“I won’t.”
He was quickly gone, crawling up front alongside Tyne. O’Malley saluted sharply to Jesse.
“Thanks, Corporal,” Jesse called to him.
“See you soon, Colonel!” O’Malley returned. Jesse flicked the reins, and the horses started off. O’Malley trotted alongside the wagon. “Congratulations, ma’am. The best to you and the colonel.”
Kiernan waved to O’Malley, and the wagon, with Pegasus tied to the rear, moved away very quickly. They had begun the journey. Patricia looked at her with wide, frightened eyes. Jacob was still and stoic and silent, every inch the young man.
Kiernan tried to smile. She dared not think of the danger.
She thought of her circumstances instead. She and Jesse were married. It was what she had always wanted, it was right. They were about to become parents.
But nothing had changed. If anything, their world was a nightmare. Daniel was lying by her, seriously injured. He might be dead, or he might be dying, and she couldn’t even touch him.
The countryside was combed with troops.
And Jesse was still a Yankee, a bitter enemy.
She closed her eyes as fear swamped over her. They still had hours to go. On the way, Yanks might well threaten Daniel.
And Rebs might well shoot Jesse down before asking any questions.
“Halt!”
Kiernan’s heart began to hammer at the command. Jacob sat across from her. She couldn’t see the road, but Jacob could.
“Reb or Yank?” she mouthed the words. How would she ever bear this? She clenched her fingers together so that they would not tremble. Lucky, lucky Daniel! He was either unconscious or sleeping, unaware of their situation.
“Yank,” Jacob mouthed back.
Jesse was producing his pass, and she heard his easy drone as he talked to the man who had stopped him.
“Sorry, Colonel, we’ve orders to stop everyone,” the man was telling him.
“Good to see you obeying orders, soldier!” Jesse responded. Kiernan heard him pick up the reins again.
Daniel moaned loudly from beneath his cocoon of blankets and covers.
“What’s that?” the soldier demanded.
Kiernan tensed with every inch of her body. What if the soldier insisted on searching the wagon? Jesse might have no choice but to shoot the man. Would he be able to live with himself if he shot down an innocent man?
“What’s what?” Jesse said casually. “My wife is back there with the children and the darkies. My leave is to take her home.”
“It sounded like a man,” the soldier said. “I could have sworn.” He started around the wagon.
“Ohhhhh!” Kiernan cried out, drowning out Daniel’s moan. The young soldier moved around the back and stared into the wagon. She covered her rounded abdomen with her splaying fingers. “Please, sir! We must hurry. Please!”
“Of course! Of course!” The soldier backed away. Jesse flicked the reins, and they were moving again, fast.
Thirty minutes later, she heard Jesse call a soft “Woah” to the horses. The wagon halted beneath huge shade trees, and she heard him leap to the ground. He appeared around the side of the wagon. “Janey, Jacob, Patricia—there’s a stream down the embankment. Get yourselves some water.” He looked at Kiernan, then pulled her to her feet, setting his hands upon her to lift her down beside him. He took her right hand within his own and kissed it softly.
“Whatever you think of me, Kiernan, or ever feel for me, I want you to know this. I will be eternally grateful for this.”
“I love Daniel. He is one of my best friends,” she said softly.
“Yes, I know. And that is why you agreed to the marriage. Not for our child—you would have allowed him or her to have been born a bastard. And not because you love me. Ah, no, you can’t love me, can you? I’m the enemy.” His voice had a bitter sound to it.
“Jesse, what do you want from me?” she cried out softly. “You are the enemy. I don’t know what I think or feel anymore.”
“You’re my wife now. You’ve vowed to love me, Kiernan. Love, honor, and obey, until death do us part.”
“And this war, Jesse. And death could come too quickly.”
“And if it did?” he queried her softly.
She didn’t know what to answer him. They were married, they were having a child together. And they were traveling a countryside that was laden with danger. She wanted to tell him that she loved him. Pride and fear kept her silent.
“I’m just wondering, will you ever be my wife in truth? Will you ever get past the fact that I chose to serve the Union? Or have I now condemned us both?” Cobalt blue and probing, his eyes searched out hers. She still had no answer.
“Never mind, you’ve been brilliant, and I am more grateful than you’ll ever know,” he said with a weary sigh.
