Everlasting Light - A Civil War Romance Novella Read Online Free PDF Page A

yo’ raised up. They’s good boys too. Mebbe it shouldda been me who died, ’stead of them.”
    Tears filled Alaina’s eyes while animosity for the Yankee Army filled her heart. “No one should have died.” She tossed the serving spoon into the pot of stew. “I hate those Federal soldiers! I hate every one of them!”
    “Alaina!” Mama McKenna drew back and placed her hand at her throat.
    “I apologize for offending you, but I refuse to apologize for cursing Union troops.” Molten anger coupled with the deepest of all sadness blinded Alaina. She darted from the kitchen into the rapidly cooling December dusk. She sprinted through the yard, past the cinders littering the barn’s foundation, across the cold, hard dirt in the garden, and there she leaped over the tiny creek. She ran through a cluster of unmarred oak trees and continued to run until her lungs burned, rendering her breathless.
    Sagging to her knees, she let go of the sob threatening to choke her. “Oh, God, I wish I was dead.” She wept and poured out her anguish to the Lord. Finally, there wasn’t another tear left.
    But now what did she do? How could she move beyond her grief and go on?
    My grace is sufficient for thee , came the Divine reply , for My strength is made perfect in weakness.
    Alaina lifted the edges of her apron and dabbed at her swollen eyes. She believed God’s Word was truth. She’d memorized that very passage of scripture as a girl—2 Corinthians 12:9. It had remained in her heart ever since.
    The Savior’s promise filled her being. “… and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.”
    She sniffled and then felt the urge to recite a portion of Psalm 23. “ Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me … surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. ”
    Never before had she thought she’d feel so grateful that her mother had insisted she memorize selections from the Bible. Now, as the Lord brought His Word to mind, Alaina felt as though she could feel His arms around her, comforting her, encouraging her to rise from the cold earth and walk back to the house.
    “Alaina!” Papa McKenna’s booming voice hailed her through the cold and dark. “Where are you? Ellie is worried half out of her mind.”
    She crossed the stream. “I’m all right. I’m almost there ...”
    ******
    It wasn’t long after Jennifer Marie’s eighteenth birthday party that Braeden called upon Alaina and asked her father’s permission to court her. At first she feared Papa wouldn’t allow it. After all, he still referred to her as his “little girl” even though she was seventeen—and even though Rebecca was really his little girl! Braeden was twenty. Would Papa think he was too old for her, or too young?
    As it happened, Samuel Dalton took an instant liking to the gallant young man pursuing his daughter, and he allowed Braeden to visit once during the week and spend Sundays with their family. It was on one of those Lord’s Day afternoons that Alaina packed a picnic lunch for herself and Braeden to share under the expanse of a thick oak tree. It was unseasonably warm for the last days of March. “Would you care for another piece of chicken?”
    “No, Laina.” Braeden groaned and patted his stomach. “I’m so full I might bust.”
    She laughed softly and watched him stretch out on his back, his blond head close to her lap.
    “Did you fry that chicken yourself?”
    “Well, um …” A warm blush surged upward into her neck and cheeks. “No, I must confess, Mama did it, but I helped.”
    A chuckle came from under his breath. “I wouldn’t care if you didn’t know how to set a kettle to boiling.”
    “Oh, yes you would—when your stomach started to rumble, then you’d care.”
    “True,” he drawled teasingly, “maybe I’d care a little.”
    Alaina clucked her tongue and smiled.