Eleanor herself had made crude remarks about her “privileged status,” about her being a lover to the enemy; but Audra knew she was simply jealous. She had not even been back to see Lee after that first visit, and her only other contact had been when he rode up to the house the day of the shelling, then returned a few hours later to explain why it had happened. She had not seen him since, and now she worried that once she went back to Brennan Manor, she would lose track of him forever. Deep inside she knew part of the reason she stayed in Baton Rouge was Lee.
She knew her father would be angry with her, and worried, but staying in the city for the time being seemed best. The important thing was that Toosie could be with Lena, while Audra could not only help her aunt and cousin, but could continue to check the daily roster of dead and wounded Confederates, as well as get her mail sooner. She still had not heard from Joey.
She clung to the sack of bread, potatoes, and carrots, thinking that at Brennan Manor they could at least continue to grow some of their own food if worst came to worst. God knew they had enough land for it. Her thoughts were interrupted then when she heard gunshots not far away. A man cried out, and when she turned in the direction of the sound, a Federal soldier who had been standing guard across the street fell forward. Then came more gunshots, and she realized she should not have come to town so late. It was already getting dark.
“Rebels!” someone shouted.
More gunfire. Audra backed against the wall of a building in an alley, and she could hear a barrage of yips and yelps and chilling war cries as the town suddenly came alive with battle. She had heard stories of the way Confederate soldiers whooped and yelled when attacking, something the Yankees called the “Rebel yell.” For the first time in the war she was seeing real fighting close up. She realized that somehow Confederate soldiers had suddenly swarmed upon the city in a surprised attack, and she had been caught in the middle of it!
The whole town broke into a bedlam of yelling and shooting. Regular citizens caught in the melee were running every which way, screaming women dragging their children indoors, a few male citizens stepping outside and taking potshots at Federals. Audra ran through the alley to another street, but everywhere she went, it was the same mass confusion. She heard a startling, loud boom then from one of the gunboats in the harbor, and she knew that because of the rebel attack, more shelling would take place. A building two doors away exploded into a million splinters of wood, and Audra screamed and ducked, feeling something skim across her upper back.
She crouched back into the alley, not sure which way to run. It was impossible to know where a shell might hit next, and as night fell, it was also impossible to tell a Federal from a Confederate, unless they were under the direct light of a street lamp. She decided for the moment to keep to the darkness of the alley and pray that no one would see her, that no more shells would hit close by. A few men charged past her on horseback, and she caught sight of a yellow stripe down the side of one man’s pants.
Federals. A real man-to-man war had come to Baton Rouge, and she knew some Federals would say that gave them license to loot at will. How was she going to get home safely? More explosions hit nearby, and she forced herself not to scream, for fear of being found. She stared wide-eyed as another volley of shots rang out and a soldier’s body landed on the nearby boardwalk under a street lamp. She could see he was a Federal, and she could also see that his back was littered with bloody holes. Two Confederate soldiers ran up to him and began rummaging through the dead man’s pockets, laughing when they found some money. They threw papers and pictures aside, and she grew sick at the sight of her own kind doing such a thing. She stayed quiet, thinking how ironic it was that she should be afraid of Confederate soldiers.
One of them let out a rebel whoop, and they started to leave, but more gunfire cut them down. Audra backed away as one fell, dead, into the alley. Wounded, the second man had begun crawling for shelter when a Federal soldier rode up to him and fired point-blank at his head, obliterating the man’s face. This time Audra could not quell a cry of revulsion. The Union soldier peered into the dark alley, and Audra turned and ran. She heard a horse bearing down on her, and when he got close, she turned and swung the sack of potatoes as hard as she could, landing them against the surprised man’s chest and knocking him from his horse.
Audra then ran in the opposite direction, nearly reaching the street when someone grabbed her. “You little rebel wench!” the man snarled. “What are you doing hiding in this alley, huh? Have you been shooting at us, or are you just some whore walking the streets and got caught in the middle of this?”