Suddenly a pain, deep and cutting and sweeping away her breath, seared into her lower back as they spoke. She almost gasped out loud, but she would not let him know her condition, not at this moment. With sheer will power she kept from crying out.
“We’ve Daniel to worry about,” she said.
“Indeed, we do.”
He turned from her and leapt into the wagon, hunkering down by his brother’s side. He pulled away the covers, touched Daniel’s cheek, and then found the pulse at his throat. Daniel’s eyes flickered open. “How’re you doing?” Jesse asked him huskily.
Daniel nodded, and asked for water. Jesse was prepared, finding a canteen beneath the covering. He let his brother sip the water, then he set the canteen aside. “Let me just see to the bandage,” Jesse said.
Kiernan clamped her teeth shut as she saw the bandage that wound around Daniel’s gut. Red was slowly staining it.
Daniel was pale, but remained conscious. He looked at his brother and grinned. “It’s a dangerous region for a man in blue.”
“He’s right!” Kiernan murmured. “Jesse, you should put on something of Tyne’s—”
“As soon as I take off this uniform. I’m a spy,” Jesse said. “I’ll wear my colors, thank you. Kiernan, get some water so that we can get going. Refill the canteen, please.”
She took it from him as he handed it over, and turned awkwardly and hurried to meet the children by the stream.
When she came back, Jesse lifted her up beside Daniel once again.
“You’ll be all right with him?” Jesse asked her.
“Fine,” she replied briefly. He took his seat in front with Tyne. The reins cracked, and they were moving again.
She thought Daniel was sleeping, his lids were so low. Then he grinned. “I’m going to be an uncle?” he said softly.
“Yes.”
“Did he do the right thing by you?”
“Yes,” Kiernan replied, then lowered her head to speak to him with mock anger. “Thanks to you, Captain! It was the only way to get you out of the Yankee camp. You’d best get well after all this!”
Daniel grinned complacently. “Well, hell. I managed to make Jesse do the right thing after all. You two could have been a little easier on me, though. I had to get gut-shot for you two to tie the knot!”
Kiernan’s quick retort was ready, but they moved over a pothole in the road and Daniel winced. She curled her fingers around his tightly. His eyes closed. Moments later, they opened again.
“Kiernan, your father …”
Her pulse quickened as his voice trailed away. “Daniel?” Her fingers tightened. “Daniel, my father! Have you heard something else?”
His eyes opened, just barely. “No, no, I haven’t heard. But make sure Jesse stops by your place first. I’ll make it. He’s already pulled the bullet out of me, and I’m on the mend.”
“Daniel, you’re bleeding.”
“And I’ll bleed again before it’s over, no doubt. Your place before ours, anyway. We’ll see how John is doing, and we’ll be just fine.”
Torn between her father and Daniel, Kiernan looked across the wagon at Jacob. He shook his head miserably,
having no help to give her. To complicate matters, she felt another searing pain. She stiffened, bracing her hand against her back, and resolved not to alarm the others.
Janey, looking at her, was about to speak. She knew what Kiernan was going through. Kiernan shook her head fiercely, and Janey closed her lips with disapproval.
Kiernan leaned back and felt the breeze bathe her face. The wagon jerked to a halt, and she heard Jesse swearing softly. Jacob, across from her, called out, “Rebs!”
“Jesu!” Kiernan whispered in panic. Their worst nightmare was now upon them.
“Hey, it’s a Yank!” drawled a thick southern voice. “A go’darned Yank! You, Yank! Get out of that wagon. What you got in it?”
Kiernan struggled to look. With alarm, she saw they were surrounded by a party of five Rebs. The one speaking had ridden forward and close and was sneering at Jesse. There were too many of them! Without daring to think, she launched into a reckless speech. “He’s got nothing in it! Nothing but an expecting wife and an injured man! Please, sir, let us pass—”
“Kiernan, shut up!” Jesse demanded furiously. He stood on the seat, one hand lightly on the Colt in the holster by his side, as he looked at the five rough-looking men in gray surrounding the wagon.
She stared at him blankly. “But, Jesse, if they only knew—”
“If they knew,” Jesse informed her flatly, “they’d still be deserters, Kiernan! Now shut up and sit down!”
