The Man from Shenandoah Read Online Free PDF Page A

again, his voice was contemplative.

    “I reckon we’ve both changed. Me, I got used to having my orders obeyed without a word of question coming back at me. It was do it right now or die. My guess is we’ve lost the habit of working together like we used to.” He screwed up his face and rubbed his beard with both hands. “I just hope we ain’t lost the habit of loving together,” he added, barely audible.

    “Um,” she sighed, almost a sob, and after a long silence, she turned to look at Rod.

    He put out his hand, touched her cheek, and said, “My Julie.”

    “I never got free of needing you to love me,” she whispered. “We need to learn again how to get on with one another, is all.”

    “I give you my word I’ll work hard to look after you like I used to.”

    “I don’t need looking after like I did before the war took you away. I need you to work with me and think about my feelings and thoughts before you jump into something like this.”

    “I can’t change what I did. The paper’s signed.”

    “Oh, Rod, that means we have to leave Baby John lying over yonder in the burying ground.” She clutched his forearm, then relaxed her grip to smooth the grizzled hair. “It about breaks my heart.”

    “Julie, I ain’t an unfeeling man. I know it pains you to leave him, and Peter and Benjamin, too, but this is our chance to make a new start.” Rod sat up, and the covers fell forward from his torso, exposing his long underwear. “We’ll have the cash to buy an outfit to get to Colorado Territory. I’ll try to shed my bossy ways, if you’ll forgive me, and go with a willing heart.”

    Julia looked at Rod’s back, gauging his excitement by the rapidity of his breathing. It finally returned to normal, and he sank back into the tick.

    “Twenty-five years ago I made my vow to love you and to live with you wherever you went,” she whispered. “Since you’re bound to go, I’d best keep my promise.”

    Rod turned and looked at Julia. “I love you, woman,” he sighed, gathering her into his arms.

    ~~~

    Carl woke up in his bed. I’m home , he marveled, rolling over in the quilt. He was warm under the covers, barricaded against air chilly from the night’s rain. Looking over at Albert, he saw the regular rise and fall of his brother’s chest. He’s such a young’un , Carl mused. He’s been doing all my chores for three years. It’s time I took some of ‘em back and let him sleep .

    He sat up and flicked the covers back from his bare legs. It had been a long time since he’d had a chance to get out of his pants at night. On the run with the Rangers, he had practically slept in his saddle. Carl got up and dressed quickly, yearning for a change of clothes.

    He left Albert still asleep and went downstairs to stir up the fire. As he made it blaze to life, the chill around the fireplace faded, and he put a boiler of water on the hearth to heat for washing up later.

    Carl crossed the room and got his coat before he went outdoors. From the doorway he looked at the morning sky. The clouds were thinning out, waiting for the sun to rise, and the rain had quit falling. Toward the east, the bulk of Massanutten Mountain rose up to prevent Carl from seeing the Blue Ridge Mountains, but he knew they were there, and he knew they were hazy and covered with fog on such a morning as this. He’d spent enough time dodging the Yankees, riding up into the sanctuary of the isolated gaps and hollows, that he knew the moods of the mountains.

    The yard was under water from the night’s rain, and Carl wondered how the animals would fare in the open in this weather. Then he recalled with a jolt that soon they would be used to it. There were no barns on the way to Colorado Territory.

    Carl set about feeding the animals, and with courage born of morning freshness, he decided to tackle milking Brindle by himself.

    “Cow, I been over the hill and down the river in the last few years. I ain’t going to be licked