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THE STRANGEST THING about the visions or dreaued Tara was that they were so real
This ti corridor The walls were painted, and hung with scenes fro at the end of the corridor, and she could catch snatches of their conversation So was said that referred to Sher the relentless tactics of General Grant, while another was arguing that he was getting the job done "I know Robert Lee," another , "and he&039;s a brilliant, brilliant eneral He sees that there is little hope I don&039;t believe that the fighting can go onat draft riots again," anothertoward the an audience with the president She thought that they had to be his advisers, or perhaps eventhe war had gone on at the end of that corridor since the fighting had first begun
She wasn&039;t going to reach the men The president&039;s door was ahead, on the left
She entered
Lincoln was not seated behind his great desk He was in a chair near the door, and she was certain that he could hear every word being said His head was bowed; he rubbed his temples as he listened
She didn&039;t want to interrupt hiht of the world on his shoulders, and of course, he had been carrying the weight of his oorld He&039;d seen a child die while in office, and for years he&039;d born the ridicule of the people when his generals had lost battle after battle, and the count of the dead had steadily risen to unthinkable numbers
He looked up, aware that she was there And he offered her a weak sentleman would do
"You&039;ve co for you"
"Thank you, Mr President I&039;ve co you take care You know that you have enereat fray of politics-no man in politics is at a lack for enemies," Lincoln assured her
She shook her head "You know that your situation is different Sir, you can&039;t be so open You expose yourself to the trust of the people far too often You "
He walked to the , and stared out at the length of the mall His hands were folded behind his back
"I a theive them the answers they want far too often But I can see that they know that my heart breaks when a man or a boy is killed They can know that I spendof ways to end this horror as soon as possible I pray that in the battles, so that the bloodshed can stop We have come this far-we cannot be swayed from our position" He turned back to her "I feel that we are close Having stayed our course, ill be triumphant
"I sometimes fear for myself, but more often I think of Mary She weeps so often Her family is Southern, and they suffer so She is delicate &039;Spiritualism&039; became so popular in the Mide were ho the possibilities-and, of course, the social interaction But then our Willie died She&039;s had seances here, in the Red Room I have been, and I have seen, and we&039;ve had Dr Henry-the head of the Sans ahosts of my predecessors here, in the White House She has seen Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson and John Tyler I kno troubled her mind is, but Iwell, I have felt that I have knoill win a battle, and often my instincts have proven true And I-"
"Sir," Tara interrupted, hurrying over to him "What&039;s ier You are ht be an enemy"
He turned to her, and she could feel his hand as he touched her hair, sently as a father "I will see you soon, I believe I will see you soon"
Suddenly, she felt as if she was being pulled away from him Great shadows that insinuated diabolical faces rushed between the hurled away, farther and farther, and she cried out, fighting the swarm of shadows
"Hey!"
