by Bob Mayer
Grant turned his head, blinking water out of his eyes. “Thank you, Lucius. You saved my life.”
“The obligation is mutual,” Rumble said.
Grant got up and knelt next to his friend, noting the gash. “I think you’re a bit worse for the adventure.”
Rumble blinked. He reached up and touched his face. Pulling his hand back he saw the blood. “It’s nothing.” He stood and shivered like a dog, trying to shake off water and a bad memory. Neither were completely expunged.
Rumble wiped the blood off his face with his sleeve. They both jumped back in their saddles. Grant turned down-slope and galloped toward Benny Havens as fast as the terrain would allow. At neck-breaking speed if they had another mishap, but Rumble followed, blinking blood out of his right eye.
They raced past Benny Havens’ tavern and down the path to the riverbank. A clearing, thirty feet long by ten wide bordered the Hudson River. To the north, Cord stood alone, his blond hair plastered to his skull, a pistol lying on a flat rock in front of him.
To the south, King had pistol in hand, arm straight down at his side. And in the middle, but not directly between, was Benny Havens, old flintlock in his grip.
“Pick up the pistol and defend yourself with what little honor you have,” King called out to Cord.
“Their powder might be wet,” Grant observed.
“I wouldn’t gamble lives on it,” Rumble said.
As suddenly as it had started, the rain ceased. Above the opposite bank of the Hudson, the glow of approaching dawn brightened the sky.
Cord glanced at the pistol and folded his arms across his chest. “I will make amends, but I will not duel.”
“Gentlemen,” Grant called out. “I suggest we make haste back to the barracks and sort this out later, when cooler heads might prevail.”
“This isn’t your business, Mister Grant,” Havens yelled back.
“Major Delafield has made quite clear his stance on dueling,” Grant said. “And the Superintendent is on his way,” he reminded them as if mentioning it was no longer raining, a fact they were all aware of.
“Sherman will slow him a little bit,” Rumble said as he dismounted. Most likely with some tale of misery and woe that would touch the old man’s heart. Sherman could predict darkness on a sun-lit field, but a cloud would invariably show up to prove him right.
“Let’s get on with this,” King said. “Mister Cord. On the count of three, the duel will begin, whether you have pistol in hand or not.”
“Aint that kind of dishonorable?” Cord said.
“One.” King was perfectly still.
Rumble started to move forward, but Havens raised his pistol. “Don’t be getting involved in something that’s not yours to get involved in.”
“Lidia is my concern,” Rumble said. “And my friends are also my concern. Mister King is a distant cousin and Mister Cord was my roommate.”
Cord held up both hands in surrender. “All right. Enough. I apologize.”
As they spoke, Grant spurred York, riding him wide to the north to gather speed.
“You owed me an apology,” King said, “but you cannot take back what you have done to Miss Lidia. Two.”
King raised his pistol, aimed at Cord, and cocked it. He opened his mouth to utter the last number, but galloping full tilt toward Cord’s back, Grant jerked back on the reins and York leapt into the air, right over Cord’s head and landed with a splash in the mud directly between the two cadets, the massive horse blocking any chance of a shot.
“Move, sir, on your honor, move!” King cried out. “Let me finish the cur.”
Two horsemen galloped into the clearing. In the lead, Major Delafield was easily recognizable not just by rank and uniform, but by the carefully shaven fringe of white beard that encircled the lower half of his face. Sherman was behind him.
“Everyone hold fast,” Delafield called out. His gaze went from person to person, assessing, judging and deciding.
“Mister King. You are dueling?”
“I am, sir,” King said, “and I am not finished.”
“With Mister Cord?” Delafield demanded.
“Mister Cord never took up the pistol,” Rumble said, walking over to Cord.
Letitia and Lidia appeared on the path from the tavern and that gave Major Delafield pause. “What is the cause of this duel?”
“A moment with my friend, sir, please,” Rumble said. He leaned close to Cord. “Is it true, Elijah? About Lidia?”
Cord let out a deep breath, almost causing Rumble to step back from the stink. “If she says she’s with child, it’s so. She is an honest girl.”
“And it is yours.”
“I suppose, given nature’s realities.” Cord turned his bloodshot eyes toward his friend. “I can’t be boarded out. I can’t go back to Norfolk.”
“Always about you,” Rumble said angrily. “What about Lidia?”
Cord blinked.
Rumble pressed. “You should have never gone off quarters. And you should’ve never been with Lidia.”
“Should have’s serve no purpose now,” Cord said, shaking his head and wincing in pain. He peered blearily at Rumble. “What happened to your face? Are you all right?”
“Don’t concern yourself with that right now,” Rumble said. “We have to get you out of here. And we must uphold Lidia’s honor.”
