rolled over and came face-to-face with Zeke Moreau's body.
'Oh!' she gasped, and fell silent at last.
Kristin looked at Malachi and arched a brow.
He sighed with great patience. 'Kristin, I didn't know what the hell was happening in here. I didn't want her barging in to get shot, or to cause you or Cole to get shot. Mainly. It would be her own damn fault if she did get shot, but since she is your sister, I thought I'd try to save her sweet, darling, precious little life!'
For once Shannon didn't reply. She was still staring at Zeke's face. She began to tremble uncontrollably, and then she burst into tears.
Kristin started toward her sister, but Cole pulled her back. Malachi was kneeling beside Shannon, and he pulled her up and away from the body.
'It's over! It's all over!' he told her roughly, 'Don't go falling apart now.'
Shannon stiffened momentarily, and then she hiccuped. Malachi gave her his handkerchief, and she dried her face, nodding an acknowledgment. Then she jammed it back into his hand.
'I never fell apart, you backwoods bastard!'
'Well, good. Get your derriere out there and start helping!'
'Helping?'
'There are injured men out there. Unless you're too damned prissy to help the men who were willing to die to save your miserable life.'
'Miserable?'
'Go!'
'I am going, Malachi Slater! I'm going because those are fine men out there — even the rebels! I'm going for them, and I'm going because I choose to go, and I'll never, never do anything because you tell me to, do you understand?'
With an elegant toss of her golden curls, she swept past him. It was a splendid exit except for one thing. Malachi smacked her rump soundly as she went past. She yelped in outrage and slapped him hard across the face. He caught her by the elbow and turned her toward him, his face dark with rage.
'Malachi! Please! She is my sister,' Kristin reminded him sweetly.
Slowly, his eyes narrowed, he released Shannon. 'Why, thank you, kind sir!' she said. Then she kicked him hard in the shin and raced out the door.
Kristin began to smirk, and then Cole laughed, and the baby giggled. Delilah laughed along with them, but then her laughter faded, and she gasped, 'Samson! My man! Oh, Mister Slater —'
'The barn,' Kristin said quickly, her eyes on Cole. 'He was breathing —'
Cole ran out the door, Delilah hard on his heels. Kristin followed but when she stepped out on the porch she stood there stunned, her son in her arms, staring at the scene of destruction.
There were bodies everywhere. Men in gray were collecting them, dragging them away. A weary-looking young man nodded to her in grim acknowledgment as he passed her. She swallowed and caught his arm. 'Thank you. Thank you for coming here.'
He smiled and tipped his hat. 'I'd go anywhere Colonel Slater invited me, ma'am. I'm right glad we got here in time.'
He had work to do, and he went back to it. Dazed, Kristin stepped down into the yard.
Then someone called out, asking for water. She hurried over to the trough and found one of Cole's boys behind it, clutching his shoulder and trying to stand.
'Here, here!' she whispered, ladling up some water. Gabe gurgled. He seemed to think they were playing.
'Thank you, ma'am,' the soldier said. Then he winced, and she saw that he had a ball lodged in his flesh.
'Help me over here!' she called. Another soldier lifted the wounded man, and within minutes she had him in the house and on the couch and she had Cole's men scurrying around, boiling water, ripping up sheets for bandages, setting up the parlor as a temporary infirmary.
Gabriel refused to sleep, so she set up a little playpen in the parlor and busied herself with the injured. Shannon was at her side and Delilah, too, now that she knew that Samson was all right. He had been knocked cold, and he had a blinding headache, but otherwise he was none the worse for wear.
Samson was out on burial detail now. Zeke Moreau's body had been removed from the house.
There had been a scene when that had happened. Shannon had followed them out. She had stood on the porch and begged the men, 'Please… please! Don't bury that man's body anywhere on this property!'
'Miss McCahy —'
'Please! Let the vultures eat him, let the wolves finish him, but I beg you, don't bury him near here!'
And so some of the men had set out with a wagon, and they were taking Zeke and the bodies of the other bushwhackers far, far away. Pete was dead, and he was family, and three of Cole's men had fallen, and there were the Yankees that the bushwhackers had killed. They were being laid to rest with infinite tenderness in the family plot, beside Kristin's mother and father.
By nightfall, most of the traces of the gun battle had been cleared away. Delilah managed to produce a hearty stew in abundance to feed everyone.
At ten they heard the sound of a wagon creaking along. Cole had just finished eating, and he was sipping a brandy on the porch. Gabriel was in bed, and Kristin was sitting at Cole's feet, listening to a sad tune being played on a harmonica somewhere nearby.
She felt Cole stiffen. Then she realized that he had sentries posted, for there was something like a Rebel yell in the darkness, and then the wagon came through.
'Cole?' Kristin murmured.
'It's a surprise,' he said, squeezing her shoulder. She followed him down the steps and out to the yard. There was something lumpy in the back of the wagon, something that cried out plaintively, 'Kristin, Shannon?'
'Matthew!' She screamed her brother's name and flew to the wagon. She kissed him, and she held him so tightly that he muttered, 'Kristin, I survived being shot, you're going to kill me here in my home at last with kindness!'
'Oh, Matthew!'
Then Shannon was flying down the steps. The three McCahys greeted one another, and the men looked on, and then the harmonica player started up again, with 'Lorena', this time bringing tears to eyes that had nearly run dry in all the years of bloodshed.
Matthew was brought in and put to bed in his own room. Once he was tucked in, he caught his sister's hand, and Kristin smiled and kissed him on the forehead again and told him to rest.
'Kristin!' He pulled her back. 'Kristin, there'll be a bunch of Yankees here soon. They'll find out that Major Emery and his men were slaughtered, and they'll know that Cole and his men came in for the cleanup, and they'll be damned glad. But there's still a war on. They'll have to take them prisoner, or else they'll have to fight, and a lot of men will die needlessly. They're true heroes — to both sides, probably — but that won't make any difference. Kristin, are you understanding me?'
No, she wasn't. Or perhaps she was and she wanted to deny it. She couldn't have her husband taken away from her so soon.
'Kristin, Cole is considered an outlaw. Worse than ever before.'
'Why? What do you mean?'
'He'll have to explain that to you himself. But be prepared. They need to sneak away now, tonight.'
She felt weak, as if she had been drowning and she had reached and reached for a rope and it had been viciously wrenched away.
'Thank you, Matthew,' she told her brother.
She blew out the lamp and left him. She hesitated, leaning against the door.
When she came back downstairs, she quickly discovered that everything that Matthew had said was true. The Confederate surgeon who had so carefully tended to her brother was checking the men she had sutured and bandaged — and preparing them for travel. He smiled at her when he saw her.
'Your brother is going to be just fine. Keep the wound clean. Never use the same sponge twice when you're cleaning out a wound. I'm becoming more and more convinced that rot travels that way. Seems we have been doing
