Free The Raging Hearts: The Coltrane Saga, Book 2 by Patricia Hagan Page B

strong. Shaking her head, she blinked back tears. “He’ll be back. I know he will.”
    “Mind if I eat your beans?” he asked casually.
    “No, no, go ahead.” Her stomach was heaving again.
    “I hear the paper Johnston signed covers not only his army but the rest of the Confederacy,” the doctor said between mouthfuls. “He didn’t have that authority, but General Breckinridge did, and he is…was…the Secretary of War for the Confederacy.”
    “Does that mean it’s over? All of it?”
    “Kitty, girl, there’s so much turmoil going on that I can’t tell what’s going on. Every soldier that’s brought in here has a new tale, a new rumor. But I do have it on good authority that the agreement Johnston signed went far beyond the terms Grant gave to Lee. Our boys are to march to the capital in the state they came from and deposit their weapons there, sign a paper saying they’ll never take up arms again, and then disband. And each state government will be recognized as lawful once its officers take oath to support the Constitution of the United States. No one is to be punished for his part in the war. Political rights are supposed to be guaranteed. Everything is supposed to settle down and be peaceful.” He snorted.
    “You don’t believe the Yankees will keep their word?” Kitty’s eyes widened. She wanted peace as much as anyone. If the South had lost, then so be it. Rebuild. Think of the future. That was the only answer now.
    Dr. Holt lay down his spoon and looked her straight in the eye. “You want to know the truth, harsh as it may sound?”
    She nodded, a chill moving through her.
    “That was not just a simple surrender document Johnston signed,” he bit out. “It was a treaty of peace, all that any Southerner could hope to ask for. But there’s not a chance that the government in Washington is going to ratify it. Lincoln would’ve. From the moment it became apparent that we were going to surrender, Lincoln insisted that the field generals were not to concern themselves with political questions. They were to give liberal terms to the surrendering armies. They were to leave all the details—about readmission to the Union, and the restoration of civil and political rights, abolition of slavery—all of that, in his hands. But now Johnston is President, and you can bet Lincoln’s dreams for peace and all his plans will go right in the ground with his coffin.”
    Kitty got up and left the room, walking down the corridor and out onto the front porch. There was a full moon. The dogwood petals were starting to drop from the tree branches, and the ground looked as though giant snowflakes had begun to cover its surface. A gentle breeze sent the white flowers swirling and dancing about in the street.
    Lifting her face to the blue-black sky, Kitty gazed up at the moon, thinking that the same glow was shining down on Travis, somewhere.
    A cloud drifted across the night sky, obliterating the moon. Life is like that now , Kitty thought. For all of us. A cloud covers us all.
    She whispered out loud, tears streaming down her cheeks, her whole body quaking, “Travis, I need you. I need you now more than I’ve ever needed you before!”
    The worry that had been locked inside now flowed from her. She whispered into the night, “Travis, I need you…and so does our baby!”

Chapter Seven
    Spring turned to summer, and heat made the hospital intolerable. Gradually the number of patients began to thin. The Federal medical officers were discharging the Confederate soldiers as quickly as possible. Kitty overheard Dr. Holt arguing fiercely over several patients, saying they were not well enough, nor strong enough, to be sent out into the streets. The Federals argued back that they were not coddling any man, least of all a “damned Reb”.
    Kitty knew that soon she, too, would be discharged from services. There had not been any pay, ever, but at least there was a roof over her head. Food was becoming more plentiful.