When the dance was over, he was halfway through a story that amused her, so she allowed him to take her to the refreshment table. Then, drinks in hand, they moved to the section of the dance floor set apart for talk.
They sat out two dances, so amused by his conversation, and the third was just beginning when they were interrupted.
“I believe this is our dance, Belinda?”
“Oh dear!” Belinda rose at once, flustered. “I’m so sorry, Chad! I forgot.” She looked at the two men, then said, “Chad, this is—”
“I know Mr. Rocklin,” Barnes broke in stiffly. His nod toward Burke was brief, and he held his hand out to Belinda. “Shall we dance?”
“Yes, of course.” Belinda smiled at Burke. “I’ll see you later, Mr. Rocklin.”
“Yes, you will, Miss King!”
As Barnes swept Belinda King out onto the crowded floor, she said, “You were rude to the gentleman, Chad.”
“Burke Rocklin is no gentleman, Belinda!”
“Oh? He looks like a gentleman.”
It was at this point that Chad Barnes made his big mistake. If he had shrugged off her questions, Belinda probably would have let the matter alone, but Barnes was a demanding man, accustomed to having his own way. “Belinda,” he said sternly, “he’s no good! I forbid you to dance with him or to have anything to do with him!”
Demanding, Chad Barnes was. Prudent, he was not. Immediately he saw that he had made his demands at the wrong place, at the wrong time, and to the wrong woman. Belinda’s face darkened with fury, and she stared at him, saying in a cold voice, “I beg your pardon, Mister Barnes, but I will see anyone I please! You’re not my father to forbid me from doing anything!”
Quickly Chad tried to regain control of the situation. He softened his voice to sound concerned. “But—he’s no good, Belinda! And you have your reputation to think of.”
How many young girls have heard those words: “He’s no good”? And how many have been swayed by them? Forbidden fruit always looks more delicious than the ordinary, easily available variety. Cap that with the suggestion that one’s reputation could be so easily destroyed merely by association with one tall, handsome, undeniably charming man…
“I will thank you, sir, to tend to your own affairs,” Belinda remarked stiffly as the dance came to an end. “And I will attend to mine.” Her words were timed perfectly, so that she pulled away from Barnes just as the music ended, and no one around them was aware anything was amiss. No one except Barnes, Belinda…and Burke Rocklin, who had watched the whole thing with increasing amusement and satisfaction. He’d been almost sure Barnes would try something heavy-handed, such as forbidding the girl from seeing him. Burke smiled. If he had judged Belinda King correctly, he was certain that the one way to ensure she would pursue a man was to forbid her from being near him!
Apparently that was the case, for Belinda made it her business to dance with Burke Rocklin twice more, and when Barnes objected, she was so incensed that she agreed to go for a carriage ride with Rocklin the following afternoon.
“I don’t know how you do it, Burke,” Loren Delchamp sighed as the pair arrived at the Majestic after the ball. “But you never miss with a woman.”
Burke knew that the campaign had just begun, but he was content with it so far. “Tell me about the girl’s family, Loren,” he insisted. Loren loved to talk, so for the next hour he told Burke all he knew and all he’d heard about Belinda’s parents. When the two parted, Burke knew how to handle Mr. and Mrs. King. Neither of them would welcome a penniless son-in-law, but there were ways to conceal that fact. The one thing in Burke’s favor was that Cyrus King was a self-made man. He’d been a fatherless boy and had pulled himself up by his bootstraps. Now that he had money, he wanted prestige. Both he and his wife wanted a marriage for their daughter that would pull them up in the social world of Virginia.
And there was Burke’s chance. The Rocklins were not the Lees or the Hugers, but they were high in that world. Still, other young men, such as Chad Barnes, had both a good family and money. Burke frowned momentarily.
My only chance is to dazzle the girl, he thought. She’s spoiled rotten, I’d suppose, and if she chooses me, she’ll have me or drive her people crazy.
He smiled as he crawled into bed. “Well then, Burke, old boy, your duty is clear. You’ve got to make her fall for you!”
