Free Rebel Temptress (Historical Romance) by Constance O'Banyon Page A

a situation she had no control over. Now there was one more sin to lay at Jordan's feet, one more reason to hate him.
    * * *
    Days passed into weeks. The Shenandoah Valley was beginning to feel the full impact of the war. The valley was important to the South. It was reputed to be the breadbasket of the Confederacy.
    General Stonewall Jackson, knowing the importance of the defense of the Shenandoah Valley, concentrated his forces to defend it against the enemy. He was overheard to remark: "If the valley is lost, Virginia is lost, and the Confederacy cannot survive Virginia."
    To date Honor had not seen the enemy, but there were terrible stories of battle as the enemy drew ever closer. Jordan's mother and father pleaded with her to move to Green Rivers, but she remained stubborn and determined to stay in her own home.
    So many of the young men of the county had ridden off to war, and many of them would never return. Honor sometimes found herself wondering if Jordan was safe. She had received no word from him, but that was not surprising.
    As the child began to grow inside of her, her resentment for him also grew. She could do nothing but wait for the birth of her child, the end of the war, and Jordan's return.

 
    5
    Sergeant Aloysius Simpson raised his face toward the sky and watched as the never-ending rain fell earthward. It peppered his face and plastered his red hair to the side of his head. Putting on his hat, he pulled the brim down over his forehead and moved forward in the saddle, waiting for the column of blue-clad soldiers to pass in front of him. He cursed under his breath as he watched the horses attempt to climb the mud-slick slope.
    Victory had been theirs today. They had met with the enemy this morning at daybreak. It had been a long and bloody battle, with many casualties on both sides. The Confederate forces had made a valiant attempt to hold the bridge they had been defending and that both sides coveted, but in the end the rebels had finally retreated in defeat.
    General Sheridan's orders had been to take and hold the bridge at all cost, and the cost had been a high one. The sergeant only hoped the damn bridge would prove worth the lives that had been lost today. He thought of young private Nolan. Today had been his first battle. He had reminded Sergeant Simpson of his own son, just turned seventeen. Nolan would never see his seventeenth birthday. He had died today, with half of his face blown away.
    What a strange war this was. After the battle, both sides walked together retrieving their dead and wounded, where moments before they had tried to destroy one another. It was a hell of a world, he thought, when a country turns inward and tries to destroy its own.
    Simpson thought of his own brother, Michael, who had a small farm in Virginia and had joined the Confederate army as soon as war had broken out. For all he knew, he might have killed his own brother today. He said a quick prayer that that was not the case.
    His eyes moved over the column of men. They were slumped forward in their saddles, and weariness was written on every face. Every face but one, Simpson corrected. His commanding officer, he observed, was sitting tall and proud in the saddle. His dark, handsome face was a mask and showed none of what he must be feeling.
    Simpson knew the men respected Major Adam O'Roarke and would follow him even into hell if he ordered it. The sergeant shook his head and wondered from what source his major drew his strength. He had fought as hard as his men today, and more often than not was at the front of the fighting, and yet, there he was, his eyes alert, encouraging the men with a nod or a soft-spoken word, urging them ever onward, keeping up their spirits.
    Simpson urged his horse forward to join his major. They both sat silent for a moment. The only sound was the one made by the horses as they plodded forward through the downpouring rain.
    "Sergeant, take six men and ride over the hill and see if you can