Hearts Under Siege (Civil War Collection) (20 page)

Chapter Twenty-Two

Alexandra rode beyond the city’s border, barely able to see her hands in front of her face. Thunder cracked, and raindrops misted over her face. She gripped her horse’s reins, turning, and then stopped. She steeled herself and kept going. Home. The word soothed her spirit and calmed her racing thoughts. Home, to find Grand-père and Jeffy, and allow herself to heal and forget Thomas. She could live a full life as a spinster, getting the plantation in order and drawing and painting. Perhaps after the war ended, she would find a way to help the less fortunate.

By the time she approached Chene Ruelle, dawn took the edge off the blackness of night. Drenched to the bone, her teeth chattered.

After hours of riding, sometime around midnight, she doubled over and gripped the horse’s reins as waves of nausea overtook her. She inhaled deeply and continued on.

The house came into view. Shattered glass lay below the windows of an otherwise intact home. She made her way around back and stabled the horse then scraped together enough oats for a meal, rubbing him.

After going inside the house, she made a quick survey to ensure that she had no visitors. The soldier who had been there before certainly had been removed. Had Thomas done that before he left? Not too much damage had been inflicted, only a broken table and an overturned settee. First she checked all the doors and windows to make sure they were locked. Then she dragged the small tub next to the stove, put water on to heat for a bath, peeled off her clothes, and wrapped herself in a dry robe. She emptied her knapsack and devoured the cheese and crackers inside.

With the tub full of steaming water, gained only from half a dozen pots of water, she cast aside the robe and slid into her unscented bath. She reached for the plain bar of soap and rubbed it over her arm
.
Ah, heaven
.
She relaxed her head against the back of the tub and closed her eyes.

She ran her hand along her flat stomach, searching for a bulge. None. Her lips tugged upward in a smile. God help her, she liked the idea of having Thomas’s child growing inside her.

No, she told herself, a ridiculous idea. A cad. He misled her. He was engaged to someone else.

Yet she wanted his child. She wante
d
hi
m
. She wanted to wake up next to him every day for the rest of her life and have a houseful of his children.

She sighed and imagined him writing a letter to break it off with Gabrielle. Perhaps he even wrote her a letter, but with the war going on, she hadn’t received it. In her mind’s eye, Thomas knelt on one knee, took her hand, and asked her to marry him. Then he twirled her around after she announced that she carried his child. The water cooled. She shivered and shook her head in self-disgust
.
Forget him
.
She touched her belly.

She’d figure out what to do after she had her family in place.

She stepped out of the tub and reached for a towel on the floor. As she dabbed her skin, a memory washed over her mind. Thomas toweled off her hair and…

No. She mentally shook herself. Her shoulders fell a notch. She yawned and dragged herself upstairs, lit a fire, and slipped a gown over her head. She plodded to the bed and collapsed across it.

She drifted off to sleep with an image of Thomas’s eyes, bluer than the bluest sky, locked onto hers as though no other person existed in the world. As though he loved her.

Cocooned in the haven of sleep, a smile curved upon her lips.

In her dream, she sat on the ground surrounded by yellow daisies as she watched a rider on horseback approach. He slid to a halt at her feet, spewing dirt all around her and destroying the daisies. She looked up at him with anger burning in her heart. How dare he come here and destroy her flowers.

His bearded face was nondescript, hidden under the shadow of a low-sitting hat. His features were hazy as he stared back at her.

A drum appeared in his hands. He beat it.

“Stop,” she begged, putting her hands over her ears. The pounding intensified. She stood up and ran. Faster and faster she went until her heart would burst in her chest. He trotted behind her, never far behind, beating his drum.

Alexandra’s eyes popped open, and sweat trickled down her brow.

The pounding continued.

Rolling over, she gazed blankly at the slash of sunlight coming in through the window.

Then it all came together for her
.
Hom
e
. In her room. Just as suddenly, her world tilted. Her heart slammed into her chest. Thomas. And what was that knocking?

Check the door
.

Dragging herself from the bed, she donned her robe and stumbled bleary-eyed down the stairs.

She peeked out the window then made her way across the entranceway to the front door. A boy of no more than twelve stood on the front porch pounding on the door. Alexandra jerked the door open just to make him stop.

“Miss Champagne?”

“Yes.”

“I have a letter for you. He said it was urgent, and I wasn’t to leave until I’d given it to you.”

“Who?”

“I ain’t never seen the man before. He give me a whole silver quarter for delivering it. I had to pass here on my way home anyway.”

“Thank you,” Alexandra said.

Her hands trembled as she unfolded the missive, and she held her breath as she began to read. The letter began
,
This time I’ve got something you want.

If you want to see him alive again, you haven’t a minute to waste. You’ll find him in a cave on the bluffs upriver near New Roads. And while you’re looking, think about me because this time, I’ll have you.

Alexandra didn’t move. She didn’t even breathe. She had no doubt about from whom it came. Jake. But whom did he have? Whom did he hold hostage? Grand-père? Jeffy? Thomas?

The boy frowned. “The man with the message came up to me and asked me to deliver this message. Come to think of it, it was kinda weird.” He scratched his head.

A shiver ran up Alexandra’s spine. “What do you mean weird?”

“I don’t know how he knew I’d know you, though. There were other boys around too, but he picked me. And I was the only one who knew you.”

Alexandra led him to the kitchen, filled a glass with precious well water from a pitcher on the kitchen table and handed it to him. “Please, sit down.”

“Did the man say anything else?” she asked.

“No—”

“Think.” She leaned forward, grasping his sleeve. “Think hard. Did he say anything else? It’s very important.”

He frowned. “Oh yeah. He said, ‘tell her Thomas said hello.’”

Thomas! He had Thomas.

