The Lieutenant's Promise (2 page)

His lips thinned, but he said nothing.

Her patience was at its end. “If you’re that concerned, perhaps you’d better make certain the secessionists don’t come near the farm.”

His eyes widened. He straightened as though he were standing at attention.

Standing there arguing with him wasn’t getting her work done. “I’d best get back to it.” She reined the mule into a turn and straightened the plow.

Lieutenant Lucas walked toward her. “Wait. If we’ve delayed ourselves this long, we can stay a little longer, assuming we aren’t seen by anyone from my company. Let me do that for you.”

She halted Fred, glancing at the lieutenant’s boots. “I thought you were concerned about your uniform.”

“The mud doesn’t bother me. The pig’s…er, stench, does.”

“Well then, if you’re certain.” She lifted the looped reins over her head and offered them to him. “You put this behind your back, then hold‑”

“Yes, I’ve done this before.” He positioned himself behind the plow and went to work.

With her hands on her hips, and her jaw slightly ajar, Em watched him walk away. This Lieutenant Lucas was a most intriguing man.

Tom came to stand beside her, wiping his hands on a kerchief. “What’s he up to now?”

“That’s obvious.”

Shaking his head, Tom said, “We need to move on. We won’t cover enough territory.”

Ma came out with two jars of lemonade, and offered one to Tom. “Why is your friend working while you stand here lollygagging?”

“I worked, Ma. I put up some new fence posts in Cletus’s pen.”

“With the lieutenant’s help, or so Billy told me.” Ma’s voice was sharp. “Now you put him to work in the field. Didn’t I raise you better than that?”

“He volunteered,” Em said. “Tom didn’t have the chance to offer before Lieutenant Lucas had the reins.”

“I was tellin’ Em we need to get back to scoutin,’” Tom said.

“I should get something else done since he’s helping out.” Em left them arguing and hustled to the barn. She didn’t need Ma jumping on her for standing around doing nothing. It wasn’t as though she had the chance to do so very often, but she’d regret it later, when she looked at all the chores awaiting her still.

~*~

Levi stepped to either side of the furrow as he plowed. It’d been several years since he worked his grandfather’s farm and he’d forgotten how much effort it took keeping the plow upright. His sisters would never be able to finish half a field in a day, much less the entire one, as Miss Gilmore obviously could.

In the evenings after their drills in camp, Tom spoke often about his older sister, whom he admired immensely. He hadn’t mentioned how pretty she was, nor how sassy. The word bossy came to mind as he tried to recall Tom’s descriptions.

Levi smiled. She was quite bossy at that. Being the eldest child on a farm almost ensured it, especially when their father had died. Miss Gilmore and Tom probably split the chores after his death. The next younger sister most likely took on Tom’s share when he enlisted.

His mind continued to wander until he reached the end of the field. Glancing at the sky, Levi realized how much of the day they’d spent on chores rather than reconnaissance. They’d have to hurry to cover enough territory before sundown. Yet he couldn’t have walked away leaving Miss Gilmore behind the plow.

He wasn’t able to be there everyday to take on her heavy work, but he could relieve her of a few hours’ worth.

Levi led the mule under a tree to wait in the shade while he looked for Miss Gilmore to see if there was more land to plow. He found her in the barn sharpening an axe. “I left the mule harnessed to the plow. Do you have more fields to do today?”

Em straightened, pressing a hand to her back. “Thank you for your help. I’ll take care of him.”

He stepped between her and the barn door. “I didn’t mean to leave more work for you.”

“You relieved me of a large portion of the chores. I can’t ask for more. Not when you two are supposed to be on duty. You’d best find Tom and be on your way.” She smiled and moved past him. “Where’d you learn to plow?”

“On my grandfather’s farm.” His longer stride had him beside her in two steps, unwilling to leave her just yet. She intrigued him. “Perhaps if we have leave, I could come visit with Tom.” He held his breath as he waited for her answer.

She peered up at him from beneath the brim of her bonnet. “Do you men get leave often? Aren’t you needed in case the rebels return?”

“They were headed to Arkansas, from what we’ve been told. I doubt they’ll be back. Not with General Lyon in control of Jefferson City.”

She didn’t pause as she reached the mule and untied his reins from the tree branch. “I thought you were concerned for our safety because of how close the State Guard was. Well, you’re welcome to call on our family anytime you’re in the area.” Her smile grew and she tossed him a sly glance. “Especially if you care to take on a few chores.”

“I might just do that.”

