@@@@@But the following day the story took an
@@@@@But the
following day the story took an ugly turn
Alicia Savage was also in her forties, but she had been married twice,
and everyone knew that she was a calm-natured, rational woman
She,
too, had woken up and seen a man in her bedroom, standing beside
her
bed, looking at her in the moonlightHe was holding the curtain back
to let the light in, and he was staring over a kerchief that hid the
lower part of his faceThe upper part was shadowed by the bill of
hiscapHe was wearing the uniform of a Union soldierSavage
screamed and threw a book from her bedside table at himHe went
through the curtains onto the piazza before her husband reached her
roomA Yankee! Suddenly everyone was afraidWomen alone were
frightened for themselves; women with husbands were frightened for
themselves and even more afraid for their husbands, because if a man
injured a Union soldier, he'd go to prison or even be hangedThe next
night and the next, the soldier materialized in a woman's bedroom
On
the third night, the report was the worst of allIt wasn't moonlight
that woke Theodosia Harding, it was the movement of a warm hand on
the
coverlet over her breastsOnly darkness met her eyes when she
opened
themBut she could hear strangled breathing, feel a crouching
presenceShe cried out, then fainted from fearNo one knew what
might have happened nextTheodosia had been sent to cousins in
SummervilleEveryone said she was in a state of collapseNear
idiocy, added the ghoulishA delegation of Charleston men went to
rmy
headquarters with the elderly lawyer Josiah Anson as their spokesman
They were going to begin their own night patrols in the old part of the
cityIf they surprised the intruder, they'd deal with him
themselves
The commandant agreed to the patrolsBut he warned that if any
Union
soldier was hurt, the responsible man or men would be execut