Embrace the Wild Land Read Online Free PDF Page B

sinking wearily into the chair. “With his wife and my two little grandchildren gone to live with her mother, and with your brother Lance off to war himself, God knows where, there’s nobody but me to run the place.”
    Danny sat down across the table from the man. He reached out and took his father’s hand. “I’m sorry, Pa,” he replied sincerely, frowning with sympathy.
    Hugh Monroe met his handsome son’s intense blue eyes. Danny’s face was deeply tanned from years of duty in Indian territory, his blond hair bleached even whiter from the Western sun. Dan Monroe looked much younger than his thirty-five years for he was a big, strapping, healthy man, with a quick, bright smile. “You sure Emily and my little Jennifer are safe in St. Louis?” the older man asked. “You should have brought them, son. I haven’t seen them in two years.”
    “Things are too dangerous in Tennessee, and youknow it, Pa. And here in the country is where a lot of the fighting will take place; out here there’s no help for them if Union soldiers should come. There’s a lot of unrest in Missouri, that’s sure, what with the Jayhawkers and Border Ruffians going at it all the time. That state’s really torn, but they haven’t officially picked a side, and St. Louis is a big city, not remote and dangerous like the countryside. The house Emily’s father left to her when he died is a fine house, and she has lots of company. She’ll be OK.”
    The old man nodded. He squeezed Danny’s hand and then let go of it, reaching across the table to a half-empty bottle of whiskey. “So you’ve quit after all them years with the army to come over to the graycoats, have you?”
    “Yes, sir. I guess my Tennessee-born pride just kind of boiled over when I got your letter about Lenny. I figured if my brother could die for Tennessee, I guess I ought to be here, too.”
    Hugh Monroe took a swallow of whiskey. Danny noticed how much whiter his hair had become. He was a lonely man. Danny’s mother had died years before, and Danny had served duty in the West for many years. The youngest son, Lance, had been somewhat of a drifter himself, and now had also joined the Confederates. Lenny had been the only son to stay close to his father and help with the farm. Now Lenny was dead. The ugly war between North and South had killed him. Danny took no particular issue on slavery, but did take issue with the fact that the Federal government wanted to tell Tennessee citizens and other citizens of the South what they could and could not do. Southerners didn’t like taking orders from outsiders. Molehills had grown into mountains, and now the country was exploding. Hugh Monroe turned dark eyes to his son and studied him for a long, silent moment.
    “Every time I look at that blond hair and those blue eyes, I think of your ma,” he told Danny. “She sure was pretty.”
    Danny smiled softly. “I remember.”
    The old man smiled and blinked back more tears. “You look so much like her, except for being so big.”
    Danny laughed lightly. “I got that from you. I guess out of all four sons, Zeke and I were the two biggest. I remember—” He stopped short, seeing the terrible pain in his father’s eyes and wondering what had possessed him to mention the oldest son, the half-breed brother who was seldom discussed: the meanest, the most rebellious, the one who had left home over twenty years ago, never to return. Hugh Monroe shifted in his chair and frowned, slowly twisting the whiskey bottle in his gnarled hands.
    “Have you seen him since the last time you was home?” he asked quietly.
    “I haven’t seen him for about four years, Pa. Fact is, he and his wife have never even met Emily, or seen Jennifer. With my duties at Fort Laramie and always running Emily back and forth to St. Louis for one thing and another, there just never seemed to be a good time to travel all that way down to the Arkansas River to Zeke’s ranch. But as far as I know he’s still