William POV
After my sorry attempt at praying, I sat in the mess hall, eating… well, I'm not really sure exactly what it was. I must have looked troubled, because nobody came to sit near me, not that this wasn't unusual because I didn't really get along with them anyways. I liked General Lee, although not all of the men did, seeing as he only came to the Confederate side because Virginia seceded against his wishes and he didn't want to fight against his own state.
Major Joseph Thompson was my only good friend here. He came and sat across from me. "Is something wrong, Will?" he inquired. "No. Yes. Possibly." My face scrunched up differently with every word. Joe let out a quiet chuckle, "What's going on? Now you've got me interested." I didn't answer right away, and wasn't quite sure if I wanted to at all. Joe could overreact sometimes and he also wasn't the greatest secret keeper. "Let me guess," he teased, "hmmm. You disobeyed an order? Stole something? Said something you regret?" I shook my head with each guess. "Jesus Christ, Will! The only other thing I could think of is if there's a woman!" he exclaimed. I looked up and back down, staring at my food while my fork pushed through it, trying not to confirm his suspicions.
"Oh, so…. Who is she?" he asked. I sighed, he would probably never give up, but I just couldn't tell him. How could I have fallen so hard for her in such a short amount of time? After some thinking on my part and a stare down from him, I finally gave in. "I can never be with her," I confessed, "She would never love me." "Why not? You're a nice guy. Is she married?" I shook my head. "Too young? Too old?" The answers were still no. "Well, is she…," Joe thought a moment before his face lit up in an epiphany and he whispered, "from the Union?" I looked at my friend and took a deep breath and was about to say 'yes' when he started to smile mischievously, "It's that Susannah girl, isn't it? I heard some of the men talking about her, how pretty they think she is and what an addition she is to have around." Then he added quietly, "Private Johnson even said that he wished you'd have shown up a few minutes later than you did." That did it.
Joe POV
He punched me! It wasn't that hard, but my nose still bled. I don't think he realized what he'd done until he saw the blood and the amazed and shocked expression on my face. "Joe, I'm so sorry! I-I don't know what got into me!" I put a cloth up to my nose, amazed at him. Not because he punched me, but why he did. He was in love with a girl, and from the Union, too! He must really like her, seeing as he punched me for saying what I did, which I deserved. Most of us don't like Johnson for going around talking like he does and implying truly horrible things.
Everyone else was starting to stare, so we got up and went outside the tent. Will kept apologizing to me, but I stopped him. "Don't apologize. I was out of line, and now I can see that you really care for her." To my continued astonishment he blushed! I took the cloth away from my nose and noticed that it had stopped bleeding. "I won't tell anyone, you know. You have my word on that, Will." "Thank you." We ended up walking past the women's tent and I could see Will shifting his gaze towards it to catch a glimpse of Susannah. I myself only saw Miss Eliza's red hair through the crack in the tent flap, but we just walked by without a word. When we arrived at the officer's tent again, Will collapsed into his bed immediately, falling asleep with a smile on his face. I laughed at him to myself and followed suit.