The Colonel's Lady by Laura Frantz

Author:Laura Frantz
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2011-09-12T03:21:30+00:00

22

The blockhouse window was open, and at dawn the pure, unadulterated trill of a cardinal roused Cass from what little sleep he’d had. Running a hand over his whiskery jaw, he abandoned the coffin-hard cot, wondering if Bella was in the kitchen making coffee. Coffee was likely all the two hundred or so inhabitants of Fort Endeavor could stomach after their rum-infested feast the night before.

For the first time in his military career, he felt a spasm of guilt for overseeing such debauchery, if only because he was still stone sober this morning. He pushed open the blockhouse door, and the chilly spring air assaulted him, reeking of rum and blatant excess. Buffalo bones, clothing, and pewter tankards littered the parade ground and deepened his discontent.

He leaned against the door frame, crossed his arms, and tried to reconcile who he’d been with who he was becoming and why he had any qualms at all. Cold logic told him it was madness to keep men under such tight rein without giving them their head now and again, as he’d done last night. Any less meant mutiny, and he’d already court-martialed thirteen soldiers for desertion since coming to Kentucke.

Yet in the ugly aftermath this morning, he was troubled enough that he reached for a limp haversack and began picking up the mess, knowing his men were too dissolute to be of much use, glad Roxie was still abed on the hill and couldn’t see the disorder.

The thought of her asleep in his house—her lush hair spilling across a pillow in whatever bedchamber Bella had put her in—was enough to keep the most pious man awake. Pious he was not, yet her winsome goodness made him want to be better than he was.

He was tired this morning, not because of the night’s devilment, but because he hadn’t been able to dislodge her from his mind in the darkness. And now, at daylight, she was still with him, hair falling down from its pins as it had been when she’d last danced with him in her fetching copper dress. So lost was he in the thought of her that he hardly heard Hank approach from behind.

“Colonel, sir.”

Cass swung round, haversack half full, grinning at Hank’s obvious amazement at seeing him in his shirtsleeves and breeches, picking up garbage to boot.

“Bella’s done fixed yo’ breakfast, sir. Why don’t you go on in and let me see to this mess?”

Trading the sack for the steaming cup of coffee in Hank’s hand, Cass said, “Since it’s such a fine morning—and I’m still sober—I thought I’d come out.”

Glancing at the clear blue sky, Hank nodded. “The Almighty’s made a fine mornin’ all right, maybe on account of yo’ behavin’ yo’self.”

Still grinning, Cass gestured to the hill. “How are things at the house?”

Grinning back, his teeth a stark white in his ebony face, Hank said, “Well, sir, you’d best ask Bella ’bout that. Word is Miz Rowan’s sleepin’ like a baby on that fine feather tick in the blue room.

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