The Sun Rises (Southern Legacy Book 4) by Jerri Hines

there has been too much death? It is all around us. I refuse to add to it and won’t allow you to do so either.”
    “How dare you tell me to remain silent and harbor a spy!”
    A long, deep sigh escaped Andrew. He glanced back over at the man, who fidgeted uncomfortably. Sweat poured off his brow. Grimacing, the wounded man clutched his side. Andrew rushed over and jerked the man’s hands back from the injured area.
    “Find me a rope,” Andrew demanded from Lonnie. “We are going to have to restrain him so he won’t open back up his wound.”
    Andrew watched Lonnie run out the door and then turned to Jo. “Help me. He is going to…”
    Jo shook her head. “I told you…”
    “I know him,” Andrew abruptly announced, holding the patient’s arm down by his side. He looked up at Jo. “From my time in Philadelphia…you may as well. He is Gavin Mitchell. Jo, he is a friend of Cullen’s.”
    Taken back, she said nothing.  Cullen …for so long she had refused to think of him. He had deserted her…taken the side of the enemy. Finally, she said in a voice that could barely be heard in the small cabin, “Why…why would he come here?”
    “How can I say? He visited before the war with Cullen. As you said before, he knows I am a doctor…he had nowhere else to turn.”
    Anguish suffused within her.  What am I to do?  She had not time to contemplate the dilemma. Lonnie raced inside, empty-handed. “They’re coming, Dr. Andrew!”
    “Who, Lonnie?” Andrew asked, unable to leave Mitchell’s side.
    “Soldiers…Confederate soldiers are at the main house,” Lonnie uttered, out of breath. “What’s we going to do?”
    Jo looked out the dirty window . Oh, Good Lord, it was a whole unit!  She looked back at Andrew. She had no choice. She walked out.
    ****
    Jo stood in the doorway for a moment. The sight she must have presented to the men. The front of her dress was drenched in blood; her hands, sticky and coated with the same liquid. She didn’t care. She was in no mood to be hospitable…no matter whether it was the militia.
    Lonnie hadn’t been wrong. It was a unit of soldiers. From the looks of the weary men, they had been drudging through the swamps.
    Immediately, she recognized the leader, Lucas McCoy. He was dressed in a ragtag Confederate uniform, as were most of the men. Their britches had holes in them; boots with the soles worn clean through; their uniform coats, faded and patched.
    The sun bore down in the cloudless sky. Jo marched out toward them with her skirt swinging in the wake of her gait. She gave no mind to the men who reined in their horses around her.
    “Good day, Mr. McCoy. What brings you out this day?” She tossed her head back. Bone-tired, she hadn’t the patience to deal with this man…this abomination who helped Harry Lee kill Gillie…for that was what he had done, surely as if he choked the life out of her himself.
    “It’s Captain McCoy, Mrs. Montgomery,” he answered solemnly, nodding his head slightly. “I hate to impose on you at this time, but we have been searching for a renegade. We fear we may have a spy in our midst. We have tracked him down to the river and have since lost him.”
    “And this has to do with me?” she asked with a venom that cut with contempt. “I can assure you I don’t make a practice of taking in renegades, Captain. Now, if there is anything else you need?”
    “I believe you don’t understand my request, Mrs. Montgomery. We need to search your plantation. As I said, the trail ends…”
    Fuming, her eyes flared at him. “You will do no such thing!” She lashed out at him, scarcely hiding the contempt she felt for the man. “I won’t have my home turned upside down because you lost your prisoner or whatever he was. Why, so that you can find someone else to try to hang without a trial? No, Mr.…Captain. You will do no such thing. I give you my word that no one is here.”
    “I believe what Captain McCoy is asking, dear cousin, is what