“Yes.”
“I can’t build a fire. It could too easily be seen by night,” he told her. She nodded, understanding. “You must be very hungry.” She shrugged. Hungry? She was famished.
“You must be hungry too.”
He grinned. “I’m accustomed to hunger. I barely hear the growls or feel the claws anymore.” He watched her in the fading light. “I can’t light a fire by night. In the morning, we’ll snare a rabbit or catch some fish. We’ll—we’ll rest a few hours.”
Callie nodded and turned away from him. He passed her by, striding to the horse. “We’ll sleep on the other side of the river, over there. There’s a feeder creek for water,” he told her.
Callie didn’t answer. She followed along with him. Daniel left the road behind, leading the horse deep into the trees and down by the creek bed. Jared was starting to cry. She held back as Daniel led the horse onward to drink from the creek.
Finding a tall oak, Callie sat down before it, loosed the buttons of her bodice, and swept her shawl around herself and the baby as he nursed. She felt the familiar tug of his tiny mouth against her breast and closed her eyes, still so grateful for him. Nothing, no horror or war, no comment or fury from Daniel or anyone else, could change the fact that Jared was beautiful, a true gift from God.
The Lord did move in mysterious ways. Helga had assured her that it was so.
She opened her eyes and jumped. Daniel was back, standing before her. He was caught in shadow, and she could see nothing of his face. All she could see was his silhouette, the tall cavalier in his high black books, his frock coat a cape over broad shoulders, his sweeping plume jaunty against the night.
He watched her.
But then he turned away and spoke to her over his shoulder. “The blanket is laid out over here. Get some sleep so that we can rise early.”
He walked away from her. Hungry, weary, and very sore, Callie decided that there was little else for her to do. She held the baby over her shoulder, waiting for little burps, and then she rose and walked over to the blanket.
Daniel was still standing there, looking out over the creek. “What is it?”
“Someone is near,” he said. He pointed in the darkness. Callie strained her eyes. She could see the flicker of a camp fire.
“Who—”
“I don’t know. Fires don’t wear colors,” he told her. “Go to sleep. We’re safe enough here for the night.”
“But you—”
“Damn it, Callie, I’m staying up awhile. Take the baby and go to sleep.”
She spun around and took the baby and laid down with him by the tree. But she didn’t sleep. She lay there, awake and waiting.
Finally, when it seemed that hours had passed, she dozed off. She woke, time and again, shivering.
Then she slept soundly. She awoke again because Jared was beginning to fuss.
Daniel was with her at last. The warmth of his body had entered into hers, and that was why she had slept so easily.
She kept her back to him while she fed the baby. She kissed Jared’s forehead, pleased that he had slipped back to sleep with his little mouth still moving.
She slipped back to sleep herself.
When she awoke in the morning, she was alone. She looked around and saw that Daniel had gathered the makings for a fire, but it seemed that he was waiting to build it.
Perhaps he was off finding something to eat. She hoped so. The pain in her stomach was sharp and cruel now.
Jared made a gurgling sound, and she glanced at him, smiling as she laid him down on the blanket. She whispered silly words to him, rubbing his tiny nose with her own, watching his smile spread across his face. His arms and legs wiggled and flailed and she laughed. He started to stare at something above her and she realized that he was fascinated with the leaves on the trees. Smiling, she left him and hurried to the water. She was desperately thirsty.
She leaned down and buried her face in the cool creek. The water was cold in the early morning, but it was delicious. She raised her face, and opened her bodice to splash the cool water against her chest. She drenched her gown, but it didn’t matter. The sun was going to rise hot and high, and it would dry her.
She reached into the water again, and then she paused.
She could hear movement across the creek.
Frozen, she watched as men began to move toward the river. There were at least ten of them, and all in Federal blue uniforms. Yankees. Her own side.
Her heart seemed to freeze.
She stood quickly, trying to back away from the creek in absolute silence.
She backed against something and almost screamed out loud. She felt hands on her shoulders, spinning her around.
