Surrender (28 page)

The man at the front turned, cupping his hand around his mouth to shout out. “Captain McKenzie?”

Jerome had heard the exchange, and was already rising, his heart quickening to realize that Ian was in the same battle at last.

He strode quickly down the line and across the field that separated the Rebs from the Yanks. As he walked, he saw Ian coming toward him. His cousin was thinner. They all were. Ian, a colonel now, was still a dominating figure: tall, straight, taking long strides until they faced one another. They stared for a second, meeting one another’s eyes, and then they embraced. Jerome pulled back. Smiling ruefully, he told Ian, “Your brother is back there, working a field hospital. He’s going to be mad as hell that you asked to see me instead of him.”

“I miss my brother. Tell him so,” Ian said.

Jerome nodded.

“And Tia. Is she well? Safe? Surviving the war. I worry that she’s too reckless, even if she’s with Julian.”

“Tia is well. She’ll be furious, too.”

“I’m sorry. But I had to speak with you.”

“Oh?” Jerome arched a brow.

“Sirs—best hurry!” a soldier warned from the field.

“Well, I can’t be subtle, I don’t have much time,” Ian said. “I’ll speak quickly. Oh, hell, I’ll—”

Suddenly, out of the clear blue, Ian socked him in the jaw. Swift as lightning, the blow
might
have been seen by the watching soldiers as an affectionate tap upon the chin.

It was no tap, and Jerome instinctively raised his fist to punch back, then stopped himself, thinking Ian had lost his mind. They couldn’t break into a fistfight out here in the middle of the battlefield. They’d both be shot down.

“What the hell are you doing?” Jerome demanded instead. “I should deck you here and now, cousin—”

“Sorry, it’s just that I got slugged harder—for you.”

“Ian, you’ve lost your damned mind, and I swear—”

“General Magee called me out, Jerome. It seems he suspects that his daughter is in a family way—and he blamed me! I know damned well I’m not responsible, so I thought I should pass along the news—and the right hook to the jaw. Magee is aging, but he can still manage a mean punch.”

“A family way?” Jerome demanded, stunned. “Risa…”

“Yes, Risa is expecting. As I said, the child isn’t mine. Therefore, I thought you should know. I’m not supposed to be here, with these troops, but I felt that I had to reach you with the information.” He was silent a moment, then added quietly, “You’ve taken enough risks for me!”

“Sirs! The firing is due to start!” a private called urgently from the line.

“We’ve got to go,” Jerome said. “Thank you, Ian.”

“The child is yours?”

“Yes.”

“Captain McKenzie!” Warned a fellow from the trenches.

But Jerome held fast to his position a moment longer.

“Will you be seeing your wife in St. Augustine?” he asked Ian.

“Yes, I intend to, tonight.”

Jerome nodded. “Warn Alaina to expect me in the next few days. Tell her I’ll need a discreet clergyman, sympathetic to the Southern cause.”

“I thought you might see it that way.”

“Tell Alaina not to say anything to Risa.”

“Cousin, I’ll make certain she doesn’t,” Ian said, tilting his cavalry hat with a slow grin. “Since I’m not at all sure how Risa is seeing things.”

“Not too clearly. She meant to marry some Englishman.”

“Colonel McKenzie, you must get down!” a Yankee soldier cried from his position.

Jerome quickly embraced the cousin who had just belted him. “God go with you,” he said, a deep tremor in his voice. “Keep your head low.”

“You, too,” Ian replied.

“Down, sirs! Down!”

They parted, both sprinting toward their battle lines. Jerome fell back into the cradle of his narrow trench just as a barrage of fire began to rain again.

He heard the terrible roar of bullets. He loaded and fired, loaded and fired again. His movements were automatic.

He watched men fall around him. Heard them scream, saw them bleed. He prayed that Ian was alive on the other side.

Toward dusk the firing stopped at last. Neither side had gained ground. Both retreated: the Yanks back to St. Augustine, the Rebs to their inland camps.

A silly, stupid battle, Jerome thought wearily. There was no major theater of war here—just a waste of bullets and medicine, youth and life.

He worked throughout the night, helping Julian and Tia with the wounded. Strange work, because Julian was indignant that his brother had talked to Jerome and not him.

“I don’t know the last time I’ve seen my brother!” Julian complained irritably.

