by Forest,Lynn
While Emily sat solemnly listening, Charles gestured to the field full of tents enclosed by a fence. “What do you have going on here, Captain?”
“Prisoners, Sir. Wish this war would end so we could get rid of them and send them home. We have more lice and rats…”
Charles reached over and placed his hand on Emily’s shoulder. “Got room for one more prisoner?” She slapped his hand away and turned to face the opposite direction. “Tell me, Captain. I seem to be without any weapons, could you help me out with that?” Charles gestured toward Emily with his thumb and laughed.
The captain nodded. “Of course, Major. And, how would you and your, friend, like to have some cornbread and beans?” Suddenly Emily spun back around, wincing all the time, but nodding in unison with Charles at the offer of a meal.
The Captain led them to a hitching post where grain and water were waiting for all three of the horses, and then Charles walked around to the side of the wagon and gestured to Emily that he wished to help her down. Reluctantly, she closed her eyes and allowed him to grasp her at the waist and place her on the ground.
Taking a few steps toward the mess tent, the Captain turned toward Charles and smiled, then glanced at the petite woman next to him. “Sure you don’t want us to find a stockade cell for her, Major?”
Charles stopped for a moment, and then looked teasingly at Emily. “Perhaps you have a whipping post here?” Emily turned toward him and looked up with fury in her eyes
The Captain rubbed his chin for a moment. “Not at this moment, but it wouldn’t take long to put up one that short in the assembly ground.”
Emily once again crossed her arms and turned away, but muttered loud enough for each of the men to hear, “Thank you for the offer, Captain, but I think I have already had enough flogging experience for the day.” Understanding her answer, the captain laughed and gestured for them to enter the tent and pick up plates to take to where the cooks stood dishing out the welcome fare. And although she was very eager to enjoy some hot food, Emily still winced when she sat down on the wooden bench, and her face turned dark red when she realized that the Captain fully comprehended how she had begun her day.
Emily did not care much for the dried beef and crackers that Charles had packed away in his saddlebags, so as the men chatted she had her fill of the cornbread and beans. As he glanced over at her from time to time and saw how famished she must have been, Charles hoped that having such a meal would put her in a better mood and encourage some better behavior.
They spent another hour at the camp, resting themselves and the horses, and Charles had a telegram sent to Emily’s aunt and uncle telling them that she had been found and was in his company. Both of them found some comfort in seeing a couple of hundred Union soldiers milling about the grounds. When they were preparing to leave, the Captain escorted Charles and Emily to the supply depot, one of the few actual buildings on the grounds. Charles was given a new Henry rifle and a box of ammunition, as well as a new revolver.
But just as they were seated upon the wagon to resume their trip, a rider came into the encampment at a full gallop, then brought his horse to a halt when he saw the Captain. Charles watched as the officer and the Corporal engaged in a lively conversation, before the captain came walking back over to their wagon. “Major, there’s been another engagement about an hour up the road. Please be careful. We’re going to send a couple more patrols out, but be on the watch.” The Captain snapped a smart salute to Charles, and the wagon headed slowly out onto the road.
They had not traveled thirty feet when Charles brought the wagon to a halt and turned to face Emily, “This revolver is going to be right on the seat where I can get to it right away. And that rifle is going to stay right behind the seat, right where I know where it’s at. And if I sense trouble, I may even ask you to hold the rifle.” Emily opened her mouth to protest, but Charles’ hand immediately covered it. “And if you do one more thing to sabotage my ability to protect you, I am going to cut a switch and stripe your backside so hard and so many times that you’ll lay on your stomach on the wagon bed the rest of the way home.
“Now, I’m not going to ask you if you understand clearly, because I don’t mistake stubbornness for lack of comprehension. You have been warned, young lady, and I don’t think that I’ve given you any reason to believe that I don’t mean what I just said.” He clicked his tongue loudly and gave the reins a shake, and they were once again on their way.
Suddenly, everything was closing in on Emily. She was still rattled by hearing about the slain farmers, and she was definitely convinced that should she cross the soldier again, he would wear out a switch on her bare backside. She was stunned that, as a twenty-year-old woman, she had been seriously spanked on consecutive days. And to think that that was the manner in which he had completed her rescue from soldiers who intended to torture her with a branding iron.
Once again, the view of open fields gave way to tall trees lining the road, blocking out the sunlight and providing too much wooded cover for anyone lurking in wait. He simply did not like the looks of the terrain, for the prospect of spending the night, in the middle of such dense forest where there were once again few other travelers.
He had hoped to travel farther on this day, and then make it to the Ohio River crossing by early evening on the next. But his orders were to get Miss Emily McMannus home safely, not as quickly as possible. And just as he had spotted the possible place they could pull off several hundred yards ahead, the air was suddenly filled with the sounds of gunfire that seemed to be coming from the direction in which they were headed.
His horse tied to the back of the wagon was used to the sounds. But the horses pulling the wagon had likely been safely put away in the McMannus stable during the battle raging around inside Cynthiana. They began to whine and buck, and it took nearly all of his strength to hold the reins and keep them under control.
