Each day, Ruth’s pet chicken Nancy lays an egg, which they take turns eating. The older children vow that they won’t eat Nancy herself, as she’s the only creature who seems to cheer Ruth.

As they travel, Isabel feels wearier and wearier, and she notices that Curzon has started to avoid her—but not the others. In fact, he and Aberdeen take to arguing about the war: Curzon supports the Patriots, and Aberdeen the British. Both hope that their chosen side will free the country’s slaves. After long weeks, the swamps begin to give way to woodland. There, the children run into a widower named Huntly, who, like them, is escaping to freedom. His wife and their newborn baby died on the way. He draws them a map and offers to marry Isabel; “I thanked him politely and declined his offer” (84).

As the children travel on, they start getting sick and worn-down, and Aberdeen starts questioning their route. However, there are worse problems to come. Ruth has a seizure, and falls very ill. Isabel blames herself for their driving pace: “This was my fault, all of it” (88). The friends move Ruth into an abandoned shack and tend to her there. As Isabel gently undresses Ruth to bathe her, she discovers something terrible: A wound on Ruth’s foot has, unobserved, become gangrenous.

Horrified, Isabel, Curzon, and Aberdeen consult about what to do. Curzon tells Isabel they have no choice but to cauterize the wound with a hot knife. Isabel remembers the agony of being branded, and fears that such pain might kill Ruth. She convinces the boys to let her try to draw the gangrene out first. With the boys holding Ruth down, Isabel cuts Ruth’s wound open and expresses pus and blood. Ruth screams, but finally passes out, and doesn’t wake.

Curzon asks Isabel, “If we had all the king’s riches at our disposal, what medicines would you want from the apothecary?” (96). Isabel says that mostly what she’d want is food; she can make willow-bark tea for the fever, but Ruth needs nutrition to heal. Curzon tells Isabel that he’s going to go into town and buy food, despite Isabel’s protestations: They’re nearer to safer country now, and he’ll rely on his freeman’s papers to protect him. If he doesn’t return in a week, he says, they’ll have to go on without him.

While Curzon goes in search of food, Isabel and Aberdeen tend to Ruth, who has another seizure. Aberdeen tells Isabel the story of how Ruth came to Riverbend. At first almost catatonic with trauma, Ruth gradually came around when she was allowed to work with animals: She was calm and patient with them, and she befriended them easily. Isabel notices that Aberdeen seems to soften when talking about Ruth: “The expression on his face helped me realize something I’d not seen before. ‘Are you sweet on her?’” (105). Abashed, Aberdeen admits that maybe he is.

Aberdeen and Ruth have a similar story, it turns out: Both were taken away from their families as very young children. Aberdeen tells Isabel that Ruth claims to have no memory of her life before she was taken, and suggests that maybe now, while Ruth is ill, Isabel can tell her some of those stories, even if she’s not sure she can hear them. Isabel, dubious at first, launches into the whole story of her past and of Ruth’s babyhood, telling the unconscious Ruth everything she can remember.

Slowly, Ruth heals. As she spends more time awake, her mistrust of Isabel returns. Nancy Chicken disappears into the woods, and Isabel is worried that Curzon hasn’t returned; they’ve waited for four days now. Ruth becomes strong enough to stand, if not to walk. Ruth detects the sound of an approaching donkey. Curzon, on donkeyback, has returned.

Curzon, very pleased with himself, has returned with a donkey, a cart, and food. Isabel is delighted to see him (to the extent of having some butterflies in her stomach). Ruth, meanwhile, is delighted to see the donkey. Told that he’s a “boon,” a blessing, she decides that his name is Thomas Boon.

Curzon reports that, as they suspected, they’ve reached Virginia, but things are tough there. British soldiers pillage the countryside. Curzon suggests that they might have luck finding shelter for the winter in Richmond, while Isabel wants to press on to Quaker territory in Philadelphia. While they can’t resolve on where they’re going, they agree they must get on the move again. Now that they have the cart, they’ll have to travel by road, so they bathe and try to make themselves look unsuspiciously respectable.

Though their travel goes well for a few days, the children run into trouble when they meet Patriot soldiers on the road. Luckily, the rebarbative Thomas Boon bites and kicks until the soldiers give up hope of commandeering him. The soldiers tell the children that an army is gathering in Williamsburg. Curzon goes into a tavern to confirm this information, and finds that they’re walking right into a brewing battle between the British and the Patriots (and their French allies). He argues that this will be an oddly safe place for them: In the chaos, no one will worry about escaped slaves. Isabel reluctantly agrees: “It felt like we were marching ourselves straight into trouble, but I could not think of a better course” (121).