Glory

by Heather Graham

  “They could have shot you for attacking an officer.”

  “Ah! A death I would have gallantly accepted, of course. No man may touch my wife in violence. He had no right, even if he’d never touched you, he had no right. There are good things to our way of life. What he did went against everything that is what we call honor.”

  “The last of the great cavaliers!” she murmured.

  “Yes, and no. I don’t know of a Yank who would have behaved any differently,” he admitted.

  She smiled, reached out, and touched his cheek. He caught her hand, kissed the palm. “I wanted to come home,” he said softly.

  “So did I.”

  “You’re not really home.”

  “We’ll visit soon enough.”

  “You’re back in a Rebel camp.”

  “I’m where I want to be.”

  “Oh?” He arched a brow, pulling her naked body closer to his. “Here, exactly here?”

  She nodded solemnly, then looked steadily into his eyes. “Julian, I love you.”

  “My God, Rhiannon—”

  “Wait ... hear me out. There was a time when I wanted to die. When I hated the world, and I hated myself, and I couldn’t bear the pain. Then you came riding in. And you made me see what I was doing, and ... you gave me back love, Julian. Respect. For myself. You gave me love again, and more, you gave me life. And I do love you. Far more than any cause, than any war or battle. I look in your eyes and I see the pain there for others, and I love you more for it. We’re not enemies. We both know that the war is wrong. You have given me back everything, even my belief in my fellow man, and wherever you are is where I want to be.”

  The moon shifted; the river seemed to glitter. The night was in his eyes, and he seemed to look at her forever, and then he pulled her to him, beneath him, and he was kissing her again and whispering against her lips. “I can’t believe it. I never thought that I could dispel the ghost of Richard. It was torture, wanting you, being seduced, for you are a witch, my love, and from the moment I saw you, I was beneath your spell, and every minute away from you seemed to weave me more tightly into that spell until I wondered if I could survive, wanting you so much ...”

  She didn’t respond with words. Her soul seemed alive with the moonlight that had come to glitter upon the water. She swept her arms around him, stroked the length of his back, felt the ripple of muscle beneath her lips as she kissed his shoulders, moved against him, kissed, touched, stroked, aroused ...

  His hands were upon her. The tip of his tongue was a sure stroke of fire against her flesh, teasing, intimate, seducing, demanding, finding every intimacy. And again he was in her. And the world was full of magic, and she was glad for this wild, wicked haven within the desperate storm of life around them, and she knew then that love and peace were in the soul, and though she couldn’t change the world, she had changed herself.

  They made love into the wee hours of the morning. And when they dressed and left the water at last, it was as if they had been baptized into a new life.

  The days that followed were good. The camp was reestablished. Captain Dixie, or Jonathan Dickinson, the militia captain who almost single-handedly managed to keep much of Florida under Rebel control, came through with some of his wounded and reported on matters within the state. Yes, there were reports that the Yanks intended to make a major sweep into the state. They had to cut off the Confederacy. Florida was the breadbasket. The elusive coastline made it a maddening place to the Yanks.

  Injured came in from the skirmishing. The days passed without incidence.

  Then she was haunted by another dream.

  There was shelling upon the water’s edge. A ship had come into the river and was shelling salt works. There was an explosion, bodies flew everywhere, the dream seemed bathed in blood.

  Julian was in her dream. Leading men to find the fallen. Then again ...

  There was an explosion. Sharp golden light burst across her vision in the dream, then faded, and she knew that ...

  Julian was dead.

  She woke with a start. He wasn’t beside her. She rose, threw on her dress, and came running out. To her horror she saw that he and a handful of men—all that manned the camp in the woods—were saddling their poor horses, ready to ride.

  She ran to his side. “Julian, you can’t go.”

  “Rhiannon!” he said, startled. The men were all staring at him. He dismounted from his horse, taking her hands. “I have to go. There’s a report of a Yankee ship on the river.”

  “Don’t go.”

  “I have to go.”

  “But you trust me. You can’t go.”

  “I can’t shirk my duty. I can’t hide behind your skirts.”

