And One Wore Gray (45 page)

What were the laws on the child?

More importantly, what were his responsibilities to her?

“Enjoy your meal,” Ben said, and grinned. “Good thing you married her, sir, before she could get away. I’m not so sure I’ve ever seen a more beautiful woman, white or black! Some other man would have been along for her real quick, that’s darned certain, if you hadn’t a married her, Colonel!”

Daniel forced his face into a grin. “Right, Ben.”

Ben left him. He tried to bite into the chicken that had smelled so damned good just a few moments before.

What about Callie? Did she hate him now, did she fear him? Sometimes she felt the same things he did. He had held her when she quaked within his arms and had flown the ultimate bounds of passion.

She was always fighting him. But she had carried Jared, and she had been determined to come with Daniel when he had said he was taking his son.

He had to marry her. His father would have said so; his mother would have been shocked. Jesse would definitely find it his sworn duty—especially since Daniel had been the one to warn his brother that he had best marry Kiernan quickly if he wanted his son born in wedlock.

It was the only honorable thing to do. And she said that she had loved him. Had. Past tense. Even if those words were true, so very much lay between them. Their worlds were at war.

What were his feelings for her? His real feelings? Just the thought of her made him warm, made him tremble.

He groaned aloud and set down his fork. Once upon
a time, he would have known that it was the only right thing to do, no matter what. But once upon a time he had lived in a beautiful gracious world where men and women knew all the rules, and both lived by those rules. It had been a beautiful time, before hunger, before this awful loss of innocence had befallen them all.

Jesse! He thought suddenly of his brother. His best friend. His companion. The steadying voice in his life for so many years. If only he were here.

But Jesse wore blue. He couldn’t be here to listen, to advise.

Daniel leaned back, and the hint of a wistful smile played at his lips. “I do know what you would say, brother. I believe that I do. And maybe that doesn’t even matter. I cannot risk losing my son. You should see him, Jess. God, is he beautiful.”

His voice trailed away.

He wondered if he wasn’t just a little bit afraid of losing
her
now that he had his hands upon her.

Maybe reasons didn’t matter at all. Only the deed.

He rose, strode across the room, opened the door, and shouted for Ben. He was going home with a wife.

“Yessir, Colonel?” Ben was quickly before him.

“Ben, I have a little problem with my wife.”

“What’s that, sir?”

“She isn’t my wife.”

Ben drew back, shocked. Daniel hid a smile. Even the old-world servants knew that the world had rules. And they insisted their masters know them and live by them.

“Well, it ain’t my place to say nothin’, sir—”

“Ben, I’m trying to rectify that situation, but I need some help. Could you find me someone very, very discreet, who could arrange to marry us?”

“Here, sir? Now?”

“Right now. Well, say, in thirty minutes.”

Ben grinned broadly. “Well, now, sir, I—I’ll do my
best!” He stepped back, frowning. He started to walk away, shaking his head. “Brandy, that was easy,” he muttered. “A meal, that’s easy, too. A bath I can manage quick as a wink. But a minister … folks, they just want everything these days!”

“Ben—one more thing. Could I scare up some clean clothes? I can arrange a new uniform at home. Civilian dress would be just fine. And I need something for Callie.”

“Yessir!” Ben said. “Yessir.” He turned again, shaking his head as he hurried away.

Daniel smiled. With his mind made up, he found that he was famished once again. He sat down to his meal. He’d just eaten the last piece of chicken when there was tap on the door. Ben entered with a large box.

“Colonel, I got here a white muslin with fine little flowers embroidered into it.”

Daniel’s brows shot up. Ben had worked quickly. “Is it Letty’s?”

He shook his head. “No sir, I didn’t think that Miz Cameron—that your lady—
would
be too cotton o
n
taking a handout for her wedding. I bought it from a young lady down the street who’s heading back
to
Charleston to stay with her family. Her man’s just been killed at Gettysburg and she’s wearing black, so she’s no more need of this.”

“That’s fine. I’ve not much money on me, Ben, but I’ll get the cost back to Gerald as soon as I reach Cameron Hall.”

“There’s no need, Colonel. I bought it with your horse.”

