The Better Angels: Hearts Touched by Fire, Book 4
Page 37
“Mama, it’s so good to see you well at last.” He gave her a kiss on the cheek.
Marie blushed. “Glad you have left that awful unpleasantness. And that you brought the most enchanting mademoiselle with you to wed.” She smiled at him and Ada.
Ada shifted on the settee, her cup of tea rattled softly in her hand. Francois went to sit next to her, giving her a wink as he mouthed his apologies for his mother being so blunt. Yet before he could say a word, Pierce escorted his wife and baby in, settling Cerisa near her mother.
“Oh, let me see that boy!” Marie held out her arms.
Cerisa gave her son to her and sat down. “We’ve decided on a name. Gustav Pierre Duval.”
“Simply wonderful! We will set the baptism for this Sunday.” Marie grinned broadly, kissing the baby on the head.
“Which will work out well,” Pierce said, still standing. It was then Francois noticed his uniform was back on.
“What are you trying to say?” he asked.
“What have you two decided?” Pierce shot back, nodding toward Ada.
“That’s a rather blunt question,” Francois shot back. There was an edginess to the Yankee that he didn’t like.
“Are you staying?” Pierce asked Ada. “Because if you want to return north, I can help you on that.”
Ada’s mouth dropped. Francois leapt up, ignoring his ankle screaming. “Why would she leave?”
Ada’s heart stopped when the Union general before her gave her a ticket home. Home to what? A man who’d betrayed and lied to her? To a job duty where the commanding staff ignored her skill set? To a war of hell and pain? Of men she couldn’t help and a multitude demanding nursing help? Or stay to marry Francois, who had slept with slaves, had a mulatto child, and was in love with his brother’s wife, making her feel second place, like a fill in. Her heart pounded, her head ached and had been for the past week. Here was a ticket out. Yet her heart was tugged in another direction…
She faced Francois. He’d been quiet but she knew he was doing everything to help her here. Though they’re still at odds…
“Don’t leave,” he begged. “I love you.”
“No,” but she nodded, her heart struggling to beat. “You love this Emma more than me.”
“No, no,” he said quickly, dropping to sit next to her again and taking her hand. “I did at one time. Drove me to the war. But then I met you.” He smiled.
“And what of your brood of slaves?” The words came out with anger twisted around each letter. She shouldn’t have put it that way, because his eyes flared in reply.
“I don’t have a ‘brood of slaves’! Merd!”
“Francois, do not use that language in this house!” his mother demanded.
His nose twitched. It was rather cute and almost made her giggle, that he was still under his mother’s rules over cussing.
“They are all free! Jack set them free. That should make you happy!” he got up and walked away only to turn and come back. “I’m sorry I did not tell you of the family before. I apologize for my former misbehavior. Jack, Cerisa, Emma and now you have reprimanded me for doing as I was told. It was wrong, I understand it now.” He took her hand, and dropped to one knee. “Please, accept my apology. My sins you now know and will not continue. Please.” He kissed her hand. “I love you.”
Her heart beat wildly. Her fingers burned from his touch, sending lightning bolts through her, her body begging for more. She licked her lips, her mouth too dry to talk. So, she nodded. “Yes, yes, I believe you. You’ve been working so hard to get into my graces and you’ve won. You’ve been the only one not discrediting my credentials as a doctor, which won me in the first place, made me look past your gray uniform.” She smiled to the point of hurt. “And even here, you’ve been my supporter. Thank you.”
He kissed her hard. She vaguely heard the room explode in claps and a baby wail over them, but what she truly felt was her blood racing, the taste of him and the rock hardness of his body next to hers. Slowly, her upbringing made her pull back. Ladies don’t act like slatterns, she reminded herself, throwing themselves at men. But, oh, how she wanted him!
Apart, he gazed into her eyes warmly though he asked, “I won you over by believing you’re a doctor? Obviously, you are! You saved my life! But what of your heart? Any chance at having it?”
She giggled. “Of course. I love you!”
“This is wonderful!” Pierce boomed. “We shall have a priest here shortly.”
Francois’s whole soul sang joy at winning her hand. But his brother-in-law’s talk of a quick marriage made him leery.
