Ethan continued, “Richard Hume and Bryan Houstown have asked me to give the same message to their wives. They asked me to recommend that they and their children join the group, and I will carry them back with me if they choose to go.”

She noticed that he had not included her in the recommendation, and still waited.

Finally, he said, “I would like for you to go with us unless you feel that staying with the Quakers would be better for you.”

Since the death of their son, Ethan had wondered about Epsey’s feelings toward him. Her aversion to war and violence had always been obvious, and he could understand that these commitments could only have been strengthened during her stay in Wrightsborough. He had wondered at times if he was somewhat to blame for their family tragedy, and fully expected her to find some reason to remain here until the war’s end. He would certainly not blame her.

She was quite self-possessed and responded calmly, “The Friends are good people, devoted to peace. Despite this, my preference is to be with the other wives and children. It may be that I can be of help with some of them on what may be a difficult trip.”

Ethan reached for her hand and said, “I am grateful for this decision.”

Epsey accompanied Ethan to visit the other two women, who took the suggestion from their husbands as a firm directive. Ethan spent the night in the tavern, and the small group, including four children, departed early the following morning to join the other families. There was no mention of Mavis until after they had left the village, when Epsey said, “Mavis has been getting along well here and joins often in the affairs of the Friends.”

•  •  •

Within three days there were almost four hundred family members assembled in the Hornet’s Nest, most of them children, and the militia leaders tried to assure them that there was hope of survival. Their only chance was to travel almost two hundred miles through Tory-dominated territory and cross the mountains into the Watauga Valley. Clarke explained that this was an area in western North Carolina that had been somewhat neutral in the war and so far impregnable to British and Tory intrusions. Before moving to Georgia, he had considered moving his family there, and was certain that Colonel Isaac Shelby and his Over Mountain men would welcome the Georgia refugees.