Suddenly, there were additional sounds of gunfire coming from the woods on their left, and through a break in the trees, Charles could see several mounted Union Cavalry troops firing into a dense part of the woods. Even though the fighting ahead of them was close enough he could see Union troops dismounting, kneeling and firing their rifles, he decided to still head for what appeared to be possible refuge ahead on the right. As the wagon clattered down the rough and rugged dirt road, he picked up his revolver from the seat next to him and pulled back the hammer and cocked it.
Hoping that the small clearing would be as inviting up close as it looked from the distance, he called to the horses to go faster, then veered into the opening that turned out to be smaller than he had hoped, then gave a quick tug on the reins and shouted “Whooaa” as Emily nearly fell off the wagon in the midst of the frantic movements.
He did not have to bother telling Emily to get off the wagon quickly and take cover beneath it. She was already there while he was still in the process of pulling his rifle off the wagon from behind the seat. With the rifle in his right hand and the revolver in his left, he crept out toward the road, and to Emily's horror, there were suddenly three men in tattered gray uniforms alongside of the road across from them, not more than forty feet away.
Charles did not want to engage them, as much as he wanted to help his fellow Union soldiers, for to do so would put Emily in more danger. But one of the Rebels happened to see the tall grass moving as Charles crept forward, and he fired in their direction. Emily had already placed her hands over her own mouth to keep from screaming, and when the bullet struck the wagon sending splinters of wood to the ground, she pressed her face down in the grass and squeezed her eyes shut and put her hands over her ears.
The fighting was moving toward where Charles and Emily had taken shelter. Charles took aim at one of the soldiers who was pointing his rifle in their direction and fired first, then immediately worked the lever on his rifle to have the next shot ready. At the same time, beneath the wagon, Emily was terrified by the constant staccato sounds of gunfire, the concussion from whe
n Charles had fired his rifle so close by, and the same acrid smell of gunpowder that had drifted into the cellar of their Cynthiana home while the battle there raged just a couple of blocks away.
She turned to look toward Charles, her stomach suddenly churning with fear as she saw him creeping backward toward the wagon as two bullets tore up the grass and sent chunks of soil flying on either side of him. And then the gunfire all around them seem to double in its intensity, and Emily began frantically looking around as the sounds of gunshots and threatening voices seemed to come from every direction. And it was just dark enough now that she could see muzzle flashes in every direction.
It seemed like it was just in an instant when the shots and frantic voices were almost upon them. She did not realize that Charles had retreated to the point that he was next to her, then suddenly on top of her like a protective blanket. Then to her horror, he handed her the revolver, gripped her fingers tightly around it and looked her directly in the eyes and nodded to her reassuringly.
He moved off her, then once again knelt and fired his rifle at someone Emily could not see. He moved forward in the woods several feet, and then ducked down as a musket ball tore the bark off the tree just above his head. Then it became absolute bedlam. Charles remained crouching just a few feet away from where Emily sat frozen in fear beside the back wheel of the wagon. She began to hyperventilate and she nearly lost consciousness, kept alert only by her fear in the sounds blasting in her ears.
Charles and Emily were both startled when four Union soldiers ran right past them and into the woods toward where Charles had last fired his rifle. And then to Emily's abject horror, she watched as the four soldiers fell back because of an intense volley of enemy fire, and she screamed when one of them fell just a few feet away from her, the front of his skull split open, his mouth and eyes open in the moment of his death. Several more Union soldiers charged across the road firing into the same part of the forest, joined by the three survivors of the previous attack.
Even though Emily had a hard time taking her eyes off the fallen soldier, she could clearly see that the direction of the fire was changing. That was when she heard the familiar sound of the bugler trumpeting the cavalry charge. There was also a deafening increase in the number of rounds being fired. She could suddenly see that the muzzle flashes that were followed a split-second later by a thunderous roar were now in a circle around a concentration of flashes grouped closely together and firing out in all directions.
She heard men screaming and horses crying out and, all of a sudden, she looked up and saw a large man wearing a gray Confederate hat but no other marks of the uniform backing up toward the wagon. She looked frantically toward Charles, but he was firing toward a sniper in the trees nearby, and in any case the sound was too earsplitting for him to have heard her calling for help. The marauder turned around, desperate to take shelter himself and escape the withering Union fire that had now killed most of his companions. Whether he was intent on revenge, or taking a hostage to bargain for his own safety or simply because he wanted to do harm to another innocent, he knelt once and fired back toward the Union troops, then raced directly toward Emily. His large hand and long arm was reaching down toward her to scoop her up, but she squeezed her eyes shut and pulled the trigger. A moment later, Charles was back at her side, pulling the bulk of the dead man off the sobbing, blood covered young woman.
He watched, with no sympathy, as the stunned dying man reached with both hands to cover the gurgling and foaming hole in his chest, until just a few more seconds passed and he was still. There was now little fire coming from where the encircled Rebels had been trapped, and when two more emerged in retreat, two final blasts from Charles' rifle brought silence to the evening.
