The Fire Within. Lynda Trent
to move on.
Bridget was married now. When Patrick heard Seth had enlisted, he signed up, as well. Before he left, he married Bridget. They had been in love ever since they were children so it was no surprise to anyone, nor was it a question of ensuring that Bridget would wait for him. Bridget was like their mother—once she fell in love, she would follow her man, even to a place like Black Hollow, and be faithful forever.
Although she never told anyone, Megan was disappointed that Seth hadn’t loved her enough to marry her before he went away. Especially since they had made love one night in the clearing where the battle was now being fought. For several long, agonizing weeks Megan had prayed she wasn’t pregnant from her lapse of discretion. Fortunately she hadn’t been and no one knew what she and Seth had done. But Seth knew and he hadn’t married her before he left. That was one reason Megan had been so angry over his rash enlistment. Their wedding had been set for the following week! Why had he chosen to leave at a time like that?
There was no use wondering about it, Megan told herself. Seth did as he pleased, when he pleased. Usually this didn’t bother her and it was unreasonable to mind it one time and not another. At least this was what she told herself during the long, dark nights when she was alone in the cabin with only the calls of night birds for company. At least now she could read or draw when she pleased, for there was no one to hide it from.
Megan also loved to draw. No one had taught her: it came as naturally to her as breathing. With a sliver of charcoal from the hearth she could draw an owl or a raccoon that looked real. Brother Benjamin Grady, the man who was Black Hollow’s self-styled preacher, disliked her drawing even more than he did her reading. He maintained it wasn’t natural to draw a thing on paper, that it wasn’t much different from making graven images, which was clearly against God’s law. But drawing didn’t feel wrong to Megan so she simply hid that, too.
She closed her eyes and tried to block out the sound of the battle by remembering what Seth’s voice sounded like. Lately that had been difficult, though she would never have admitted it.
The sounds of battle had lasted for hours. Megan stopped rocking as the reports from the guns moved farther down the mountain. She could tell one side had overpowered the other. It didn’t really matter to her which had won. Unlike her family, she wasn’t a staunch supporter of either side. The issues that had caused the war didn’t touch her. Tariffs and central banking had no part in Black Hollow, and Megan had never seen a slave in her life.
She cautiously opened the door and stepped out onto the porch. She could still hear the guns but they were too far away now to be accompanied by the soldiers’ shouts or the shriek of the horses. Once again her cabin had been spared.
Megan went inside and got the knife she used for dressing out meat and as many tow sacks as she owned. Horse meat wasn’t something she enjoyed, but she had learned to eat almost anything. There were too many soldiers and stragglers on the road to keep food safe. Her smokehouse had been emptied only the week before when she was visiting her family, and she wasn’t eager to spend the winter without meat on the table.
She made her way through the familiar woods, stopping every few feet and listening to be certain the soldiers weren’t doubling back. When soldiers were around, the only safe place was indoors with the door firmly bolted and barred.
Soon she was in the clearing. Megan stopped and stared at the once familiar meadow. Horses’ hooves had churned the late grasses into the dirt and there was blood everywhere. Horses lay dead on the ground, their saddles still strapped to their backs. There were no men. While part of the conquering troop chased the retreating one down the mountain, the rest of the soldiers had stayed behind to gather the dead and wounded of both sides into wagons and haul them to their headquarters.
The silence was menacing. Megan stepped farther into the clearing and for a moment wondered if she was in the place she remembered. Could this be where she had played as a child and where she had given herself to Seth just before he joined the army? It was no longer a peaceful woodland meadow, but a place of death and destruction. She knew she would never enjoy coming here again.
Eager to do what she had come to do and be away from the place, Megan went to the nearest horse. Kneeling on the ground, she began the task of dressing it out for her smokehouse.
As she worked, she heard a sound. Megan froze, her eyes darting about. Were the soldiers coming back?
The sound came again. She stared into the woods, trying to pierce the shadows and saplings to see who was there. It was no animal sound, but rather that of a man. Apparently he was in pain.
Holding the knife close to her side as Owen had once taught her, she went nearer. Every time she heard the moan she paused, deciding whether to go on or to flee. Not too far inside the woods she saw the body of a horse. A man lay beside it.
As quietly as she could, Megan went closer. He had been thrown clear when the horse fell. Judging by the sluggish way he moved, he had been unconscious when the other dead and wounded were taken away and no one had found him. She edged nearer. She could tell by his uniform he was an officer. His right leg and left arm were covered in blood. If it was all his, it was a miracle he was alive at all, let alone able to move and call out.
Megan lost her fear as she went to him. He was young and handsome with black hair that was matted to his head with sweat. His skin was pale from loss of blood. He wore a Yankee uniform, but so did her brother, Owen.
She knelt beside him. “Lie still. Let me see how badly you’re hurt.”
He tried to focus on her face but the effort was too much for him. “My men...” he said in a hoarse voice.
“Your men are gone. They left you behind.” She looked around, wondering what to do with him. He might be the enemy, but he was also a human and she couldn’t leave him to die. “You sure picked a bad place to get wounded. I don’t know if I can get you to the house or not.” She was speaking as much to herself as to him. She pulled his leg straight and examined the worst of the wounds. “You might recover with some help.”
He tried to sit up but fell back.
“Stop moving around before you bleed to death.” She took her skinning knife and slit his pant leg so she could tie one of the tow sacks around the wound. She made it as tight as she could to stop the bleeding. Then she did the same to his arm.
“Can you hear me?” she asked. He was so pale and so still she wasn’t sure he was conscious. He nodded. “I’m going to try to get you to my cabin but you’re too big for me to carry so you’re going to have to help me.”
This time when he struggled to sit up, she pulled him upright. The bandages seemed to be holding against the loss of any more blood. She braced herself and pulled him to his feet. Before he could fall, she slipped his good arm around her neck and balanced him. “Can you walk? It’s not too far. Just past these woods.”
Leaning heavily on her, he managed to limp at her side. “Too bad they didn’t leave me a short, skinny man,” she complained good-naturedly to boost his spirits. She wasn’t tall and he towered over her by several inches. If he were standing straight, she didn’t think the top of her head would reach past his shoulder. Most of the other men in the Hollow were short or medium in height, including Seth, and this man seemed huge in comparison.
Her determination was finally paying off. Like her father, Megan was too stubborn to give up once she decided to get the soldier safely into her cabin. By the time they went up the sloping grade and across her small yard, she was breathing heavily and aching from supporting his weight. “Steps,” she gasped. “You have to go up three steps now.”
He doggedly lifted his feet. She held to him firmly. They had come this far; she wasn’t going to drop him now. She kicked the door open with the toe of her shoe and took him into the house. He hesitated and blinked, as if he was only now aware of his surroundings.
“Don’t stop now. We have a few more feet to go.” She took him into the tiny bedroom she was to have shared with Seth and let him drop onto the bed. Thank goodness