So here was the price for demanding she be allowed to work on the Confederates and knowing Will. Also, she’d bet it was God’s way of reprimanding her for sleeping with the enemy. The anger surged through her veins. Dammit, he could find his own way home! Damn slave-owner!
Chapter 31
“If my name ever goes into history, it was for this act.”
—Abraham Lincoln’s remark for issuing his Emancipation Proclamation
Francois adjusted his shoulders one more time, peering into the darkness and wondering, for once, if he’d made the right decision. Though, it wasn’t really up to him. The choice was plain and clear—stay in New York with Ada and end up ruining her life, Dr. Leonard’s life and destroying what freedom he’d ever have, imprisoned in a Yankee cell. Or, agree with the surgeon and leave for the South. Bracing for the next step, he shook his head, unable to forget the last encounter with that fiery abolitionist who’d saved his life.
“Yes, come in!”
Her bark at his scratches to her door made him want to laugh. She was still mad about leaving the ball, which floored him as she didn’t want to go there in the first place. Yet he definitely got the hint of her anger on the ride back when she said nothing to him, virtually jumped out of the carriage when it halted at the house, and slid past the front door before he steadied his cane to step off the vehicle.
“Miss Ada, are you all right?” he asked once he entered her bedroom. He was surprised to see her brushing her hair with a vengeance, still dressed in the ballgown. The maid standing next to the dressing table, looking confused and distraught at being without a task. He gave her a smile and nodded for her to leave.
“I am fine.”
A short simple answer wasn’t good, he decided. “My ankle feels better, having sat for so long on the ride.”
Her gaze narrowed at the reflection in her looking glass. “Really? How convenient.”
“I didn’t know you had such a desire to stay. You, in fact, didn’t want to go, if I recall correctly.” When she didn’t answer, he mulled it over and decided to try his theory. “Unless, that officer you danced with held more meaning for you than wearing the Yankee blue. Heavens knows there were plenty of those there tonight.”
She threw the brush down and spun his way. “That officer is the man I hadn’t seen for a long time. He will be my husband, when all is said and done, but instead of being able to see him, you come like a bull, determined to take me away!” Her face was red, her eyes on fire and her shoulders straight, like steel. That energy attracted him and that surprised him.
“What was his name again? I seem to recall hearing it before.”
“Colonel Peregoy to you, sir. A surgeon with the Army of the Tennessee.”
Now, the memory blossomed. His sister, upon her return to the family last fall, told a story of a doctor in Tennessee, one who had tried to lure her away from the man she loved. Francois snorted. The woman’s anger now had her pacing.
“Ah, yes, I recall hearing of your hero.” He poured a glass of wine. “You might want to rethink your desire.”
“How could you possibly know of him? Your fated army was in Virginia.”
Her quick defense of him instantly set off a series of questions in his head, that all seemed to zero back to the same conclusion. It was this man’s letters he had seen her cling to and no doubt the same person he found her writing voraciously too. And he was the same one Cerisa claimed nearly ruined her marriage…
“That man is not what he appears to be,” he answered.
“Whatever do you mean?” Her voice contained a sharp edge. “He is of rank and a good surgeon!”
“He is not the type for you to waste your time with!” Now he was angry.
She laughed harshly. “Stay away from Will, Dr. Leonard,” she corrected. “He has never cared for Richard.”
“You shouldn’t either. He is not worthy.” The hair on the back of his neck bristled as his blood raced through his veins wildly. Cerisa’s story of this surgeon’s forward advances to her came crashing back into his memories. And if he recalled correctly, the man was married!
“You say that just because I’ve allowed you to be too close to me!”
He could barely hear from the pounding of his heart as madness started to take hold. “I’ve made love to you, not once but several times!”
She laughed. “I should have never seen to your care, nor taken you back.”
“My, how we get so snippety when you know damn good and well you couldn’t turn down the chance to practice real medicine,” he roared back.
That stopped her pacing.
“Ah, I see I hit home with that.” He stepped closer to her but refused to touch her. “Now, you throw me aside, as if I was no more than one of those poor souls you want to save.”
She inhaled deeply, her face turned red with anger and before he knew it, she slapped him across the cheek. Stunned, he quickly overrode that emotion and pulled her close, probably rougher than he needed to, and kissed her soundly on her lips. Again, she surprised him, for a moment after he locked her in his embrace, she fought back and bit his lip hard. He yelped, releasing her.
“So now I see what you do with your slaves. You’re no better than any other Silas Marner!” She spat the worse example of the slave-owner from that Yankee abolitionist’s novel, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”, only making him want to laugh.
“You think that’s all I am? All the South is? Yet you’ve never been there. Go look at your factories here. No better than