  “I had a dream!”

  He shook his head impatiently. “I won’t be in the action, my love. But if there are injuries, this camp will be too far from the action.”

  “Julian!” she snapped, dismayed. He straightened, and she realized that, of course, she was making a scene in front of his men, that he had refused to see his own danger, even if he did trust in her visions. He was leaving. She hadn’t the power to stop him. Or did she?

  She stepped back. He shook his head, coming toward her again. Taking her by the arms, he kissed her. She kissed him back, suddenly passionate. He eased from her arms and mounted his horse.

  When the men had ridden out, she went for her horse.

  Liam watched her worriedly. “Rhiannon—”

  “Don’t ask, Liam.”

  “I can’t let you go.”

  “I am already gone!”

  But she had barely started down the trail when she realized that there was a horseman after her. She tried to race her nag; she was too easily run down. She turned, just before she was accosted, to realize that it was Julian. He had waited in the woods; he had come after her.

  He caught her horse’s reins, jerked the animal to a stop, dismounted from his own horse and jerked her from the saddle.

  “So you would have me captured again!” he accused her furiously.

  “I would have you alive!” she retorted.

  “Well, you won’t be going to the Yanks this time!” he told her angrily. She spun around. His men had ridden up behind them.

  “Liam, take her back. Hog-tie her if you have to. Don’t let her go to St. Augustine to report our movements!”

  He thrust her toward Liam, who unhappily accepted his responsibility.

  “Sir, she’s hard to hold—”

  “As I said,” Julian stated determinedly, “tie her up if you have to!”

  He spun around, mounting his horse again. And then ... he was gone.

  Liam would not let her leave, no matter how she begged and pleaded. She described her dream. And when she closed her eyes and it came again, she began to cry.

  By the time night came the next day, she was certain that he was dead. She had never had such a dream that hadn’t come true. She cried through the night.

  At dawn she went to the creek. She watched the sunrise, and she thought of how they had been enemies, and then she thought of all that they had shared. They loved this place. The pine blanketed forests, the colors of the water, of the birds, of the day, the night, the sunrise, the sunset, the water ...

  The baby moved within her. Yet even that did not give her what she longed for, a passion to live. He had in truth given her the desire to love life itself again.

  Without him ...

  She spun around suddenly, sensing warmth.

  He was there. Leaning against a tree, arms crossed over his chest, watching her. He was an illusion, she thought. An image against the sunrise, life and day to her.

  Yet he wasn’t. He walked to her, calling her name. “Rhiannon!”

  She turned, amazed that he was alive. She raced to him, and when she reached him, he swept her into his arms and then around and around in circles. She touched his face, his body, touched him again, assured herself that he was real, that he lived.

  He touched her ch
eek.

  “I saw the dream, saw the explosions ... saw you die! Oh, God, Julian, I can’t bear the dreams. Why do they torment me so?”

  His palm caressed her cheek. “Maybe they aren’t such torment. Maybe they are special warnings. You are gifted. Rhiannon, what you saw might well have been. But I didn’t exactly go, I never reached the point of the explosion. I realized how desperate you were,” he told her, eyes dark upon hers. “I rode with the men, but as we neared the ship, I commanded them to hold back. The Yankees exploded a salt works. But not one man was killed, Rhiannon. My love, you saved all our lives.” He tilted her chin and smiled. “My love, I promise that I will listen to you from here on out.”

  “Oh, Julian, but there’s still a war!”

  “My war will be here, Rhiannon. I know what I’m fighting for now. Life. For us, for our baby, for those around us. I will do my best never to doubt you again, and never, ever leave you.”

  “Julian ...”

  She slipped her arms around him. He kissed her, long, lingeringly. His lips broke from hers.

  “There is still a war.”

  “But we will survive it.”

  The sun rose high above the water.

  “I wonder what will happen,” she murmured, feeling his arms around her.

  “Can you tell me the future?” he asked.

  She shook her head. “I wish that I could. I don’t know the ending of this, when, how. I’m so afraid that it will go on ... but I can’t see the future. Honestly, I cannot.”

