The Forever Tree by Bittner Rosanne

Author:Bittner, Rosanne
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
ISBN: e9781682303306
Publisher: Diversion Books
Published: 2016-01-19T05:00:00+00:00

Will rode toward the home he loved, Gerald at his side, a grim look on both their faces. Neither of them wanted to do what he must do, but neither felt he had any choice.

“We have a lot of details to tend to,” Will said. “We’ll go up to the mill tomorrow and talk to Noel, maybe close number two up north. With two and three shut down, Noel ought to be able to handle number one. We hardly have enough men left to handle two anyway. The main mill can keep us going financially.”

“That’s the least of my worries,” Gerald answered.

The looked at each other in mutual understanding. “We don’t have any choice, Gerald,” Will said.

Gerald just sighed, turning his horse and heading toward his own home. Will rode on to his house, his heart heavy, his mind swirling with indecision, the right and wrong of it, his sense of duty. He loved his home, his babies, Santana. She would never understand this. They had already argued about it, but only in theory. This was reality.

He saw Glenn, his precious son, run toward the house when the boy saw him coming. He could hear him yelling, “Mommy! Mommy! Daddy is here!” Sometimes it was madre and padre. His children were growing up fluent in both Spanish and English. They were bright and handsome, little Ruth the image of her mother. She would be a beautiful woman someday. Would he live to see it? Was a man a fool to be a patriot? Yet again, was it right to let other men fight and die for a cause he, too, believed in?

He watched Santana come running out. The meeting had ended too late to come home the night before, so he and Gerald had waited until morning to come back. It was now nearly dark. Santana must be half-crazy with worry, Will thought. She had known this particular meeting was not just a bunch of Americans getting together to discuss the war and their responsibilities, to argue both sides. This meeting had been held by Army officers sent there specifically to recruit volunteers for the Union. It was a meeting where men would make a decision whether or not to go, and he had made his decision.

“Senor Lassater! It is good that you are back.” Will’s stable boy ran up beside his horse. “Let me take your horse, patron.”

“Thanks, Pedro.” Will dismounted.

“Patron, your face! What happened?”

Will put a hand to his lower lip. He hadn’t had a chance to look at himself, since he hadn’t even bothered to shave that morning. He and Gerald had simply packed as quickly as they could to head home. Gerald had told him, though, that his left cheek was badly bruised and his lower lip was cut. “Nothing serious,” he answered Pedro. “Just a little run-in with some Southern sympathizers outside the meetinghouse. Tend to my horse, will you?”

“Si, patron.”

Pedro took the horse, and Will walked on to the house. He heard Santana order Louisa to take the children inside.

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