Dark Chaos (# 4 in the Bregdan Chronicles Historical Fiction Romance Series) (80 page)

CHAPTER
THIRTY-FOUR

             
Spring had once again descended upon Richmond, its soft breezes chasing away the chill of winter and coaxing flowers from the barren ground.  Ice had disappeared from the river and been replaced by prisoner exchange boats.  After failing to liberate prisoners with the raid on the capital city, Lincoln had decided to reinstate the Flag of Truce boats plying the waterways of the two countries.  The prisons were still full, but the horrible overcrowding had eased.

             
Carrie was waiting on the porch when Robert rode down the street on Granite.  She looked at the two of them proudly, but then she glanced away when her vision became blurred with tears.  “Get a hold of yourself,” she whispered fiercely.  “You knew this time was coming.”

             
Robert trotted up to the gate then swung off Granite.  He stood and looked at Carrie on the porch, but he made no move to join her.

             
Carrie waited.  She knew he was once again imprinting her face on his mind.  Willing all the love swelling in her heart to show on her face, she gazed at him.  Finally Robert strode up the sidewalk and drew her into his arms.

             
“What is the report from Lee?” Carrie asked, more to delay the inevitable than to know the answer.

             
“General Lee is taking a realistic view of what we are facing this summer,” Robert told her.  “A detailed report has just been sent to Davis.  He is urging the Secretary of War to build up reserve supplies in Richmond.  He has also suggested that all residents whose presence is not required should be forced to go elsewhere.”  He paused.  “He told Davis that if anything happens to interrupt the flow of rations to the army that he might have to retreat all the way to North Carolina.”

             
“I see,” Carrie said softly, studying Robert’s face.  She sighed.  “You know I won’t leave the city.  My work is here.”

             
“I know,” Robert said in an anguished voice.

             
“The city has been threatened before,” Carrie said, trying to alleviate some of the fear on Robert’s face.  “Why is Lee so pessimistic now?”

             
“Meade’s army has been taken over by the Union’s General Grant.  Lee knows he can’t count on cautiousness and inactivity to give him the advantage.  He has an army of dedicated fighting men, but once again they are seriously outnumbered.  And he doesn’t have Stonewall Jackson to pull off any stunning surprises.”  Robert paused.  “General Grant is an imposing commander.”  He glanced toward the city, his frown deepening.  “Lee knows an attack could come at any day.  He cannot even call all of his artillery in because of lack of forage.  He simply doesn’t have the means to keep everything alive.”

             
“Supplies are still so critical?”

             
Robert nodded.  “Lee is recommending the end of all railroad travel until the army’s mobility has been restored.”

             
“Has he lost all hope?”

             
“General Lee?” Robert scoffed.  “The odds might be against him, but he is already devising ways to confound the Federals.”

             
“And if he can’t?”  Carrie watched Robert’s face closely.

             
He met her gaze.  “Then it will all be over.”

             
Suddenly, Carrie didn’t want to talk anymore.  She moved forward and pressed her body against Robert’s.  He gathered her close and then pulled her over to the swing where they sat in silence for a long time, simply absorbing each other’s presence.  Everything had already been said that could be said.  Just as they had expected, Robert had been called back into active duty.  With the renewed threat against Richmond, every man possible had been called to arms.

             
Robert finally stood, pulling her close into another long hug before he stepped back.  “I have to go.”

             
Carrie managed to smile.  “I have something for you.”  She moved across the porch to the magnolia tree and picked off both the magnolia blooms that had flowered just that morning.  She carried them over and presented one fragrant blossom to Robert.  “The day we got married, my father brought me the first bloom of the season.  I made a wish on it.”  She gazed at the man she loved more than anyone in the world.  “I wished that you and I would have a long life of happiness together.”  She paused.  “I’m wishing the same thing today.”

             
Robert touched the bloom tenderly then stuck it in his pocket.  “I’ll be back,” he promised.  “We still have a lot of living to do.”  He crushed her to him, then turned, and sprang off the porch.

             
Carrie watched until he and Granite were out of sight, her magnolia bloom crushed to her breast and tears streaming down her face.  When she could no longer see them through her blur of tears, she raised the milky blossom to her lips and kissed it gently.  She would keep it on her mantel until Robert returned.  It would remind her every day of the dream burning in her heart.

             
Her dream was that one day the dark chaos would end and nothing would ever separate them again.

Read the first 2 Chapters of
The Long Last Night

Coming July 15
th
, 2013

The Long, Last Night

Chapter 1

Would it be today?

Carrie Borden turned away from the Chimborazo Hospital building and tents crowding the plateau when she crested the steep hill and moved to the edge of the cliff overlooking Richmond and the James River glittering below.  She pushed stray black, wavy strands back into her bun and tried to block out every noise in the overcrowded, bustling capital of the Confederacy.  She was listening for just one thing…

The sound of battle.