Daniel was back. He held a finger to his lips. His eyes held all manner of warning. “Don’t scream, Callie.”
“I wasn’t going to scream!” she whispered back furiously. “I was going to warn you!”
She didn’t know if he believed her or not. His eyes were cobalt arid entirely enigmatic.
They heard voices carrying across the creek, and Daniel pressed on her shoulders, pulling her down low on her knees beside him.
“She can’t have gone too far. The old man said that she was traveling with a baby. That will cost our Reb friend some mean time,”
Callie’s eyes widened with dismay and disbelief as she stared across the creek.
It was Eric Dabney again. He’d stripped off his uniform shirt and was in the creek in his blue breeches, underwear shirt, and suspenders, and he was talking to the man beside him.
“Lieutenant Colonel Dabney, sir!” a soldier called out from the bank. “There’s the remains of a camp fire to our immediate east, sir!”
“Lieutenant Colonel,” Daniel murmured bitterly into Callie’s ear. “So he did receive a promotion out of me.” He turned to Callie and stared at her. “And you,” he added softly.
She wanted to shout at him, to strike him, to hurt him in some way.
It wasn’t the time.
“I think there are about twenty of them,” she warned him quietly.
“Yes, I reckon you’re right,” he agreed. He was still staring hard at her. “And you didn’t know anything about them. Or him. And you didn’t leave a message with the old folks, your Dunkard friends, when we left?”
Callie gaped at him, incredulous. Her jaw snapped shut with fury. “I could have screamed right now, you fool!” she hissed. “I could have brought every single one of them down upon you—”
“Except that I’m armed now, right, Callie?”
She wrenched free from his touch. To her amazement, he let her go. “You are incredible!” she stammered. “There are twenty of them. One of you.”
“Those are the odds we Rebs always did pride ourselves on.”
She shook her head furiously. She was so mad she wanted to spit.
She was also afraid. What was he planning on doing?
“Ten to one, Colonel. I’ve heard all the boasts. The Rebs always claim that one of them is worth ten Yanks. Not twenty.” She grit her teeth, still staring at him incredulously. “Do you have a death wish, Cameron?” She demanded harshly.
He smiled, reached for her, and jerked her close to him so that they were hunched down on the creek bank on their knees. His eyes seemed to sear into hers like the heated steel of a sword. His arms were hot, the length of his body was hot, electric, tense, and poised for battle.
“And you’re innocent this time, right, Callie? You really haven’t seen this Eric Dabney in all this time. He just happened along here today?”
Callie grit her teeth. Obviously, Eric hadn’t just “happened” by. He must have gone by the farm. And he must have found Rudy and Helga, and maybe Rudy had thought it in Callie’s best interest to say something.
She tried to keep her chin high. “Innocent of guilty, I am condemned in your eyes,” she said bitterly.
“You’re so treacherous, Callie, and so beautiful,” he said softly, and she was startled when he
stroked her cheek. “Perhaps you could not be the one without the other.”
“I had nothing to do with this!” she insisted.
His reply was a grunt; his eyes were on the Yankees across the creek.
“Would you stop it!” she hissed to him. “I could scream right now if I chose to do so.”
Instantly, his eyes were back upon her. Speculative, sharp.
“If you would just trust me—”
“Never. Never again,” he said flatly. A startled cry nearly escaped her, for suddenly she found that his hand was clamped over her lips, only to be quickly replaced with his yellow uniform bandanna, tied tight around her mouth even as she struggled against him. Her eyes widened with alarm as she wondered if he had forgotten the baby, lying peacefully beneath the tree. She fought him like a wildcat then, but he ignored her eyes and the fire of her flailing fists. He even ignored the solid punch she managed against his chest, and the sounds of desperation that sounded too quietly in her throat. He twirled her around, lacing her wrists together behind her back with his uniform sash.