Audra screamed, but there was so much shooting and shelling and shouting going on around them that no one noticed. The soldier dragged her back into the alley, and she kicked and scratched at him until he landed a fist into her jaw. The blow stunned her, and she felt herself falling into the dirt. Instantly the man was on top of her, tearing at her dress. “You got money on you, woman? Jewelry?”
Audra could feel the weight of him. “No,” she squeaked in terror.
His mouth was close to hers now. “Well, then, I’ll just get somethin’ else out of you. With all that’s goin’ on right now, nobody is ever gonna know we’re here.”
He tried to kiss her, but Audra grimaced and turned her face away, trying to push him off. Their struggle was interrupted when the budding beside them suddenly burst from a shelling. The explosion was so loud that for the next few minutes Audra was literally deaf. She felt the man’s body fall heavily against her, and she literally huddled under it while wood and bricks came crashing down around them. A fire broke out and lit up the alley so that when she finally pushed the man’s body off her, she could clearly see the piece of wood embedded in his neck.
Audra groaned and crawled away, then looked down at herself to see she was covered with his blood. She wiped at it frantically, gasping and crying, wondering if she would go insane before this night was over. The fire roared brighter and closer, and although she had no idea where to run, she knew she had to get away. She shook her head, her ears still ringing, and looked around, then ran into the street, which was alive with fighting. In her panic she ran for several blocks, not even sure in which direction she was going, until suddenly she stumbled right into a troop of Federals making their way toward the heaviest fighting. “Get her!” someone shouted. “Jesus, her dress is all tore. I can see her tits!” someone else yelled.
Men let out chilling cries of excitement, and their hands grabbed at her. She screamed and fought, and to her surprise her attackers suddenly backed away. “Get hold of her and put your jacket on her!” a familiar voice shouted somewhere nearby.
Audra heard the sound of a whip, and a man’s scream. “You goddamn sons of bitches came here to fight soldiers, not women!” a voice shouted. “I want your names, rank, and regiment! I’ll see that you’re all whipped within an inch of your life!”
Audra shivered as someone wrapped a jacket around her. “It’s all right, ma’am,” came a man’s voice. He tried to help her up, but she hit at him and curled up. Suddenly there came another explosion, more gunfire. A horse reared and whinnied.
“Get yourselves around the north side!” someone ordered. “We’ll trap them inside the city. And stick to fighting the rebels and keep your hands off the women!” Audra looked up to see that the man giving the orders wore a blue uniform and sat on a horse which was whinnying and prancing with fear from the noise and conflagration around it. The soldier pulled a rifle out and raised it, aiming and firing twice. She heard men cry out, and a Confederate fell from the roof of a nearby building. The man on the horse whirled, shouting an order to another officer to see that “the woman” was safely escorted to wherever she needed to go. In the light of the fire she could see his face.
“Lee!” she cried out.
He turned, horror in his eyes when he realized who she was. “Audra! What the hell—”
More shots rang out, and Audra screamed when one hit Lee’s hor
se. The animal reared and came down, landing on Lee’s bad leg. Rebel soldiers attacked, and Lee’s men got into hand-to-hand combat with them. Lee squirmed out from under his horse, and Audra rolled into the shadows and watched as Federals and Confederates fought wildly, grunting like animals, shooting and stabbing. Lee managed to get off two more shots, but then a Confederate lunged at him with his bayonet. Lee leapt out of the way at the last minute, and Audra could see that he was having trouble with his leg. He turned and charged directly into the man, and they rolled on the ground. Lee landed a big fist into the Confederate soldier’s face, and the man lay sprawled on his back, unconscious.
The rest of the Confederates took off running, and several of the Federals ran after them. Lee, dirty and panting, stumbled over to Audra, kneeling close to her. “Come on. I’ll get you to safety myself.”
She recoiled from him, seeing only a hated Yankee soldier.
“It’s all right, Audra. It’s me…Lee. Let me get you away from here.”
