She was close enough now. Now he knew he was going to be a father soon.
But he was still playing some game.
“Damn you, lady! I won’t marry you!”
This wasn’t Jesse. Because of his upbringing and his sense of right and wrong, he would have demanded that the mother of his child marry him, no matter what his feelings for her.
At least, the Jesse she had always known would have done so.
She lifted her chin. Play along with me! What was this ruse? It was humiliating!
“Jesse, damn you! Let go of me!”
But before she knew it, he had ripped off her cape, and her condition was very apparent to everyone there.
Then General Jensen snapped out Jesse’s name.
“Colonel Cameron!”
“Sir!”
Jesse swirled around, saluting sharply, as if he had only just noticed that the general was present. Hugh Norris was beside him, sniggering at Kiernan and Jesse.
“What in God’s name is going on here?” the general insisted.
“It’s personal, sir!” Jesse said.
“Colonel Cameron, with the lady in front of us all, it ceases to be personal. Is this child yours?”
Jesse stood very stiffly, taller than anyone, his feet firm on the ground, his stance entirely military. Static seemed to leap from him. “Maybe,” he replied.
Kiernan gasped with fury and amazement.
“Maybe!” Hugh Norris repeated, laughing. “He took over the house! I told you, she’s a spy! She has her way about her, but I was able to see through that, sir. Cameron here was duped.”
“I was never duped, sir. She was a seductress and intended to do me in, but I was never duped. She was under house arrest.”
“I have had enough!” Kiernan exclaimed in fury. “I am going home. I will walk if you confiscate my wagon, General, and I will keep going unless you choose to shoot me. And if you do, God will see to it that it is spread across every newspaper in the known world!”
But before she could turn around, Jesse stopped her. “You’re not going anywhere!”
“Colonel!” General Jensen snapped. “Young woman, my men do not shoot women in the back.”
Kiernan was at a complete loss to understand Jesse. Why was he making a scene? She loved him, she wanted him, no matter what—she knew that. But again the colors seemed to come between them—blue and gray—so vividly, so painfully. She just wanted to go home and see her father.
She wanted to have her baby.
Jesse’s baby.
She straightened her shoulders and spoke with dignity to the general. “You bastard Yanks!” she said softly. “You invaded my house and used it as you would. You’ve threatened my life. You’ve killed my husband, and now you—”
“I’m about to rectify the situation, Mrs. Miller,” the general insisted. “Union soldiers in my command are gentlemen. Is the child that you’re carrying Colonel Cameron’s?”
With everyone looking on, Kiernan wanted to deny it, to strike out at them all—and so she hesitated too long.
“Yes!” Jesse snapped out. “All right, yes! I’m sure that it is my child.”
“Get Father Darby. They’ll be wed right now,” Jensen ordered. “Do you hear me, Colonel Cameron? Marry this woman immediately. That’s an order! I will not have this army accused of peopling the South with bastards!”
Jesse was silent. His jaw twisted as if he were in a rage, and he seemed to be looking for some way to avoid marrying her. But finally he looked straight ahead and waited.
“Do you hear me, Colonel?”
“Yes—sir!” Jesse snapped at last, doing his duty like a man of honor.
“Wait!” Kiernan protested. She wasn’t going to be married here and now—not when she couldn’t talk to Jesse first! Not when she didn’t understand what was going on! “Wait! I will not—”
Suddenly Jesse pulled her into his arms again and held her so tight against him that she thought she was going to pass out. His blue eyes bore into hers, bluer than the summer’s sky, a piercing, vibrant, blade-sharp blue. His whisper, as his lips touched hers, was hurried and desperate: “Agree now, Kiernan!”
“Let me g—!” she began.
But his arms tightened, and his whisper came urgently. “I desperately need a reason to leave. I have to take you home. Daniel is here. He’s injured. I have to get him out and hide him. Daniel’s life is at stake!”
Daniel!
She went dead still, understanding at last. Jesse had been forced to make a big scene, to do this to them both, so that no one would question his leaving his company while battles were raging all around them.
