July 1763

The very next day, Mary and Uriah were married, yet it was not the kind of marriage either had imagined. One year later, Mary give birth to a son they named Jonathan Samuel Carson and a year beyond that, Caleb married Elizabeth. Uriah kept his position in London returning home only once a month, Caleb remained a carpenter and the sisters stayed on with Lady Phillips. Then, two weeks after Caleb and Elizabeth were married, Uriah asked Caleb to secretly meet him in Manchester. They were happy to see each other, but Uriah was somehow solemn, unfriendly and constantly aware of all those around him. When they mounted their horses in Manchester, Uriah headed west.

"For what cause do we go west?" wondered Caleb. When Uriah didn't answer, he shrugged and fell in behind, fully enjoying the peaceful countryside on the well traveled dirt highway to Shrewsbury.

Nearly an hour later, Uriah finally paused to allow his brother to catch up. "I wish to have a word with you and the horses need water." He turned off the highway, led the way across a grassland and then up the slope of a hill. At the top, he stopped to look back. He saw just one man, driving an empty wagon and concerned only with mopping sweat from his brow in the late afternoon swelter. Uriah urged his horse down the other side of the hill, and with his brother close behind, he started into the Needwood forest. At length, he came to a small, pond surrounded by dense foliage.