The pursuing Union soldiers searched the woods as Charles held the sobbing Emily to his chest, and as more than fifty of his comrades searched to ensure that all threats had been eliminated, Charles finally felt that the worst was over.
It was welcome news to Charles to find out that the contingent of Union soldiers had orders to go farther north during the night to subdue any other threats along that stretch of the road so that residents of the northern part of Kentucky would be free to go about their business.
As word of the large group of marauders meeting such a fate would spread through the territory, it would be unlikely that any similar bands would spring up. The show of force would take them closer to the Ohio River during the night, then present an impressive sense of control when they went back to their encampment in the daylight.
They traveled on into the night, the welcome smells of fireplaces and lights of lanterns glowing in the distance buoyed his spirit each time they passed a settlement. As for Emily, she was in the back of the wagon, wrapped inside blankets and resting her head on some of her clothing that had been rolled into a pillow. To help her sleep and calm down from the trauma, a Union Lieutenant had shared with her some of the contents of his flask.
The young woman, who never before had tasted alcohol, quickly succumbed to its effects. It was daybreak when the Union patrols turned around to go back to their encampment. Charles looked at his map to see that there were occasional settlements now all the way to the river and the barges that would take both of them back to their native Ohio. As he saluted his comrades and waved to them as they rode away to the south, he looked back to see that Emily was starting to stir for the first time in over ten hours. Wanting her to get more sleep, he kept the horses at a slow pace as they inched northward. He would take his time and give her more time to recover, even if that meant that they would not arrive at her home until later than he had planned the following day.
He glanced back at her a little while later, and saw that she was once again fast asleep. That was when he began questioning whether it was really necessary to put off her homecoming until the following day, or whether he just wanted to delay saying goodbye to her. The latter seemed illogical to him because she certainly and mightily disliked him. And while he could not say that he really liked her at all, he did indeed find her intriguing.
He smiled to himself when he pulled off the road an hour later so that he could pull up next to a small river so that the horses could drink and rest. Although throughout the morning he had met a few other travelers, he saw few people other than those who were out and about in a couple of small villages he passed. He pulled the wagon along the bank of the river, then as a precaution grabbed his rifle and got down and tied the horses and began to walk around to ensure that they were alone and safe.
His attention was captured by the ruins of a burned lumber mill on the other bank, and the odor indicated to him that it had probably been a recent target of the marauders. Glancing back and forth at the wagon, he scouted along the bank for a few hundred feet, then had to fight the temptation to strip off his clothes and wash away the grime and dust and scent of gunpowder.
That was when he heard Emily scream, and with his rifle held at the ready, ran as fast as he could up the bank. But he did not find her in the clutches of any abductors; she was standing in the bed of the wagon, screaming and tearing at her blood soaked clothing. He ran to the wagon, tossed his gun to the ground and took her by the waist and lifted her off to sit her on the ground and wrap his arms around her and hold her closely to settle her down.
She was sobbing out of control. “I… I… I didn't remember what had happened… I saw my dress… I started to remember what happened and I can't get it out of my mind now.” He continued to hold her tightly, but she continued to sob for a long time, even when he sat her down on the ground with him while he rocked her back and forth on his lap. When she finally settled down, he spoke to her softly, “Let me bury these clothes so you never have to see them again. Down by the river there is a set of shrubs more than big enough for you to change clothes, out of sight of anyone who may come down the road.” Her sobbing was over, and her breathing was slowing back to normal.
“I think I will. And if it's okay with you, I think I m
ight wash off again in the river.” Charles nodded, and without even meaning to, he leaned down and kissed her on the forehead. “Actually, I would like to do the same. I mean, I promise I won't look. I guess we can both bathe without looking at each other.” She nodded her head slowly and leaned against his chest once again. “I think that would be fine. I think that would help settle me down if I just knew that you were close by… even if we aren't looking at each other. And I promise I won't look either.” Then she glanced up at him with a look of slight annoyance. ‘Actually, you've already seen quite a bit of me. But let's go do this.”
Charles stood, lifting her up effortlessly and placing her to stand next to him. “The riverbed appears to be mainly stones, so it should be real nice… not muddy so that your feet will sink in.” They both turned to the wagon bed where each of them had spare clothing stored, and Charles gestured for her to go ahead.
He reached into the wagon and found the compact shovel he always carried attached to his saddle. “I promise you I will bury those bloody clothes, and in a couple of minutes I’ll come down by the river and get them, then when I'm done I'll join you.”
Emily bit her lower lip, and reached out and stroked his cheek and whispered something to him that he could not understand before she turned slowly and walked down toward the river. While waiting to be sure that she had enough time to take off her clothes and have them ready for him to retrieve them, he went ahead and dug a hole, then slowly walked down toward the bank.
He was stunned to see how gracefully she swam. The water was clear, and he could see her naked form as she swam on her back, her eyes closed and oblivious to his presence. He scampered back up the hill several steps, then made it a point to step on and loudly break the thick stems on a couple of shrubs, and by the time he again came out in the open, she had flipped over but he could still see her form from the back.