by Aileen Fish
“Cole!” Juliet dropped beside him, taking his face in her palms. “Please get up. Don’t stop. Not here.” Her cold hands covered his face. “My God, you’re burning up.” She cursed under her breath. “We have to get you out of these cold woods and to a doctor.”
“Well, well, if it isn’t the Yankee and his woman,” a sinister voice called.
No! Panic shot through Cole as his eyes snapped open. Juliet! He had to keep her safe. She was his responsibility. He’d put her in danger. He groped for the sidearm resting in the holster on his hip, wildly searching the woods for Reynolds and his men. His head spun dizzyingly, and he just couldn’t seem to focus. The trees all seemed to blur together. Horror filled him. I think I really am dying. What would come of Juliet at the hands of Reynolds? What of the information he had with the power to end the war? How many more would parish because he’d failed?
Chapter 6
Kneeling beside Cole, Juliet lifted her gaze in horror. A single gray clad soldier shifted slowly amidst the trees with a rifle barrel trained on them. “Sergeant Jennings!” Almost instantly she recognized the kindly soldier from Reynolds’ troop. She didn’t know whether to be relieved or panicked. “Don’t shoot us. Please.”
Jennings didn’t flinch.
Juliet swallowed nervously, her gaze flipping from the sergeant’s partially obscured face to the rifle barrel and back again.
Finally he lowered the weapon, face pensive. “I don’t want to shoot you,” he grumbled. “He looks half dead as it is.”
Juliet’s shoulders slumped in relief and she began shaking. What a wretched day this had become. Forcing herself to remain focused she took quick stock of the surrounding woods. She didn’t readily see any of Reynolds’ other men.
Cole moaned beside her. “I failed. I’m sorry, Juliet… so sorry.”
Jennings moved cautiously in on them. “What is he mumbling about?”
Juliet squeezed Cole’s hand. His shoulder wound must be infected. He was weak from the fever, and she didn’t want delirium to set in. She closed her eyes. Think, Juliet. Think. She knew how to help Cole if there was a safe place to rest. A plan started taking shape in her mind. It might be total madness, but… She glanced up to Sergeant Jennings. “Would you help us?”
“Help you?” Jennings jaw dropped at the prospect.
“Cole has information that will end the war.”
Jennings froze, and stared at her for an agonizing few seconds. “Th-the fighting could be over for good?”
“It’s true,” Cole affirmed. “The intelligence I’m carrying would give the Yankees the advantage, but…”
“It would all be over,” Juliet finished for Cole. “The war could be finished in a matter of months. Weeks even.”
Jennings leaned heavily against a tree, expression dazed. “No more fighting,” he whispered, more to himself than to them. He shook his head, eyes flipping back and forth between Juliet and Cole. “These days I don’t much care which side wins,” he said softly “I just want it to be over. Almost every day I talk myself out of deserting. All I want is to go home to my wife and little girl.” He slung his rifle strap over his shoulder. “Is this a ploy? I swear to you, if I find out you’re lying I’ll skin you both alive and leave you to rot.”
“I swear on all that’s holy,” Cole replied gravely.
For a full minute Jennings did not utter a sound. Finally he nodded curtly. “What can I do?”
Stunned by the unexpected turn of events Juliet’s heart skipped a beat. What an unbelievable stroke of luck. As though a guardian angel was watching out for them. “Help me get him up. We need to find a house or some place with good shelter. I know how to tend his wound until we find a doctor.”
“I passed a farmhouse not too far back,” Jennings said.
“There isn’t time for that,” Cole protested. “We must keep moving.”
“You’re in no condition to travel on, Cole. You’re too weak even to stand. We’ll go to the farmhouse to regroup and form a plan.”
“Listen to your girl, Turner. Life is always easier when you at least pretend to agree with the wife.” Jennings knelt beside Cole, and dragged one of Cole’s arms over his neck and shoulders. Juliet wrapped her arm around Cole’s waist and together she and Sergeant Jennings hoisted him upward.
