The Fire Within

Chapter 19

They say that your past will come back to haunt you. That you are never safe from the specters that plagued you during your most vulnerable and troubled times. Sometimes these phantoms are simply images that inhabit your subconscious, sometimes they are wraiths that threaten to your very happiness, and then other times they are a presence that is full of possibility and happiness.

Grace has been troubled by the phantoms and wraiths of her past and the past of her family throughout her entire life. She has felt the screams and pain of the spirits of those that her family used, tortured, and abused to further their own prosperity for a hundred years. She’s never once believed that she would ever be able to escape from the ghosts of the past. Even when she dared to believe that she could have a real future with a man that she loved, she always knew that menace hovered just behind the happiness ready to strike out and take it all away.

When she entered the house she believed that the past was finally here to condemn her to a life of sorrow and misery. Seeing him standing before her wearing a tremendous smile across his face almost seemed like it was just another nightmare that had come to her waking state to torment her with the mistakes of the past.

His bright blue eyes lit up when he saw her. His light brown hair longer than it had been the last time he saw her. He tied his unruly locks back much like she did when she was being James. It had been years since they were last in each other’s presence. He smiled warmly upon seeing the beautiful creature before him. She was exactly how he remembered her, but she was also so much more. She wore the experience and knowledge of the trials of war and suffering behind her beautiful brown eyes.

Even though she was terrified at what his presence in her home meant, she was overjoyed that he was there. She gently pulled herself from Zachariah’s protective grasp and launched herself into his arms. When he wrapped his arms around her, she felt just like she had when she was twelve years old and had yet again gotten injured playing in the fields or climbing trees. He was always the one that took care of her, comforted her when she was hurt, sad, or lonely. Alexander was closer to her age and he had always been her protector but William was her parent. Three years her senior, William comforted her, made sure she was taken care of, and that she was loved. He was more her parent than her real parents had ever been. Their father too intent on power and control, their mother too drunk to notice.

Zachariah took in the scene in front of him, worried about who this man was that stood there with his wife in his arms. He looked to Ezekiel and Mary for some kind of indication of who this man was. But it was Helen who let him know that this man was not a threat in any way. Her tears of joy and her broad smile that stretched across her face let him know that there was nothing to dread.

Zachariah watched as Grace pulled away from the man who was smiling down at her. He waited patiently hoping for some sort of explanation either from his wife, the stranger, or Helen.

Grace soon realized that everyone, especially Zachariah was stood nearby watching and waiting for one of them to speak. She took her brother’s hand in hers and lead him straight to the dark haired, ocean blue eyed man that was waiting for her.

“William I’d like for you to meet my husband, Colonel Zachariah Wheaton. Zachariah, this is my older brother William.”

William smiled and stuck out his hand as a gesture of friendship and kindness. He’d received a letter from Helen weeks ago informing him that his sister had gotten married. Neither he nor Helen told anyone of their communication over the past year as it was inappropriate and in some places illegal for a black woman and a white man to communicate in the manner in which they communicated. William had been courting her for years, and it was only once they found each other in Philadelphia once more that he began to pursue her again.