The Lieutenant's Promise (13 page)

“It’s the 21st, sir.”

“Of February?”

“Yes sir.”

He’d only lost four days. That was all he could recall of the last battle, the date they’d crossed into Arkansas. His body was weak, but he couldn’t feel any sharp aches or pains. “What happened? Why am I here?”

“They say a shell exploded near you. You weren’t hit by shrapnel, apparently, but the shock of the explosion threw you to the ground.”

The doctor arrived and began to look him over. As he peered into Levi’s eyes, he asked, “How do you feel?”

“Like I’ve slept for a week and could use another.”

The doctor gently prodded the scar below Levi’s eye. “No pain here?”

“No.” It was the truth, but he’d likely have said the same so he could return to his company.

“How’s your vision?”

Lowering his arm, he blinked and looked at the doctor. “It’s fine, sir.”

“Good.”

“How long do I have to stay here?”

“We’ll observe you for another day or two. I’ve heard you continued to have dizzy spells after your initial injury in August.”

Levi grimaced. He couldn’t blame his men for speaking out. He’d been putting their lives in danger. “They were coming less often of late.”

The doctor’s eyelids narrowed and his lips pressed together. “Hmmm. If they continue, you’ll have to be discharged.”

Understanding he meant discharged from the army, not the hospital, Levi nodded.

The news should make him happy. He could go home and see his family again. He’d be free to marry Em. But his men would continue to fight for the Union. Tom would risk his life each time they faced the enemy.

It would take much longer to recover from the disappointment of leaving the army than it would to fully heal.

The dizzy spells wouldn’t miraculously disappear, he knew that. His time of fighting for his country was done.

~*~

Em sat at the table while her family enjoyed the fire. She’d added up their money to determine what seeds they could afford to buy, and which fields would be planted first this year.

She hadn’t heard from Levi or Tom in weeks. Tom hadn’t even written before they marched to Springfield. She didn’t know how Ma could put her worries out of her head when the letters came so few and far between.

“There she goes, pining for her beau again,” Billy chanted.

“Hush,” Ma said. “Leave your sister be.”

Em realized she’d been staring into the fire, and picked up her pen again.

Ma came to refresh her cup with coffee from the stove. “He’s just being a boy, Billy is.”

“I know. But he’s right. I miss Levi. I don’t even know where to write him, or Tom. I wish they’d send word they are safe.”

“It’s likely they write often, but who knows when they can post the letters? I hate to think of how cold they must be in their tents.”

“If only we knew where to send those caps we knitted. It’s not much of a help, but it’s something.” She pushed aside her list, unable to think of planting anymore. “I want them to come home, Ma.”

Ma came and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, squeezing her in a comforting hug. “I know, dear. So do I.”

~*~

With his horse off in Arkansas with the army, Levi had no choice but to walk to the farm upon his discharge. How ironic that old, thin animal would continue to serve in the army while Levi couldn’t any longer.

Ten miles on frozen ground was slow going, even with a cane to help his dizziness. He only had one bout severe enough to force him to sit. He rested fairly often, but it was too cold remain still for long, and he was eager to see Em.

He was more than eager. The last week or so in the hospital had made him desperate to see her smile, hear her voice again. Her laughter. The way her voice softened when she spoke of their future.

Her letters were safely packed away in his knapsack, having seen him through many a long night. Though they mostly spoke of her activities on the farm, they meant so much to him. They were the sort of conversation he could imagine them having for years to come.

Rufus spotted Levi as he came up the drive. His initial warning barks became welcoming baying, a sound that warmed Levi.

The door opened and Maggie peered out. Then Billy and Susie rushed out, and finally the one he longed to see.

Em stepped onto the porch, waiting, watching. Then her face lit up and she ran down the drive to him. “It’s really you! I thought I imagined you.”

“I’m home.”

She hugged him tightly, her hands touching his hair, his face. “My heart says it can’t be real, but my fingers say it is.”

He rubbed his hands over the sleeves of her dress to warm her. “You must be freezing without your coat! Let’s go inside.”

“Of course.” She laughed. “I hadn’t noticed the cold. My heart is filled with warmth now. How long will you stay?”

“I’ll tell you inside.”

The noise and excitement when he shut the door behind them kept him from saying anything for a bit. He set his pack and rifle in a corner, and shook himself free of his overcoat.

Mrs. Gilmore brought him a cup of steaming coffee, which tasted better than anything he could recall. “Would you like some bread and butter? Have you been walking long?”

“Only from Springfield. I had some hardtack on the way. Maybe I’ll eat after I’ve rested for a time.”

Em led him to a chair by the fire. She pulled a wooden stool nearby. Billy, Susie and Harvey gathered at his feet, sitting crossed-legged on the rug.

“Did you shoot a lot of rebels?” Billy asked.

“Billy, don’t say that. It’s not nice,” Susie chided.

Harvey added an opinion on something, but Levi couldn’t make it out.

“You don’t need to talk about the battles if you don’t wish to,” Em said.

He smiled his gratitude. Death and bloodshed wasn’t fit conversation for young ears.

“How is Tom faring?” Ma asked.

“He is well, last I saw. They are probably in Arkansas still.”

“You don’t know?” Em clenched her hands in her lap.

“I was taken to the hospital in Springfield after we fought at Dunegan’s farm.”

Now she sat forward, placing a hand on his sleeve. “You were injured again? Was it bad? It must be bad if you were taken to the hospital.”

Levi patted her hand. “More than likely it was caused by the shot to my head. The one in August,” he added quickly when her eyes bulged.

She didn’t seem relieved. “It’s bothering you again?”

“It never stopped, not completely. I tried to hide it so I could remain with the army, but my men knew.”

