Faithful Heart Read Online Free PDF Page A

“Nope.”
    “Well, there’s an old saying, Sergeant.
Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment
. You understand what I’m telling you?”
    Finley raised his eyes to the man who stood eyeing him, then meeting Breanna’s gaze again, he nodded and turned away. When he had disappeared in the surrounding darkness, Captain Meyer moved in quickly and said to Breanna, “I appreciate what you did, miss, but maybe you should’ve let the sergeant get his block knocked off. He’s a good soldier, but he’s got a bit of belligerence and bully in him that needs to be pounded out.”
    “By someone else, perhaps, Captain,” Breanna said, “but not by John Stranger when he’s protecting me. You wouldn’t have much sergeant left.”
    Meyer grinned, looked at Stranger, then said, “I have a feeling you speak from experience, ma’am.”
    “I do. This is one man you don’t want to see riled.”
    “I believe you, ma’am,” the captain said, then touched his hat, nodded at Stranger, and walked away.
    “How about another moonlight walk?” John asked. “That is, if Carolyne will excuse us.”
    “No problem,” Carolyne smiled. “It’s about time for me to go and find Rip.”
    Arm in arm, John and Breanna made their way outside the circle of wagons and strolled along the double-rutted trail where hundreds of prairie schooners had rolled westward in their trek to California.
    “Thanks for talking sense to that soldier,” John said. “Iwouldn’t want to bloody his uniform, but I would’ve if he hadn’t backed off. Any man who’d force himself on you would find himself in real trouble.”
    Breanna squeezed his arm and smiled as she looked up at him. “You’ve already demonstrated that, darling, and it means more to me than you’ll ever know.”
    They found a moon-drenched spot and sat on a rounded boulder and talked for about an hour. Then they prayed together, asking God to give them wisdom about their future together.
    The next day was a cloudy Saturday. The seventeen wagons moved at a slow but steady pace, angling southwest across the arid land. It was midafternoon when the stockade fence and the squat buildings of Fort Bridger came into view. The clouds were breaking up, and yellow shafts of sunlight shined through.
    Captain Meyer galloped ahead of the wagon train with his lieutenant beside him. They reached the gate and disappeared inside. Some ten minutes later—when the wagons were within a mile of the fort—the two officers rode through the gate and galloped back.
    Rip Clayson and John Stranger rode just in front of the lead wagon. Breanna and Curly listened when the two officers drew up.
    “They’re ready for you, Mr. Clayson,” Meyer said. “You can pull all the wagons inside the fort.”
    “Won’t that crowd the place?”
    “There’s room. The Shoshonis have been on the prowl, and Colonel Lynch wants the wagons safe in the stockade. One ofour patrols had a battle with them earlier today. They came back carrying five dead troopers, and we’ve got eight men shot up pretty bad. Five of them are critical. Our post physician is working furiously to keep them alive. I—” He looked toward Breanna, then said to Clayson, “I told Colonel Lynch we have a nurse in the wagon train, and I … well, I sort of volunteered her services.”
    “That’s all right, Captain,” Breanna said. “I’ll be more than glad to help.”
    Meyer smiled. “I knew you would, ma’am. Colonel Lynch took me immediately to Dr. Laird and we told him about you. He was mighty glad to hear that a real nurse would be helping him.”
    “That isn’t possibly Dr.
David
Laird, is it?”
    “Why, yes, ma’am. Do you know him?”
    “Yes. He and I worked together in Las Cruces, New Mexico, about three years ago. There was a typhoid epidemic all over that area.”
    “If I’d known that, ma’am, I would’ve told him your name.”
    “That’s all right, Captain. He’ll find out soon