When the Splendor Falls Read Online Free PDF Page A

after he left,” Mr. Travers said with a sad grin that quickly became a deep laugh. “Now you mention it, I remember Nathaniel always was fascinated by those wild Spanish ponies his grandfather bought. Or, perhaps, it was the land they raced through free as the wind that intrigued him the most. So you think your cousin Neil inherited the worst from both Nathaniel and the Comanche?”
    Nathan shrugged good-naturedly, lazily running a big hand through his dark brown hair. He was a large man but managed to move with a quiet deliberateness that often disguised the alertness in his keen gray eyes. His patient expression, which sometimes seemed to border on lazy indolence, had often misled an opposing attorney or difficult witness in court. “I’m not certain, sir, that there is much difference between the Comanche and Nathaniel Reynolds Braedon when he has a grievance. My father says his younger brother is the most hardheaded Braedon of the lot. He always did what he pleased and was unforgiving when people crossed him. But he had a good sense of humor, could tell a joke that would have your sides splitting, and if he looked kindly upon you, as he did his first wife and Shannon, he was a very warm and loving man. A devil with gold curls, my father always called him. But after his first wife died, he changed. Never smiled except for Shannon. Apparently she was the living image of her mother and he adored her. I’m afraid he always blamed Neil for his mother’s death. Couldn’t stand looking at his own son. He was a constant reminder of his loss. It was always Shannon he was determined to find when she and Neil were kidnapped. That is why he never gave up looking for them. He wanted Shannon back, and then he found Neil, not little Shannon. He did not rejoice in bringing Neil back home to Royal Rivers, even though he was his own flesh and blood. Uncle Nat believed he had lost everything.”
    “I remember Fionnuala Darcy. She was a real beauty. Nathaniel was back at Royal Bay, his first visit home since heading to Texas. She was visiting with friends in Charlottesville. She was from Boston. I remember thinking she had a mighty funny accent despite how pretty she was. Of course I was rather young to appreciate fully a beautiful woman’s charms.”
    “And what exactly did this Fionnuala Darcy look like, dear?” Beatrice Amelia inquired, interested to know what her husband considered to be “a real beauty.”
    “Midnight black hair, and the brightest blue eyes you could imagine. Just like a slice of the sky,” her husband responded, unshaken. “Of course,” he continued diplomatically, having taken note of the slender, tapered fingers with their well-cared-for nails tapping against the arm of the chair in growing irritation, “I’ve always preferred dark blue eyes. They have mysterious depths, like the sea, or perhaps like the hidden fires in a sapphire draped around a lovely woman’s throat.”
    Beatrice Amelia smiled slightly, but not enough to warm her dark blue eyes. “I never knew you were so poetic, dear. And after over a quarter of a century of marriage, here I am just now finding out that you are a poet.”
    “Justin is a fine young man. I’ve heard from several of his professors at VMI and they are quite impressed with his academic record as well as his qualities of leadership,” Nathan said, changing the subject.
    “Do you think he’ll continue with a military career? Being born in the territories, he would have the advantage over other officers and he could use that to get a good post in the West. That’s where you make your name and your promotion nowadays—Indian fighting,” Mr. Travers remarked, wondering if his wife knew that Palmer William had been thinking about joining the army when he finished his cadet training.
    “I don’t know,” Nathan admitted frankly. “He has mentioned something to me about going into the law, which, of course, I urged him to do. No self-respecting lawyer would do