Cole groaned, and his whole body stiffened. He cursed under his breath.
Worry gnawed at Juliet. Her mother had taught her well over the years and she knew how sick Cole was. She knew from past experience that she had a narrow window to help him or his death would be imminent. Deep sorrow settled in her breast with the thought of losing him. Even after everything that had transpired she couldn’t deny the fact that she loved him, and more importantly… she didn’t want to.
“The road isn’t far,” Jennings said, disrupting the heavy thread of her thoughts. “You should see the farmhouse as soon as we break through those trees.”
“Good,” she replied, more than a little out of breath with the effort of assisting Cole. He was solid muscle and a crick was forming in her neck where he leaned on her.
She and Jennings helped Cole through the last of the trees and Juliet’s gaze instantly honed in on a modest two-story brick farmhouse. A stone fence lined the front yard and a porch stretched invitingly from the front door. A more welcome sight had never met her eyes. The whitewashed front door opened before the three of them made it halfway across the hard-packed dirt road. An elderly woman in a simple brown dress with a black shawl draped over her shoulders stepped on her porch. Worry etched her weathered face. The three of them must make for a sorry sight indeed.
“Do you need help?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Jennings replied, hefting Cole up. “This man is wounded.”
“Come in. Come in.” She waved them forward and opened the door wide. “I’ll boil some water and fetch anything else you need. It is the least I can do for one of our soldiers.”
Juliet quashed a twinge of guilt. Little did this woman know that despite the color of Cole’s uniform he was not one of her soldiers.
~*~
For the better part of an hour Juliet toiled over Cole’s wound. She stripped away the old bandages and cleansed the mangled tissue before applying fresh bandages. She swabbed him with cool clothes and fed him sips of water and tea. She drew on everything her mother had taught her over the years, but she couldn’t be certain it was enough. Cole mumbled thanks, and drifted in and out of sleep. The poor man needed rest.
The kindly woman, Mrs. Hughes, had offered them a bedroom, but Juliet had insisted on keeping him near a fire. Not only would Cole benefit from the dry warmth, but she wanted easy access to a door in the event that Captain Reynolds and his men showed up.
Sergeant Jennings prowled the house, obsessively checking the windows. He didn’t even sit to eat the food that Mrs. Hughes offered, preferring instead to eat while he paced. It wasn’t until dusk began to fall that Jennings approached she and Cole.
“Have you eaten yet?” he asked, motioning to the plate of stew and bread sitting beside her.
Juliet glanced at the food long since gone cold. “I’m afraid I don’t have much appetite, Sergeant Jennings.”
“Call me Curtis,” he said, scrubbing a hand over his face. He looked tired and a bit sad. “After today I’m not Sergeant Jennings anymore.”
“I suppose not. I’m sorry.”
Curtis shook his head. “After this morning I don’t want to be. I’ve had enough of Reynolds and his evil ways.” He nodded toward Cole. “Did you know about Turner last night?”
Juliet shifted her gaze across Cole’s haggard form. “He came to me for help and I hid him in a secret compartment, but I had no idea he was working—” she dropped her voice and glanced to the sitting room door to be sure Mrs. Hughes did not overhear. The old woman had given them plenty of privacy since their arrival seeming happy just to have people in her house, but Juliet knew they couldn’t be too careful. “I had no idea that he was working f
or the Yankees until you arrived.” She shrugged. “I put two and two together, but I didn’t want to believe it. Not until I heard it from his lips.” She reflected on the past day. Had so little time passed? A mere day? It seemed like weeks. An eternity. “I said the most wicked things to him,” she confessed sadly. “Even after he saved me from Reynolds I was angry and bitter.” She traced the curve of his chin with her finger. “What would your wife say if she learned you had helped the Yankees?”
“I have no intention of allowing her to find out.” Curtis leaned forward resting his forearms on his knees. “However, I’d like to think she’d just be happy to have me home.”