She aith a start, and beca her shoulders When she tried to bolt up, she was pushed back down
There were no shadows around her She was lying on a blanket on the sand, her bed beneath the shelter of the tarp, the world around bursting with sunlight She was even aware of the s, and the aroent, Finn Dunne
"You&039;re drea in your sleep," he told her
She stared at hi of the drea hih, but then she hadn&039;t gone to sleep until it had started to rise She siven a bit of soap by Captain Tremblay, and that she didn&039;t feel like a complete salt block
"Richard?" she asked Her voice was thick
Finn offered her a canteen of water She accepted it The water was cool, crisp like the day, and it tasted delicious
"Richard fares quite well He has been up and about, and is working with sooods aboard both ships survived A few trunks floated to the surface, and Richard has suggested that we arrange a diving party to bring others up fro a hand on Finn&039;s chest to force hi position "I&039;m excellent I can help"
"And you can disappear in the water, too," he said crisply, rising
"You know that I won&039;t leave You know quite well that I could have left already," she said, finding her feet, as well
"Richard in the water, you in the waternot a good scenario for me, I dare to think The men hunted down a boar, and there&039;s coffee and dried meat that came from one of the rescued barrels I left a special canteen, just for you, near the palm where you watched over Richard yesterday"
He turned away fro?" she called after him
He paused, as if surprised by the question, or surprised that she would dare to question hie, of course," he told her "I&039;htthe camp, should you need assistance"
He had been by her sideand he had refused to let her dive while Richard was doing so, and yet, he seemed to think that it was safe to leave her to roam the island Well, it was, of course; he knew that she would certainly try to escape-but only if she had Richard at her side
She splashed some of the canteen&039;s water on her face and rinsed herscent of the boar that continued to sizzle on the stake
She found Billy tending coffee and the , Tara," he said pleasantly
"Good , Billy"
He had a soldier&039;s mess kit out, and quickly poured her some of the hot coffee "There&039;s still a chill here Seems that winter&039;s cold can seep into the bones, even if it doesn&039;t begin to compare with the brutal snow and sleet of the north"
"It&039;s a wet cold, Billy, and that&039;s e feel it," she y, but decent," he told her, cutting her a slice from the carcass
She accepted the plate and sat on one of the logs that had been dragged close to the fire Tasting the meat, she realized that she was ravenous She didn&039;t eat daintily, but devoured the portion
Billy poured hi over their camp area Blankets and a few pallets lay in order beneath the tarp With their longboats, the Union ed to co that Tre that any situation was a oing down, and therefore you set to the task of securing the most necessary supplies When survivors became beached on an island, there was still order, andat her
"There are books in Dr MacKay&039;s trunk, if you would like soested
"Thank you, Billy I willht I would a so?"
"You are free to wander the island"
She sround where she had buried Richard beneath the branches the day before
Just as Finn had said, there was a canteen leaning against one of the palms, half-hidden by branches She unscrewed the top, and discovered that it was indeed filled with blood She sniffed it
Boar&039;s blood
Tara drank her fill, and discovered that she yearned for reat deal of her strength, and the blood washed through her body like an elixir
She drank it all down, and returned the canteen to its place, wondering if she should have been so selfish How odd-the uilty of the most horrible offenses, and yet, he meant to see to it that she was supplied with this secret necessity
The better to keep her alive and tory filling her lirateful He knehat she was; he could present her to the others as a monster
But then, wouldn&039;t he have to adin to fatho of histhe beach She waved to Billy, and kept walking back around to the tangle of ht before Froboats were out in the vicinity of where Peace had gone down One trunk bobbed in the water, and three sailors in a boat were trying to capture it with a hook Tremblay himself was aboard another of the boats, and, as she watched, Richard surfaced, dragging a rope Tree he had secured fro the barrel aboard their ship A moment later, Finn surfaced, another of the barrels in his arh above the water himself, and Tremblay needed only to lower the barrel to the boat
Out by the remains of the Union ship-its masts all that rode above the waterline-she could see that thebell out of scrap metal, and they had aon shore She knew that she would be excellent at finding whatever treasures ht have been blown clear of Richard&039;s ship
She noted, however, that hanging on the longboat catching their breath, Finn and Richard seeh conversations
Did Finn seriously believe that she or Richard could be Gator, the spy supposedly known to be heading north to atte interrogation, not collective efforts to secure supplies
She watched the work, a sense of bitterness overriding the oodwill she had felt toward Finn Dunne He couldn&039;t begin to i to help the man he seemed convinced she wanted to kill
And, of course, he should be careful with her; perhaps he had a th, but he should really know better than to underestimate her
Tara hesitated another er She was already down to littlethan a cotton blouse, pantelettes and skirt She doffed her shoes, rove roots and dove in
It didn&039;t take her long to near the area where the Union longboat awaited the divers She surfaced there and faced Tremblay
"Captain, I can help," she told him
He looked at her, and smiled slowly "There was chloroform on the Peace, so Richard has told us I believe we have thus far raised coffee and ru and a score of boots"
She nodded "The chloroforht have exploded, you know, along with the gunpowder"
"We will search a while longer," Tre with Tre that was the worse for wear, but still closed She knew the travel bag; it was her own
Finn gave no thought to the bag, tossing it into the boat He stared at her, his eyes burning with that red tinge that seeer, his brows knit in a scowl "You were told not to assist, I believe, Miss Fox!"