Daniel laughed. “That’s fine.” The Yankee bay cavalry horses were worth quite a bit. Especially now. But he was going home. No place on earth bred finer horses than Cameron Hall. “What about the ceremony?”

“I went on down to the Episcopal Church, and I
didn’t know where to start, so I just set the whole thing right in Father Flannery’s lap. He said that it was all highly irregular, that’s what he said—irregular—but seeing as how you were a hero in the cause, he could understand how maybe you and the lady were delayed a bit in the sacrament.”

Daniel lowered his head. He was certain that he might also need to make a bit of a contribution to the church.

“When’s he coming?”

“Within the hour, Colonel. He promised.”

“That’s good. I thank you, Ben. You’re a good man. You ever get tired of working here, and there will always be a place for you at Cameron Hall.”

“Lawdy, Colonel Cameron, you know I can’t go nowhere, never. I’m Mr. Lunt’s personal property.”

“Not according to Lincoln,” Daniel muttered.

Ben shrugged. “But Mr. Lincoln, he got to make those northerners win the war first, right? And you must own your own houseman, Colonel Cameron.”

Daniel stood up. “I don’t own any man, Ben.” Ben looked at him curiously.

Daniel clamped him on the shoulder. “It’s a strange damned world, isn’t it, Ben?”

“Yessir, Colonel. And getting stranger by the minute!”

Callie stayed in the water quite some time. Nothing had ever felt so good.

But as the water cooled, she felt the stirrings of hunger. The miraculous thing was that she could eat. Here, in this household, wonderful things like beds and baths and food seemed to be hers for the asking.

She just needed to rouse herself.

She opened her eyes and almost screamed. She wasn’t alone in the room anymore.

Daniel had come in silently, as if it were his right. He
stood there watching her, a large dressmaker’s box held idly in his arms. His sweeping hat was gone, but he still wore his tattered uniform. The fire that could make him so exciting burned in his eyes. He stood straight, shoulders squared, yet still casual. And still arrogant.

She swallowed hard, narrowing her eyes. “What are you doing here?”

“How very rude of you,” he replied.

“Get out.”

“Can’t, I’m afraid. It’s my room too.”

“Your room—”

“Well, you haven’t protested being called Mrs. Cameron. They’ve placed us here together—my love.”

“Don’t call me that!”

“Is it so disturbing?”

“It’s hypocritical.”

“Just practicing.”

“For what?”

He pulled out his pocket watch. “There’s an Episcopal priest coming in about twenty minutes now. If we’re lucky. I need the tub. Out.”

“What?” Callie’s fingers gripped the rim of the tub,

“He’s coming to marry us.”

Her fingers curled more tightly. Someone was coming to marry them. Daniel was joking. He was speaking too blithely to be joking. And he seriously wanted her out of the tub.

Her heart seemed to catch in her throat. Of course she wanted to marry him. The hope had always been there, she had just never let it rise from the depths of her heart, because she hadn’t begun to imagine that he would marry her, not even for Jared, not after what had happened when she had turned him over to Eric Dabney.

She couldn’t breathe, because suddenly it all hurt very much. She wanted to marry him because she
loved him. She should haved stopped loving him. She should have been able to make her anger into a real hatred and make that hatred stomp out the love.

But she hadn’t managed to do so. AH that she had managed to do was play a part. What did she want then, she asked herself. Easy, she wanted him to love her.

She bit into her lip, watching him as he stood there, the dressmaker’s box in his arms.

She turned her gaze from him to the linen washcloth she had been given.

“No.”

“What?”

“I don’t care to marry you.”

The box went flying onto the bed. She shivered as he strode across the room to glare down at her. “What the hell do you mean, no?”

“I mean ‘no.’ You haven’t even asked me. You’re rude and obnoxious. I hate you. You are truly—”

“A Rebel rodent?”

“Precisely,” she said pleasantly. “Why should I marry you?”

“Because you have borne my son out of wedlock, madam, and because of him, I am willing to marry you.”

“Well, I’m not willing to marry you.”

She heard him sigh. “Well, I hope you’re willing to receive my hand across your posterior anatomy.”

She glanced at him quickly, suddenly afraid of pushing him too far. She had come to know the tone of his voice very well, and he meant the threat.