Three years into the Civil War, there was no doubt that there would be another attempt to take Richmond. 
On to Richmond
had been the Union battle cry from the beginning.  Every spring there was vicious fighting that tore at the heart and soul of what had once been a united country.  Every spring the buildings behind her filled with horribly wounded men who would never live the life they had known before
if
they survived their wounds.

But it was just one man who held Carrie’s heart.  Just one man who had kissed her goodbye a few days before and headed out with General Lee’s Confederate troops to meet the massive 100,000 man
Union army waiting on the other side of the Rapidan River to attack. 

Carrie’s husband of just one year, Captain Robert Borden, was once again on the battlefield.  Carrie took deep breaths, trying to calm her nerves and focus her mind.  Everyone knew the battle would start soon. 
Today.  Tomorrow.
  

And then it would begin all over again, the constant worrying and wondering of whether Robert had made it through another battle.

The sound of battle would also trigger wagonloads of wounded men pouring into the hospital and into medical wards and homes all over the city that were set up to handle the tens of thousands of men that would need them.

Carrie stared into the distance, her green eyes glistening with tears, took one final deep breath and turned to stride briskly into the nearest tent. 

Battle would come.  She had work to do.

“Good morning, Carrie,” Dr. Wild called cheerfully, his laughing green eyes glancing up at her from under his cap of curly, rust-colored hair. 

Just the sound of his cheer, no matter how forced, made Carrie feel better.  And it made her realize how thankful she was to be able to make a difference.  She was the only woman working as a true medical assistant to a doctor at Chimborazo Hospital.  Dr. Wild had been the first to give her a chance to use her skills; now they worked as a team.

The years of battle had sickened her; they had also left her even more certain she was going to become a doctor when the war ended.  The ridicule she had suffered from so many when she had first arrived
at the hospital had done nothing but steel her determination.

“Good morning, Dr. Wild!” she called out, glancing down the rows of what was mostly an empty hospital ward.  Most of the soldiers wounded in earlier battles had already been sent home or back to the battlefront. 

“Will you check all the drug supplies?” Dr. Wild asked.  “I’ve had the women stock everything they have made so far.  I’m afraid we’ve got little but what has been created.”

Carrie nodded grimly.  The blockades of the Southern coastline by the Union navy had been grimly successful, blocking out the drugs and medicines so desperately needed to treat patients.  Once again, Carrie sent deep waves of gratitude to Old Sarah, now dead, who had taught her the magic of the herbs filling the Virginia woods.  She had directed groups of women all spring in collecting plants and then turning them into the herbal medicines and treatments that would be the only relief many of the men would have. 

“I checked everything before I left last night.  We’ve got a good supply of the most important medicines.  The women will continue making them.  They’ve become quite good at it.”

“They’re angels,” Dr. Wild agreed.  “All the beds are ready.”  He walked to the open door and stared north.  “Now we wait.”

Carrie moved forward to stand beside him.  The air was still; the whole city held its breath as it waited for the inevitable.  Though the sun shone hot and bright, she could feel the heavy, dark clouds that had settled over the entire country.  Storm after storm had wrought tremendous damage, but they weren’t done yet. 

The worst was still yet to come.

Carrie shook her head to dispel her gloomy thoughts and then smiled when she saw Janie striding up the hill.  She had finished breakfast with her best friend just an hour earlier, but she was already in need of her steadiness.

Janie looked over and then veered off her course to another tent to come join them.  She took her position at the door and gazed north, just as Dr. Wild and Carrie were. “Will it start today?”

“I don’t know,” Dr. Wild said.  “We’ve been told to be ready, but there is no definite word on whether General Meade has begun to move his troops.  I suppose that, like always, we’ll know when the wagons start rolling in.”

He looked at Carrie with deep sympathy. “Any word from Robert yet?”

“No, but I didn’t expect there to be.  Both he and my father believe this will be the hardest fought battle for Richmond yet.”

“Because of Grant.”  Dr. Wild wasn’t asking a question.

“Because of Grant,” Carrie agreed.  “He doesn’t have the cautious nature of the generals who have come before him.  Robert believes we’ve been lucky.  There have been so many times the city could have been taken, but the generals didn’t push forward.  They gave up and left.”  She shook her head sadly.  “But not before they injured or killed thousands of our men.”

“But they weren’t fighting against General Lee,” Janie protested. 

“That’s true,” Carrie agreed, “but Robert told me General Lee just doesn’t have enough men to stop them.  His troops are much smaller, and they’re in much worse condition.”

“Yeah, we may not look so good, but we’re tougher than them Yankee boys any day!”  One of the few soldiers left in the ward had heard them talking – his voice ringing out.  “I’ll be out of this bed soon, and then I’ll be back fighting. 
Them Yankees ain’t coming down to take our country!”

Carrie and Dr. Wild exchanged a somber look.  Both of them knew the soldier from Georgia wouldn’t ever go back into battle.  They had barely saved his life - and had not been able to save his leg.

He seemed to read their thoughts.  “Don’t be worrying ‘bout this missing leg of mine.  I reckon I can just strap on a wooden one and still aim a gun!  I ain’t going down without a fight!”