She wrapped the jacket close around herself. “He…made me lose…the bread and potatoes,” she whimpered. “We needed…that food.”
“Bread and potatoes? Who are you talking about?”
She gasped in a sob. “In…the alley…a Yankee attacked me! The building exploded…killed him.” She turned away. “Don’t touch me!”
Lee grabbed her close and forced her back, out of the light. “Audra, it’s all right. You’re just confused right now. Let me take you to your aunt’s house.”
She was cradled in familiar arms again. He was the enemy, yet when his arms were around her, he was just Lee, and Lee would never hurt her. She curled up against him, and he rose, picking her up in his arms. “Take over for me, Lieutenant Armstrong,” she heard him shout to someone. “God knows there won’t be much you can do with all the confusion here tonight.”
“Yes, sir.”
“I’m going to take this woman home to safety. I’ll come back soon as I can.”
Audra felt herself being carried. “I wish I had my horse,” she heard Lee mutter.
She could feel that his gait was uneven, and as she began to think more clearly, she realized how difficult it must be for him to carry her when his leg must be bothering him badly. “I can walk,” she told him. “I’m all right, Lee.”
“Here. Someone left a horse tied.”
Audra was not sure where they were, but the fighting seemed to be farther away. Lee lifted her onto a horse and untied the animal, then grunted with pain as he mounted behind her. He rode off into the darkness, and Audra could only trust he knew how to get her back without more trouble.
What irony there was in this war. At first she had been afraid of her own Confederate soldiers, sensing that the ones who had so disgracefully rummaged the pockets of their dead victim would have abused her just as savagely as the Yankee. Yankees had attacked her, and they were killing Confederates back in town, setting fires. Yet she was leaning against the chest of a Yankee man, trusting him to help her. She wondered sometimes who the enemy really was in this war, and if any of these men even knew anymore why they were fighting.
She heard more explosions, each one becoming more distant. Lee kept one strong arm around her so she wouldn’t fall, and minutes later he headed his horse up the hill toward her uncle’s mansion. She heard someone screaming and wailing then, and she could see her aunt running back and forth on the veranda, carrying on about the conflagration below.
“Who’s there! Who’s there!” Aunt Janine screamed as Audra and Lee approached.
“It’s Audra, Aunt Janine.”
Eleanor stood inside the doorway, apparently helpless to calm her mother.
“Audra, be careful!” Eleanor yelled to her. In the next instant Janine turned, pointing a revolver straight at them.
“You!” Aunt Janine screamed. “Traitor! My own niece a traitor! My own sister’s daughter! It’s a good thing Sophia is dead!”
“Aunt Janine!”
“Get off my property!” the woman screamed. “Get off, or I’ll shoot you!”
“Aunt Janine, don’t do this!”
“Mother, stop it!” Eleanor yelled. “It’s just Audra!”
“She’s with her Yankee lover! Get out of my sight!” The woman fired the gun, and Audra screamed when the bullet whizzed past her so closely that she could almost feel a brush of air.
“She’s goddamn crazy!” Lee shouted. He turned the horse and rode off.
“My God,” Audra wept. “What will I do! Where will I go? I have to get back to Brennan Manor, Lee!”
“Not tonight, you won’t. I’m taking you to the schoolhouse. You can stay there until I figure out how to get you safely home. You should have gone back a long time ago. Baton Rouge might have been safer once, but it isn’t anymore.”
“I can’t stay at the school,” she wailed. “What will people think!”
“What does it matter anymore? You have no choice for tonight. Just do as I say, Audra. Promise me, dammit, or I’ll be so worried about you, I’ll end up getting myself killed.”
She shouldn’t care what happened to him. Down the hill she could see several buildings still on fire. What were the Yankees doing to Baton Rouge? It had been such a pretty, peaceful city. Still, Lee Jeffreys was one Yankee she couldn’t bear to see lying dead, and right now he was her only refuge. “I promise,” she said resignedly.
