Dark Chaos (# 4 in the Bregdan Chronicles Historical Fiction Romance Series) (27 page)

             
Carrie glanced up when her father slammed into the house.  It was obvious from his face there was no good news coming into the Capitol.  She almost wished she could plug her ears, but she knew it would do no good.  “Bad news?” she asked tentatively.  Thomas turned to her with the bitter, angry look she was becoming accustomed to.  Some days she had to struggle to remember the calm, loving father she had known on the plantation before her mother died and before the war started.

             
“Vicksburg has fallen,” he announced wearily.  “Secretary of War Seddon forwarded the official report today.  Pemberton surrendered the city.  The Union occupied it on the fourth of July.”

             
“I’m sorry,” Carrie said quietly.

             
Thomas sank down into his chair.  He stared out the darkened window unseeingly.  “We heard from General Lee, too.  He is retreating to Virginia.  Gettysburg was a disaster.  We suffered terrible losses.” 

             
Carrie was suddenly very glad Robert was out on the Atlantic somewhere.  Envisioning him out there was much easier than imagining him killed on another battlefield.  She searched for words that would make her father feel better.  She knew there were none. 

             
“Union cavalry burned the railroad depot up at Ashland,” he continued in a dead voice.  “Train service has been severely disrupted.”

             
Carrie watched him closely, her heart aching at the defeat and despair she saw etched on his face.  She reached forward and took one of his hands, but he didn’t seem to even notice her touch. 

             
“Rosecrans is on the move in Tennessee,” he said hoarsely.  “Bragg is being driven out.”  His voice cracked, and he lowered his head into his hands.  “We’re losing it all,” he choked.  “We’re losing it all.” 

             
Carrie dropped to her knees and wrapped her arms around her father’s trembling shoulders.  He remained bowed for just a few moments but then straightened abruptly.  Carrie gazed up at the fire blazing in his eyes. 

             
“We’re not beaten yet!” he cried defiantly, his fists clenched.  “We’ll regroup!  We’ll rebuild!”  He stood and stalked to the window.  “They will not come down here and destroy everything I’ve worked for all my life.  They will not annihilate our society.”

             
Carrie remained where she was kneeling, a sick heaviness pressing down on her.  What would it take to end this war?  The passions on both sides seemed to be growing, their darkness expanding until surely they would swallow everything in their path.  Would it take the entire destruction of one side before the other was willing to capitulate?  Would any of them recognize their country - or themselves - when this was all over?

Carrie was once more standing on the Chimborazo plateau when she saw the smoke from the first train approaching Richmond that morning.  The muscles in her neck tensed
, and her head began to throb.  She knew it was the first ambulance train from Gettysburg.  Her stomach knotted as she imagined what would soon be rolling into the hospitals.  Soldiers wounded fresh from the battlefield were gut wrenching to see. Add to that almost a week of travel with little treatment, and she had all the ingredients for her worst nightmares.  

             
Carrie took deep breaths of the still air, then turned, and hurried into her ward.  The soldiers would be arriving soon.  She wanted to make sure everything was ready for them even though she had already checked a dozen times.  Activity had once again become her salvation.

             
It was an hour before the first ambulance wagon rolled into the hospital.  Close behind was a long line of conveyances stretching out of sight around the curve down the hill.  Dust rose in a rolling cloud above the road.   Shimmering heat was already tightening its grip on the city.   Carrie silently willed the drivers and aids to hurry.  The men waiting in those wagons had suffered enough.  Heat and choking dust would only add to their misery.

             
Soon Carrie was bending over her first patient.  “Hello, soldier,” she said gently, biting back her groan.

             
“Water,” the man whispered. “Water.”  His wildly searching eyes fastened on her face for just a moment.  “How’s our baby, Sally?”  He gave a gasp of pain as Carrie pulled back a bandage to inspect a wound.  “The cows need to be let out.”  A pause.  “I reckon the corn is gonna be good this year.”

             
Carrie fought the tears welling in her eyes.  The young soldier was conscious but securely in the grips of delirium.  His roving eyes saw nothing; his grasping hands reached for nothing.  “It’s okay,” she said soothingly.  She took small comfort in knowing the soldier wasn’t aware she was lying. 

             
Carrie turned to look over her shoulder.  “Hobbs!”

             
Hobbs was standing beside her a moment later, using just one crutch to steady himself on his good leg.  “What can I do for you, Miss Carrie?”

             
“Hold him still,” she ordered.  “He is ravaged with infection.”  Quickly she began to unwrap the filthy bandages from his arm and leg.  Her stomach churned at the sight of maggots swarming through the angry red areas.  Tightening her lips, she went to work, carefully picking out the maggots, then cleaning the wounds as best she could. 

             
“This soldier needs morphine,” she muttered angrily.

