Cheryl Reavis (12 page)

“I can assure you it was sincere, Kate. No matter how it sounded, I was asking, not ordering. But I admit I was willing to do whatever it took to get you to agree to do this for me. Now. Go away. I have things to do.”

Whatever those things were, Kate soon realized that it required a good deal of military activity. Max apparently had chosen not to go to army headquarters. Instead he had headquarters come to him. Soldiers—officers mainly—arrived en masse and congregated noisily in Mr. Markham’s sitting room. Kate had no idea where Robert had gone. He wasn’t in the house as far as she knew, and she didn’t see him anywhere around the summer kitchen whenever she looked out the window—which was more often than would have been seemly had anyone noticed.

Truthfully she was glad he wasn’t here at the moment; the last thing he needed to see was how completely his family home had been taken over, not just by Union soldiers, but by her, as well. Apparently she had already been reinstated as the occupant of the bedchamber upstairs. Max had lost no time taking Robert at his word that he wanted to move out of the house. Sergeant Major Perkins informed her on her way back downstairs that the room had been “readied,” and that her trunks would be taken there as soon as they arrived from the depot.

She couldn’t keep from smiling. The thought of having more than two things to wear was pleasurable indeed. She went looking for Maria. If Kate wanted to know how her sister-in-law’s meeting with her brother had gone last night, she was clearly going to have to ask the source—if she could figure out a tactful way to do it.

As she headed for the parlor, she encountered Maria and the baby coming in the opposite direction. The baby immediately reached for her, and she took him gladly, smiling as she remembered Valentina’s remark regarding Mrs. Kinnard’s opinion of him.

“Yes,” Kate told him earnestly. “You are definitely pleasant.”

Maria gave her a quizzical look, but Kate didn’t explain.

“Are you all right?” she asked instead, watching Maria closely for some indication of her well-being, regardless of what she said.

“I’m...better,” Maria said. “In fact, I was looking for you. We’re all going to have a special dinner in the dining room tonight—in honor of Max’s last night home.”

“All?” Kate asked, a bit taken aback by the idea.

“Yes, all. I’ve told Robert I expect him to be present, as well.”

“And what did he say to that?”

“Actually he asked me if someone had dropped me on my head while he was gone.”

Kate didn’t mean to laugh, but her amusement got away from her. It was so like something Max might have said. She was beginning to think that these two men were far more alike than she—or they—might have realized.

“Does that mean he’ll be here?” Kate asked.

“I wish I knew. All I can do is set a place for him and hope for the best.”

“What about the boys and Warrie?”

“They’ll be at Mrs. Russell’s another night. I was afraid Mrs. Russell would find Joe and Jake being there too much of a reminder of her lost boy, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. She asked to have them another night and they were begging to stay, so I agreed—for Warrie’s sake as much as anything. Mrs. Kinnard and Valentina are also invited here tonight.”

“Max’s idea, I imagine,” Kate said. She couldn’t help but marvel at his presence of mind when it came to maintaining his peaceful occupation. She had shared a sit-down meal with Mrs. Kinnard before, on the occasion of Max and Maria’s very rushed engagement announcement, and she could do it again if she set her mind to it, only this time she understood the necessity of preserving Mrs. Kinnard’s sense of her own importance better than she had even a few days ago. No, it wouldn’t do at all for Colonel Woodard to have a farewell dinner without her present, especially after all she’d done for him in his absence by maintaining a semblance of propriety in his household.

“Max’s soldiers are doing the cooking—he was adamant about that. I hope we won’t have a table full of army food.”

“If one of the cooks is the soldier who makes the cookies Sergeant Major Perkins keeps bringing, I believe you need not worry.”

Robbie was becoming rambunctious, and Kate handed him back to his mother.

“I think I’d better see about my trunks,” Kate said.

“And we are going into the nursery. This young man’s mother needs for him to take a nap.”

Maria turned to carry him to the back of the house, but then she stopped.

“Thank you, Kate,” she said.

“Whatever for?” Kate asked, returning Robbie’s uncoordinated but very enthusiastic wave goodbye.