He jerked her back against him, his whisper stinging her ear. “Give me any trouble now, Callie, and I’ll take the baby and the horse and ride. I’m damned good at riding. Alone—alone with Jared, that is—I can move like lightning.”
She went dead still in his arms. Holding her, he dragged her backward with him from the creek until they were out of view of the Yanks. He brought her back until they were beneath the oak where Jared lay.
He slept. While the world rocked around him, the baby slept, his face as peaceful as that of an angel beneath the sunlight that flickered through the leaves of the trees.
Daniel set her beside him and rose, and she knew that he intended to leave her there.
She was suddenly very frightened.
She tried to make some sound to stop him. Fighting her fury and her fear, she stared at him with imploring eyes.
To her amazement, he paused. His fingers moved gently over her cheek. “Scream now and I really might throttle you,” he warned.
He slipped the bandanna from her mouth.
“Daniel, you have to let me go!” she whispered. “What if Jared awakes? He’ll cry out—”
“If his mother hasn’t done so first.”
“I won’t. I swear it.” She hesitated. “On his life, Daniel, I swear it.”
He hesitated only a moment longer, then roughly turned her about. A second later she was free.
She had no chance to say anything else to him. By the time she twirled around, he was gone.
Nervously, she knelt beside the baby and looked past the brush and tall grasses to the opposite side of the creek.
Her hand flew to her mouth as she saw Daniel behind the Yankee troops. One by one, and with a silent agility and speed, he moved from Yankee horse to Yankee horse, freeing them all. The company of Yanks, involved with their thirst and their desire to douse themselves in the cool water, were making a fair amount of noise.
None of them noticed Daniel.
Callie’s heart seemed to hammer against, her chest. As he neared the end of the line of horses, Daniel held on to the reins of the last pair. Both were tall bays, and both looked healthy, and well fed. Far more so than the pathetic roan they had been riding.
He was coming back around for her with the fresh horses, she realized. She started to rise, but maintained a low position on the balls of her feet. She watched Daniel as he moved far to the rear of the Yankee soldiers, circling them widely. He was well down the creek before he crossed it once again, and then she lost sight of him.
She was still searching for him when she felt his hands on her shoulders. She nearly jumped, but his whisper quickly touched her ear. “Get the baby. I’ll get our things.”
She did as he told her, quickly scooping Jared into her arms and against her shoulder. She hurried after Daniel in time to see him throwing the saddlebags over the haunches of one of the Yankee mounts, a tall bay that glistened in the early morning sunlight.
“Here!” he called to her softly. She hurried over to him. His hands were on her waist and he lifted her quickly, setting her upon the first horse. She balanced the baby tightly against her chest as she reached for the reins. For a fleeting second his eyes touched hers. “I’ll be right behind you,” he warned.
She didn’t answer him. He didn’t deserve an answer.
A moment later, he was mounted himself on the second horse. The Yanks still hadn’t noticed that their entire line of horses had been released. Some of their mounts wandered to the high grasses near them; some had ambled clean away.
“Go!” Daniel urged Callie.
It was just then that Jared chose to awake, letting out a lusty and hungry wail.
Callie’s gaze met Daniel’s once again. “Go!” he roared. Riding up behind her, he slapped her horse hard on the rump. The animal leapt forward, then began to race in a long, clean gallop. It was all that Callie could do to hold the baby and the reins. Foliage slapped her and tugged hard at her flesh and clothing and hair. She was blinded by the branches that tore at her, desperate to shield Jared from danger.
Even as she left the embankment behind, she realized that Daniel raced after her. Her horse, spurred on by the sounds of his behind it, raced on at a frantic pace. They reached the road, and a small bridge that crossed the creek farther down from the bend where they had spent the night.
Her horse tore over the bridge. Daniel followed. She heard him shouting “Woah!” and he reined in his horse.
She brought her own mount under control and turned it around. Daniel had paused on the bridge, she saw, because two of the Yankee soldiers had managed to capture their horses and come in pursuit of her and Daniel.
