Honor Bound (Shades of Gray Civil War Serial Trilogy Volume II) by Jessica James

Author:Jessica James [James, Jessica]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Jessica James
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 35

But love is blind and love cannot see.

– Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare

It seemed to Andrea that almost weekly Hunter’s youngest recruit, Johnny—along with a few other men—would ride in with a string of new horses. Sometimes it was as few as ten or twenty, sometimes as many as eighty or more. Hunter would occasionally accompany them and spend the night. But he rarely stayed more than a day or two, just long enough to keep things in order at Hawthorne. Then he was gone again.

Andrea grew close to Johnny over the course of a few weeks, and found that he was also apparently a personal favorite of her host. Hunter had taken him under his wing, making him a personal aide, whose responsibilities with the horses kept him away from active fighting. Whether it was his age, only fourteen, or his endearing personality that had grabbed Hunter’s attention, was unclear. But it was clear that Hunter made every effort to keep the youngster out of harm’s way by putting him in charge of the captured horses.

“You like doing this?” Andrea asked Johnny one day as she helped him separate a string of ten horses.

“Yeah,” he answered. “But ah’d rather be fighting Yankees any day.”

“Why don’t you?”

Johnny was silent for a moment. “Majah won’t let me…says I’m too young.” He climbed to the top rail of the fence and sat down. “I did get a chance once though.”

Really?’

“Yep. Came across some Yanks when I was going to get some horses and yelled at them, ‘Who goes there? Friends?’”

“What’d they say?” Andrea asked.

“They yelled back, ‘We’re not your friends you dirty rebel!’”

Andrea laughed at how his face lit up as he told the story. “So what’d you do?”

“I fired a shot at them, of course.” He grew suddenly sullen. “But then Major Hunter came riding up and yelled at me.”

Andrea nodded consolingly. “For firing without orders I guess.”

“No. For not firing fast enough.” He smiled at her sheepishly. “They got away.”

Andrea laughed. “That’s a good story Johnny. You’ll make a soldier yet.”

“I reckin’ I will someday.” He pushed his hat back from his forehead, the way Andrea had often seen Hunter do. “Ah’d better get back.” He jumped off the fence and turned to untie his mare.

Andrea helped him gather four horses that had been restored to good health, and watched him trot out the lane, leading two on each side.

She turned to the two horses that she needed to put in the barn. Without Hunter’s knowledge or approval, Andrea had begun separating the horses that were brought in based on their condition. The wounded were kept in the barn with the breeding stock so they could be easily cared for and the sickly were put in a separate barn on the other side of the pasture. Those that just needed some rest were turned out in a large pasture behind the house so that Hunter’s men could easily find a remount if the necessity arose.

Andrea oversaw the treatments of the

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