“Do you know anything about the area around New Roads?”

“Sure. My cousin lives there.”

“I need your help.”

Chapter Twenty-Three

Alexandra stood over him like a fiery goddess, a Bowie knife in her hand, tattered ropes at her feet, and a mist swirling around her.

Thomas closed his eyes. If he slept, he may as well do it with his eyes closed. Besides, the unaccustomed light sent a searing pain through his head.

“Thomas, wake up.”

A new development. The visions never spoke to him before. Did he live? He frowned.

“Thomas,” she said again, this time louder.

Then the vision grabbed his shoulders and shook him.

“Is he alive?” a male voice asked.

“He’s alive. His eyes were just open.”

“Maybe he’s fainted.”

“No,” she said. “I think he’s ignoring me.”

Of course he ignored her—a vision who not only spoke, but also touched him. Her hands came to his cheeks, and she patted them. All right. So what if she were a vision. He’d take what he could get.

He blinked and stared into Alexandra’s clear green eyes. His hand shook in his effort to raise it. The darkness drifted over him again. He tried to fight it, but his body succumbed to the blackness.

When Thomas woke later, fresh air entered his smoke-scorched lungs. He inhaled sharply.

I’m not in the cave.

He opened one raw eye, squinting, and then the other.

The branches of a tall oak fanned above him, vibrant green against the puffy white clouds of a blue sky. He glanced down at his wrists—raw from the ropes, but not caked in blood.

Alexandra—not a vision—rescued him and saved his life. Suddenly his world brightened. What a beautiful, wonderful place to be. His lips quirked into a smile but stopped halfway, cracking. He grimaced and touched their rough surface.

****

Alexandra stirred and opened her eyes, blinking.

Where am I?

She leaned her weight onto her elbow and looked down at Thomas sleeping next to her. She caressed his cheek, just watching him breathe for a moment.

Her eyes roamed and found Johnny sitting a few feet from her, his back against a tree, whittling a piece of wood.

Alexandra smiled, grateful to him. She and Johnny had gotten Thomas as far away from the cave as they could manage, but in truth, it probably only seemed far from the cave. The two of them struggled with Thomas’s weight.

She hadn’t slept more than a handful of hours in days. Johnny had volunteered to take the first watch.

“Good morning,” Johnny said, when she stood up and stretched.

“Good morning. How long did I sleep?”

He glanced toward the direction of the sun. “Only a couple of hours. Not nearly long enough. I’m good if you need to sleep longer.”

“No, I’m too tired to sleep. Anything unusual happen?”

“No, it’s been quiet.”

Too quiet, Alexandra thought. Jake lurked out there somewhere—probably watching them right now. She shuddered, glancing over her shoulder.

She knelt down beside Thomas and studied him. His face had more color in it now, and his chest rose and fell at an even pace.

When he opened his eyes and looked at her, she stifled a gasp. “You’re awake,” she uttered, stunned that his eyes were as blue as she remembered.

“Alexandra,” he whispered.

Her name on his lips reached her like a breeze, felt more than heard.

Their gazes locked. Somewhere in the back of her mind, Alexandra heard the snap of Johnny shaking out his blanket, and he sighed as he plopped down on it. The wind rustled the leaves of the surrounding trees. But for her, time and place froze. Her heart swelled with the joy of once again just being with Thomas.

His trembling hand came inches off the ground. She intertwined her fingers with his. Thomas closed his eyes.

As the shadows of darkness filtered over them, Alexandra remained at his side. Despite her body’s lack of movement and her calm and serene posture, her mind whirled.

More beautiful than a Greek god, she cherished him more than her own life. She loved him more at this moment than she had ever thought she could.

She could never, ever let him know how deep her love for him went.

****

As Alexandra spoon-fed him some sort of mush, she neither spoke nor made eye contact with him.

You’re distressed
.

Too weak to utter words of comfort, he reached for her with his heart.

I’ll help you…when I can
.
Their souls had touched earlier.

“I scanned the entire perimeter and saw no sign of anyone,” Johnny said, coming to stand beside them, holding an antique musket as tall as himself.

Thomas swallowed a smile. Despite Johnny’s youth, without him, Alexandra could not have dragged him from the cave—not even with the travois. Nevertheless, the sight of him cradling a shotgun in his arms churned Thomas’s stomach. Would the boy kill a man? Thomas shuddered.

I hope you never have to find out what that feels like.

“I still don’t feel safe,” Alexandra said. “We’ll continue to keep watch.” She shoved the last spoonful into Thomas’s mouth, and standing up, turned Johnny aside.

“As soon as Thomas is well enough,” she whispered with a glance toward Thomas, “we have to move. He can have one of the horses, and we’ll ride together on the other.”

Like hel
l
, Thomas thought
.
If anyone rides with Alexandra, it’ll be me.

“I’ll take the first watch,” she continued, “then you can take over. I’m not sleepy.”

Johnny shook out his bedroll while Alexandra settled down beside Thomas and dabbed at his wounds with a cloth. How many times had she tended him? And she thought to shake him off. Not a chance.

Thomas allowed her to help him lie down. Despite the distance she kept between them, she continued to sit next to him as the moon climbed high in the sky, and wolves howled in the distance. His strength renewed itself, but he fell asleep and dreamed. He dreamed of holding Alexandra close.

****

After going into town he’d gotten the whore for a good price, but she hadn’t satisfied him. She’d only made him late for getting the woman he really hungered for. He’d been impressed when he found Thomas gone. The little bitch excited him more and more. Now he had to track her down. It wouldn’t be much of a problem. They could not hide from him. First he would tie her up and kill Thomas while she watched. Then he would leave her tied up while he made her his whore. Then, after she cried out with wanting him, he would slit her throat.