The Jackal's Mistress

Through the open window, Weybridge hears a horse whinny, his only forewarning. Two men sneak into the back of Libby’s house. She and Weybridge fire at them and kill them, but neither is Morgan. Weybridge drops the carbine to use a Colt. Seconds later, two men storm the front door and grab Libby. Weybridge cannot fire; she is too close to them. Morgan enters and throws the crutches outside, then he forces Weybridge to crawl to the road in front of the house.

Morgan’s men tie up Libby and Weybridge and leave them to sit in the road in the pouring rain. Joseph surrenders, and the men hold him at gunpoint. Morgan insists that Libby’s story that Sally and Jubilee went to a friend’s house in Charlottesville is a lie. He sends a man to search the property with Joseph. He tells them that once Sally is found, he will let Jubilee live but hang the rest of them “where both Sheriden’s men and any Southerners tired of the fighting—those ready to bow before Lincoln’s hirelings—surely would notice” (265). Weybridge tells Morgan to shoot or hang him but leave the others alone. Morgan accuses Libby of sharing Weybridge’s bed. She spits in his face.

They hear a shot; Morgan calls for the first ranger, Lucus, but he never replies. Morgan grabs Libby and threatens loudly to shoot her. Joseph takes his gun while he is distracted. Sally shoots Morgan from behind, the ranger shoots Sally, and Joseph shoots the ranger.

Sally is dead. Libby waits with Joseph while he whispers Sally’s name. Jubilee goes to pack their things. Libby and Weybridge discard the men’s bodies in the river.

Around 2:00 am, Joseph digs Sally’s grave on the property. Jubilee has told Libby what happened: Sally shot the ranger when he approached the mill. The shots Libby and Weybridge heard were Sally’s shots fired into the air to distract Morgan and cover Joseph, who took the dead ranger’s pistol. Then Sally got close enough to shoot Morgan herself.

Now, once they bury and pray over Sally, they plan to leave together for Harper’s Ferry. Joseph is only willing to leave because of his children. Jubilee milks the cow, hugging her and crying.

They try to leave at dawn, but the road is washed out. They double back to head north, wasting a half hour. Weybridge, from inside the coffin, tells Libby to leave him behind so that she, Joseph, and Jubilee can get away on the two horses, but she refuses. From a high point on the road, they see a dozen Confederate cavalrymen descend upon the house. Libby lies to Jubilee and Joseph that the men will care for the cow and leave the graveyard alone. Smoke comes from the barn; they leave before seeing the house burn.

The trip to Harper’s Ferry is uneventful. Two Union pickets stop them, and one opens the coffin when Weybridge announces himself from inside. They are so shocked that Libby has to remind them to salute. Libby gives Joseph the horses and wagon, knowing she can never actually repay him for what she feels she owes. He graciously accepts them. She thinks it is an “encouraging sign” that he will go on.

Libby and Jubilee sit on a bench in Harper’s Ferry while Weybridge sees the Union surgeon. Libby confirms that the nearby fire station was indeed the place where John Brown had his uprising. Libby reflects how she knew even then the enslaved people had no chance against the Southerners’ “guns and whips and shackles and swords” (285). When Jubilee calls the enslaved people “servants,” Libby corrects her and tells her to say “slaves”; she wants Jubilee to learn honesty about enslavers.

Libby plans to sell her jewelry until they can settle into life as refugees. She tells Jubilee that Robert will find them if he is alive, but despite Colonel Duffy’s promises to locate Peter, she knows Peter is dead.

Colonel Duffy surprises Weybridge with a letter from Eustis Marsh. Weybridge is shocked to read Marsh’s news: Emily is dead. She was kicked by a horse spooked by one of their sons. Colonel Duffy expresses his regrets and explains that he will find beds at the inn for Weybridge, Libby, and Jubilee, plus a bed for Joseph. He says he intends to find out what happened to Libby’s husband.

Later, Jubilee, Libby, and Weybridge eat in the inn’s restaurant. Weybridge wrote to his parents and in-laws to explain that he would be home by the first snow. He knows he must focus on his children. Libby knows that Emily is dead, but they do not tell Jubilee. Libby allows Jubilee to have sherry with dinner.

Later, Libby leaves Jubilee sleeping soundly and goes to Weybridge’s bed. She admits she wanted to cut her hair and flee, but she cannot leave Jubilee. She explains she is making the decision for herself and Weybridge that, for one short night, they deserve not to be lonely.

They have sex, and in the morning, Weybridge wakes to find Libby gone. He is already planning to bring Libby and Jubilee home with him, telling himself that he can grieve Emily while loving Libby. He wonders how he will explain their closeness to family, but he feels grateful he will not have to weather being a widower alone.

At breakfast, Libby is “radiant.” She looks briefly sad when she sees him, then joyful again. She tells him that Colonel Duffy found Peter at Fort Delaware. He is alive. Weybridge pretends to be happy, knowing he will treasure the memory of his night with Libby forever.

In first-person perspective, Jubilee, in her eighties, writes about the end of the war and the events that followed. Her father, Robert, was shot and killed a week before Lee’s surrender. She, Libby, and Peter went north with Weybridge and stayed in his home until November 1865, when they returned to Berryville. The people of Middlebury, Vermont, found the Southerners alarming, though most seemed grateful to Libby for saving Weybridge. She was pregnant that winter and gave birth to a boy in the summer of 1865. Libby and Peter named him Jack to honor Weybridge. Jubilee always suspected Weybridge was the father.

Upon returning to Berryville, Peter and Joseph, who stayed in his home throughout the war, rebuilt the house and mill. Peter took to sitting on the porch with a loaded rifle to scare off neighbors who might come to malign Libby’s traitorous actions during the war. Weybridge visited the Steadmans on two brief occasions, and Jubilee visited Vermont after marrying and settling in New York.

She last visited the South in 1932. That year, the city of Richmond, Virginia, hosted “The Last Review,” a parade and recognition of Confederate veterans. Jubilee’s granddaughter, a journalist, gave the Review a harsh critique in the newspaper. Jubilee, reflecting on the event five years later, agrees; she recalls standing near the statue of J. E. B. Stuart and wondering how the veterans, decades later and after so many deaths, could salute it. She calls their attitude “the pinnacle of fantasy” and reflects on the significance of the statue’s hollow interior (308).

Bohjalian specifies that a Vermont lieutenant, Henry Bedell, was injured at Opequan Creek on September 13, 1864, and he was left behind by Union troops. A local woman named Bettie Van Metre was determined to save him after hearing about his plight. Other parallels include Ginny and Dick Runner, a formerly enslaved married couple who lived on the Van Metre property, a 10-year-old niece Bettie cared for, and a husband in prison, James.

With Dick Runner’s help, Bettie managed to get Bedell to her house, convince a doctor to care for him, and gather supplies at the Union garrison in Harper’s Ferry. Bedell survived, and Bettie and Dick delivered him to the garrison once he recovered; the officer in command then helped secure the release of Bettie’s husband in return for her kindness and generosity.

While the basic premise of a Southern woman saving a Union officer from Vermont parallels history, the deeper conflicts, developed characters, and romance between the central figures are entirely fiction. The author also mentions how Libby’s story became more real in his mind upon observing the removal of Confederate statues in Richmond in 2020.