“Do tell,” she begged, leaning closer to him in genuine curiosity.
“My oldest brother, General John Daniel Rourke was one of the Rebel’s great fighting generals. He was critically wounded,captured and sent north to a Yankee prison camp. Mistaken for dead, Union soldiers threw his body from the train in the isolated countryside of New York where he rolled to the feet of a prim and proper schoolteacher–or so he thought. As you know, Catherine Fitzgerald is the heiress to Fitzgerald Rifle Works, a company that manufactured rifles to kill Rebel soldiers much like my brother who landed on her doorstep. Long story short, they fell in love, yet became sworn enemies when my brother believed her a spy involved in a Union plot to destroy him—and believe me, John is not one to go up against especially when he thinks he has been betrayed. Going against all orders and in a bold raid, my brother abducted her from Washington.”
“Oh, my,” said Elizabeth her eyes widening.
Zachary shook his head and chuckled. “My sister-in-law was a rebellious captive. She defied his commands and soon turned his Rebel camp upside down. Knowing how stubborn my brother is, to be pitted against an equally obstinate female…well, how that courtship ever got off the ground is past anything I can imagine. They are hopelessly in love and live on my parents’ plantation in Virginia with their five children.
“What about your other brothers?”
“You aim to tease that out of me?” How she held the power to stir him. She was what every man dreamed, a vision of incomparable beauty.
“By all means.”
“Our family was fractured during the war with divided loyalties to North and South. My second oldest brother, Colonel Lucas Rourke was head of Civilian Spying for the North and responsible for a vast network of spies. The Confederacy managed to abduct him. A notorious Northern rogue spy, Rachel Pierce worked in the South and rescued him. At first, both were unbending in revealing their real identities until they figured out it was the wise thing to trust.”
“Sounds logical.”
The light caught the violet of her eyes, making them shimmer like sapphires. “Caught in a treacherous web of intrigue, they uncovered secrets which would have prolonged the war and cast them both in grave danger. While unraveling the truth, unmasking assassins, and getting safely to Union lines, a powerful…” Zachary paused and tilted his head knowingly, “fierce passion ignited between the two. But both had strong personalities and they fought like wolverines. She had a problem giving up her spying and he refused to give up his power. How they managed to get married and have four children is beyond my grasp. Yet they are happily married and live in Washington.”
“I believe you have one more sibling,” she prompted.
When her scent entwined him, his nostrils flared. Her nearness and the sultry look in her eyes unleashed something primal in him, drugged his mind. “Aren’t you an inquisitive soul? Colonel Ryan Rourke was a famous Rebel cavalryman, the notorious Gray Ghost that you’ve probably heard tales about.”
Her fingers touched her parted lips. “He was the scourge of the North and incensed Grant’s army at every turn.”
Zachary grinned, enjoying himself immensely. He opened his mouth to reply, but his gaze was drawn to the hollow of her throat and the play of soft shallows.
His pulse leaped, and he shifted to hide his physical reaction. “And then some. Needing medical help for his men, he had the daring audacity to kidnap a group of nuns, nurses really, who were on their way to give medical attention to the Union Army. In short order, my brother learned that the youngest was a doctor. With her outrageous defiance of him, he remained mystified for two reasons. She wasn’t afraid of him, and she didn’t act anything like a nun at all. She did, however, take very good care of his men and is a great doctor.”
“And then what happened?” she asked, leaning closer to him in genuine curiosity.
“In truth, she was disguised as a nun. Sister Grace was really Dr. Grace Barrett and on the run from relatives who would’ve seen her hang on trumped up charges of murder to gain her fortune. Both my brother and she were prideful and passionate but had to wend their way through loyalty and lies to clear a path to their hearts.”
“I assume they are married?”
Zachary gave out a low whistle and plunked his hand on the wall next to her head. She shifted to the side. He trapped her with his other hand. “They live on a huge horse farm in the Shenandoah with…eight children. That house is so full of joy and mischief. There is never a dull moment as in all my brothers’ families.”
Her violet eyes sparkled. “Your family’s lives sound idyllic.”
He leaned forward, almost touching her but not. The heat from her body warmed his front. It was as if she’d unleashed a magnetism she kept bottled up inside her so that he had to fight to keep himself from moving into her.
What could one kiss hurt?
Fool. And he could bag the moon and throw the dazzling ball across the universe.
The thrill of something timeless brushed against them and he resisted to circle his arms about her. He’d fantasized about kissing her for weeks, to sample her full, moist lips, to set free her hair. It had been an eternity since he’d dared be this close to a female.
He forced himself to not yearn for what he couldn’t have, but what stuck in his craw was Joseph’s admonition.
Zachary needed to finish his business not complicate affairs with a hundred things that could go wrong.
She gazed at him with sudden focus. “I have a question for you. That day…in Missouri, how did you happen to be there?”
As the words sunk in, Zachary stood stock still. He wanted to charge like a mad bull, to punch his fist through the wall.Why was he there?Old wounds scraped raw.
He swallowed. Martha Johnson. Memories flooded him. His nostrils flared. He pushed away from Elizabeth, blood rocketing through his veins. Elizabeth’s shoulders sagged, her face a whitened mask of hurt and confusion. He’d been a complete schmuck.
He drew in a slow steady breath, said nothing.
