Shades of Gray: A Novel of the Civil War in Virginia (44 page)

A movement in a side doorway suddenly attracted
Hunter’s attention, and he watched Carter give him the “all’s quiet” sign.
Hunter nodded in acknowledgment and again his gaze drifted to Andrea. Yes,
all’s quiet—as is a powder magazine until a match is lit.

* * *

When Andrea entered the room on Mrs. Fox’s arm,
her heart beat wildly and her stomach flipped and churned. When she glanced
around the room, her emotions overwhelmed her even more. The men gathered
before her were not officers wearing new costumes of gray and brass like those
in Richmond. Here were soldiers wearing uniforms that showed signs of heavy
wear; soldiers who looked accustomed to hard living—and harder fighting.

But Andrea
found she was not frightened by what she saw. She gazed upon them with
admiration for what they were—noble, brave, tenacious warriors. Their weapons
and their manner attested to their familiarity with desperate combat. Yet,
despite their martial appearance, they did not seem to be the ruthless horde
she had imagined. Rather, all had eyes glowing fervently with patriotic
devotion.

For a moment, Andrea stood and stared. These
were her enemies, yet now they had faces and names. Now she was close enough to
know they had families and homes, girlfriends and wives. Her gaze drifted to
the Confederate banner hanging on the wall.
How pitifully tragic this war
has become.
All hate suddenly drained out of her, replaced by sorrow and
confusion. Virginia and her inhabitants had begun to affect her heart in a
strange and mysterious manner.

Mrs. Fox’s
hand pressed hers in comfort, but Andrea felt suddenly apprehensive when she
sensed Hunter’s penetrating gaze upon her. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw
his gray eyes trained on her like an animal watching its prey. Even with the
distance between them, the sight made her tremble.

Andrea
placed a smile upon her face and pretended to take no heed. “Miss Evans?”
Andrea half-jumped and turned toward the sound of the voice.

“My name is Fannie … Fannie Mae Madison. I’m
very pleased to make your acquaintance.”

Andrea looked into the soft, warm eyes of a
woman several years her senior. She appeared more shy and reserved than many of
the others in the room, her fingers nervously toying with the sleeve of her
gown.

“Mrs. Fox told me about you,” she said,
apparently noticing Andrea’s confusion.

“Not too much I hope.” Andrea smiled at the
woman while glancing at Mrs. Fox.

“Oh, no, don’t worry. Not too much. Only that
you reside temporarily at Hawthorne.” Fanny cleared her throat. “I suppose … I
suppose you have occasion to see a good deal of Major Carter.”

Andrea followed the woman’s gaze to Carter, who
appeared intent in a conversation with a young recruit across the room. “Yes.
Enough to know that he is quite a fearless soldier … and a gentleman.”

“Yes, I think so too.” Fannie’s words and her
longing eyes revealed her feelings clearly. Before Andrea could say anything
else, Fannie pointed over her shoulder. “Oh, it looks like Laura Talbert is
trying to get your attention.”

Andrea turned to follow the girl who had been
motioning toward her, but paused in the dimly lit hallway trying to see where
she had disappeared.

“Miss Evans,” Laura said, grabbing her wrist.
“This way.” She unlocked the only closed door, hastened Andrea through, and
closed it behind them. In the pitch-black room, Andrea waited for the lamps to
be lit.

“I’m sorry to accost you like this, Miss Evans,
but I had no idea Colonel Hunter had a houseguest other than Victoria. Why,
everyone is talking about it! You must tell me everything that goes on at
Hawthorne.”

“Miss Talbert,” Andrea said, turning to face the
girl when the room became illuminated. “I’m afraid I—” Andrea stopped and gazed
around the room, then down at her hands that rested on the back of a chair. She
jerked them away and took a step back as if the chair had turned and bit her.

 “Miss Evans,” Laura said. “Is something wrong?”

Turning slowly, as if excessive movement would
make her fall, she looked over her right shoulder. Yes, there was the map on
the wall, and beside it, the door to the outside where they had brought her in.
The room even smelled the same, the sweet odor of pipe smoke, mixed with the
scent of freshly oiled floors.