“For...being here when Robert came home. Things might have turned out very differently if you hadn’t been.”

“I didn’t do anything, Maria. Truly. Sergeant Major Perkins and Mrs. Kinnard are the ones who—”

“That’s not what Robert says. You’re the one who talked to him so straightforwardly. He says your candor helped his state of mind a great deal.”

Kate didn’t know what to say. “I...like your brother,” she said finally, because it was the truth. “It was no hardship.”

Maria smiled. “Anyway, I thank you for that, and I’m glad you’re going to be here while Max is gone,” she said, switching her wiggling baby boy to her other arm. “I—” She stopped, apparently because of the commotion on the back stairs—soldiers leaving, and from the sound of it, Max was among them. Apparently he was going to headquarters after all.

“They sound like boys being let out of school,” Kate said.

“Don’t let Max hear you say that,” Maria said, and Kate laughed.

Maria continued toward the nursery wing, and Kate stood for a moment, trying to decide whether or not she was annoyed that her brother’s wife had assumed she would be staying even before Max had asked her. But of course she would. Kate was the Woodard family’s official spinster. Still, there was a lot to be said for being needed. Max and Maria and the boys were her family, and she would just have to work around the growing concern she had for Robert and for Harrison. It occurred to her that Mrs. Justice would likely be staying here during Max’s absence as well, and she was comforted by that thought. Mrs. Justice’s presence in the house was as soothing as Mrs. Kinnard’s was unsettling.

The dining room door was slightly ajar, and as Kate passed by, she could hear voices—Mrs. Justice’s and Robert’s. He was here in the house after all.

She hesitated, concerned for a moment that he might have overheard the admission she’d made just now. It was better that he didn’t know what she’d said about liking him. She didn’t look in, and as she passed the door, she realized too late that one of Max’s officers—a major whose name she didn’t know—was coming down the front staircase instead of following the rest of his fellow soldiers out the back way. When he saw her, he immediately headed in her direction rather than the front door.

“Miss Woodard!” he said with far more enthusiasm than was appropriate. “What a pleasure it is to see you again. May I be the first to offer you whatever assistance you may require while the Colonel is away?”

The major continued to advance, crowding too closely for her liking. She tried backing up, but it didn’t help the situation. She glanced over her shoulder. Except for Mrs. Justice and Robert in the dining room, the downstairs was completely deserted.

“Thank you, but that won’t be necessary. Excuse me, sir,” she added firmly, but he didn’t seem to register that she meant for him to get out of her way.

“I will plan to stop by every day,” the major persisted. “You are a stranger here, just as I am. I’m sure you will enjoy the company of a fellow Northerner.”

“That won’t be necessary,” Kate said again. “Mrs. Woodard and I will be well cared for.” He was close enough now for her to smell the whiskey on his breath.

“Just in case you require anything of a more personal nature,” he continued, reaching out to put his hand on her arm. “I feel it’s my duty—”

“Actually it’s
my
duty,” Robert said behind her.

“And who are you?” the major asked, truly overstepping his authority now.

“This is Robert Markham,” Kate said. “Mrs. Woodard’s brother. My brother-in-law.”

She watched the major’s face as it occurred to him that
her
brother-in-law would also be the brother-in-law of his commanding officer.

“I’m afraid I don’t know your name, Major,” she said, hoping to defuse the situation before it got any further out of hand. “I must tell my brother how...accommodating you are.”

The major looked as startled as she hoped he would, and as she expected, he didn’t offer to identify himself.

“Kate, where is Maria?” Robert asked, using her given name, she thought to establish that he was indeed her family—and her protector—and therefore he had the right.

“She’s in the nursery wing, putting the baby down for his nap.”

Kate briefly met his gaze, and she was not reassured by it. He was working hard again to control his emotions, his rage at one of the enemy.

“I believe you know your way out, Major,” she said, but she made no attempt to leave the two men unattended in the foyer. She knew enough of how the occupation worked to know that the unsubstantiated word of an ex-Rebel soldier wouldn’t count for much against that of a Union officer—whether he had been drinking or not. She wasn’t about to walk off and leave Robert without a witness. Max had assigned her the task of “refereeing,” but she doubted that even he thought she would need to begin this soon and under these circumstances.

