Words Heard in Silence (64 page)

McCauley stood with him. "The defense, sirs, throws itself on the mercy of the Court. Major Montgomery experienced extreme stress and anguish as a result of the devastation of battles such as The Wilderness. That terrible experience has warped this man’s judgment and instilled an unreasoned anger and desire for revenge, a logical response to that terrible experience. It is unfortunate that his anger and pain have been so inappropriately expressed."

"Very well then. The court will adjourn until after lunch, at which time we will render our decision."

Charlie escorted Rebecca and Elizabeth out of the door. Polk was waiting in the hall for them to emerge, where he took Elizabeth’s arm. The two men escorted their respective ladies to the rear parlor, where a warm fire was burning and Beulah had tea and a light lunch already waiting for them.

Rebecca, still slightly shaken, allowed Charlie to help her to the davenport. She looked up at him, trying to hold back her tears. "Do you think they will want to talk with Constance?"

"No, dear. You and Franklin have done all that was needed about that. And Elizabeth made it clear he was not insane." Charlie gently put his arm around her shoulders and held her close. "You did wonderfully well, my brave girl."

"It certainly did not feel like it. I could feel him looking at me. I could not even meet his eyes. He is truly an evil man."

"He is, dear. You and Elizabeth stood up to him gallantly."

Richard had been standing behind Elizabeth, gently sheltering her in his arms as she warmed herself before the fire.

Elizabeth looked back at her own gentleman and whispered, "Did I do the right thing Richard?"

He leaned over, holding her close and whispering in her ear. "Elizabeth, you did the only thing an honorable person could do. I, for one, am very proud of you for it."

"It is amazing how I know intellectually that it is the right thing, but still feel so horrible that it had to be done. I am a doctor; I am supposed to guard and preserve life, not make it possible to take it. Yet, I know a monster like that has to be stopped. He would only hurt other women."

"Think, Elizabeth. This is a man who enjoyed watching Constance being raped repeatedly, and then sodomized her. The man who will be responsible, by his acts, for taking Constance’s life and changing Em’s and the unborn baby’s lives forever. Those children will be deprived of their mother’s love because of Montgomery. How many other women and children suffer the same fate if he was allowed to go free?"

"I know. I know it had to be done. It is just that, for me personally, it was a very bitter pill."

"I know, my lovely doctor. But I will remind you of what happens in the field. You have to make hard decisions –– to treat those who have a chance of surviving and leave those who have none to their God. In this case, you have done the same thing –– you have made a choice to protect the lives of women and children you will probably never meet."

There was a rap on the door. Lizbet pushed it open, holding Em's hand as she toddled into the room and directly to Charlie. "Papa." She managed to start the climb on her own only to be assisted into Charlie's lap by Rebecca, who smiled and gave the girl a kiss.

Richard and Elizabeth turned at the sound of Em’s happy cry. Elizabeth watched the little girl as she clung to these two people who had come into her life when it looked so bleak and given her love. "Yes, Richard. You are exactly right. My first priority is to protect them as much as I can."

Lunch was a subdued affair, with Em dominating the conversation. Somehow even she managed to understand it was a serious day and kept her lunch mostly on her and her bib, rather than on Charlie’s coat.

After surrendering Em to Lizbet for her nap, the four of them returned to the ballroom to wait for the panel’s decision. Most of the officers managed to file in, and the troopers from Montgomery’s company stood around the windows listening as well.

Sheridan, Merritt and James filed into the room, settled themselves, and then waited for the room to settle down.

Sheridan, as president of the panel, spoke. "It is the finding of the court that Major Harrison Montgomery is guilty as charged of the capital crime of rape, by his own admission, as verified by an officer and an enlisted man in good standing in the U.S. Army, as well as by civilian witnesses. Before we pass sentence on you, Major Montgomery, do you have anything to say in your own defense?"