Em’s eyes watered. “I don’t know whether to throttle you or hug you for being so stubborn. I’m grateful to whatever doctor or officer made you come to your senses.”

“There was no sense on my part,” he said, laughing. “I left only when I had no choice.”

Leaning back in his chair, he stretched his legs out and looked at the family gathered around him. Soon to be his family. “I must say the rewards for my surrender are very bountiful. It’s so good to see you all.”

~*~

After the others had gone to bed, Em sat with Levi in front of the fire. She hadn’t stopped smiling since she’d recognized him coming up the drive. She sighed, her relief over his safety tempering her worries over Tom.

Levi reached across the space between their chairs and squeezed her hand. “I am glad to be home, in spite of my complaints about being forced to leave the army.”

“I’m also glad, but even more so to hear you call this place your home.”

“It will be, soon, I hope.”

“I’d like that. It seems like we’ve waited so long, but I’ve known you less than a year.” She cupped her free hand on top of where theirs were joined.

Levi leaned over and raised her hand to press a kiss there. “Just a few months, yet more than a lifetime.”

“I hope we have a lifetime ahead of us, not behind us,” she countered.

“Good point.” His face grew serious. “So much has happened since I saw you last. I’m likely to never fully recover from my injury. I still get dizzy, although it happens less often if I rest during the day. But that makes me a poor choice for a farmer husband.”

“I don’t care how often you have to stop. I will work beside you when necessary. Jasper already does so much of the work needed. He will appreciate whatever you can take over for him, but he won’t complain about doing the rest.”

“I’m not used to sitting by while others work.”

She smiled, recalling the days after he’d been shot. “I’m familiar with your moodiness. And your bossiness.”

“Bossy? Isn’t that the pot calling the kettle black? You were very opposed to letting someone else give orders, even for a short time.”

“That’s true. And I’m likely to discuss any future decisions you make.”

He nodded his head as if considering something. “Discuss. I like that word. I will remind you of it. Not too often, I hope.”

“Only as often as necessary to keep you in line.”

“Well then,” he began. “As you are aware of my limitations, and the unlikelihood I will ever be the farmer I wish to be, I will ask you again. Will you marry me, Miss Gilmore?”

“I will gladly become your wife, Lieutenant Lucas.”

He rose and pulled her into his arms. “Then I will be the happiest man alive.”

She stood on her toes to meet his lips, the warmth of his breath on her cheek, the pounding of his heart against her palm. Happy was not grand enough a word to describe how she felt.

Her lieutenant was home for good.

EPILOGUE

April 3rd, 1862

Levi stood beside Em in front of the minister early in the morning of a bright and beautiful spring day. At times over the winter he’d feared this day would never arrive. At best, he thought it would be years away.

When he’d been discharged from the army, Major Clanton had said, “Make the best of your life, lieutenant.”

This was the best he could imagine.

He realized the minister awaited his response.

“I, Levi Allen Lucas, take you, Emily Anne Gilmore, to be my wedded wife, and I do promise and covenant, before God and these witnesses, to be your loving and faithful husband, in plenty and want, in joy and in sorrow, in sickness and in health, as long as we both shall live.”

The minister turned to Em, and she repeated the vow.

The rest of the ceremony passed in a blur, until he heard the words, “man and wife.”

She was his now, his wife forever.

The parishioners had each brought a dish of food, and everyone gathered in the common room to eat, laugh, and offer the gifts they could spare. An iron skillet, a handmade coverlet, the promise of half a dozen chicks were among the relative bounty they received.

He watched Em speak with Maggie and another young woman, laughing gaily at something they said. She was so beautiful, her skin glowing, her smile so wide. He was a lucky man.

Mrs. Gilmore walked up to him. “You’ve made her very happy. All of us are happy. Lieutenant, I’m so very glad you came into our lives.” Her serene smile warmed him.

“Please, Mrs. Gilmore, call me Lucas.”

“And I’d be pleased if you’d call me Ma.”

“It’s a deal, Ma. Emily said you received another letter from Tom.”

“Yes, they are back in Rolla and he’s well. He hopes to be ordered to Springfield again soon. I fear it will take years before he is able to come home to stay.”

“I wish I could tell you I thought otherwise, but I think you’re correct. The fighting will end one day, but who knows when that day will come.”

Emily approached, and Ma looked her way. “You take good care of our girl. She deserves to be happy in her life.”

“I agree.” He met Em’s gaze and accepted all the love he found there. “I promise to make her as happy as I am able.”

And he spent every waking moment from that point on doing so.

AUTHOR’S NOTE

Dear Reader:

And thus begins the history lesson.

Well, not really. I write historical romance for the romance, but I try to make the history as factual as possible. In doing so, I often add bits of reality than can seem “stranger than fiction.” In this story, Levi’s injury is one of those moments.

Colonel Oscar Jackson was shot below the eye with a squirrel rifle in the 2nd battle of Corinth when he was still a captain. He survived the war and went on to serve as a member of the US House of Representatives.

Of the officers included in my story, only Major Clanton is fictional. Where one of the real officers speaks, I tried to keep to quotes that have been recorded in later accounts.

General Nathaniel Lyon was killed on Oak Hill, later called Bloody Hill, in the battle of Wilson Creek. His body was taken to the Ray farm, which is the location I used in creating the Gilmore’s home. The Confederates had taken over the Ray house for their hospital, and they allowed Lyon’s body to remain there as I described. If you visit the Ray house, now a historical site, you can see the bed and counterpane Mrs. Ray covered him with. Whether it was her wedding quilt, I don’t know. I just felt that demonstrated Ma’s character perfectly.