The fallen she now came across were thinning, and the moans fading. As the heat gathered, she decided it was time to turn around when out of nowhere, a horse came trotting right up to her. Startled, Ada stood still. This animal was saddled but without any insignia on it claiming whose horse this was. No US stamped into the saddle blanket or on the bridle brass. What shocked her more was the equine came to a full stop before her without Ada doing a thing. Stunned, she tried to figure what to do. Ada hadn’t ridden in years. The war had her ride in a carriage or walk, and her few times in the saddle were sidesaddle, even that was years ago. But if she could get on the horse, perhaps she could see quickly if the former rider was back there. She’d hate to leave anyone to the flames, though they were getting closer.
Giving the animal an eye over, Ada looked at her. “Well, girl, you wanna show me who you left behind?”
Cinching her medical bag to the strap on the rear of the saddle, she led the mare to a tree stump to mount her. Pulling every lesson she had in dealing with equines, which was very limited, she got the horse to sidle up to the stump, while she gathered her skirts, thankful she only had on a corded petticoat and petticoat, shoved her boot into the stirrup and pulled herself up onto the saddle.
Riding astride felt odd and she twisted in the seat, trying to find a way to situate herself when the mare started walking. Ada gathered the reins and forced herself to breathe. With a glance around, she didn’t find any more bodies and she relaxed slightly, hoping the rest was clear and she could ride back to the army until she saw movement.
On the forest floor, a soldier with dark, almost black hair lay with a long stick next to him. Intrigued, she wondered who he was right as the horse came to a stop. The limb reminded her of a cane, and with the dark hair on his head, her first thoughts went to Francois. How dare she be looking for wounded and a man on the other side entered her thoughts. Dang rebel!
Then, he moved.
Instantly, she tried to jump off the saddle, only to remember all her skirts at the last moment. It was a jarring landing but she did get off and rearranged the skirts, which were eschewed badly. She got to his side.
“Francois?”
He popped his head up and gave her that seductive smile of his. “Why, Doctor, what a pleasant surprise.”
She wanted to hit him but more sparks rained over them. The horse pranced and she feared the animal would bolt. On this uneven ground, she couldn’t support him. “
“Come on. I need you to get up.”
He rolled to the side and saw the dead man next to him.
“He’s already beyond help,” she murmured. “We need to go or end up like him.”
Francois snarled but didn’t’ say a word. Instead, he grabbed for the dead man’s haversack, grasping it tightly as he bent his healthy leg underneath him and tried to rise, but his face contorted in pain. “I need my stick!”
Scanning around them, she found the one he mentioned and grabbed it. “Here.”
He jammed the end into the ground and with her on his other side, managed to get himself upright. But to move made him grimace in pain, so he stopped.
“Let me take a look at it,” she suggested.
“No! Get me another stick,” he ground out, his teeth clenched.
“I really think—”
“We don’t have time to think,” he growled and bent to get the broken branch next to them. As he started to jam it into his boot, she tried to stop him.
“I am not—” She was cut off as a tree, roughly thirty feet behind them caught on fire, lighting up like a torch.
The horse yanked back on the reins in an attempt to flee, breaking the grip Ada had, but Francois reached, fisting the whipping leather while teetering with the cane.
“Give me your apron!”
Confused but yanking the solid plain white pinner apron off, she handed it to him. He took the stained piece and put it over Rose’s eyes. Without seeing the flames, the horse stopped pulling.
“Let’s get the hell out of here!”
They walked with silence between them, dodging the lumps of dead men and horses and fallen timber in a mad dash despite his hobbling. Around the next turn, a colored man came running.
“Sergeant Francois,” he said, putting his arm around Francois as support. “It be bad here.”
“Edward, get us free of this!”
Ada frowned as they continued their escape. She couldn’t believe, after all they’d been through, he had the audacity to bring one of his slaves to war with him. It nearly undid her. While she had silently pined away for his company, despite their differences, over the last month, she’d realized she actually missed him and wondered if he thought of her.
Now, all that meant nothing. She couldn’t care for a man who stood for everything that was wrong!
If only she could convince her heart of that…
Chapter 36
“I do not hope to gain any decided advantage from the fighting in this forest.”
—General US Grant to an aide after his army’s punishment in the Battle of the Wilderness, May 7, 1864
The fire rolled onward, eating the badly wounded in its path as the sun started to set. Their cries for help etched permanent stains into Francois’s soul like the fire that killed them. Angry he couldn’t get Wiggins’s body out of the impending inferno boiled inside him. At least, he did