Montgomery looked up from the table. His eyes were filled with rage, hate, and anger. "In my defense? No. You would not listen to me. You have taken the word of the Southern sympathizer and his lackeys. You have heard the spewing of a whore who has lured him to her bed. Before you slip the noose around my neck, I will give you the names of the men who committed the crimes and I expect you to hang them for failure to follow the orders of a senior officer." He paused and looked directly at Rebecca. "I told them to kill her. I told them to make sure it would never come back to haunt them. I suggested they cut her throat and the throat of the squalling, snot nosed brat across the room, crying for her 'mama ‘." His gaze shifted to Charlie. "So if you are going to hang one true Union soldier, make sure you get us all."

Phil Sheridan’s face looked as though it was chiseled from stone. "Harrison Montgomery, for the crime of capital rape, it is the judgment of this court that you be hanged by the neck until dead. May God have mercy on your soul."

He stood and walked toward the back of the room, then turned to Samuelson. "Get that vermin out of Mrs. Gaines’ house. Schedule the hanging for tomorrow morning and see to it that if he wants a minister, he gets one." Without saying another word, Sheridan walked out of the house, and down to the pond, where he could be seen pacing and smoking cigar after cigar until the light of day faded away.

I
n the early morning the cold was biting, even though the air was still. After listening to their former commander’s diatribe, the men of Company D had volunteered to build the gallows upon which Montgomery’s life would end. By tacit agreement, they had elected to build it as far from the farm as possible, choosing a remote corner of the rail yard as their site. As the morning grew brighter, a small group of officers and troopers carried Montgomery to the scaffold. He had refused the ministrations of Reverend Williams, cursing that kind man as a "damned rebel" and daring the devil to do his worst.

Charlie and Richard joined Sheridan and his entourage to serve as formal witnesses to the hanging. Sheridan personally stripped Montgomery of his insignia of office before the man mounted the steps to the platform. With a little assistance, Montgomery found a final reserve of strength and defiance, and walked on his own to his end. He turned to the hangman and said, "I should forgive you, but somehow I just cannot. You are no better than any of the rest of them, seduced by that damn Southern sympathizer to be soft on these vermin. So do your worst, and I will see you all in hell."

The hangman placed the hood over Montgomery’s head, settled the rope around his neck, made sure to bind his legs tight, and on Sheridan’s signal, released the trap that dropped the man to his death. It was a clean death; his neck broke with the drop, his body twitched once and hung still. As the troopers of his own company cut him down, Sheridan and his escort turned and rode away.

Charlie turned to Richard as they watched the men settle the body into the waiting pine box. "God, what more will we have to pay before this war is over, my friend?"

"Charlie, it will end. And if we are lucky, we will find some kind of a life afterwards that will help erase this from our souls."

"Nothing will erase this from my soul, my friend. I just hope Rebecca and I can bring enough love into the world to balance it in the long run."

C
harlie had spent the rest of the day processing all of the paperwork that resulted from General Sheridan's visit and thinking about the implications of that visit. It was time for him to start putting his life in order. Soon, he would no longer be sheltered in the Army.

Even sooner, he would face battle again and these inevitably final battles of the war would be bloody. The enemy was desperate and desperate men were dangerous men. He knew he would have to do something to protect Rebecca in the event the fates played the ultimate joke on him.

In other words, Charlie spent the afternoon brooding.

Rebecca watched him play with his dinner; he remained monosyllabic throughout the evening. Finally, she could not stand it any more.

"And what is bothering you that you sit like a statue and barely touch your supper? "

"Why do you say anything is bothering me, dear?"

"Because, you have not said more than two words in a row. You are keeping your eyes locked on your plate, and you are trying to hide your vegetables under your potatoes like young Jeremiah. "

"I am sorry, love. I just have a number of things on my mind this evening. Let us adjourn to the back parlor and talk a little, dear."