“Perhaps my bride might like a wedding,” he suggested.
“Now? Nah. There’s a war going on!” Duval exclaimed.
“Tell us why are you in uniform?” Francois asked, noting Cerisa’s face paling at the comment as she clung to her baby tightly.
The man inhaled. “I’ve been called to duty back east. I must go.”
“Pardon moi?” Marie asked.
“What?” Francois threw out.
“I have my orders. I do have a command. But I was reluctant to leave until all was situated here. Leaving my wife at her home is good, but to cover her and my son, I needed to know she had protection. You’re a rebel. With me gone, you’re in charge. If the Union army comes here, I needed to know they were protected. I wasn’t sure with you having served in the Confederate army and a Southerner. But if you marry a Yankee doctor, then I feel the balance here is good.”
“You’re merd!” Francois shouted back.
“You,” Pierce said, looking at Ada and ignoring Francois. “I’ll put in good word for you in command and get you ‘re-assigned’ to here. Your medical services are greatly needed and it will be incoming Yankee money, which is far better than the Confederate script that isn’t worth a hill of beans.”
“Cerisa?” He begged of his sister to say something.
She sighed. It was now he noticed her eyes slightly puffy and red. “I cannot win against the Union Army. But, if you two are here, Gustav and I will be safe.”
He rolled his eyes. But Ada took his hand. He stared, hoping and praying she loved him enough to stay. He’d been a fool about Emma, but this lady had stolen his heart. If she left, he’d surely die.
“Please tell me you’ll marry me,” he pleaded desperately.
Her eyes watered. Damn! He hoped that meant out of love and not hate. When a tear fell, he wasn’t sure what to do.
“You, Francois, are everything I despised. You’re a slave owner, you took rights where there were none, fathered without regard and loved another you could never have. I should run, but you also managed to show me you could change, that you do have a heart, and in doing so, won mine. So yes, I will marry you.”
His heart skipped a beat. He wanted to jump in joy. “Yes! Mon Dieu, thank you, ma chère.”
“We will be fine. Both protected from the war, in a way.” She smiled. “Now, kiss me, knowing I love you heart and soul.”
His stomach flittered at her words. The warmth of her smile and the fire in her eyes ignited his own and he took her into his arms, kissing her hard and deep. He’d gone to war to forget love, only to find his real true love was a lady made of steel and fire. He’d love her to hell and back!
~The End~
Author’s Notes
The American Civil War is the pivotal point in the U.S. History, the effects still riveting us today. It is a time period that yells at me through my characters my muse creates, mixed with real life people from. I am driven to write their story. But as a historian, I am compelled to write these stories with as much accuracy as I can.
The War itself had been brewing for decades. The country was divided by industry and agriculture; old money verses entrepreneurs and new money. Politics debated and were influenced by established power and new congressmen. Yet the straw that broke the camels back was slavery issue. Every Congressmen, every president fought to make compromises, knowing well that the divide between the N
orth & the South was deepening and tempers were flaring. Every one in office did their best to not have a war break out under their watch, so they would not hold the blame, yet nothing was ever solved and the volcano would erupt with blood.
The Abolitionist movement had started decades before the war. It swayed the North, an area no longer using slave labor, to swing its way. They were the South’s annoying pest, one the planters couldn’t eliminate. So why didn’t the Abolitionists get slavery ended? For the simple fact that there were different chapters of abolitionists and they did not get along. Slavery was costing the South heavily on a financial end, but the abolitionists pushed to get the owners to free their people, even give them money to start a new life but without a solution to labor. Labor was the issue, as the South had the highest exporting product for the United States: Cotton. It was labor intensive in a climate that was hotter than hades. But it was King Cotton that would kill the South’s lifestyle in the years to come.
In this story, it is mentioned how the French viewed the peculiar institution differently than the English/Americans. Under the French and Spanish, slaves had to be Catholic and attend mass; all marriages were church marriages and not the fabricated spectacle the Americans did. ‘Jump over the broom’ was a slave marriage, not legal in any means, therefore if one of the couple had to be sold, the owner didn’t regret it, unlike a church wedding, with the couple legally and religiously binded. Under the French, slaves didn’t work on Sundays—not only was that a day of devotion, but it was also a day they could relax or hire themselves out, as some in Ste Genevieve and St. Louis did, working in the coal mining, and the money they earned, they kept. Planned right, the pay could allow a few to buy their own freedom. Once free, society treated them as Frenchmen.