Andrea’s heart stopped beating for a moment as
recognition slowly sank in. This was the same room where she had been brought
when captured by Hunter’s men. The room where Hunter had, she thought,
committed her to prison. The Talbert house was his headquarters. And he did not
want her to find that out—even now.

The door opened with a loud groan. “Miss
Talbert, Miss Evans, what a pleasant surprise.” Hunter wore his customary
expression of composed nonchalance, yet he appeared and sounded like a stranger
to Andrea.

“Colonel Hunter,” Laura said, looking nervous.
“I just brought Miss Evans in here to talk in private and get acquainted. It is
so loud out there.”

“I see.” He stared at Andrea with a cold smile
that matched the cool glint of ice in his eyes. “Why don’t you offer her a
seat?” He nodded toward the very chair where Andrea had sat while being interrogated.

Andrea
stared at the chair as if it were already taken. She knew Laura was waiting for
her to do something or say something, but she was too dizzy with confusion.
“No. No thank you. I believe I’ll stand,” she finally muttered.

A few of Hunter’s men wandered into the room,
apparently thinking there was something of importance occurring.

“I cannot imagine why you would wish to get
better acquainted,” Hunter said in a loud voice. “Seeing that you are a loyal
Virginian, and Miss Evans is a—” He stopped himself, but the damage had been
done.

Laura flinched and looked at Andrea, apparently
waiting for her to speak up and defend herself. Yet Andrea said nothing,
revealed nothing. In silent pride, she gazed over Hunter’s shoulder, her eyes
fixed on a spot on the wall.

“You are a most deceptive man, Colonel.” Andrea
finally spoke in a tone low enough so only he and Laura heard her words. “There
was a time I had almost thought you a gentleman.”

Laura attempted to lighten the air. “Come now,
Miss Evans, you’ll break the Colonel’s heart with such talk.”

“Truly? I was not aware he possessed one. Now if
you will excuse me.” Andrea curtsied politely and nodded toward the others in
the room. “Gentlemen.” Her eyes lingered slightly longer on Lieutenant Pierce than
on any of the others, and his eyes consumed hers before she swished out the
door.

* * *

 “Pierce!”

Lieutenant Pierce, who had started to follow
Andrea, stopped in his tracks and turned impatiently toward Hunter. “Sir?”

“Leave her alone.”

Pierce blinked and looked back over his shoulder
toward the disappearing figure, obviously not willing to relinquish her quite
so quickly. “But, I …” He turned his back on Hunter and continued to scan the
crowd as if the statement was a suggestion that he could heed or disregard at
will.

“That is an
order
, Lieutenant.”

Pierce swung
back around and stared at Hunter with a look of contempt.

“Is there something about that order you do not
understand?”

One of the men walked up and patted Pierce on
the shoulder. “Calm down, Pierce. This is a party. No sense getting in an
uproar over a woman.”

Pierce shrugged the man off, while others
stepped in between the two officers. That Pierce was hotheaded enough to pick a
fight with a man twice his size was common knowledge. It was hoped he would not
be foolish enough to pick one with his commanding officer.

“I believe I understand it perfectly,” he said,
saluting Hunter with a feigned display of respect. “And may the best man win.”

The words had barely left his lips before Hunter
stomped over to him, at which time those who had moved forward deemed it
prudent to take a few steps back. The looks being discharged by the two men
boded ill for eyes and jaws and anything else in range of the fists that were
being clenched.

“I have no time to stand in contemplation of who
is the better man,” Hunter said from between gritted teeth, “but I expect my
order to be followed.”

Pierce stared
Hunter in the eyes for a moment before turning around and departing in disgust.
Laura, meanwhile, gave Hunter an unkind look and followed Pierce, while the
rest of the men filed out of the room behind them.

Hunter stood alone, breathing heavily, as he
acknowledged that he had not only failed to keep the powder keg away from the
flame, but had caused the incendiary spark that ignited the explosion.

Chapter
43

“Land of the South, imperial land, how proud thy mountains
rise,

How sweet thy scenes at every hand, how fair thy covering
skies!

But not for those, oh, not for those, I love thy fields to
roam;

Thou hast a dearer spell to me, Thou art my native home.”

