Daughter of Twin Oaks Read Online Free PDF

Jesselynn knew the expression on the woman’s face was anything but pleasant. The thin cry of a restless child floated down from the open upstairs window.
    “Excuse me, please. My little brother has had a terribly hard day, and I must go to him.” Jesselynn stood as she spoke, causing the Union officers to rise also. Again she was surprised at their manners. The patrol who came before had shown none.
    “Please, Miss Highwood, accept our condolences on the death of your father. And of course you must see to your brother.”
    Jesselynn almost choked on her smile. If it hadn’t been for the war, her father would still be alive, along with her brothers. And this man had the gall to offer condolences? “Well, I reckon I must say thank you, sir. I’ll return as soon as I can. Please, make yourselves comfortable.” Mama, if you only knew what your training is costing me . With a glance at her two slaves that conveyed an order to not only remain where they were but to behave properly, she left the porch in a swirl of skirts. While she no longer wore hoops due to the war, she had donned extra petticoats that morning, so she was closer to fashionable dressing than at any time in the past year.
    After all, an old maid like herself didn’t need to dress in her finest, as if there were such gowns available any longer. She’d dyed two of her dresses black when her mother died and kept them for mourning. She had already put them to repeated use what with all the funerals in the vicinity.
    “Thank you, Thaddy, for getting me away from them,” she muttered as she swiftly climbed the curving walnut staircase to the second floor.
    “Lynnie.” His cry came more pitifully. He had yet to be able to say her full name.
    She pushed the door to his room all the way open and crossed the woven reed rug to lift him from his net-draped crib. “Hush now, baby, I’m here.”
    He sniffled into her neck and stuck his thumb back in his mouth. “Eat supper?” He sniffed again.
    She patted his back and swayed from side to side, calming him with the rocking motion. “Not yet, but soon.” She stroked the soft golden hair from his sweaty forehead and kissed his flushed cheek. Crossing to the basin, she held him with one arm and poured tepid water into the bowl from the matching pitcher painted with pink roses. Then dipping a cloth and squeezing it dry, she wiped his face around the hand attached to the thumb in his mouth.
    “Daddy home?”
    “No, dear, Daddy’s gone.”
    “To war?”
    “No.” Tears clutched her throat and watered her eyes. “Daddy’s gone to heaven to be with Mama and Jesus.” Sometimes she wished he didn’t talk so well. Or that he was older and could understand. How do you explain death to a baby little more than two years old? Especially one who had now lost both his parents and never knew his mother at all. She set him down on the changing table and checked his diaper. “Good boy. You are still dry. How about tryin’ the pot?”
    Anything to keep from going back down to the portico.
    “Good boy.” She praised him when she heard the tinkle in the chamber pot and, after dressing him again, could think of no real reason to not join the officers down below. Other than that she didn’t want to. She refused to think of them as guests. At least her mother had not had to deal with army officers on conscription forays. But you would have known how to behave and would have charmed them so that they would have forgotten all about the horses. Oh, Lord, please help me. We can’t lose the rest of the breeding stock or Twin Oaks stud will be no more .
    Sometimes she wondered if the Lord really cared about the carnage going on, let alone the horses. As her father had said in the beginning, this was a fight between brothers, not between warring nations. Sometimes she wished she’d been able to leave as her sisters had, to get away from making decisions here, to get away to safety. Which was the reason she had sent both Louisa