In taking the reader back to the time of the War can be treacherous as words from back then have different connotations or use today. In the lexicon of the period, ‘darkie’ was used but African American was not. So use of the period correct terms is just a step to the past.
Ada’s story of being a woman doctor is not that unusual. At the mid-19th century, Pennsylvania, Ohio and New York had medical schools that allowed women. In the South, there was one medical school that allowed a woman, and that was due to her being the owner’s daughter, though her practice was small and set to the care of woman and children. Of the five woman doctors who applied with the Union Medical Dept., all were allowed in as nurses only. Medical studies at the time were either by tutoring with an established doctor, though if he was a quack, they student learned the same methods. Schooling was way different at that time in that it lasted only two years and the second year was a repeat of the first year. Teaching surgeries were conducting in assembly-style setting, meaning most of the students couldn’t see anything and even these were scarce as they had to have a cadaver to work on and robbing from the graveyard was highly discouraged. Many graduated with a set of medical books and a prayer.
During the War, with the lack of technology (no x-rays, labs), and a sad set of guidelines on how the human body worked, most gun shot wounds to limbs were treated with amputation with rare chances of reconstruction. Plus the influx of hundreds of wounded, coming off the battlefield often made doctors not take the time need to see if it was necessary and not a convenient way to move onto the next. The reuse of bandages and ill-kept equipment made any survivor lucky.
This story is Francois redemption, in an attempt wash his sins away. Not an easy task, especially with his heart set on a woman like Ada who stood for her beliefs. The two are at opposite ends of the war and despite it all love can win!
To read more about this period, below is a glimpse of part of the bibliography for this book, The Better Angels.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion, (1861-65). Surgeon-General Joseph K Barnes. (Washington: Government Printing Office), 1870.
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Civil War Medicine, Challenges and Triumphs, Alfred Jay Bollet, M.D. (Tucson, Arizona: Galen Press, Ltd.), 2002.
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Gangrene and Glory, Medical Care during the American Civil War, Frank R. Freemon (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press), 2001.
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Mine Run: A Campaign of Lost Opportunities, October 21, 1863-May 1, 1864, Martin F. Graham & George F. Skoch (Lynchburg, Virginia: H.E. Howard, Inc.), 1987.
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Soul By Soul, Life Inside The Antebellum Slave Market, Walter Johnson (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Havard University Press), 1999.
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Lee’s Tigers, The Louisiana Infantry in the Army of Northern Virginia, Terry L. Jones (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press), 1987.
* * *
Hell Itself, The Battle of the Wilderness, May 5-7, 1864, Chris Mackowski (California: Savas Beatie), 2016.
* * *
Resources of the Southern Fields and Forests, Medical, Economical, and Agricultural, Francis Peyre Porcher, M.D. (San Francisco: Norman Publishing), 1991.
* * *
The Battle of the Wilderness, May 5-6, 1864, Gordon C. Rhea (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press), 1994.
* * *
Masters of The Big House, Elite Slaveholders of the Mid-Nineteenth Century South, William Kauffman Scarborough (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press), 2003.
* * *
A Woman Doctor’s Civil War, Esther Hill Hawks’ Diary, Gerald Schwartz, Editor (University of South Carolina Press), 2nd Printing 1986.
About the Author
A USA Today Bestselling author, Gina Danna was born in St. Louis, Missouri, and has spent the better part of her life reading. History has always been her love and she spent numerous hours devouring historical romance stories, always dreaming of writing one of her own. After years of writing historical academic papers to achieve her undergraduate and graduate degrees in History, and then for museum programs and exhibits, she found the time to write her own historical romantic fiction novels.
Now, under the supervision of her dogs, she writes amid a library of research books, with her only true break away is to spend time with her other life long dream - her Arabian horse - with him, her muse can play.