Born for the Storm by Robert Wisehart

Author:Robert Wisehart [Robert Wisehart]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction/Historical/General
ISBN: 9781640191570
Publisher: New Word City, Inc.
Published: 2018-05-23T00:00:00+00:00

Houston was caught in the maelstrom of the campaign almost from the moment they got to Nashville. The unintended result left Eliza mostly alone to make a new home in a strange place surrounded by people she didn’t know. His wife desperately needed more support and he knew it. But there was no time. With Jackson in Washington, most of the general’s political responsibilities in Tennessee fell to him, on top of the crowded days and nights that came with being the governor of a growing state who is facing a challenge from a popular three-time governor. The whirlwind of activity meant long days followed by late-night meetings, sessions that invariably ended with a drink or two. Eliza was usually asleep by the time he got home, although most nights he suspected that she was only pretending.

Sensitive to the contrast between her sheltered life at Allenwood and the rough-and-tumble nature of her new life, Houston berated himself for not seeing it earlier. It simply never occurred to him. He loved her and, being massively self-centered, he assumed that was enough.

He didn’t own property. He never wanted any. Property tied a man down. Someday he’d have his own place, but that was in the future. Until his marriage, his modest suite in the Nashville Inn was more than enough for his needs, although Eliza contemptuously regarded it as little more than inadequate closet space. When her clothes were delivered from Allenwood they almost filled all of one room. When he insisted that most of the clothes be stored because there wasn’t enough space for them all, she collapsed on the floor and began to cry. Between sobs, she wailed pitifully, “But what am I supposed to wear?”

Houston had no good answer, at least none he dared say aloud. It seemed to him that with what she dismissed as the “pitiful few things” she kept on hand Eliza could go for weeks at a time and not wear the same thing twice. It was not his nature to keep silent, but he learned there are times when nothing is the best thing a husband can say.

Their second argument came when she complained that the campaign consumed too much of his time.

“It’s still months until the election.” There was a shrill whine in her voice he hadn’t noticed before. “Why do you have to start so early? I never see you! Why do you leave me alone all the time when you know how much I hate it! I must be the loneliest woman in all of Tennessee!”

There was no answer to that either, other than to explain that he’d have to start early and run hard to beat Carroll. In a weak effort to lighten her mood, he joked, “If I don’t start now, come election day I’ll be the ex-Governor and then you’ll see way too much of me.” Eliza was not amused.

The Nashville Inn, once so comfortable, accommodating and convenient, now seemed shabby, crude and cheap. Nashville itself wasn’t much better.

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