Hearts Under Siege (Civil War Collection) by Kathryn Kelly Read Free Book Online Page B

Grand-père glanced at the soldiers watching them from a distance. She knew he would not jeopardize her disguise.
    “I told your father you weren’t old enough to come along,” he pronounced, loud enough for any eavesdropping soldiers to hear.
    She pulled herself up to her full height. “I’m nigh onto fourteen, sir, and ready to lick them Yanks.”
    She thought she detected the whisper of a smile at the corner of Grand-père’s mouth. Her ruse seemed to have worked, at least for the time being. The soldiers lost interest in just another eager lad, too young to join the army.
    “What will they do with you?” she murmured.
    “I suspect they’ll just take me in for questioning and let me go. I doubt they have anything on me.”
    “What do you mean? What…”
    His hurt expression spoke more than words. “I do what I can to help our country.”
    “I’m sorry. I’m just worried.” She glanced around.
    “You have to go with the wagons,” he said.
    “What?”
    “You must go with the soldiers to Vicksburg.”
    “But I can’t. I have to find Jeffy.”
    A nearby soldier glanced in their direction, so Grand-père lowered his voice. “I should have known you’d be up to something, but don’t argue. There isn’t time. You must take a message to General Pemberton.” He rubbed the back of his neck.
    “But, Grand-père, I…” She paused as her grandfather glanced about before slipping a leather cord over his head and allowing it to fall beneath his shirt. Then, taking a handkerchief from his pocket, he wiped his forehead before reaching beneath his shirt to wrap something in the hankie.
    “Cough,” he demanded.
    “Wh—?”
    “Cough,” he repeated.
    Alexandra raised her fist to her mouth and coughed. Grand-père held out the handkerchief, and she grasped it and held it to her lips. There was something firm inside the cloth.
    “Put that around your neck, and get it to General Pemberton. Our lives may depend on it. Promise me.”
    Their gazes met as the soldiers came and took him away. Fear and affection gripped her heart, her gaze meeting his gray eyes.
    “I promise,” she mouthed, though he didn’t see.
    Grand-père risked his life for this. She would not allow it to be in vain.
    Her heart in her throat, she realized she was about to travel to Vicksburg.
    After retrieving and mounting her horse, Alexandra placed the tube around her neck and dropped it beneath her shirt. Though lighter than the locket she normally wore, the familiar feel of something pressing against her skin granted her comfort.
    Thomas stood several feet away, giving orders to the soldiers in preparation for their trip. The servants, having been replaced on the wagons by the Confederates, made their way back to their families. Alexandra mentally kicked herself for revealing her identity to Thomas. Then again, she thought as she watched her grandfather’s men being ushered from their positions, she might now have a better chance at being allowed to go now than she would have as an unknown boy.
    Her heart raced at the thought of approaching him for permission to go along. Permission. The very word set her blood boiling. She didn’t need permission. She was going. Anyway, forgiveness came more easily than permission.
    Nudging her horse forward, she took her place at the back of the wagons. She sat there undisturbed on her horse, watching the preparations for a full two minutes before being approached by a young, blond soldier.
    “Boy, what are you doing there?” he asked.
    Alexandra smiled inwardly. He was probably no older than she pretended to be.
    “I have orders to go along…to represent Ernest Dumon.”
    The young man looked at her as though she’d lost her mind. “Go on, now,” he said. “We don’t need the likes of you tagging along.”
    “As I said, I’m going.”
    The soldier approached her horse and grabbed at the reins. Alexandra jerked the horse’s head out of his reach.
    “See here, now,” the man said, “you