He was shirtless, down to his breeches Water sluiced over his shoulders and she saw the sun-bronzed ripple of his shoulder and back muscles Sleek dark hair slashed in wet disarray over his forehead, and she was disturbed to realize that, even wet and dripping, he was an ithere wasn&039;t quite so much of a plea in her voice She didn&039;t look at Finn; she gave her attention to Captain Treood"
"Find the chloroforh soldiers, both sides, will be needing that"
She didn&039;t look back at Finn, but gave herself a push fro Richard on his way up as she dove Today, despite the cold of the water that remained like an icy bath, the sea was beautiful They were by the side of the reef that had been the final death grip for Tremblay&039;s ship, and fish were about in a burst of color Tangs, yellow and blue, swa the outskirts of the reef, searching the sandy bottons of the sealed barrel that carried the chloroform She saw another barrel on the sand bottom and dove for it; this barrel had split It had carried salt or sugar, she thought, but the contents were now lost She pushed herself harder and farther, was forced to surface, and then pitched down in a dive again The water, even where there was an absence of coral, was no more than forty or forty-five feet deep
This time, she found a barrel that had been thrown clean and clear She went for it, and realized that she needed rope and buoy to get it up
Or Finn
Twenty feet froing on the bow, about to take another dive Richard was now aboard, a blanket around his shoulders; he was shivering She didn&039;t think that he&039;d been ordered out for his health, but rather because she was in the water now That ell; she hadn&039;t received a ent Dunne!" she called, treading water It didn&039;t do well to stay in one position long; the water became colder and colder as she did so
He turned to her
"I need help!" she called to him
She couldn&039;t really see his face clearly from her distance; she didn&039;t knohy she was certain that he wore a quick look of suspicion before joining her
He swaht down," she said
"I&039;ll follow you"
Shehard They caht, but the bulk of it was rabbed it by the lip, pulling it to stand straight, then gripped it around on the other side as well, and thrust off froht She kicked off, too, streaking after him, but when she reached the boat, Tremblay and Richard had already leaned over to help Finn take the precious barrel from the water
"That&039;s it," Richard said "There&039;s the " He pointed to an etched-out scrawl in the wood at the top of the barrel "That&039;s the chloroforht that, most likely, unless there was some kind of rescue fro sent to a prisoner-of-war camp She wasn&039;t sure ould happen to her
But Richard still seemed as pleased as the others that such a precious piece of cargoit in We&039;ve done well," Tremblay said
Finn hiked himself out of the water and reached for Tara She accepted his assistance into the boat, and she was grateful when Tremblay set a blanket around her shoulders Finn took up the oars, while Tremblay called out to the other divers; it was tiboats back around to the beachhead, and pulled the boats out of the water Thethe ite the blanket around her, as they assessed the day&039;s haul Richard pounced upon her carpetbag, and brought it, still dripping, to set before her "Soeable," he said
"Yes, of course, thank you I guess I&039;ll bring them to the cistern and freshwater pool and rinse them out andthey won&039;t be salty, at least," she said
He looked at her, and touched her face "I&039;ht his hand "You don&039;t need to be sorry We&039;re at war And this is what happens" She moved closer to hi If he really thinks we&039;re assassinsand if he doesn&039;t, well, it&039;s still a prison caot to bide our time carefully I don&039;t think I&039;et froerous, you know It&039;s fifty-fifty whether a ship ht be Yankee or Rebel I think-"