She smiled, as she sipped her coffee. "After you finish your dinner. "

"I swear, Rebecca, you are beginning to sound like my old Mammy." Charlie softened the statement with a teasing grin.

"It is just the mother in me coming out. With all these children under foot it was bound to happen. Now eat." She grinned and gave him a wink.

Charlie dutifully finished his meal in record time then rose from the table. "Mrs. Gaines, will you join me in the parlor?"

"Of course, General Redmond." She stood, taking his hand and allowing him to escort her from the table.

As they left the room, Charlie turned to Sarah, who had come to clear the table. "Could you bring some tea into the back parlor for us, Sarah?"

"Why, yes, General Charlie. Right away."

Charlie escorted Rebecca in and settled her in her favorite chair. He then knelt in front of the fireplace, tending the fire and adding more wood.

Rebecca watched him. She sighed, knowing she was going to have to give him a gentle nudge, and if that failed a swift kick. "Charlie?"

"Oh, yes, sorry, dear. I was just thinking." He fidgeted some more with the fire. "I need to go to Washington." The announcement was rather abrupt.

"Yes, I know. Why does this have you so concerned? It will only be a few days, correct?"

"Yes, I will hurry, but I need to go and see General Meigs and deliver General Sheridan’s message. I also need to see my attorney and my banker, and have you named my beneficiary for my pension."

Rebecca smiled and looked at her hands. "I wish...well...I understand why you are doing it Charlie. I just wish we did not have to think of these things."

Charlie came to Rebecca’s side and knelt down. He bowed his head and laid it in her lap. "I am afraid, dear. I am afraid the universe will play a huge, vicious joke on the two of us. I think, for the first time, I am afraid to die. And all of my errands in Washington are about taking care of you in case I do. Somehow, part of me thinks if I do everything I can to make sure you are taken care of if I do die, I can avert it somehow. And part of me is terrified because I need to do this to protect you."

"There is no joke waiting to be played, Charlie. Please, do not think like that. Just think of what you are doing as the things any husband would do to protect his wife and family. You will come home."

"My love, I would do anything to protect you and our home. I think that perhaps watching Montgomery’s end today may have put me in a morbid mood."

"I am sure it did. The house has been rather subdued today. But, you, my dear Charlie, are going to come home when this war is all over. We will breed the best horseflesh in the state and we will raise a herd of children. Little girls who will grow into fine women and boys who will be kind and gentle like their father."

Charlie raised his head from her lap and looked into her eyes. "Are you sure, Rebecca? Are you really sure you want me as your husband? Are you willing to spend your life with someone who is fundamentally a fraud –– a woman who passes as a man? Are you willing to raise a family that is not of your own body? Those are all prices you must pay to spend your life with me. Are you willing to withstand the scandal if I am discovered?"

She ran her fingers through his hair. "First, you are not a fraud. You are kind, loving, and caring. There is nothing fraudulent about that. I fell in love with you, none of that matters to me. It is your heart and spirit I adore. The body makes no difference to me."

She caressed his face. "As for the children, why do you think one needs to be born of my body for me to love it? I hope you can see I love Em as much as if she were born of me. That also does not matter."

She straightened and drew a deep breath. "And if you are discovered, well then we will still stand together, and, if it must happen, we will move away from here and start anew." She smiled. "I hear the West is a fascinating place."

Charlie could not help but chuckle at the tone of Rebecca’s voice. He looked at her and asked, "So you will marry me on the 28th?"

"Of course I will. You need not worry. I will be there."

"So have you started planning the wedding? Is there anything you want me to do or assist you in?" Charlie crossed his fingers –– all he really wanted to do was to buy the rings, show up in his dress uniform, and settle down to a quiet life with his wife. He suspected that was not all he would be required to do.

"Well, actually, Grace and I have put together a small," she held the thumb and finger apart just a bit, "list of items we will require to make me a suitably lovely bride for my dashing General. If you could pick these things up while you are in Washington, it would be wonderful."