Erin's Rebel (25 page)

“I believe you.”

Her eyes widened. “And what brought this on?”

“I reckon I’ve fallen in love with you. And I believe you when you said you came here for me. To save me.” His lips grazed hers, so lush and satiny smooth. Emboldened by her soft sigh, he took her mouth fully, her sweetness heightening his desire. He hardened when she pressed herself against him.

He pulled back from the kiss and gazed into her eyes. Tears shone on her face. “Darlin’.” He brushed the wetness from her petal-soft cheeks. “What is it?”

“I’m so happy,” she said.

“Because I found you?”

“Not just that. It’s because, after all these months, I don’t have to pretend anymore.”

****

Erin melted against Will’s hard chest. He cradled her face between his hands and kissed the tears coursing down her face. For months, although surrounded by new friends, she’d felt alone. Here, in his strong arms, all the tension dissolved from her body, and a sigh escaped her lips.

He gently brushed his lips over hers, then kissed her thoroughly, without putting undue pressure against her sore jaw. She gave herself over to the kiss, her insides turning to liquid fire. She wanted to forget about Jake and all the horrors of the past year. To be here with Will like this made it all worth it.

She pulled back, studying his face. His eyes held a weary, sunken look. Stubble covered both cheeks. He looked as grungy as she felt.

Grasping the soft curls at the nape of his neck, she said, “I love you, Will. I always have and always will.”

He sighed. “I’m sorry.”

She stiffened.

“I should have believed your story.” He smiled, and her heart melted. “When I found he’d taken you, I knew then that I’d made a mistake. I should have listened to what you were telling me—”

“Oh, no,” Erin said. “I should never have expected you to believe—”

“I should’ve,” he interrupted, “because a man should always have faith in the woman he loves.”

A thrill ran through her. He
did
love her. This hadn’t all been for nothing.

He gathered her close, and they simply held on to each other.

****

Jake circled the side of the barn, reining his mount in sharply. A rust-colored gelding stood beside the wagon he’d used to carry Erin. Someone was in the barn with her.

He’d gone into town for a few needed supplies believing she’d be unable to break free and escape. Had the owner of the farm returned and found her?

After tying up his mare, he pulled his pistol and cautiously approached. The dilapidated wooden door creaked outward. He tensed, his finger on the trigger. Captain Montgomery stood wide-eyed in the open doorway. Glancing down at the captain’s hands, Jake noted he wasn’t armed.

My lucky day
. A grin spread across his face. He glanced over Montgomery’s shoulder to where Erin stood behind him. “Hello, sweetheart.” He kept his pistol aimed at the captain’s chest.

She gasped. “Jake, you bastard!”

“Now, now. After all I’ve done for you, missy.” He caught Montgomery’s gaze, enjoying the fact he now had the captain right where he wanted him. He’d twist the man into submission, just as he’d been repeatedly reprimanded and punished, first by his father, then by haughty officers like Montgomery since he’d joined the army.

“Reckon you haven’t figured it out yet, Captain.” He gestured toward Erin. “This whore’s a Yankee spy.”

Montgomery scowled but didn’t speak.

“That’s right, Captain. She used you to get information for the Yankees. I helped her too, for money...and other things she promised.”

“Jake!” Erin shrieked. “Just let us go.”

“But sweetheart, you promised me you’d get me over the lines. They know I helped you. If they catch me, I’ll be shot or hanged. I’ve got to get into Yankee territory.”

“We can all go together,” she pleaded.

“Not likely.” Jake’s finger tightened on the trigger. He was going to enjoy this.

****

Erin’s thoughts flew into overdrive. He meant to kill Will. The moment she’d been sent here for had arrived. She had to stop Jake.

Flinging herself at Will, she pushed him out of the way at the moment Jake’s pistol fired. Sharp pain drove into her chest knocking her off her feet. She slumped to the floor. Will’s strong arms were beneath her, supporting her. She gazed up into his agonized face.

“You shouldn’t have done that, darlin’,” he said.

Numbness overtook her. She could barely feel his arms around her. “I had to,” she whispered. “This is what I came here for. To save you.”

He shook his head. “If I lose you, nothing will save me.”

I’ve made a big mistake
, she thought before darkness descended.

Chapter Twenty-seven

Will held Erin and prayed for any sign of life. All color had drained from her face, and blood coated his sleeve. Lowering her body to the floor, he cupped the back of her head with one hand and ran the fingers of his other hand gently over her hair, straightening loosened strands.

Numbness settled over him. He raised his gaze to Wagner, who stood over him with a smoking pistol. Will’s jaw clenched. “You killed her, you son of a bitch!”