– Land of the South by Alex Beufort Meek

Andrea kept walking. She limped out the door,
breathing in gasps at the exertion and the pain shooting through her leg.

That room! This house! She had no idea what she had
been getting into. Yet Hunter had, and all along. How dare he stand there so
smugly, knowing she recognized the room and the memories it wrought. Damn him!
And damn his men! And damn this whole damn war!

By the time Andrea came back to her senses, she had
passed the gate of the estate. She did not care. If she stopped walking, she
feared she would explode. The throbbing of nerve endings in her leg felt
excruciating, but she was too angry to acknowledge it.

From out of nowhere, she heard the sound of a wagon
coming up behind her, and then a voice. “May I take you somewhere, Miss Evans?”

She glanced up at Major Carter and walked
faster. “I do not care for a ride, thank you.”

Carter urged the horses forward, then pulled
them across the road in front of her. “I can be as stubborn as the next
person,” he said. “Git in.”

Andrea stopped, but only for a moment. In her
rage, she struck the side of the wagon with her cane. “Move this blasted rig
out of my way!”

The officer sighed, got down from his seat, and
grabbed the cane from her hand. Tossing it into the back, he held her arms by
her side. “You can get in by yourself, young lady, or I can
help
you.”
His tone let her know it was useless to argue.

Flipping her nose in the air and struggling free
from his grasp, Andrea clumsily climbed aboard. Carter took his seat, picked up
the reins, and clucked to the horses.

“You’re not very talkative,” he said after they
had ridden quite a while in silence.

“I only speak when I have something to say.”

Carter looked at her sideways while popping a
cigar into his mouth. “Interestin’ trait for a woman.”

The remark would normally have angered Andrea,
but tonight her mind was a million miles away. She stared at the moon as she
tried to keep her thoughts from wandering back to what had just transpired.

“It appears the lady folk wished to have some
inside information on the Colonel,” Carter finally said as if stating the
obvious.

Andrea wondered how he knew what Laura had
wanted, and then grew angry all over again. “Yes, and how ironic that I have
only just come to learn that I live in the same household with a man who is
worshipped in Virginia only slightly less than the Lord.”

“Yup. He may not be the Almighty, but he’s a
darn close relative.”

“Oh, please,” Andrea spat. “I did not accept
this ride to hear about the godlike hero of Hawthorne. And please speak no more
about the honor and virtue of one who enjoys the spoils of war almost as much
as the blood that flows in its procurement.”

Carter pulled
the horses to a sudden stop. “You are misinformed on that count, young lady.
The Colonel does not, nor has he ever, shared in the partaking of the spoils of
war. The men are permitted to take what they need, the rest is forwarded to the
Confederate government. The Colonel has never taken so much as a spoonful of
coffee without paying its full price.” He turned back to the horses and snapped
the reins.

Andrea blinked in the darkness. Hunter had never
disputed the allegation when she had accused him of taking plunder. He allowed
her to think the worst, probably with the assumption she would not believe him
anyway.

“Despite your hostility toward the Colonel, I
think you’re probably a remarkable young lady.”

Andrea laughed outright at the comment, but knew
the sound carried no humor. “There are those who would take issue that I’m a
lady at all.” She looked gloomily at the house as they pulled up to it, her
wistful gaze apparently not escaping Carter.

“I believe you’re probably mistaken on that
point, too,” he said, helping her from the seat.

Andrea held onto his arm a moment and looked up
into his face. Browned by sun and aged by weather, he possessed a countenance
that obviously masked more than it expressed, yet was somehow profoundly
handsome. “You are returning to the party?”

“Nope. I owe you a debt of gratitude for giving
me the opportunity to escape.” He laughed while turning to retrieve her cane
from the back.

“But Fannie will be so disappointed,” Andrea
said without thinking. “I would be distressed to think that I am the cause.”

Carter whirled around rather suddenly for his
usual slow and deliberate demeanor. “Fannie Madison?” He lowered his voice then
and tried to appear calm. “Now why would the most beautiful woman still at the
party be disappointed if I don’t return?”

Andrea saw in his eyes the same light she had
seen in Fannie’s. “I just believe she would.”