A Place in Your Heart by Kathy Otten

Author:Kathy Otten [Otten, Kathy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance, Historical, Civil War
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
Published: 2018-04-18T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

“Son-of-a-Goddamn-bitch!” Charles wadded the letter into a tight ball and flung it across the tiny hut. It bounced off the log wall and hit the floor. Seething, he snatched the pitcher off the make-shift wash stand and hurled it at the door. With a crash, the pitcher hit the wood and shattered.

He stared at the ruined stoneware, his chest heaving, his heart pounding. The audacity! How dare his grandfather presume to—

The door pushed inward, and Major Dennis stepped inside. Pottery crunched beneath his boot.

“What the hell happened here?” Major Dennis poked at the shattered pitcher with the toe of his boot.

“It broke.”

Dennis snorted. He pulled his gum rubber rain blanket over his head and gave it a shake before hanging it from a bent nail in the tent’s ridgepole. “Well don’t expect me to clean that up or fetch a new one.”

Charles said nothing. He merely stepped forward to hunker down and gather the shards. He should have remained calm. Now everyone in the regiment would have another Doctor Ellard story to share around the campfires.

“What’s this?” Dennis asked.

Charles pivoted on the balls of his feet.

The major uncurled the wadded up letter, then smoothed it out against his thigh.

“That’s mine.”

“Looks like you missed the fireplace.” Dennis backed away, his gaze focused on the page.

“Give me that.” Charles surged to his feet suddenly feeling he was ten years old again and back in boarding school.

“That’s mine.”

“Finders keepers.”

One of the boys tossed Bunzy to a friend.

“Give him back.”

“Charles sleeps with a bun-ny.”

Bunzy sailed across the room to another boy.

“Charles sleeps with a bun-ny.”

The keep-away game continued until Charles was crying and the other boys on his floor were laughing too hard to continue.

Grandfather had always believed his stern reprimands and threats of physical punishment had been the reason Charles had left Bunzy at home after the Christmas holiday.

Dennis swung around, curling into himself, protecting the letter from Charles’ grasping fingers as he read aloud.

“Adelaide Mary Ann Emmerson.” His laughter could likely be heard three tents over. “Oh ho, a senator’s daughter. And her brother has a seat in the House. Impressive.”

“Major Dennis, you are an officer and a gentleman. That is a private correspondence.”

The major laughed. “Whoa, hold up there. You’re going to be married by proxy? Is that still legal?”

Charles made another ineffective grab for the letter. Of course it wasn’t legal, and his grandfather damn well knew it. In his usual officious manner, the old man threatened this proxy marriage to remind Charles that he needed to marry and had better set his sights on a suitable wife like Miss Adelaide and not an Irish immigrant not too long off the boat. Another burst of laughter erupted from the man.

“My God, Charles Ellard, married.”

Charles snatched back the letter. “I am not married.”

Dennis threw himself onto his cot, still chuckling to himself. “Ol’ Grandpa plans to marry you off.” Laughter rose again from deep inside the man’s diaphragm. “And you didn’t know anything about it? Have you even a clue what she looks like?”

Charles ripped the letter into tiny pieces.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.