Wagner shrugged. “Didn’t mean to.” He smiled. “Dumb whore just got in the way, is all. That bullet was meant for you, Captain.” He leveled the gun at Will.

Gazing down at Erin, Will gently pressed her eyes closed. He didn’t care what Wagner did to him, now. At the sound of the pistol cock, he flinched. Nothing happened.

He looked up at Wagner. “Get it over with. You’ve already killed me.”

Wagner shook his head. “Don’t reckon I will. I’ll let the army kill you when they catch you.”

“You’re in the same boat as me,” Will growled.

“I have connections up north,” Wagner said. “I’ll find a way to get through the lines, then I’ll be home free.” He grinned. “But you, Captain, are another story. You’ll end up in a Yankee prison camp, or be shot by your own people.” He shook his head.

“Reckon I’ll be on my way.” He glanced at Erin. “You can take care of the body.” Turning his back on Will, he headed for his mare.

Will’s urge to kill the man was overshadowed by the grief that paralyzed him. He’d again lost the woman he loved and had also lost his home and family. He couldn’t go back. Couldn’t go forward.

He was lost.

****

Bright. Too bright. Erin tried to raise a hand to shield her eyes, but her arm wouldn’t cooperate.

Where am I? Where’s Will?

She slowly opened her eyes, blinking against the glare. She squeezed them shut again at the sight of an electric lamp hanging over her bed.

“Erin?”

Opening her eyes again, she focused on a strange woman with short dark hair standing over her. She wore blue hospital scrubs. In a panic, Erin tried to move, but her muscles wouldn’t obey. She was hindered by tubes attached all over her body.

“Erin, can you understand what I’m saying?”

She strained to answer, but nothing but a strangled whisper hissed from her parched throat.

“No, no,” the woman said, “Don’t try to speak. Just blink twice if you understand.”

Erin blinked twice.

The woman squeezed her hand. Turning toward the open doorway, she called to someone out of Erin’s sight. “Get the doctor. She’s awake.”

****

Will lovingly wrapped Erin’s body in burlap he’d found in the barn and tied it around her with cording to keep it in place. He placed her in the wagon Wagner had left behind. After watering his gelding, he hitched the horse to the wagon. Erin had told him she’d lived in Philadelphia, and her grandmother lived north of Gettysburg.

The Yankees could do to him whatever they wanted, but he would see to it she went home.

****

Two weeks later, Erin had been removed from the ICU and placed in a regular hospital bed. She was undergoing intensive physical therapy to help regain her strength and muscle tone.

During visiting hours, her mother sat beside her bed knitting, while Erin caught up with current events on the television hanging on an arm alongside her bed. When the evening news anchor signed off, she turned to her mother.

“How can it have only been six weeks since the accident?”

“It’s true,” her mother said. “You’ve been in a coma for a month. I was afraid you’d never wake again.”

Erin shook her head. The year she’d lived through couldn’t have been a coma-induced dream. Could it? She refused to believe that. It had been real.
He
had been real.

“Mom. There’s something I’ve got to tell you.”

Her mother listened attentively while she related the story of her incredible journey.

“I saved him, Mom, just like Grandma Rose wanted. But I must’ve died instead. And now I’m back here.” She’d made a mistake that had changed history but not the way it was supposed to be.

“There, there, dear.” Her mother patted her hand. “It was all a dream. Your grandmother’s stories before she died must have brought this on.”

Erin pushed her fingers through her hair. It was short again, although a bit longer than she normally wore it. Maybe her mother was right. It
had
been a dream.

But she couldn’t get Will’s face out of her head. Biting her lower lip to hold back her tears, she turned back to the TV where a rerun of
Seinfeld
was playing.

She’d been home all along
. She felt like Dorothy in
The Wizard of Oz
. But was Will lying in a graveyard in Virginia, nothing but bones?

It had been so real
.

A few months later, Erin moved to a rehab center and underwent intense therapy every day to rebuild her weakened muscles. She needed to recover and get out of here. To get back to her life.

A life without Will
.

Why couldn’t she get the man out of her mind? He wasn’t real. At least not to her. He was from the past. A ghost. She couldn’t love a ghost. But she did.

****

Days later, one of the nurses, a young black man named Raymond, appeared at the door of her room. The tall, thin man’s head was shaved, and he wore gold stud earrings in both ears, as well as one under his lower lip.

Erin liked the man. He always had a witty comment to brighten her day. “Hey, Raymond,” she said.

“You have a visitor.”

Expecting her mother, Erin felt shocked when Rick entered the room. He clutched a bouquet of roses.

“Thanks,” Erin called to the nurse when he retreated.