“Deserters!” the leader of the Rebs said in an irritated cry. “Yank, what are you—out here all alone?” Kiernan shuddered, studying the man. He was unshaven, and his uniform was muddied and dirtied. She suddenly sensed that Jesse was right. The man smiled at her. “Well now, there’s a comely lass for you, even if she is in the family way!” He looked back to Jesse. “She’ll be some lively sport once you’re dead, Yank.”
“Son of a bitch!” Daniel hissed softly at her side.
The Reb grinned and aimed his Enfield rifle at Jesse. But he never had a chance. Jesse moved like lightning with the Colt. Then he spun around and caught the second man in the hand. The third managed to get off a shot that sent the Colt spinning from Jesse’s hand.
Kiernan screamed, but Jesse ignored her, leaping from the wagon with his saber drawn. The third Reb deserter didn’t have a prayer of getting in a second shot with his muzzle-loading Enfield. He turned the weapon to use the bayonet, charging at Jesse. Jesse instantly parried the first blow—and the second, and the third. The two were quickly embroiled in a lethal and deadly dance.
The fourth man, shaking, took aim at Jesse’s back. Kiernan cried out, but a shot rang out from behind her. She spun around. Daniel was up, and he’d fired at the man.
And hit his target clean through the heart.
Then Kiernan saw another man emerge from the trees. She jumped from the wagon, hurrying to find the Colt in the dirt. Her fingers had just closed around it when a booted foot landed hard upon her hand. She looked up to see a man looming over her, laughing. “Come on, boys, get the hell out of here before they shoot us all down!” the man called out. To Kiernan’s horror, three more unshaven and muddied soldiers came crashing out of the trees. Jesse was engaged with two of them, while Daniel fought to keep shooting from the wagon.
“Get up!” the deserter raged at Kiernan. He reached down for her with his hand. She twisted and managed to kick him with all her strength in his groin. He screeched like a banshee, doubling over, then pulled a pistol from his belt and aimed it straight at her.
But he never fired.
His eyes widened, and he swirled about. Kiernan realized that Jesse was behind him, the point of his sword in the man’s back. “Throw it down!” Jesse ordered, indicating the pistol.
The deserter refused. He lifted his arm to shoot Jesse, a cocky grin on his face. But Jesse’s sword waved in the air like silver lightning. The man spun around again. He stared at Kiernan, stunned. A red stain was spreading across his chest. He fell down dead on top of her. She screamed wildly, and Jesse quickly shoved the man’s body aside, reaching for her.
“Jesse!”
She crushed herself against him, her head next to his heart. She felt the pounding of his pulse, the heat of his body, and the tenderness of his hands as he stroked her hair.
“Jesse, get down!” Daniel shouted.
A shot rang out. Kiernan and Jesse spun to see another deserter Reb fall dead to the ground behind them. Jacob had taken the man with Daniel’s service revolver.
Jacob leaped from the wagon and rushed to Kiernan’s side. He led her away from Jesse, who strode off to search out the nearby trees.
“Is it the last of them?” he demanded of his brother.
Pale, Daniel nodded. “I wasn’t a hell of a lot of help,” he said.
“Damned good for an unconscious man,” Jesse told him. Daniel grinned weakly.
Kiernan started toward the wagon, leaning on Jacob, then staggered at the worst pain yet took hold of her. She couldn’t help but cry out.
Jesse swung back, startled by her cry. With his sword still in his hand, he ran to take her from Jacob’s hold and support her weight.
“Kiernan!”
“I’m fine,” she insisted, and started for the wagon. But as she did, a shot rang out from the trees.
Jesse let out an oath, spun around on the dirt road, and fell flat.
Daniel instantly returned the fire, and a man fell out of a tree, stone dead before he hit the ground.
But Kiernan barely noticed him, for her eyes were upon Jesse lying in the dirt, his eyes closed. She threw herself down upon her knees beside him. Blood stained his arm and his chest, where his arm lay flung over it. “Jesse!” Tears running down her cheeks, she lifted his head into her lap, cradling it. “Jesse! Oh, my love! Where are you hit? Jesse, open your eyes! Damn you, Jesse! Just live! I’ll be your wife in truth, I’ll love you, I swear, I’ll love, honor, and obey until death do us part. Oh, Jesse, I do love you. You can’t leave me. Jesse, please, I love you. I love you so very much. I want to be your wife, to love you forever—”
Her words choked off as he opened his eyes and smiled at her. “Really?”