The twins were standing together at a distance, deadly quiet. Jacob hadn’t said a word in Kiernan’s defense through all of this—feisty, proud Jacob—because he knew. Somehow, he had found out about Daniel.
Where was Daniel now? How badly was he hurt?
“Mrs. Miller,” General Jensen said consolingly, a hand upon her arm and a hand upon Jesse’s shoulder, “we will right this problem. The colonel is a fine man, and usually, he’s even a gentleman. But let’s get on with this, eh? Here’s Father Darby. Father, Colonel Cameron stands there. Mrs. Miller, come—we’ll have you right here.”
Father Darby was a tall, lean man with a sorrowful face that indicated he’d brought far more solace to the dying lately than anything else. Being ordered to conduct a wedding under fire seemed to be quite a surprise for him.
“They must agree to be married,” he said, seemingly puzzled as he studied Jesse.
“They agree!” General Jensen said.
“Jesse?”
“Yes,” Jesse said with a long, exaggerated sigh. “I agree.”
“And you, Miss …”
“Mrs. Kiernan Miller,” Kiernan supplied, “and I—”
Jesse’s foot slammed down on hers so hard that it brought tears to her eyes. Daniel was somehow at stake.
“I agree!” she exclaimed.
Before she knew it, Jesse was holding her hand.
Patricia and Jacob stood silently in the background, and Private Riker and Hugh Norris looked on, Norris sniggering all the while.
General Jensen gave her away.
In less than five minutes, she and Jesse exchanged their vows. Jesse’s signet ring sat around her finger, heavy, too large, and Anthony’s gold band was tucked away in her pocket.
Darby cleared his throat. “Well, Colonel, now is when I should tell you to kiss the bride. But you seem to have taken matters into your own hands. I needn’t advise you to kiss her.”
Jesse’s eyes were on Kiernan’s. “Ah, but Father Darby, I intend to have a kiss.”
It wasn’t a customary kiss. She was not pulled reverently into his arms, and she did not feel the gentle press of his lips.
Instead, she was swept into his arms and carried to the rear of the tent, away from the others, held tightly in his arms. Only then did his lips touch hers.
All the fire was there, a taste of heaven, a hint of the blaze of hell. She wanted to fight his touch, and she struggled against him for the disgrace he was bringing down upon them now that they were married. She fought hard …
But nothing could ever sweep away the magic of his kiss. Nothing could quell the burning deep inside. Nothing could take away the sweetness and the warmth, when he had been away again so very long.
Nothing—except Jesse himself.
His lips broke from hers just slightly and hovered above her own. “We have to leave!” he whispered fervently. “I have to bring Daniel through the lines secretly. Do you understand?”
She must have been slow to respond, for he shook her as he held her.
“Do you understand?”
“Yes!” she hissed back.
“Colonel!” Father Darby called, choking on the word.
Kiernan was suddenly on her feet, and Jesse was pulling her back before the general.
“Sir! Request leave to bring my wife home!”
G
eneral Jensen shook his head. “Colonel, we’re in the midst of a major campaign. I can’t let you go.”
Kiernan wanted to slap Jesse’s face as hard as she could. But she realized that he was in difficulty, and she knew that he would not be lying about Daniel, no matter what. She instantly realized how she could help.
He had once accused her of being a wonderful actress. Now it was time for her abilities to be tested.
“Oh!” she cried out. She fell flat upon the ground, doing her best not to jeopardize the baby. Jesse was instantly at her side, setting his arm around her shoulders, pulling her against him. “Oh, Jesse! The baby! Ohhhhhh!” she wailed.
“Colonel Cameron! Take your wife where she’ll be comfortable!” General Jensen ordered.
“No!” she screamed. She struggled against Jesse’s hold as hysterically as she could. “No, you despicable Yankees! You invade my home, you take everything! You ravaged my life, and now you expect me to have a child in a battlefield!”
Patricia stepped forward. “You cad!” she told the general indignantly.
Kiernan wailed again, moaning with true dramatic purpose. She would never have fooled Jesse with her performance. She had never fooled Jesse in all of her life.