The major stood for a moment longer.

“Miss Woodard,” he said finally—with great formality. He gave Robert a hard, narrowed-eyed look meant to intimidate him, then he turned and left by the front door.

“Why did you do that?” Robert said as the major slammed the door behind him—hard.

“Do what?”

“You know what. Did you think if you didn’t intervene, I’d be in the stockade about now?”

“Only if you’d hit him.”

“I wanted to.”

“Yes. I know.”

They stared at each other. It suddenly dawned on her that he was actually angry that she
had
intervened. “You are my duty as well, Mr. Markham. As I understand it, a peaceful occupation is the utmost priority in this house. You’d do well to remember that.”

She walked away, without looking back, and she went straight into the parlor for no reason whatsoever, closing the door behind her and leaning against it for a moment. It was incredible to her that he couldn’t see where an altercation with an officer in the occupation army would have led, regardless of the circumstances. It wasn’t that she didn’t appreciate his stepping in on her behalf. She did. The fact that she’d encountered this kind of behavior in her brother’s house suggested that the major wouldn’t have been daunted by her protests, no matter how firmly she’d made them.

She heard Mrs. Justice say something and Robert answer. Then she heard the front door slam again. She moved to look out the window. Robert was striding down the gravel path toward the street—but then he apparently changed his mind and veered off to his left. He disappeared from her view, and she moved to a window on the side of the house to look out. She could see at least part of the summer kitchen without difficulty, and after a while, she could see Robert, as well. He was carrying an ax, and after some preparation, he began splitting logs and stacking the pieces near the summer kitchen door, working in his shirtsleeves despite the winter cold. She wondered if this was a necessary chore or if it was something he needed to do in lieu of hitting a Union officer.

And here he was again, she suddenly thought—in the forefront of her mind where she didn’t want him to be. She tried to convince herself that it didn’t matter whether he was present at the dinner table tonight or not—except that it did, and she knew it. She just wanted him there. She wanted to be able to talk to him if she felt like it. And she could do that without consequence—socially. It would be quite safe because a table full of people and her brother would be present.

Safe.

Because Robert had abandoned Eleanor Hansen and was therefore untrustworthy and unsuitable? Or because his loving Eleanor meant Kate wouldn’t have to keep up her guard? It wouldn’t matter what
she
might feel when there was no chance of such feelings being returned. It would be pleasant to be his friend—if he weren’t still annoyed with her. Pleasant. Uncomplicated. Meaningless.

And safe.

She looked out the window again. He was still chopping wood, but he had to stop and rest from time to time, as if his strength had been quickly depleted by the exertion. The house was quiet; Kate was free to go see about her trunks, but she didn’t. She continued to watch him work. He was no longer the man who had collapsed in the hallway, but he was not yet as strong as he wanted to be perceived. And he was troubled. He was also, by all accounts, wild. Had the war and Samuel’s death taken the wildness out of him? She knew that love had changed both Max and John Howe, but did sorrow have the same effect? She didn’t know.

She gave a quiet sigh. She had told Maria the truth. She did like him, regardless of the fact that she barely knew him.

Private Castine came trotting up and handed him a piece of paper. Robert read it, imbedded the ax in the chopping block and left, apparently with no intention of returning any time soon. It was only then that she finally quitted the parlor to go upstairs.

The sergeant major had once again thought of everything. There was no sign whatsoever that Robert Markham had ever occupied this room. It was completely hers again. Her trunks were sitting at the foot of the bed—with the keys in the locks. The small tables that had been removed to give the hospital orderlies room to carry out their duties had been returned, as had her books. She unlocked the trunks and then removed from the large one the brassbound mahogany writing box Grey had given her. He had teased her that he wanted to make sure she would have no excuse for not writing to him, but he had also known that she was...scholarly, that she liked to read and make notes, and he had simply wanted to give her something she would enjoy.