Cord closed his eyes in surrender. “I’m sorry, my friend. I’ve done the deed, I must pay the price. Perhaps Benny will allow the marriage to wait until after I graduate and the Supe will go easy on me.”
Rumble knew if the Superintendent found out Cord had lain with Lidia, there would be a storm much greater than the one nature had surrounded them with. Cord was caught between being drummed out of the Corps for being out of quarters or the same fate for being in Lidia’s bedroom and transgressing her honor.
Cord’s shoulder slumped. “I’m done for. You can have my full dress gray. Split out the rest of my gear as you see fit.” He gave a hint of the rakish grin. “Let Old Pete Longstreet have my tar bucket—it won’t fit his big head and it will drive him crazy because he won’t want to give it to anyone else.”
Rumble shifted his focus to the two women standing at the edge of the clearing. Lidia met his gaze. Her eyes flickered momentarily to the wreck of a young man that was Elijah Cord, then locked in on Rumble. One red eyebrow arched in quiet supplication. The movement wasn’t lost to Cord either, and the grin was gone.
Rumble turned to Benny Havens. “I am sorry for causing dishonor to your family and am grateful that Mister Cord interceded for my honor. I respectfully request your daughter in betrothal, sir.” A vast emptiness opened up inside of Rumble, as wide as the Mississippi and as mysterious and dangerous.
Benny Havens looked as if he’d been slapped. “It was you?” He turned to Lidia. “But you said you lay with Mister Cord.”
“She said she lay with a ‘him’,” Letitia corrected. She nudged her daughter. “Isn’t that so, darling?”
Lidia nodded.
Cord put a hand on Rumble’s shoulder. “You can’t do that. It’s my responsibility.”
“I certainly can,” Rumble said. “And I am.”
“I don’t—” Cord couldn’t form any more words as his brain tumbled in drunken freefall.
Grant dismounted and walked up to Rumble. As if talking to a horse he needed to calm: “Are you insane, Lucius? You’ll lose everything.”
Rumble nodded. “Exactly. But I will also gain much.”
Grant hesitated for the first time all day. “Are you certain?”
“Very much so, Sam.” He looked over at Lidia and met her eyes. “A lot of blank pages now to be written.”
For More Information on books by Bob Mayer go to
www.whodareswinspublishing.com
Books by Bob Mayer
DUTY, HONOR, COUNTRY A Novel of West Point and The Civil War
BLACK OPS SERIES
BLACK OPS: THE GATE
BLACK OPS:
THE LINE
BLACK OPS: THE OMEGA MISSILE
BLACK OPS: THE OMEGA SANCTION
LOST GIRLS
CHASING THE GHOST
SHADAOW WARRIOR: SECTION 8
SHADOW WARRIOR: THE CITADEL
BODYGUARD OF LIES
GREEN BERET SERIES
EYES OF THE HAMMER
DRAGON SIM-13
CUT-OUT
SYNBAT
Z
Non-Fiction Books by Bob Mayer
WHO DARES WINS: THE GREEN BERET WAY TO CONQUER FEAR AND
SUCCEED
THE NOVEL WRITER’S TOOLKIT
WRITE IT FORWARD: FROM WRITER TO PUBLISHED AUTHOR
Books by Bob Mayer writing as Robert Doherty
AREA 51 SERIES
AREA 51
AREA 51 THE REPLY
AREA 51 THE MISSION
AREA 51 SPHINX
AREA 51 THE GRAIL
AREA 51 EXCALIBUR
AREA 51 THE TRUTH
AREA 51 NOSTERATU
AREA 51 THE LEGEND
ATLANTIS SERIES
ATLANTIS
ATLANTIS BERMUDA TRIANGLE
ATLANTIS: DEVIL’S SEA
ATLANTIS: GATE
ATLANTIS: ASSAULT
ATLANTIS: BATTLE FOR ATLANTIS
THE ROCK
PSYCHIC WARRIOR
PSYCHIC WARRIOR: PROJECT AURA
NY Times bestselling author Bob Mayer has over 50 books published. He has sold over four million books and is in demand as a team-building, life-change, and leadership speaker and consultant. Bob graduated from West Point and served in the military as a Special Forces A-Team leader and a teacher at the JFK Special Warfare Center & School. He teaches novel writing and improving the author via his Write It Forward program. He is the Co-Creator of Who Dares Wins Publishing. For more information see www.bobmayer.org or www.WhoDaresWinsPublishing.com
Table of Contents
Title Page
The Historical Facts
The 4th of July 1826
Chapter One: The Present
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
27 July 1803
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
22 August 1848
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
13 April 1865
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
4 March 1905
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
18 February 1945
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
22 March 1962
5 August 1963
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
7 August 1974.
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Duty, Honor, Country A Novel of West Point and The Civil War
Chapter One