“Really. Jesse, just live!”
“You’ll love me forever?”
“Forever!”
“Swear it?” he whispered huskily.
“I swear it!”
To her astonishment, he sat up. He pulled her into his arms and kissed her, and it was hardly the kiss of a dying man at all. He kissed her in the dusty roadway with fever and passion and tenderness, so much that she nearly returned the urgency of it, nearly forgot where they were.
She jerked away from him, staring at him hard.
He grinned ruefully. “I was only nicked by the bullet. See? It caught my arm here. Just a little bit of blood on my chest—”
“Oh, you blasted Yankee scoundrel!” Kiernan accused him.
His smile broadened. “That’s fine, just as long as I know you’ll love me forever.”
“Jesse!”
“Horses!” Tyne called out.
Jesse leaped to his feet, pulling Kiernan up and pressing her body behind his. Tyne jumped down from the wagon, making a dive for the Colt.
“Tyne! Give it to me! If it’s Rebs, they’ll shoot you for having that weapon.”
“Master Jess, I’m willing to fight for you.”
“No, dammit man, you won’t hang for me!” Jesse snatched the weapon from Tyne. With his sword in one hand and his pistol in the other, he shouted to his brother, “Daniel, get down!”
“No, damn you, Jess, I’ll fight with you too!”
“It’s Rebs!” Jacob cried out. “Look!”
Kiernan looked. Horsemen were coming, Rebel horsemen. They broke upon the road, a bearded cavalry captain with a company of twenty or so.
The bearded man reined in and raised a hand to stop the troops behind him. He saw the gray-clad men on the ground, then looked hard at Jesse.
“Well, Yank, what have we here?” th
e Rebel captain asked. His gaze took in Jesse’s medical insignias—and the weapons he held with such menace.
He dismounted from his horse. Kiernan felt Jesse stiffen, felt his hand tighten around his sword.
“It seems that I have a prisoner, one who might well meet with a firing squad. Who in the hell are you, sir? What in God’s name is a Yank doing in this neck of the woods? Colonel, you are mine!”
“I’m afraid I can’t let you take me, Captain.”
The captain’s brows raised. “Sir? I seem to have the greater number, since you are dealing with a boy, a girl, two darkies, and a lady very far gone with child, it seems. Ma’am, I’ll ask you to move away now.”
Kiernan shook her head fiercely. She tried to step around in front of Jesse to protect him.
“Kiernan!” he thundered, stepping back around her, his sword flashing. “Sir, I repeat, I cannot allow myself to be taken.” He actually grinned a reckless grin. “And I beg to differ with you, sir. I am an extraordinary swordsman, and the boy in the wagon is one of the best shots in the world, I dare say. As to the lady, here, why, she may well be the most dangerous of us all.”
He was teasing her still, Kiernan thought. Tenderly, gallantly teasing, when they could no longer wage battle and win, when the odds against them were overwhelming. He intended to fight these men, until he could fight no longer.
“Wait!” she pleaded.
“Why, it’s Greenbriar!” Daniel’s voice called suddenly, interrupting her. Holding his gut, he had managed to stand up almost straight in the wagon.
The captain spun around. “Cameron!”
“In the flesh,” Daniel grinned. “I’d stand with more ceremony to greet you, Greenbriar, if I could. But I’m in a rather sad position here. And this Yank—who is an extraordinary swordsman, by the way—is my brother, Jesse. He’s also the best surgeon in or out of Virginia. Colonel Jesse Cameron, Captain Nathaniel Greenbriar, Virginia militia.”
Greenbriar stared from Daniel to Jesse, and back to Daniel again. “Captain Cameron—just what is going on here?”
“I was shot up keeping the Yanks out of Richmond. Our troops were gone, and I looked up, and there was Jesse. So he spirited me across the river, and then my sister-in-law here made a timely arrival, and Jesse’s been trying to get me home ever since. Greenbriar, it isn’t a spying mission, I swear it. He’s trying to take me home. You can’t take a man in for that!”
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