“Why are you marrying me? What will you tell your family? Am I a suitable wife for a Cameron?”

To her surprise and alarm he knelt down by the side of the tub. She moistened her lips quickly and hugged her knees to her chest.

“I’ll tell my family that you were buck naked and I
was overcome,” he said flatly. “I fell down on my knees and asked you to marry me. It will be the truth.”

“No—”

“It will be the truth. You’re going to marry me, Callie.”

“No! You haven’t asked me!” she cried. “You just keep telling me. And you still hate me, and I’m still a Yankee, and you condemn me for what wasn’t my fault—”

“All right. Will you marry me?” he said impatiently.

It certainly wasn’t what she had in mind for a proposal. She swallowed hard. “I—I can’t.”

“Why not? You prefer being an unwed mother? On your own?”

“I can make it on my own, Daniel.”

“Out do you have the right to do it to Jared?”

She looked ahead of her. Her lashes skimmed over her cheeks. She loved him. And she had to believe that underneath it all, he loved her. “I’ll marry you, Daniel. For Jared. But I …”

“You what?”

“I can’t … I mean … I don’t want—”

“Spit it out, Callie. I haven’t seen you shy yet.”

“I want you to leave me—alone.” He stiffened. His movement was barely perceptible. Had she hurt him?

He started to laugh, and it was a very dry, hollow sound. “Madam, I want my son. Legally. And you might want to recall—I’ve never forced you into anything. At the moment, you’re welcome to any privacy you desire. I give no guarantees for the future—should we have one.”

Her fingers moved idly over the water.

“I don’t know,” she began.

His startling blue eyes met hers. “Take a gamble. You should be pleased. I’ll be returning to the war almost immediately. I could very easily be shot or run
through with a sword. You’d have all my money and my name and your freedom.”

“Yes, that could happen,” she said coolly. God, but the water had gotten cold! She was starting to shiver. The cold she felt went beyond anything she had ever known.

He stood up. “Your dress is on the bed. I’m afraid we haven’t time for any false modesty now. The priest will be here very soon, and even if this water is stone cold, I need a good dousing in it.” He stretched out the towel to Callie. She rose to take it.

It dropped to her feet before she could grab it and wrap herself within it.

“Sorry,” Daniel said idly.

Like hell he was sorry.

She swept the towel up from the floor. She started to walk away and nearly lost the towel again.

“One more thing, Callie,” he called after her.

He was stripping off his dirty frock coat, watching her.

“What?”

“I don’t call any man property—you know that we freed all of our slaves.”

“Yes, you told me.”

He smiled. “Well, I just want you to know that I do consider a wife a man’s property. You’ll be mine.”

“We’ll just have to see, won’t we?” Callie said sweetly in reply.

But as she turned to dress, she was still shaking.

The dress was beautiful. It was unlike anything she had ever owned before.

It came with exquisite undergarments, made especially to enhance the gown. There was a huge hoop and a petticoat with row after row of bristling taffeta. There were fine white hose, shimmer-thin pantalets, a silky soft chemise, and an ivory corset, embroidered with the same tiny red flowers that patterned delicately over the dress itself.

Despite the fact that she was clad in nothing but the giant bath sheet, Callie had to pause to stare at the gown before she could even think of putting it on. Her fingers trembled as she touched it.

“Is something wrong?” he asked her from the tub.

“No,” she said quickly. Her back to him—and trying to keep the bath sheet around her back—she began to dress. It was difficult. She managed everything but the corset. It was incredibly difficult to try to tie it on by herself.

She stiffened as she felt his hands on her. “Suck in,” he ordered, and she did so. “Oh!” she gasped. He had it pulled taut and looped and tied in a matter of seconds. His touch definitely spoke of experience.

She pulled away from him, spinning around. She
turned around quickly again because he was as naked as a tiger in a jungle and seemed just as dangerous.

“What’s the matter?”

“You’re extremely competent with women’s—clothing,” she told him over her shoulder.

“Am I?”

She ignored him, reaching for the elegant dress. She slipped it over her shoulders. It fell about her softly, like angel’s wings. She struggled to adjust the back, to fluff the skirt out over her petticoat.