Haunted Ground Read Online Free PDF Page A

more brown than green and light skin that quickly turned red from sun or wind.  
    “I know.  I’m dead on my feet.”  He wanted to ask Jasper about their father’s final days, if he might have forgiven Brendan for leaving, but he couldn’t form the words, didn’t want to cry in front of his younger brother.  He’d ask Meg later.  She’d let him cry and hold him like she used to when he was little and she was his big sister.  He gave her a grateful look as she handed him a plate of mutton and some fresh bread.  Despite his sour mood he was starved, his body crying out for nourishment after months of living mostly on biscuit and cheese. 
    “We heard about Dunbar, of course,” Jasper continued.  “Four thousand dead and ten thousand taken prisoner.  What a victory,” he exclaimed, taking stock of Brendan.  “Have you killed many?”
    “Enough.”
    “Enough for what?” Jasper asked, eager to hear more about the battle.
    “Enough not to want to do it anymore.”  Brendan didn’t elaborate, but Jasper caught on fairly quick.   
    “So, you’ve deserted, have you?” he asked, eyes bulging with shock. 
    “I have.  I don’t have the stomach for it anymore.  Father was right about all of it.”
    “And our men?” Jasper asked, his eyes full of scorn.  “All dead, I presume, just as Father predicted?”
    “They are.”  Meg made excellent mutton, but at the moment it tasted like ashes in Brendan’s mouth, seasoned with bitterness, guilt, and the knowledge that nothing could undo the wrong he’d done to the families of the fallen.  They’d only gone out of loyalty to him, not to the cause, and now they were all dead, their families about to be disabused of the hope that their men were coming back. 
    “Brendan, do you know what they do to deserters?” Jasper asked, his eyes surprisingly merry.  “You can’t stay here.  You can rest tonight, but must leave first thing in the morning.  They’ll come looking for you, and if they do, we’re all in danger.  Your allegiance to Cromwell has kept us out of harm’s way these past few years, but now that you’ve done a runner, there’s nothing to protect us from the Roundheads.  You need to lie low for a time — a long time.”  Jasper gave Brendan a searching look, his mouth stretching into a sly smile.  “Besides, I’m now lord and master here, and you need to leave.”
    “What do you mean, you are lord and master?” Brendan asked, shocked.  He was the eldest son, their father’s heir.  It’s only natural that Jasper would take over with father dead and Brendan gone, but now that he was home, Jasper would need to step down.
    “Oh, have I forgotten to mention it?”  Jasper paused for dramatic effect, his eyes dancing with joy, “Father disinherited you after you left and signed over the estate to me in the event of his death.”  Jasper’s face was a joker’s mask of triumph and undisguised glee.  He’d been saving that particular morsel for the right moment, and this was it.
    Brendan felt as if he’d just been kicked in the stomach by a horse.  Would his father have really gone that far to punish him?  He’d grown up knowing that he was going to take over when his father died.  The family had extensive holdings and Brendan would be a wealthy man, but if what Jasper was saying were true, he’d be left with nothing, especially if he couldn’t stay and share in the profits of the estate.  He’d saved most of his soldiering pay and had a purse full of coin, but that was about it.  It wouldn’t last him more than a year, even if he lived frugally.
    “Where am I to go, brother?” Brendan asked, bitterness filling his soul.  He’d always known Jasper was one to look to his own interests, but he never thought his own brother would boot him out for fear of harboring a deserter.  Or maybe this was just a handy excuse for getting him out of the way so that he couldn’t challenge Jasper’s claim to the