By the end of the third week of his courtship, Burke knew that he was in danger of losing it all. He’d pursued Belinda using every trick he knew, and she was swayed by it. But he was coming perilously close to the end of his funds, and she still was not willing to choose him.
It all came down to the fact that he was not in uniform.
Burke saw at once that Belinda was caught in the war fever that held Richmond. Everything centered around the war, and any able-bodied young man not wearing a uniform was suspect.
Belinda had inquired more than once as to his plans regarding enlistment, but her comments had assumed that he would serve sooner or later. “Which branch do you think you’ll choose, Burke?” That was her way of putting it, and Burke was too wily to say that he had no intention of serving in any branch! Rather, he would simply sidestep the issue.
Finally a crisis came when Chad Barnes enlisted as an officer in the cavalry. He made a splendid picture in his new uniform, and Burke could sense Belinda slipping away from him.
Got to find an answer or I’m a dead duck! he thought desperately. But though he searched for a way to gain the woman, nothing seemed to work.
He was almost ready to admit defeat on the day that he accompanied Belinda to a tea held at her parents’ home. When he arrived, he saw nothing but uniforms and was filled with despair. He moved around the room with Belinda, feeling very much out of the whole thing.
Suddenly Belinda whispered, “Look, Burke! There’s General Lee!”
Burke looked across the room and was favorably impressed with General Lee. A fine-looking man, Lee wore only the simplest of uniforms. Belinda drew Burke with her as she pressed closer to hear what the general was saying.
“Yes, there will be other battles, sir, but I trust we’ll be able to move out and meet the enemy a little farther away from Richmond than in the last battle.”
Someone asked Lee what he needed most in the way of soldiers, and he mentioned several needs, then added thoughtfully, “It may sound strange, but in my thinking, we need engineers worse than anything else. Of course, being an engineer myself, I may be biased.”
Burke was seized by a sudden thought, and he spoke up almost without thinking. “Pardon me, General Lee. My name is Burke Rocklin. I’m an engineer myself, but I wasn’t aware that the need for one with my skills was so great.”
At once Lee asked about his training, and after listening carefully as Burke mentioned his background, his eyes grew brighter. “Why, you could be a great help, Mr. Rocklin!” he exclaimed. “As a matter of fact, I could use you on my own staff for the next three or four months.”
Instantly Burke said, “I’d count it an honor to serve under you, General Lee. Would it be possible for me to serve a short term that would give me time to prove myself?”
“Certainly, Mr. Rocklin,” Lee said, nodding. He turned to the officer standing beside him. “Major Turner, would you go into this with Mr. Rocklin? I think we could brevet him as a first lieutenant for three months. By the end of that time, we’ll know a little more about his place with our staff.”
“Of course, General Lee.”
“Thank you, General,” Burke said. “I’ll serve the Cause as best I can.”
“No man can do more than that, Mr. Rocklin,” Lee said with a smile.
Belinda was beside herself with happiness. When she got Burke to one side, she suddenly reached up and kissed him. “Oh, I’m so proud of you, Burke! And to serve on General Lee’s staff!”
“It comes as quite a shock,” Burke said slowly. He’d jumped into the thing on impulse but now was wondering if he’d done the smart thing.
Then he looked at Belinda beaming up at him and thought, It’s only for three months—and engineers don’t fight in battles. He held Belinda close and said, “A man needs a woman when he goes off to war, sweetheart.”
“Does he, Burke?”
“Yes!” He kissed her then, and her response told him clearly that she was his. “I love you, Belinda,” he whispered. “I want more than anything else to marry you. Will you have me?”
“Oh, Burke—yes! I’ll marry you!” She kissed him again, then said, “Come on, we have to tell my parents!”
That evening when Burke went back to the hotel, he was an engaged man. Belinda’s parents were taken aback, but agreed to an engagement. They had insisted that the couple wait until Burke’s short-term service was up, and Burke had nodded solemnly. “Yes, sir, that would be wise, and I thank you for your counsel.”