             
“Would you like me to get some?”  Hobbs offered eagerly.

             
“No,” Carrie said shortly.  “It is reserved for soldiers who need amputation.  There is just not enough to go around.”  She looked up.  “Please get me some of the elder salve.  It will help with the maggots.”  She reached down and put her hands on the man’s shoulders to keep him from flailing around in his delirium.  “And bring me some of the jimsonweed.  We have to bring this man’s fever down, or it will kill him.”

             
“Don’t let me go, Sally!” the man cried suddenly, bolting forward and breaking free of Carrie’s grip.  The expression on his face changed suddenly.  “The storm is coming,” he whimpered, shading his eyes and peering out.  Fear contorted his face.  “The fire.  The fire is still coming... eating through me... surrounding me.”

             
Carrie stepped back.

             
Hobbs jumped forward.  “You want me to hold him again?”

             
Carrie shook her head wordlessly.  She had seen this look before. 

             
Suddenly the fear on the man’s face changed to one of wonder.  His voice grew calm.  “They’re coming for me.  They put the fire out.”  For just a moment, the wildness in his eyes cleared, and he looked at Carrie quizzically.  “I have to go now,” he murmured. 

             
“Yes, I know,” Carrie replied, a catch in her voice.  She stepped forward and soothed the burning brow, pushing back the stringy hair.  “I know.”

             
The man gazed at her for a moment more, then gave a long sigh, and closed his eyes.  His body slowly sank back against the pillow, his ravaged face filled with peace.

             
“I won’t need that medicine,” Carrie said heavily. 

             
“He’s dead?”  Hobbs asked hoarsely.

             
Carrie nodded.  “He didn’t really stand a chance.  The fever had already destroyed him.”  She would never get used to death, but she knew that for some it brought welcome relief.  Shaking her head, she looked up.  “Let’s find the next patient.  There is nothing else we can do for this one.”

             
It was almost dinner before Carrie had a chance to drink the cup of water Hobbs brought to her.  She’d finished half of it before there was a disruption at the door of the ward. 

             
“Someone told me he is here,” a strident female voice exclaimed loudly.  “I have to go in and find him.”

             
Dr. Wild looked up impatiently from where he bent over a patient.  “Get that woman out of here!  She will be disturb the ones resting.”

             
Hobbs began to move toward the door. 

             
Seconds later a woman brushed by him impatiently.  “Don’t tell me I can’t come in here.   I
will
find the man I’m looking for.  His name is Perry Appleton.  Where is he?” she demanded imperiously. 

             
Carrie looked up and then stiffened.  She took a deep breath and stepped in front of the angry woman.  “That’s far enough, Louisa.  You’re not allowed in here.”

             
Louisa Blackwell stopped abruptly, her blue eyes flashing below her carefully arranged blond curls.  “Carrie Cromwell!” she snapped scornfully.  “I wish I could say it is a pleasure to see you.”

             
Carrie flushed, but her eyes and voice didn’t waver.  “I’m not interested in your personal feelings, Louisa.  I
am
interested in the welfare of my patients.  Your intrusion here could put some of them in danger.  Please leave.”   She almost smiled at the enraged look that erupted on Louisa’s face, but the situation was too critical for humor.  Her mind flashed back to the carefree days when they were children playing on neighboring plantations.  That was long ago.  They had both grown and changed.

             
Louisa managed a haughty laugh.  “
Really
, Carrie Cromwell.  I don’t know who you think you are, but you are certainly misinformed of your importance.”  She tried to step around her.  “Get out of my way!”

             
Carrie remained where she was.  The aisle between the beds was too narrow for Louisa to force her way through.  She was well aware many of the soldiers were witnessing this undignified exchange.  “My name is Carrie Borden, now,” she said quietly.  “I will ask you one more time to leave.”

             
“Oh, Carrie
Borden
, is it?”  Louisa sneered.  “So you finally managed to trap poor Robert.  I guess since he couldn’t have me he decided to settle for you.”

             
Carrie held her growing temper in check with great difficulty.  Louisa’s anger and jealousy over Robert’s lack of interest in her had exploded beyond all reason.  Carrie didn’t have time to analyze her one-time friend’s feelings now, though.  Turning to Hobbs, she said quietly.  “Please find someone to escort Miss Blackwell from the ward.”

             
Louisa tried once more to step around Carrie. 

             
“That will be quite enough, young lady,” Dr. Wild snapped from behind her.  “In case you haven’t noticed, this hospital is full of sick people.” 

             
Louisa whirled on her new attacker, saw he was a young, attractive man, and immediately softened.  “Why,
Doctor
, I’m so glad you’ve come over,” she said in a simpering tone.  “Maybe you can make this troublesome nurse get out of my way.  I simply have to find Perry Appleton.”