“He is the enemy, and it’s difficult to communicate as
the enemy,” Tia reminded him, frowning at Jerome.

“But what did he want?”

“He wanted us all to know he’s still a McKenzie,” Jerome said. “He asked for me because I was the one on the battlefield. Medical personnel are seldom at the front of the skirmish. Oh, and he wanted to let me know that I’m about to become a father, and might want to do something about it.”

Tia’s jaw dropped. Julian arched an amused brow.

“Not a word!” Jerome warned sternly. “Not a word from either of you.”

“What are you going to do?” Julian asked politely.

“The right thing, what else?” Jerome inquired bitterly. The right thing! She’d been trying to run off to marry an Englishman, with a Reb’s child growing in her womb. God—it was suddenly possible to understand why the Yanks couldn’t win the war when the statistics were all in their favor. They hadn’t a lick of sense. Not a lick.

“Jerome, how can you?” Tia asked.

“I’ll have to slip into St. Augustine for an evening.”

“That’s madness!” Tia protested. “They just had a purge in the town. The Yank in charge expelled Southern sympathizers. Men and women who wouldn’t take the oath of loyalty were forced onto a transport ship.”

“Tia, no matter how many have been expelled, there are still Rebs living quietly in that town. I won’t be completely surrounded by the enemy.”

“You’ll wind up imprisoned in the
Castillo
!” Tia warned.

Jerome felt a strange chill settle over him. “My father was imprisoned there once with Osceola and other Seminoles who had been betrayed. My father escaped. I’ll know the way out.”

“
If
you get in to town,” Julian argued.

“I’ll get in. Nothing could keep me out.”

“Not even a half dozen companies of Yanks?” Tia argued.

“Not even a thousand Yanks,” he assured her.

Risa hadn’t really been away from St. Augustine for very long, yet as she arrived by carriage, she saw there had been changes made.

The Federals had made a commitment to keep the town. Once, when they had feared a Rebel attack, the soldiers had withdrawn into the old fort, the Castillo San Marcos, as the Spaniards had named it, or Ft. Marion, as it was now called. It was a fabulous architectural creation, rising from the Florida marsh like a European castle or fortress. Its walls were thick and imposing, beautiful, built with coquina shell. The fortress was as unusual and charming as the rest of the city with its old Spanish houses and churches. It had a special feel to it; it was the oldest European settlement in the country.

Risa had learned through her escorts, Bartholomew and Mary DeGarmo, that there had recently been a meeting called, and the residents were asked to sign oaths of loyalty to the Union. Those who refused had been expelled. There were feelings of resentment in the city, despite the fact the
Burnside
—the decaying tub of a Federal transport ship—had been met off Jacksonville by Union General Terry, who had countermanded the order. Too many people had lost their homes and possessions already in the expulsion. Risa sympathized with both sides; the Rebels might be furious that their families were treated so callously, but the Yankees resented feeding people who plotted against them.

As Risa looked around, Bartholomew, a large, muscle-bound Spaniard, gave the guard their traveling passes.

The Union troops had made improvements on the town’s defenses. An entrenchment had been dug north of the fort, running from the North River to the Sebastian River, and a wall closed off the interior of the peninsula on which the town sat. Numerous cannons sat on top of Ft. Marion, and fields had been cleared of trees to allow for clean firing. Pickets guarded the San Sebastian bridge at King Street—which was the only way into the town from the west. The troops, she assumed, were still quartered at the southern end of town, but she could see that military tents dotted the outskirts to the north and west as well.

She heard her name called and swung around to see Alaina coming. She had sent a message to her friend from Jacksonville, hoping that Alaina would be able to meet her, and help soothe the loneliness she was feeling.

Seeing Alaina, she cried out gladly, running to her, hugging her, then laughing, for Alaina’s pregnancy had come along, and she was round enough to cause them to bump off one another.

The guards quickly cleared her party through, and she introduced Bartholomew and Mary. Alaina brought Risa to her carriage, where she was pleased to see Finn McCullough waiting with another man. She hugged Finn first. She hadn’t seen him when she’d come through St. Augustine after her first captivity: he’d gone to Washington to be interviewed by a Union naval commander. “I’m so glad to see you!” she cried. And he smiled, flushing, hugging her back. “Risa, I’m always glad to see you! You’re all right? Yes, of course, you look beautiful, and healthy. It’s wonderful to have you back here!”