But something more was at stake at the moment. She screamed as if she had been cut with a knife, then she grated out, “I want to go home!”
“What you want, Mrs. Cameron,” Hugh Norris said flatly, “certainly can’t matter! This is war!”
“I want to go home!” she wailed again. Norris! That bastard. He sensed that something was going on, and he seemed to hate Jesse almost as much as he hated her. “Please! I want to have my child at home!”
“Dear Lord!” General Jensen was a good man, and he was obviously very upset. “But your husband is here, Mrs. Mil—Mrs. Cameron!” the general tried to soothe her. “He may be a knave, but he’s one of the finest physicians in the Union Army! You’ll be in his hands—”
“I hate him! I want to go home! My father is ill, and I want to go home! I want my baby born at home! If you force me to have this child in a battlefield, I swear—”
“Yes, yes! Every newspaper in the known world will know about it,” Jensen finished wearily. “You win, Mrs.—er, Cameron. Colonel, take your wife home. Madam, you’ve twenty-four hours to deliver that baby. Then I want you, Colonel, back in the field!”
Jesse saluted sharply. “Yes, sir!”
Hugh Norris narrowed his eyes and gritted his teeth, but there was nothing he could do. General Jensen had given his orders.
Jesse swept Kiernan up into his arms and carried her from the tent. Jacob and Patricia followed quickly behind.
There was no romance to his hold. As soon as they arrived outside, he slid her to her feet and barked instructions to the others.
“Get Tyne and the wagon, quickly, Jacob! Follow me and Pegasus around to the med tent. Kiernan, get in the wagon and look as if you’re in agony.”
She nodded briefly. A jagged pain swept through her, and she clenched her teeth very hard.
With amazement, she realized that she wouldn’t be acting anymore.
Twenty-Three
They traveled a good distance from the main camp to reach Jesse’s field tent. Kiernan realized that the bulk of the army must have pulled in on a tactical retreat, leaving Jesse to take in the last of the wounded.
She didn’t feel any more pain, low and deep in the small of her back, as they traveled to Jesse’s tent. She began to think that she had imagined the sensation, but then it came again. She was tempted to scream and beg some assistance as panic nearly overwhelmed her. The baby was early, not due for another four weeks. She was suddenly terrified that in her desperation to reach her father, she had jeopardized the safety of her child.
She bit down hard on her knuckles and remained quiet. She still didn’t understand quite what was going on, but Daniel’s life was at stake too. Lacey had told her that first babies take forever to come—sometimes all day and all night and part of the next day too. She had to keep her silence. The pain finally subsided.
When they reached the tent, Jesse dismounted from Pegasus and called sharply, “Tyne, give me a hand! The rest of you, stay there.”
Ignoring the order, Kiernan braced herself carefully on the wagon and stepped down from it. She hurried after Tyne, who had followed Jesse.
Jesse, realizing that she was there, spun around furiously. “I told you to wait in the wagon!”
Hot tears stung her eyes, tears she wasn’t about to shed. “You’ve been telling me what to do and what you will and will not do ever since I’ve seen you!”
His hands fell hard upon her shoulders. “Daniel—”
“Yes, Daniel! His life is at stake, and if you had just told me from the very beginning, I wouldn’t have felt so humiliated when you forced me to marry you!”
“I would have said more if I could. I asked you to play along with me! And don’t you think it’s convenient that I’ve married you?”
“I didn’t have to be married for convenience!” Kiernan protested in a rush. “I can take care of myself very well.”
“But maybe my child wouldn’t have appreciated growing up a bastard!”
“This conversation isn’t necessary now,” Kiernan informed him coolly. “If you had just told me—”
“I couldn’t have walked up and told you! I’d requested a leave earlier and been denied it. It was the only way.”
She twisted from his hold, still wanting to scream. “I married you for Daniel’s sake,” she said stubbornly. “The least you can do is let me see him. He’s in here, is he not?”
