“The pleasure was mine, Mr. Wright.” She gave him a weak smile because it was hard to do more when she was gritting her teeth. He offered to stay at her side until her ‘party’ returned, but she fanned him off, telling him she was fine.
Once he was gone, she uttered a sigh of relief.
“Was he that bad a dancer?”
Ada turned and found Will by her side. “Will! Where did you come from?”
“I just arrived. A tad late, but Amelia was understanding. Being a surgeon from the front carries some weight.”
She punched him in the arm. “And bearing insults as well.”
“You know that’s not how I meant it,” he replied, rubbing the mock pain in his arm from her swing.
Will Leonard stood before her, in his dress uniform, looking rather dashing, she thought. Too bad she just couldn’t think of him in any romantic way. The problem of being friends, she decided, made any idea of intimacy out of the question.
“It is good to see you.” She smiled. “Granted a leave as well?”
“Yes. Ten day’s leave. Never long enough.” He scanned the room. “So how is our patient faring?”
“Remarkably better.”
“Good. Word has it you had an escort.”
“Yes. Mr. Fontaine insisted on being my escort.” She flipped her fan open and started fanning herself, knowing the moment those words left her mouth, Will’s curiosity rose. And in fact, his eyebrows inched higher as he stared at her.
“Truly? Why a ball?” He frowned. “You brought a Confederate to a social event here? In New York?”
“Yes. He apparently knows the hostess and insisted on this as a recompense for me taking him to the rally the other evening.”
“Rally?” Will looked shocked. “You dragged a wounded secesh to an abolitionist stomping event? Ada…”
“He needed to see the error of his ways,” she insisted, fanning faster. Who was he to judge her?
Will laughed, shaking his head. “I think being in battle and wounded, maybe to never walk freely again, is a lesson well taught.”
She shot him a hard look.
“Ada, please give the man peace. He’s got nothing, according to the proclamation Lincoln issued. You’ve won.”
That comment blew the wind out of her sails. She let out the breath she didn’t know she was holding. Will was right. Acknowledging that mentally, she could feel her body relax as the tension evaporated. She folded the fan back up and smiled.
“Thank you.” She took the champagne glass he handed her from the servant wandering through the crowd. After a sip, as the bubbles tickled her nose, she added, “I’m surprised to see you here. Didn’t think balls were your favorite event.”
He snorted. “I rather enjoy them. All the lovelies here...” He gazed over the crowd.
She rolled her bottom lip inward, thinking since he was here…. “Have you found a solution to getting him back to jail?”
Will downed his glass all at once. The silence was deafening but she’d wait, until he finally replied, “I see your escort is doing rather well on the dance floor. Bravo, doctor! Say, who is he dancing with?”
She quickly turned to find her patient. It didn’t take her too long to find him and his partner. Squinting with disbelieving shock, Ada saw the woman in his arms was a slim freedwoman, pirouetting with the grace of a swan to his every move. She was beautiful and it made the hairs on the back of Ada’s neck bristle. A flush of jealousy rocked through her core, which was another unexpected feeling for this rebel. The woman looked vaguely familiar, but she couldn’t pinpoint as anger clouded her vision. All she could think was, how could he? His moves on the dance floor, spinning her in time to the music and the smiles on their faces enraged her.
They were the perfect vision of a slave owner forcing his slave to his commands. That thought consumed her as she gave Will her glass, grabbed her skirts and headed to the dance floor.
“Ada!” Her ears pounded as her blood raced, so much so that Will’s call fell on deaf ears. Who the hell was she?
Chapter 28
“It was amusing to see him—the Commander-in-Chief—whittling away with his knife upon the bark of a tree, pausing now and then to throw in a word or sentence in the conversation of those grouped about, and then going to work again with renewed vigor upon the incision of the pine.”
—Observer in Union General US Grant’s camp
Battle of the Wilderness 1864
Francois looked up in surprise. “Jaquita? Oh, mon dieu! Tres grand!”
He wrapped her in his arms and spun on his good heel with her giggling.
“Now, Francois, put me down!”
He set her down, letting his hands skim down her arms till they reached her hands. “It is so good to see you! I had no idea you were still here.”
“I live here, you fool.” She straightened her skirt.
He couldn’t contain how happy he was to see her. Eying her over, he stood back a step so he could take in all. She was just a few inches shorter than him. Her black hair was pulled back, braided and curled with pearl drops hanging from her earlobes. The yellow gown that draped her slim body was decorated with ecru lace and red roses. Her lovely blue-brown gaze sparkled with the same excitement he felt and her lips curled upward.
“So, do I pass inspection?”
“Yes, my dear, as always, you are pretty.”
“Hah! You tell Cerisa the same, no doubt.” She pouted.
That made him laugh. “What can I say? Shall we dance?”
He did his best to sway her on the dance floor. Subtly, he was aware of