They reached the schoolhouse, and Lee got her inside, leading her to a back room and lighting a lamp. It was sparsely furnished…Union Army blankets, more guns and ammunition, a canteen, a blue uniform hanging on a hook. On a nearby table sat a wash pan and razor under a mirror mounted on the wall.
Lee turned up the lamp. “My God, look at you!” He removed the jacket a soldier had given her. Audra was still so confused and upset, she didn’t even notice that part of her torn dress hung open enough that one breast was revealed. Lee tried to ignore it, fought to keep back memories better left buried. “You’ve got to get these clothes off,” he told her. “I can’t tell if that blood is from the man who attacked you, or if some of it is yours.” He started to unbutton her dress, and Audra went rigid, wrapping her arms around herself.
“Don’t!”
Lee gently touched the bruise on her face. “Audra, this is me. Please let me help you. It’s all right.”
She watched his eyes, those blue, blue eyes that always had a way of breaking down her resistance. Pain seared through her upper back, and she knew she needed help. “What is going to happen, Lee? When will it all end?” She broke into tears, and he pulled her close.
“I don’t know, but we can’t worry about it tonight.”
She wept quietly and offered no more resistance as he removed her dress. She took her arms out of the sleeves and stood so he could pull it down along with her slips. She stepped out of it, grasping at her torn camisole.
“Here.” He reached over to a chair and grabbed a shirt from it. “Put this on.” He started to help her when he saw the cut across her upper back. “Wait a minute! Jesus, you’ve been wounded,” he muttered. “I’ll get something to dress it with.”
He tossed the shirt across the bed and rose. Audra watched him pour some clean water into the wash pan. He was himself filthy and bloody from fighting, his uniform torn. He was limping badly, and his eyes looked tired. He had cut his hair, but not very neatly, and she knew how much he hated having to be here; but he was a man bent on preserving the Union in whatever way necessary, and she had to admire him for being willing to fight and die for that, just as her own people were willing to do the same in order to be able to govern themselves. How strange, the lengths to which people would go just to prove they were right.
Lee wet a rag and knelt in front of her. He gently washed her face, and their eyes held for a moment, both of them wishing they were anywhere else, not at war, and that the last three years had never happened. He washed the blood from her throat and chest, and Audra clung to her camisole, part of her wanting to let it drop, wanting to
feel Lee’s lips at her breast again. How could she feel this way, after what she had just been through, and after what she had suffered at Richard’s hands?
She reddened at the thought, and she suspected Lee had read the desire in her eyes, something he had always seemed able to do. “Take that camisole off and lie down on your stomach. I’ll clean the wound on your back,” he told her. “I’ll put some ointment on it, and you can put that shirt on. I want you to stay here then, get some rest. I’ll have to leave again for a while. I’ll find some clothes in town somewhere and bring you something to put on.”
Audra did not object. She winced with pain as she removed the camisole and lay down on her stomach. Lee leaned over her, gently washing her back, and she thought for one brief moment about the horrors Richard had visited upon her while he made her lie facedown like this. Lee would never hurt her that way.
Lee gently smeared some kind of ointment over the cut, a thousand memories of what it was like to lie with her surging painfully through him. Her back was so pretty, her skin so soft and pale. He glanced at the roundness of her bottom, so enticingly outlined in her ruffled bloomers. He sighed with unrequited need and put the ointment away, then emptied the dirty water out the door and poured some more into the pan to wash his own face.
“I’ve got to go find another horse,” he told her. “Put that shirt on and lock the door that leads from the main room back here. Lock the back door, too. Keep the shutters closed and turn out the lamp. Just get under those covers and rest here until I come back. No one will bother you.” He turned away and brushed at his uniform, then put his hat back on. He removed a pistol from his belt and checked it to be sure it was loaded.
Audra sat up and wrapped his shirt around herself while he was turned away, and when he finally looked at her, she felt a warmth surge through her blood at the way his blue eyes moved over her. “Be careful, Lee.”
“Sure,” he answered. “I’ll try to stay out of the way of those damn rebels.”
Tender Betrayal Page 34