  “I can.”

  “Oh?” she said skeptically and turned in his arms.

  “Certainly,” he said, and he was smiling. “We’re going to make love, tell each other how much we love one another.”

  “Ah!” she murmured.

  “Well?”

  “That is certainly future enough for me,” she told him, and rising on her toes, she kissed his lips, prepared to meet his future.

  Florida Chronology

  (And Events That Influenced Her People)

  1492

  Christopher Columbus discovers the “New World.”

  1513

  Florida discovered by Ponce de León. Juan Ponce de León sights Florida from his ship on March 27, steps on shore near present-day St. Augustine in early April.

  1539

  Hernando de Soto lands on west coast of the peninsula, near present-day Tampa. The French arrive and establish Fort Caroline on the St. Johns River. Immediately following the establishment of the French fort, Spain dispatches Pedro Menéndez de Avilés to get rid of the French invaders, “pirates and perturbers of the public peace.” De Avilés dutifully captures the French stronghold and slays or enslaves the inhabitants. Pedro Menéndez de Avilés founds St. Augustine, the first permanent European settlement in what is now the United States.

  1586

  Sir Francis Drake attacks St. Augustine, burning and plundering the settlement.

  1698

  Pensacola is founded.

  1740

  British General James Oglethorpe invades Florida from Georgia.

  1763

  At the end of the Seven Years’ War, or the French and Indian War, the Florida Territories are ceded to Britain.

  1763–1783 British Rule in East and West Florida.

  1774

  The “shot heard round the world” is fired in Concord, Massachusetts Colony

  1776

  The War of Independence begins; many British Loyalists flee to Florida.

  1783

  By the Treaty of Paris, Florida is returned to the Spanish.

  1812–1815

  The War of 1812.

  1813–1814

  The Creek Wars. “Red-Stick” land is decimated. Numerous Indians seek new lands south with the “Seminoles.”

  1814

  General Andrew Jackson captures Pensacola.

  1815

  The Battle of New Orleans.

  1817–1818

  The First Seminole War. Americans accuse the Spanish of aiding the Indians in their raids across the border. Hungry for more territory, settlers seek to force Spain into ceding the Floridas to the United States by their claims against the Spanish government for its inability to properly handle the situation within the territories.

  1819

  Don Luis de Onís, Spanish minister to the United States, and Secretary of State John Quincy Adams, sign a treaty by which the Floridas will become part of the United States The Adams-Onís Treaty is ratified. An act of congress makes the two Floridas one territory. Jackson becomes the military governor, but relinquishes the post after a few months. The first legislative council meets at Pensacola. Members from St. Augustine travel fifty-nine days by water to attend. The second legislative council meets at St. Augustine; the western delegates are shipwrecked and barely escape death. The third session meets at Tallahassee, a halfway point selected as a main order of business and approved at the second session. Tallahassee becomes the first territorial capital. The Treaty of Moultrie Creek is ratified by major Seminole chiefs and the Federal Government. The ink is barely dry before Indians are complaining that the lands are too small and white settlers are petitioning the government for a policy of Indian removal.

  1832

  Payne’s Landing: Numerous chiefs sign a treaty agreeing to move west to Arkansas as long as seven of their number are able to see and approve the lands. The treaty is ratified at Fort Gibson, Arkansas. Numerous chiefs also protest the agreement.

  1835

  Summer: Wiley Thompson claims that Seminole chief Osceola has repeatedly reviled him in his own office with foul language and orders his arrest. Osceola is handcuffed and incarcerated.

  November: Charlie Emathla, after agreeing to removal to the west, is murdered. Most scholars agree Osceola led the party that carried out the execution. Some consider the murder a personal vengeance, others believe it was proscribed by numerous chiefs since an Indian who would leave his people to aid the whites should forfeit his own life.

  December 28: Major Francis Dade and his troops are massacred as they travel from Fort Brooke to Fort King. Wiley Thompson and a companion are killed outside the walls of Fort King. The sutler Erastus Rogers and his two clerks are also murdered by members of the same raiding party, led by Osceola.