“Miz Kiernan,” Tyne said, stepping around her diplomatically, “let’s get Captain Cameron into the wagon, and then you’ll see him fine enough.”
“Yes, and we’ve got to hurry,” Jesse said sharply. “Troops of every color are all over the place. I want to get him home.” He started to turn away but came back and faced her, pulling her against him.
“I need you, Kiernan, I need you now! Say what you want to me. Leave me, if you want. I’m still everything that you hate and loathe in the world. But for the love of God, help me now.”
She choked at the intensity of emotion that welled within her. So very much was at stake. “I want to help you—that’s obvious, you fool!”
“I should be offended that my wife of a bare few minutes is calling me names,” he told her. The words were soft and tender, his lip curling into a rueful grin as he spoke. “What we need, madam, is a truce. A separate peace. A cease-fire. Have we got it?”
She nodded. “Jesse, how bad is he?”
“I pulled the bullet out last night. It didn’t injure any major organs. He’s strong as an ox. He just needs to heal somewhere where the air is cool, where the breeze is clean. I can’t let them take him to a prison camp. Do you understand?”
She nodded. In the filth of a prison, he would surely die. “Yes.”
“You’re with me? A truce?”
“A truce. A separate peace,” Kiernan agreed.
“Kiernan,” Jesse warned her tensely, “this could be the most dangerous thing any of us have ever done. The Yanks will be after Daniel, and the Rebs will be ready to shoot me down. Are you still willing?” His eyes were bright upon hers. Their differences would have to come between them later, not now.
“I was going through the lines one way or the other, Jesse. I’m going home. My father needs me, and I need him. Now Daniel needs me too. I’m not afraid, Jesse.”
“You never were afraid,” he said softly. “And that, my love, could be your downfall. Trust me. I’m afraid right now—damned afraid.”
Startled, she looked at him.
“I don’t intend to die before a firing squad,” he said briefly.
Kiernan watched him, silent and still as Jesse walked by her. A second later, he appeared with Tyne and Corporal O’Malley, carrying a stretcher to her wagon. The figure upon it was swathed in a white sheet. “Make way!” Jesse called
to Patricia, Jacob, and Janey, and the trio moved to allow the stretcher to be laid out on the wagon’s floor. Kiernan stared at O’Malley, who surely knew that he’d had a Reb in his charge.
O’Malley, with innocence that would have stood him well in a poker game, tipped his hat to her. “Mornin’, ma’am.”
“Good morning, Corporal,” she said.
“Nice day for a ride.”
“I imagine so, Corporal. Are you coming with us?”
“No, ma’am, the colonel won’t allow me to do that. I’ve got to see that the colonel’s orders are carried on to the other surgeons.”
“I see,” she murmured.
“You look after the colonel, ma’am.”
“I will.”
O’Malley took a step closer. “Look after him well!” he said in a rush. “He’s so all-fired determined to save his brother that he’s risking his own life. For hiding a man in gray, his own side could shoot him for treason. And if the Rebs get hold of him, they may well shoot him for a spy. Lady, you’re taking a treacherous journey!”
“Kiernan!” Jesse called to her sharply.
Oh, Jesse, she thought briefly, you are indeed a fool! Yet what else could he do? As he had chosen to fight for the Union, now he had chosen to fight for Daniel. She couldn’t change him. His mind was set. But she loved him. Even if the circumstances of their marriage had enhanced their differences, she still couldn’t change that fact.
“Kiernan!” Jesse called again.
“Yes, I’m coming.” She stiffened, O’Malley saluted, and she hurried to the rear of the wagon. She looked up at Jesse for a moment and saw exhaustion in his features, tenacity, determination. She knew why she loved him, even if he was the enemy.
She lowered her lashes. She still knew little about Daniel’s condition and wanted to see him for herself.
Jesse lifted her into the back of the wagon. A blanket had been arranged over Daniel, and the twins and Janey sat near him. “Kiernan, lean back so,” Jesse instructed her. She nodded. His blue eyes met hers. His features were more tense and weary than she had ever seen them. “Don’t let anyone see my brother,” he said softly.