Loren Delchamp was filled with admiration. “By George, you pulled it off!” he exclaimed jubilantly. “I knew you could do it! Now your worries are over. Her father’s got enough money to burn a wet mule!”
Loren’s reaction came as no surprise to Burke. Clay’s reaction, on the other hand, was not what he expected.
“You’ll be miserable, Burke!” Clay said when Burke told him the news. “You don’t love her, and she’s only infatuated with you. That’s not enough for a happy marriage.”
“It’s enough for me, Clay,” Burke shot back angrily. “Mother and Father don’t have any objections, so why should you?”
“They don’t know why you’re marrying the girl,” Clay responded. “Tell them the truth and then see how they react.”
Burke grew angrier, but Clay held his ground. “You’re making a mistake about the marriage and about the army. I know you don’t have any patriotism. You don’t belong in either one!”
“I’ve got as much patriotism as you, brother!” Burke said at once. “You’ve said this war was a mistake from the first, yet here you stand, a lieutenant in the army.”
“And I’ll stay in the army until it’s over,” Clay said. “When I joined, I did so with every intention of serving to the best of my ability. You only joined to impress Belinda King. After your three months are done, you’ll marry her and never serve another day.”
The truth of this stung Burke, and he said angrily, “Well, you can keep out of it, Clay. I’m marrying Belinda, and that’s final!”
Clay watched his brother storm away, wishing he could talk to his parents about the whole mess. But he knew he could not tell them any of this. Instead he shared it with Melora. “He’s going to make the biggest mistake in his whole life,” he said to her. She had come to spend the day with Rena, and Clay had taken her to one side to talk.
Melora listened quietly, then shook her head. “You can’t do any more, Clay,” she said. “Burke has got his mind made up. But we must pray for him. A great deal can happen in three months. Let’s join in prayer and ask God to keep Burke from going wrong.”
“All right,” Clay said heavily. He came up with a smile, saying, “I always bring all my troubles to you, Melora.”
She reached up and touched his face gently, saying, “Who else would you take them to, Clay?”
CHAPTER 8
THE BATTLE
The first three weeks of Burke Rocklin’s military career were splendid. He invested the last of his cash in a dashing uniform and escorted Belinda King to one social event after another. They became the most admired couple on the Richmond social scene, and despite the fact that Burke had never even smelled the smoke of battle, great things were predicted for him.
His military duties were not difficult. He reported each morning to headquarters, where he sat in on meetings with his commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Jeremy Gilmer, Lee’s chief of engineers. They were a small group, and Burke found himself well able to keep up with the few tasks that came his way. Colonel Gilmer, a hard-driving man of forty, was amiable enough, but demanding. He spent some time with Burke, sounding out his ability, and seemed satisfied. “We’ll have need of you in the field soon enough, Lieutenant Rocklin.” He nodded. He’d kept Burke after the main meeting to go over some figures with him, and the two of them were now having coffee in the small office.
“When do you expect the action to begin, Colonel?” Burke asked. He had hopes that it might be several months, but was disappointed to hear Gilmer’s reply.
“Oh, those Bluebellies haven’t given up on taking Richmond,” he said with a shrug. “Lincoln has gotten pretty sick of McClellan, so he’s replaced him with another commander.” He sipped his coffee and shook his head. “Fellow called John Pope. General Lee can’t stand the man. As a matter of fact, he’s the only man I’ve ever heard Lee speak against publicly.”
“Why is that, I wonder?”
“Oh, the man’s a braggart, and you know how modest General Lee is. Pope made a windbag of a speech to his troops when Lincoln appointed him. Said things like, ‘I come to you from the West, where we have always seen the backs of our enemies, and I presume I’ve been sent here to teach you how to soldier.’ You can imagine how that went over with his men! Then he told a reporter his headquarters would be in his saddle.” Gilmer suddenly hooted with laughter, adding, “General Lee said the man didn’t know his headquarters from his hindquarters.”
Burke joined in the laughter, saying, “Man sounds like a fool.”
“I hope so, Lieutenant,” Gilmer said, nodding fervently. “We need every bit of help we can get, and it would be nice to have a fool in charge of the Army of the Potomac.”