“I’m coming to feel that way myself. I’ve loved him for as long as I can remember. Our families have always been friends.” She threaded her fingers through the wavy locks of his dark hair.
“Then what seems to be the trouble with helping him now?”
Juliet sighed, visually tracing every familiar facet of Cole’s face. The icy walls she’d erected around her heart threatened to crack and melt away entirely. “My brother died fighting for the Confederacy. To help the Yankees now feels as though he perished for nothing.”
“I understand.” Curtis met her gaze, his eyes filled with compassion and empathy. “However, more death will not honor your brother. The best way to honor the fallen is to go on living and remember their sacrifice whatever the ultimate outcome of the war.”
A small smile tugged at Juliet’s lips. “That sounds like something my mother would say. She has no capacity for hate or unkindness.”
“Nor does my wife.” A wistful grin turned Curtis’s lips. “Your mother must be a wonderful woman.”
“Yes, she is.” Juliet frowned. With all that had transpired in the last hours she’d scarcely had a moment to think of her mother. “Curtis?”
“Yes?”
“Did my mother return to my home before you and the rest of Captain Reynolds’ men left?”
Surprise at her question lit his expression. “No. I don’t’ believe Reynolds had any notion anyone but you lived at the house. The captain was incensed by Turner’s attack and we followed you almost immediately. The storm hit, and we didn’t get far before having to hole up in a barn to wait it out.”
Relief flooded Juliet. “Thank heavens. I have been eaten alive with worry for her. I could only imagine what Reynolds would do to her if she’d returned home and found him there.” Of course now her mother would return home to a ransacked house and no trace of Juliet. “I’ll need to return home as soon as possible so she knows I’m all right.”
Curtis raked both hands through his hair. “What do you plan to do, Miss Jackson? With Turner laid up I don’t see any hope of him carrying his information on.”
“I’ve been thinking about that,” she replied. The moment of truth had come. She had two options, Cole’s rebel intelligence could die here, or… “We’ll have to carry the information on ourselves.”
“I agree,” Jennings replied without hesitation. “Where are we going? Night has fallen, and I suggest we leave immediately. We’ll come back for him as soon as we’re able.”
Juliet chewed at her lower lip. “That’s the trouble. I don’t know exactly. Cole was rather vague with the specifics of where to find the Colonel that he reports to.” She rested a hand on Cole’s chest. He was breathing fast, but finally resting comfortably. “We’ll have to wait until he’s awake enough to tell us what to do.”
Cole groaned and rustled beside her. “I’m awake,” he mumbled. “Heard everything.”
“What do you think of Curtis and I taking the information on ourselves?”
“Absolutely not,” he said abruptly. “I won’t hear of you going, Juliet. This is my mission. I never meant for you to be involved, and I don’t want you getting hurt.”
“I’m already involved, Cole, and I’m much more fit to travel than you. Let’s take advantage of it.”
“No,” he protested, his jaw setting stubbornly. “I don’t like it.”
“Be reasonable, Cole, if you try to go on now it will be the death of you.”
“Better me than you,” he said with more strength than she’d expected. “Believe what you will, Jules, but I love you.”
She reached forward and clasped his hand. “I know that, Cole, truly I do. Now you must believe me when I say that I want to help, and so does Sergeant Jennings. Killing yourself won’t do anyone any good.”
Conflicted emotions roiled in Cole’s eyes. “What do you propose to do? I can’t very well stay here for long. Reynolds will have half the Confederate Army scouring the countryside for me before we know it.”
Juliet glanced between Cole and Jennings. “I’m glad you asked that,” she said with a little smile. “I have a plan.”
The men shared a glance, and then faced her. “We’re all ears.”
~*~
Cole stared at the ceiling in Mrs. Hughes’ parlor, grinding his teeth. Rest… Juliet wanted him to rest.
Impossible!
