Carla Kelly by The Wedding Journey

Author:The Wedding Journey
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, pdf
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

He decided in the morning that the horsemen had been his imagination. Elinore shook her head when he asked if she had heard anything. Harper frowned, and Jesse saw the concern on his face, and an even more unexpected reaction: shame. “Gor, Captain, I should have heard something. Some soldier I am.”

With surprising ease, Jesse resisted the urge to make one of his patented cuts at Harper’s military prowess. He knew that only yesterday he would have done so, but the sight last night of Harper alert at the campsite waiting for him and Elinore to return changed his mind. “Do not trouble yourself with it,” he said instead. “I could very well have imagined the entire episode. In fact, I think that likely.” He knew Harper was not convinced, but he noticed something else, too. He smiled. “We’re all a bit edgy, what?”

Harper smiled back. “Aye, sir,” he replied. He hesitated.

“Go on, man, speak.”

Harper looked at Elinore, who was folding the blankets, and lowered his voice. “Sir, if she gets tired, give me a sign. I can always carry her. She can’t weigh much.”

Oh, Hippocrates, who would call me sentimental after all these years of war? Jesse thought as the tears started behind his eyelids. He touched Harper’s arm and nodded. He realized with a start, that despite his closeness to the soldiers by the nature of his work, he was in deep danger at that moment of seeing this bumbling, inept scoundrel as a man. The moment was only reinforced when Harper cleared his throat again.

“Captain, I know you can throw me in the stockade for what I’m going to say.”

Jesse looked around elaborately. “Not a stockade in sight, Private.”

“Captain, I know you married her on the quick,” he whispered, “but I’m thinking—excuse me—that maybe…” He stopped, looked at the ground, and gave a short laugh. “Gor, who would think I would ever blush?” He looked Jesse in the eye then, his expression kindly. “You love her, sir, don’t you? We’ll see that she gets to the border, no matter what.” He looked down again. “Wilkie and I just wanted you to know.”

You’re a braver man than I am, Private, Jesse thought. I haven’t even the courage to look you in the eye after that statement. “Thank you,” he whispered, his eyes on the tree line beyond the river. “I can’t tell you what that means to me to know that.”

“Gor, sir, I think you just did. Like I said: she can’t weigh much.”

Then he was gone to help Wilkie with the bedrolls and argue about the remaining ham. Jesse watched him and thought of his maestro, who had reminded him, after he hooded him at graduation, to learn something new every day.

Senor Maldonado’s word was good. When they finished breakfast, the bailiff arrived with a wagon. “I can’t take you any farther than Torquemada,” he told Elinore, who translated. “Senora, but mi jefe wants his cart off the road if the French are nearby.”

“We understand, senor,”

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.