“Maybe they’ll give up and go home,” Burke mused. “They lost a lot of men in the Seven Days’.”
“So did we,” Gilmer answered. “Half the houses in Richmond have wounded men in them from that battle. Can’t build hospitals fast enough to take care of our own men, and we have a host of wounded Federals, as well.” He drank the last of his coffee and shrugged. “I expect we’ll be busy pretty soon. General Lee’s plotting something. He won’t let Pope come any closer to Richmond than he has to. So don’t wander off too far. You may be needed pretty urgently.”
“Yes, sir,” Burke said with a nod. He saluted and left the office. All day he worked on maps that showed the area around Richmond; then at five o’clock he left and went to meet Belinda. The Kings lived in a large brick house on the outskirts of Richmond, and Belinda’s father was at home when Burke arrived.
“Glad to see you, Burke,” Cyrus King said, greeting him with a handshake. “Come in, come in, and let’s have a talk while that girl of mine gets ready.”
Burke followed King into an opulent library, where he was offered wine and a cigar, which he accepted. “Now tell me about what’s going on in this war, my boy,” the older man said, settling himself in a large chair as Burke spoke of the War Department’s strategy. King listened avidly and was rather irritated when Belinda entered. “I never have any time with this young man,” he grumbled. “Where are you hauling him off to now?”
“We’re going to an engagement party, Father,” Belinda smiled. She was wearing a beautiful dress made of pink silk with light blue ribbons on the bodice. Her fine blond hair hung down over her shoulders, and she looked very pretty indeed. “It’s Mary Lou Allen and Luke Hoakly. We’ll be late, I think.”
“You always are,” her father grumbled as she kissed him. “Come and see me sometime when we can talk longer, Burke.”
“Yes, sir, I’ll do that.”
When they were in the carriage, Burke said thoughtfully, “I like your father very much, and your mother, as well.”
“I’m glad, Burke,” Belinda said with a smile. “They’re very fond of you.”
“Funny, I’ve heard so many stories about in-laws that I’ve always dreaded the thought of them.” He put his arm around her and drew her close. “Now I’m getting the most beautiful girl in the world and a set of nice in-laws in the bargain!” He kissed her, and she clung to him. “I wish we could get married now, before I have to leave,” he whispered. Sh
e was a beautiful girl, and though she was spoiled, Burke was surprised to realize that he’d become fond of her. He wanted nothing to go wrong with his plans and wished she’d agree to marry him at once.
“No, we can’t do that, much as I’d like to, Burke,” Belinda answered. “Three months isn’t too long to wait, and it’s all my parents asked of you.”
“I know, but I love you so much it’s hard to wait!”
Burke had told other women he loved them, but not once had it been the truth. Nor was it the truth this time. Now as the carriage moved down the streets and he held Belinda tightly in his arms, he wondered about himself. Have I become an utter scoundrel? This girl loves me—or thinks she does. But I don’t love her, probably never will love any woman. He glanced at her and felt a sudden stab of remorse. She’ll never have to know I don’t really love her. I’m a pretty good actor. Still, she’s not getting much in the way of a husband. I guess some men just aren’t capable of real love—and I’m one of those unlucky fellows!
They arrived at the house, went inside, and enjoyed the party. The house was filled with young people, soldiers, and pretty girls. The only distraction was a clash Burke had with Chad Barnes. It came late in the evening, just as Burke and Belinda were preparing to leave, and it caught them both off guard.
Earlier, Barnes had come across the floor to confront the pair, and it was obvious that he was angry. He tried to conceal it, but Burke had learned enough about men to recognize the small signs. He’s spoiling for trouble, Burke thought and was on his guard instantly.
Barnes was a big man, as tall as Burke and much heavier. He had a blunt, ruddy face and a pair of light blue eyes that dominated his face. Almost at once he began making remarks that verged on insult, but Burke was determined to ignore the man. He was rather proud of himself and said so to Belinda when he got her alone.
Appomattox Saga Omnibus 2: Three Books In One (Appomatox Saga) Page 41