Love under Fire Part 24

"I have wanted to see you alone," I began, determined there should be no lack of courage on my part. "There is no longer need of any secrets between us. We have met only once before to-night, but that meeting was of such a character that we were instantly acquainted. To be sure we were working at cross-purposes, and you outwitted me, but later you squared all that by saving me from capture."

"Why go over that unfortunate occurrence?" she interrupted. "Do you not suppose I regret that enough already?"

"I doubt if you regret it at all."

"But I do--I haven't had a moment's peace since."

"Indeed! Why?" and I bent lower, eager to read her eyes. "Because even in that little time you had learned to care for me?"

"Your words are insolent," rising to her feet, proudly, but I remained directly in her path.

"No, Miss Willifred," earnestly, "they are not, because they come from the heart. You are a woman, and therefore you understand. You cannot be angry with me, no matter how hard you try. You are endeavoring to deceive yourself, but the effort is useless. You do care for me--that was why you waited for me to get safely across the river; that was why you have come to me now. Ever since I left you in the grape arbor I have been in your thoughts."

"And why I was also about to marry Captain Le Gaire, I suppose," she interposed defiantly, but with eyes unable to meet mine.

"I can comprehend that easily enough, helped by what I overheard. You cannot tell me you desired to marry Captain Le Gaire--can you?"

"No," for I stopped, and thus compelled an answer. "It would be useless to deny that."

"I was so sure of this that I acted, took the one course open to me to prevent your doing this wrong. I deliberately determined to risk your displeasure rather than permit the sacrifice. You were marrying him merely because you had promised, because you could not explain to your father why your feelings had changed--you were afraid to confess that you loved a Yankee."

"But I didn't--it was not that!"

"Then what was it?"

She remained silent, but now I was fully aroused.

"Billie," my voice low, and barely reaching her ear. "When I rode away that night I knew I loved you. I was a Yankee soldier, but I had been captured by a Rebel. I scarcely possessed a hope then of meeting you again, but I did believe you already realized what kind of a man Le Gaire was. I could not conceive that you would marry him, and I swore to myself to seek you out at the earliest moment possible. Don't draw back from me, dear, but listen--you must listen. This means as much to you as to me."

"But I cannot--I must not."

"What is there to prevent? Your pride of the South? Your adherence to the Confederacy? I care nothing for that; we are not Rebel and Yankee, but man and woman. As to Le Gaire, I have no respect for his claim upon you, nor would your father have if he knew the truth. It is all an accident our meeting again, but it was one of G.o.d's accidents. I thought I was sent here to capture Johnston, but my real mission was to save you. I've gone too far now to retreat. So have you."

"I?" in half indignant surprise.

"Dear, do you suppose I would dare this if I doubted you?--if I did not believe your heart was mine?"

"And if convinced otherwise, what would you do?"

The tone in which this was spoken, the swift question startled me.

"Do? Why, there would be nothing to do, except return."

"Leaving your prisoners?"

I glanced out through the nearest window, noting the sky growing gray in the east, and suddenly realized that, if we succeeded in getting away ourselves now, the transporting of Confederates under guard would be scarcely possible. She seemed to read all this in my face, before I could frame an answer.

"I have listened to you, Lieutenant Galesworth," she burst forth, "because I had to. You have had everything your own way thus far, but now it is my turn. I am a woman, a woman of the South, a soldier's daughter, and am not likely to surrender my heart, my principles, my life before such an a.s.sault. You have taken too much for granted; because I have not wished to hurt you, you have believed my silence indicative of love; you have construed friendship into devotion. Now it is my turn to speak. I did like you, and helped you; without doubt I was indiscreet, but I thought only of friendship, supposing we would part then, never to meet again. Under those circ.u.mstances," and her voice faltered slightly, "it may be that I said and did more than I should, enough--well, enough to encourage you. But--but I thought it all over with. You knew of Captain Le Gaire, and that should have been sufficient. Yet you come here, in face of all this, and--and dare to make love to me."

"But you are forgetting what I overheard--the fact that I know your real feelings toward Le Gaire."

"No, I do not forget, but that was nothing--nothing to do with you. It was merely the result of a mood, a whim, a lovers' quarrel. No, don't speak, don't stop me. I am not going to lie. It was not a mood, nor a whim. I had been a.n.a.lyzing my own heart, and discovered Captain Le Gaire was not what I had believed him to be. The very fact that both he and my father so took everything for granted, arranged all details without consulting my wishes, made me rebellious. But your dictation is even worse than theirs. They had some right, while you have none, absolutely none, Lieutenant Galesworth--have you?"

"I--I hardly know," confused by this direct question, and the flash of her eyes. "I supposed I had."

"Yet with nothing but imagination to build upon. Have I ever told you I did not care for Captain Le Gaire, or that I loved you?"

"No," I admitted, feeling myself driven relentlessly to the wall.

"I am not angry at you, for I understand how all this has occurred. I believe you have been inspired by the highest motives, and a desire to serve me. If I am angry at any one, it is myself. I have permitted you to go too far, to a.s.sume too much. Now it ends, for I am going to marry Captain Le Gaire."

She stood up straight before me, her head poised proudly, her cheeks flushed, her eyes bright with excitement. Never before had she appeared more attractive, and the love that swelled up into my heart seemed to choke all utterance. Could I have mistaken everything? Could I have deceived myself so completely? Did these hard words represent her true purpose, or were they merely wrung out of her by stress of circ.u.mstance?

I could not determine, but I knew this--I could not turn about now and retreat. If I did that I would certainly lose, while if I fought it out there was still hope. No woman--at least no woman like Willifred Hardy--ever loved a coward, or a quitter, and I was determined she should not catalogue me in either cla.s.s. All this came to me rather in instinct than thought, yet I was ready enough when she began questioning.

"Now you will go away, won't you?"

"Go away?"

"Yes, back to your own people, and leave us alone. There is no reason why you should stay here longer. You are not serving me, nor your cause.

Release your prisoners, and get away safely before you yourself are captured."

"Did Le Gaire tell you to make this proposition?"

"Certainly not," indignantly, "I have not spoken to Captain Le Gaire."

"Well, Miss Billie," soberly, "I accept your words just as they are spoken, and will trouble you no longer with my attentions. But this has become a military matter now. It is too late for us to attempt getting back, but I have sent a man for reinforcements, and we shall hold this house until they come. I do not propose to release a single prisoner, or permit a rumor of what has occurred here to reach Confederate headquarters. You are also a prisoner, although I will accept your parole."

She flung back her head defiantly.

"Which I refuse to give."

"Then obey my orders; is that your room yonder?"

"Yes."

"I will trouble you to go in there."

She stared at me, biting her lip, with foot tapping the carpet, but I had spoken sternly.

"Do you mean that?"

"Every word. I hope I shall not have to call one of my men, and place you under guard."

There could be no doubt she was angry, yet I was the master, and, after one glance into my face, her eyes burning, she swept by me, and entered the room designated. I gave a glance about its interior, marking the distance to the ground; then took the key-and inserted it in the outer lock. She stood silently facing me, her face flushed, her bosom rising and falling swiftly.

"I regret very much this necessity," I apologized, "but you have left me no alternative."

"I have no desire to be spared," she returned, "and no favors to ask, Lieutenant Galesworth."