“Be quiet,” Rachel ordered and waited until the captain moved from the tent. She looked into Lucas’ brother’s narrowed eyes, liquid pools of cobalt.
Can I trust you?
“If you have a care to cite the real reason for this odd introduction, we can get down to business. I’ll remind you that you are on precarious grounds,” he warned her.
With certainty, he was a hard man, hardened more by the war.Would he turn in his own brother?“If there is any sense of love or bond for any of your family members, you must have it now. We are in dire need of your help.”
“We?”
“I ask for your assistance to get us to Union lines.”
“To Union lines! End this gibberish and tell me who you are talking about!”
“Lucas,” she whispered. That one name stopped him cold.
“Lucas? Where?” he demanded. “I thought he was in Washington.”
“He was, but now he’s here in your camp. He was captured somehow, brought to Richmond and tortured. I helped him escape. We need your help.”
“And who are you?”
“I’m Rachel Rourke, Lucas’ wife.”
That statement alone made the seasoned cavalry colonel choke. “Lucas married? Why, he’s an avowed bachelor. Never!”
She looked heavenward. The man was more surprised to find out Lucas was married than to find him this far into the Confederacy.
He stood and circled her with the unhurried but absolute concentration of a shark drawn to blood. Dark brows lowered in calculating evaluation, his stubborn jaw tilting slightly to one side in an achingly familiar gesture. “I must offer you my belated congratulations. But putting this matter aside, I have a sworn duty to uphold the Confederacy.”
“Captain Albury!”
Something broke inside Rachel. How dare he betray his brother? She pounded his back. “You are a cur of a dog, a tar water skunk, the worst kind of impotent mass of stupidity.” On and on, she rang blows upon his back, raging with every curse that came to mind.
Ryan turned, grabbed her hands and gave her a shake. “Silence, Woman!”
He flipped open the tent flap. Captain Albury’s eyebrows disappeared into his scalp to see Rachel kick his commander.
“Release Captain Davis and bring him to me immediately.” He tore down the flap in Albury’s face.
“But you can’t!” Rachel pleaded.
He straightened to his towering height, a wry expression creating a crease next to his hard mouth. “I can do whatever I please. Now stay quiet, or I’ll tie you up.”
She stilled with the deadly intent of his voice.
“That’s better.” He released her and rubbed his shin.
Minutes ticked by while Rachel waited for Lucas to appear. Colonel Rourke dropped into his chair. Over his steepled fingers, he studied her like a rare insect under a magnifying glass. Grief swamped her, threatening to buckle her knees, darting glances at Ryan and to the tent flap. Nausea swirled in her stomach. By honestly appealing their case to Lucas’ brother, she had signed their death warrants.
She slapped her palms on his desk, furious and humiliated at being so unpardonably treated. “How could you? You’ll hang your own brother? Why, if it were possible for a snake to be a buzzard and hatched from the same mother it would be you. I’m sure there will be a special place in hell for someone—”
One dark brow climbed to his hairline. “Lucas married you?”
“I did,” Lucas said, passing from beneath the tent flap and standing before his brother. Both men stared at each other for a long time, each taking his full measure.
“That will be all, Captain Albury. You are dismissed. These are old friends of mine. I’ll take care of it from here.” The tent flap dropped.
Colonel Rourke pulled out papers then frowned at Lucas. “Yourwife…”he choked, “has been regaling me with the kindest of words. Before she has me boiled in oil, I find it desirable to have you rescue me.”