“And this is Dr. Thayer Cripped,” Alaina said, introducing her to the man who waited by Finn. Cripped was young, handsome in a thin, aesthetic way, and friendly.

“I understand that you assist in surgery, Miss Magee. It will be nice to have a good Unionist at my side, since Alaina torments me daily with her talk about the states’ God-given right to secede.”

Risa arched a brow to Alaina. “And I had thought that you meant to behave, embrace motherhood, and be a good and obedient wife to Ian!”

“I am a good wife, but Ian has never expected total obedience!” Alaina murmured dryly. “I am all talk these days.”

“Talk will get you expelled from this town!” Risa warned.

“They can’t expel me. I am Ian’s wife. But come along now. We’ve new living quarters, and they’re quite comfortable.”

“I must see the baby first—my godson!” Risa reminded Alaina, and Alaina smiled with great pride, going on and on then about Sean’s miraculous development.

Risa rode with Alaina, Finn, and Dr. Cripped to the medical housing facilities. At Alaina’s she hugged and kissed her godchild—tremors assailing her as she wondered if her own babe would have the telltale McKenzie eyes and rich, dark hair. Sean was put to bed, and the
adults had dinner. When Finn and Thayer left, Alaina helped Risa settle into her temporary home in St. Augustine.

They were quartered in Old Spanish row houses, with Thayer’s surgery set up at one end, his residence next to it, Alaina’s next to that, and Risa’s at the far end. She had a charming parlor with double fireplace that connected to the bedroom behind it, a pleasant room with brocade drapes, a copper hip tub, a “necessary” room, and a large, four-poster bed with a warm white knit cover and a half a dozen pillows.

Servants quarters were in a separate building behind the row houses, and all were surrounded by fruit trees.

With Sean in bed and his nurse in attendance, the DeGarmos and Dr. Thayer Gripped and his household all settled, Alaina sat with Risa in her own little parlor, sipping tea.

“So you were headed to England. I never imagined that you would leave the country!” Alaina told her, curious cat’s golden eyes upon her. “You—Lady Liberty! Devoted Daughter. Miss Union.”

“It seemed…the right thing to do,” Risa said lamely.

Alaina leaned forward, frowning. “You were going to marry an Englishman?” she inquired with serious concern.

“Where did you hear that?” Risa asked sharply.

Alaina sat back, lashes lowered, savoring another long sip of tea. “They try to cut off communications here between the townsfolk and the Rebels on the other side of the river, but…well, you know, my brother and sister-in-law are close and…actually, Ian is still in the area.”

“Ian?” Risa said, surprised.

Alaina nodded. “Of course, I’m happy because I get to see him. And I’m also miserable because—oh, Risa! He actually faced Jerome in a skirmish the other day! What if one of them had killed the other? It was a silly, no outcome fight, but men were injured, a few died…and all this nonsense about expelling people from St. Augustine was over soldiers killed by Rebs. So on the one hand, I hate it that Ian is in the state, because it’s his state, and the people he fights are his people. His
own kin, his own blood. But St. Augustine is Union now, so it’s not unusual that I open my eyes at night, find him with me, and life worth living.”

“I’m glad for you and Ian, and I understand your dilemma,” Risa murmured, sipping her tea. “But I’m still curious as to how you heard about my engagement.” Very curious—since she had made it up.

“I suppose the news filtered through Jerome to Julian or Tia and on to Ian, I’m not sure. But is it true?”

Risa lowered her head. She and Alaina had been through a great deal together, and they risked much for one another. But she found herself loath to admit that she was expecting Jerome McKenzie’s child, and could not do so. It was far too complicated.

“Yes—I suppose I was intending to marry. But I’ll have to write and explain that my plans have changed. If my father finds out that the Union ship I was on just happened to be taken by Jerome’s Rebel command, he will probably lock me away in a tower somewhere until this is all over. Which is why, of course, I need to make some plan quickly,” she murmured.

She looked up to discover that Alaina was staring at her intently. Alaina looked away. “Had you heard about Teela?”

“Teela…Ian talked about an ’Aunt Teela.’”

“Yes, his aunt—Jerome’s mother. Like my own, I grew up down there, you know. Teela’s lovely and giving—and strong. But she’s expecting a baby, and we’re all very concerned.”