Daniel drew his sword from its scabbard. A Rebel cry, a sound so frightening it even brought chills to her spine, tore from his lips, and carried hauntingly on the air as he charged his enemies, his sword swinging.
He didn’t need to slay either of them. The men were so unnerved by his charge that they backed their horses too close to the edge of the bridge. Callie watched as men and horses went plunging over it amidst the sounds of their own screams. The horses quickly staggered up; the men, drenched and demoralized, barely made it to their knees.
Daniel spun his mount about and started to race toward Callie. There was one more horseman coming up behind him.
“Daniel!”
She shouted his name in warning.
He twirled his mount around once again. The grace of his horsemanship was so fine and deadly that it held a rare and chilling beauty.
The Yankee coming his way reined in.
It was just a boy, Callie thought. He couldn’t even really be eighteen, she was convinced.
He faced Daniel and Daniel’s very lethal cavalry sword.
No! Callie cried out in her heart. No, please.
But if the boy came after Daniel, Daniel would have to slay him. To defend himself, and her, and Jared. She closed her eyes. She couldn’t bear to see it. She didn’t want to see Daniel slain, but neither did she want to see this boy fall beneath his steel.
“Stop, son!”
She was startled to hear Daniel’s voice, and her eyes flew open. He was sitting still atop his new mount, staring at the boy.
“Come no further.”
“Sir, you are my prisoner!” the young Yank said in a wavering voice.
“Sir, like hell I am!” Daniel replied. “Go back, boy, save your fool life!”
But the lad, quivering as he might be, drew his own sword and faced Daniel.
“Daniel, no!”
She didn’t know she had intended to cry out until she did so. And then she was terribly afraid. Daniel didn’t turn, but apparently he had heard her.
“Oh, the hell with this!” he muttered.
She watched in horror as he pulled out his Colt pistol with his left hand. The boy’s eyes widened in fear; his face blanched.
Daniel shot at the bridge, his bullet lodging into the woo
d barely an inch from the Yank horse’s hoof.
The horse screamed and reared, and the boy went catapulting from it.
“Ride!” Daniel commanded Callie.
She turned to do so, giving her horse free rein to gallop down the road. Daniel was behind her once again. Despite the pounding of her own horse’s hooves, she could hear that he followed her.
And again, she knew when he paused.
She knew, once again, that they were being followed.
She reined in even as Daniel did. Closing in on them was Eric Dabney himself.
Eric’s horse’s reins lay idle over the saddle.
Eric held a rifle aimed their way. Callie wasn’t at all certain which of them he intended to hit. Her heart thundered hard. He would kill one of them.
She heard the explosion of a shot and a scream ripped from her lips. But Daniel didn’t fall, and neither did she. Jared shrieked, but she quickly ascertained that he had not been hit.
A shout of pain and fury reached her ears, and she saw Eric Dabney fall from his horse to the ground. He rolled, and came to his knees gripping his arm.
Callie realized that Daniel had drawn his Colt once again, and that miraculously, he had beat Eric to the trigger.
“Bastard Rebel varmint!” Eric shouted in a rage. “You’ll pay, Cameron! I swear, you’ll pay for this!”
“Go!” Daniel commanded Callie, and once again, he gave her mount a firm slap upon its hindquarters. Her horse leapt into flight.
And this time, as Callie raced with the wind, no one followed.
No one except Daniel.
She was running with her enemy.
———— Twenty ————
After the incident by the creek Daniel drove them harder than ever. He was too smart a horseman to race the horses forever, but he didn’t let up on a continuous movement. They paused only to water the horses once they had cooled down, and then they rode, relentlessly.
It was night before he allowed them to rest, and by then, Callie’s stomach was truly grumbling. The day had been hot, and then it had rained, and then it had become hot again. She was exhausted from the hours in the saddle, worn ragged from the heat and the dampness.
When Daniel dismounted at last and came to set her on her feet, she nearly fell over. The look in his eyes, however, kept her standing.
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