Cera's Place Read Online Free PDF

forget. It was a time he tried to bury deep in his mind, but couldn’t. For almost four long years, the nightmares wouldn’t let him sleep.
    Sadie closed her fingers around the necklace and brought it up to her heart. “This was Mama’s. I thought it was lost forever.” She brushed away the tears on her cheeks with the heel of her hand. “Nobody said how Daddy died. Can ya tell me?”
    Lowering his eyes, Jake studied the table’s rough wood grain. He thought it would be in her best interest not to know, but in the end, he told her everything.
    “I was a captain in your father’s company, the First Kansas Colored, and we had become good friends. It was July seventeenth, eighteen sixty-three, and we were camped near Honey Springs, in Indian Territory. It was hot, one of the hottest days yet that summer, and men were getting sick.” Jake rubbed a sleeve across his brow, remembering the heat.
    “We were ordered to capture a Confederate artillery battery. Our colonel warned us no quarter would be given if we were captured. We were to fight to the death.” Pausing, he brought the whiskey to his mouth and swallowed hard. He bit his bottom lip as his eyes focused on the now-empty glass.
    “It was hand-to-hand fighting, and I found myself on the ground with a big Confederate boy standing over me. He couldn’t have been more than sixteen, but he was strong. I knew he was going to kill me—there was blood lust in his eyes—but then suddenly your father was there. He ran his bayonet through the boy…There was so much screaming and blood and death on the battlefield that day.” Glancing up, he saw his own horror reflected in Sadie’s face. He quickly looked down and studied the glass some more.
    “As your father helped me up, another rebel shot him from behind. I carried him to the field hospital, but he was almost gone. Before he died, he asked me to give you the locket.”
    Jake forced himself to meet Sadie’s eyes. “I’ve been looking for you since I got out of the Army. By the time I got to your home in Lawrence, you had moved on. Some folks thought you went to Colorado. So I went there, but again you had moved on. It happened over and over, but now I’ve found you and done what I promised to do.”
    Sadie’s fingers trembled as she opened them, gazing at the locket once more. “After I got word Daddy was dead, there weren’t nothin’ left for me in Kansas. Mama had passed while Daddy was away fightin’.” She wiped at her nose and gave a final sniff. “Mr. Tanner, I’m beholden to you. This means more to me than I can put into words.”
    Jake covered his face with his hands, fighting the tears forming in his eyes. Finally, he could rest and Daniel could be at peace. Feeling Sadie’s hand on his forearm, he dropped his hands and gave her a tired smile. Without another word, he pushed himself up and strode out of the kitchen.

Chapter 3
    Cera looked at the swinging kitchen door in bewilderment. Before she could change her mind, she followed the soldier out of the saloon and into the street. Ignoring her, he headed south toward Market Street at a determined pace.
    “Hey! Hey, Mr. Tanner!” Her legs worked double time to keep up with his long stride.
    The soldier halted his march, turning so suddenly Cera fell into him. Recovering her balance, she looked up and was shocked by the stark grief in his blue eyes. “Thank…thank you…for stopping. I…I wanted….”
    She didn’t know what she wanted. Erasing the misery from his scarred, sun-kissed face crossed her mind, but she shoved that thought aside. She didn’t have time to be worrying about a man—a drifter no less—that she barely knew.
    He stared at her with eyebrows raised. When she didn’t say anything else, he turned and resumed walking. After a moment, she threw her hands up in resignation and hurried after him.
    “Listen,” she said to his broad back. “I’m sorry we were so inhospitable to you. Did you hear me? I said I was