Daughter of the Regiment by Stephanie Grace Whitson

Author:Stephanie Grace Whitson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction / Romance / Historical / General, Fiction / Historical, Fiction / Christian / Historical, Fiction / Christian / Romance
Publisher: FaithWords
Published: 2015-03-24T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15

At midday on the eighth day after Jack and Sergeant John Coulter had ridden out of camp—not that she was counting—Maggie had followed a limping Hero to the edge of the woods to do his business when a flash of gray made her look up. Sergeant Coulter astride Blue. The horse was moving toward her at an easy lope, and when Coulter saw Maggie, he raised his hand in greeting, almost as if he was looking for her.

To hide the fact that she was blushing, Maggie turned away and scolded Hero. “I’m not taking a stroll for my health. Get on with it.” The dog sat down, whined, and lifted his bandaged paw. “You’re a pathetic little beggar. You’ll want to get out of the wagon not fifty feet up the road.” With a sigh of frustration, she turned about and nearly plowed into the sergeant—made more disconcerting than ever because she wasn’t quite used to being that close to a man who was that much taller than her. It made her feel… womanly. Until, that is, Coulter muttered whoa, there—as if she were a horse.

“Captain Quinn sent me to explain what’s happened so you wouldn’t worry about Jack as soon as you saw me. It’s only me back with Company D, but Jack’s fine. We split up so that I could head back here to report what we’ve learned. Jack was going to do some more looking about in Littleton.”

Maggie nodded. “Thank you.” And then she frowned, because the column was coming to a halt. “What’s happening?”

“Colonel Kelley has ordered us to make camp while he relays information to General Fremont in St. Louis. We’re to stay put until he receives new orders.”

New orders. “Rumors have been flying,” Maggie said. “I know not to believe them all, but it’s only logical that Jackson’s army in the south would be growing. Whatever the exact numbers, it has to be thousands.”

Coulter nodded. “Between five and ten thousand, according to what I just heard.”

The idea that he trusted her with news he’d just received in a meeting with the command was gratifying—but the news itself terrified her. “But if there’s only the Irish to face them… how many are we? Surely not nearly so many.” She barely managed to stifle a horrified shudder.

“Colonel Sigel’s regiment has been sent out from St. Louis.”

A regiment. Another thousand men. Still not enough. If they were forced into a confrontation, Maggie couldn’t think of any way her boys could win. She couldn’t—wouldn’t—allow herself to imagine the aftermath of such a battle. And in the aftermath, who would care for them? To mask her fear, she went to Hero and crouched down to pet him.

The sergeant followed suit. His voice was gentle as he said, “Don’t be afraid. We’ll be in camp at least until Jack reports in. Then there will be more relaying of messages back and forth. Don’t borrow tomorrow’s troubles.”

Maggie forced a smile as she stood back up. “You sounded a bit like Private Ashby there at the last.

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