How could he rest knowing that the woman he loved was carrying stolen military intelligence to the Union Army in the middle of Rebel territory? He wasn’t in that bad of shape. It was only his shoulder. A couple more hours rest and he could have plowed on. He hated that he wasn’t with Juliet. All the more he hated the uncertainty of the situation. This mission had been a disaster from the start. Maybe he should go after them. They hadn’t been gone five minutes. If he—
Crash! The glass window facing Cole quite suddenly exploded, and shards of glass peppered his entire body.
Mrs. Hughes screamed from another room.
What the hell? Acting on Pure instinct Cole rolled from the settee, and snatched his gun from the floor. Dragging himself behind the low sitting sofa he grappled for his bearings, and cocked the pistol hammer.
He was fairly certain a gunshot had broken the window. Had Reynolds and his men discovered him at the farmhouse? Had they spotted him through the window and taken a shot?
A rush of pure horror chilled his blood. Had the troop of fiends already found Juliet and Curtis?
“It is futile to resist, Turner,” Reynolds familiar voice called. “Come out and face your end like a man.”
Keeping low, Cole belly crawled to the parlor door. A set of stairs sat just to his right. He needed to find a position within the house that would give him an advantage, however brief. If he could pick a couple of those scoundrels off before they killed him it would give Juliet and Curtis a good head start. Reynolds wouldn’t stop searching for Juliet until both she and Cole were dead. He was certain of it. For the moment he had to believe she was still alive and well. Surely Reynolds would have made the fact known if he’d come across her leaving the house.
Mrs. Hughes hunkered behind the door, terror blazing in her eyes. “We have to get out of the house.”
“No,” Cole whispered as loudly as he dared. “There are several men. They probably have the house surrounded. Find a place to hide. I’ll do what I can to protect you.”
The kind old woman, who’d shown him nothing but hospitality, stared at him with a hard, mistrustful glare. “Who are you?”
“A dead man.”
Chapter 7
Snow and brittle grass crunched beneath Juliet’s boots as she and Sergeant Jennings hurried across the night-cloaked field.
“I really hope this plan of yours works,” Curtis muttered almost under his breath.
Juliet cast a longing glance over her shoulder as the farmhouse faded into the night. “It will.” It must. Cole’s very life depended on it. “Do you think—”
Pow!
The high-powered crack of gunfire split the night air. She and Curtis froze instantly.
“That came from the direction of the house.” Could it be Reynolds men? “Cole!” Without a second though she lifted her skirts and sprinted for the house.
“Juliet, no!” Curtis grabbed her arm, roughly jerking her backward. “Let me go back. You must keep going on.”
/> “But Cole is back there—”
“I’ll go back to help him.” Curtis held her fast. “There is no sense in all three of us getting killed. Take the information on to Colonel Raymond. Make sure our efforts, maybe even our deaths, are not in vain.”
Torn Juliet stared at the silhouette of the farmhouse. Cole needed her, but he’d also been willing to die to get his information to Colonel Raymond. “Very well. I’ll go.” Impulsively she grabbed the sergeant in a quick hug. “Be safe.” She backed away. “Take care of Cole.”
“I will.” Curtis dug in his pouch and pressed a round metal object into her hand. “It’s my compass. Take it.” Without another word, he broke into a run toward the farmhouse.
Gulping back the lump forming in her throat Juliet steeled her nerves, and smoothed her thumb over the compass. Dodging into the shadows she ran away from the farmhouse as fast as she dared in the darkness.
Deep in her bones she sensed this would be the last time she saw Cole or Sergeant Jennings alive.
~*~
Cole settled low behind a second story windowsill. Near as he could tell this window was situated directly above the back door of the house. Gently he eased the windowpane upward, and slid the pistol barrel out over the wood. Three men stood below, most likely keeping watch in case he fled from the house. Taking careful aim he exhaled and slowly squeezed the trigger.
Crack.
The soldier in the middle dropped like a stone. The others flinched and skittered away in confusion.
Cole shifted a few inches and honed in on the man to the left. He cocked the hammer a second time, and squeezed off another shot. The bullet found its mark, and the man howled as he collapsed to the ground.