  December 31: The First Battle of the Withlacoochee—Osceola leads the Seminoles.

  1836

  January: Major General Winfield Scott is ordered by the Secretary of War to take command in Florida.

  February 4: Dade County established in South Florida in memory of Francis Langhorne Dade.

  March 16: The Senate confirms Richard Keith Call governor of the Florida Territory.

  June 21: Call, a civilian governor, is given command of the Florida forces after the failure of Scott’s strategies and the military disputes between Scott and General Gaines. Call attempts a “summer campaign,” and is as frustrated in his efforts as his predecessor.

  1837

  June 2: Osceola and Sam Jones release, or “abduct” nearly seven hundred Indians awaiting deportation to the west from Tampa.

  October 27: Osceola is taken under a white flag of truce; Jesup is denounced by whites and Indians alike for the action.

  November 29: Coacoochee, Cowaya, sixteen warriors, and two women escape Ft. Marion Christmas Day: Jesup has the largest fighting force assembled in Florida during the conflict, nearly nine thousand men. Under his command, Colonel Zachary Taylor leads the Battle of Okeechobee. The Seminoles choose to stand their ground and fight, inflicting greater losses to whites despite the fact they are severely outnumbered.

  1838

  January 31: Osceola dies at Fort Marion, South Carolina. (A strange side note to a sad tale: Dr. Wheedon, presiding white physician for Osceola, cut off and preserved Osceola’s head. Wheedon’s heirs reported that the good doctor would hang the head on the bedstead of one of his three children should they misbehave. The head passed to his son-in-law, Dr. Daniel Whitehurst, who gave it t
o Dr. Valentine Mott. Dr. Mott had a medical and pathological museum, and it is believed that the head was lost when his museum burned in 1866.)

  May: Zachary Taylor takes command when Jesup’s plea to be relieved is answered at last on April 29.

  The Florida legislature debates statehood.

  1839

  December: Because of his arguments with Federal authorities regarding the Seminole War, Richard Keith Call is removed as governor. Robert Raymond Reid is appointed in his stead.

  1840

  April 24: Zachary Taylor is given permission to leave command of what is considered to be the harshest military position in the country. Walker Keith Armistead takes command.

  December 1840–January 1841: John T. MacLaughlin leads a flotilla of men in dugouts across the Everglades from east to west; his party becomes the first white men to do so.

  September: William Henry Harrison is elected President of the United States; the Florida War is considered to have cost Martin Van Buren re-election.

  John Bell replaces Joel Poinsett as Secretary of War. Robert Reid is ousted as territorial governor, and Richard Keith Call is reinstated.

  1841

  April 4: President William Henry Harrison dies in office: John Tyler becomes President of the United States.

  May 1: Coacoochee determines to turn himself in. He is escorted by a man who will later become extremely well known—Lieutenant William Tecumseh Sherman. (Sherman writes to his future wife that the Florida war is a good one for a soldier; he will get to know the Indian who may become the “chief enemy” in time.)

  May 31: Walker Keith Armistead is relieved. Colonel William Jenkins Worth takes command.

  1842

  May 10: Winfield Scott is informed that the administration has decided there must be an end to hostilities as soon as possible.

  August 14: Aware that he cannot end hostile ties and send all Indians west, Colonel Worth makes offers to the remaining Indians to leave or accept boundaries. The war, he declares, is over.

  It has cost a fledgling nation thirty to forty million dollars and the lives of seventy-four commissioned officers. The Seminoles have been reduced from tens of thousands to hundreds scattered about in pockets. The Seminoles (inclusive here, as they were seen during the war, as all Florida Indians) have, however, kept their place in the peninsula; those remaining are the undefeated. The army, too, has learned new tactics, mostly regarding partisan and guerilla warfare. Men who will soon take part in the greatest conflict to tear apart the nation have practiced the art of battle here: William T. Sherman, Braxton Bragg, George Gordon Meade, Joseph E. Johnston, and more, as well as soon-to-be President Zachary Taylor.