“I believe you would. I can see how you earned your rank, Lieutenant Lucas.”

“I’ll go find Tom, and be on our way. It was a pleasure to meet you.”

“And you, too.”

Tom was just hammering the last nail in a board on the porch when Levi found him. “There you are,” Tom said. “Next time you decide to flirt with my sister, warn me so I don’t get put to work.”

“Your absence is part of the reason that work is undone.” Levi raised a hand to ward off any indignation. “I understand why you enlisted, it’s likely the same reason I did. To keep your family safe, protect the state from what was happening in Kansas. I was working on my grandfather’s farm when the town of Lawrence was overrun and burned. My cousin was killed just walking down the road. It’s bad enough when some want to continue to own slaves, but destroying homes and cities and killing innocent people is beyond the pale.”

Tom didn’t respond until he’d put away his tools and said goodbye to his family. As they walked down the road away from Springfield, he squinted into the sun. “I was torn when we heard what happened in Boonville. The border wars between the loyalists here in Missouri and the free-staters in Kansas were bad, but they were far enough away I could pretend my family was safe.”

“Pretending is easy to do, at least for a short time.”

“Exactly. We’ve never owned slaves, but we’ve never spoke out against them, either. Pa didn’t want to stir up trouble, so he said to walk away from any discussions.” He spat on the dirt road. “Maybe if we’d spoken out like we should have, if more people like us had, we wouldn’t be fighting over slavery now.”

“Or, you might have been killed like my cousin. You wouldn’t help your family at all that way. At least in the army you can help change things.”

“Yeah, but that leaves all the work to the girls.”

“And your mother.”

“No, Ma hasn’t been well since Harvey was born. She never got her strength back. Even bringing water from the well tires her out.”

That left a lot of work for the two older sisters, with their hired hand gone. They needed Tom back.

Watching over the safety of the men in his company was a part of Levi in everything he did. Seeing exactly what the loss of his friend would do to Tom’s family made him double up on that vow to see that Tom made it home when his enlistment was up.

CHAPTER TWO

For the next week, Levi, Tom and the others in Levi’s company divided up and spread out along the Wire Road south of Springfield. They kept to the woods where possible to avoid being seen. Major General Sturgis Price had led the Missouri State Guard south after losing the battle of Boonville, and Brigadier General Nathaniel Lyon of the Federal Army of the West was certain he was meeting up with secessionists from Arkansas. What they weren’t sure about was whether the secessionists were this far south, or if they’d camped near Bolivar.

Lyon had sent word to Springfield where Major Clanton set up rotating shifts of scouts both north and south of Springfield. This was the tedious part of the job. Levi worried they’d become complacent when day after day they saw no sign of the enemy.

Part of the problem was that the enemy was a rag-tag bunch of recruits for the most part. The Missouri State Guard wore their gray double-breasted uniforms, many of which looked home made, and a few of the more recent recruits wore the clothes they brought from home.

It was the men in their everyday garb that caused Levi the biggest worry. Was a man on the road with a squirrel rifle in his hand a farmer or a soldier? Every time they heard someone approach he and Tom went deeper into the woods, just in case, waiting until he passed so as not to be discovered. So far this morning, they’d seen no one.

Tom tugged his sleeve free from a bramble. “Those rebels better not come this close to the farm.”

“You live on the stage route from St Louis to Fayetteville. The loyalists will pass through here at some point, unless we stop them.” Levi bit back his own emotions brought on by the idea. There was no one on that farm to keep the Gilmores safe. He couldn’t blame Tom for joining the army to fight for his beliefs, but leaving his family alone…Levi couldn’t fathom it.

He couldn’t understand people in northern Missouri, either. Those statesmen who believed Missouri should secede with the other states that stood with Jefferson Davis. The world was going mad.

What was truly mad was how a few moments spent with Tom’s bossy sister had ingrained her on Levi’s mind. He wanted to make an excuse to patrol the farm, but they’d wasted too much time there the other day. He didn’t need distractions. Not at a time like this. No matter where Price’s men were now, at some point they’d ride north to attempt to take control of the state again.

Still, his feet led Levi toward the Gilmore farm, veering south in the woods, then back east.

“Are we searching near the farm again?”

Levi let a thin branch slap back toward Tom. “They could have come this way. Until we have men stationed here to watch, we should keep circling through the same areas.”

“That’s good. I can check on Ma and the kids.”

“We can’t stay. Just a quick check on their wellbeing and we’ll be on our way.”

“Of course.” Tom’s step quickened and he passed Levi in the brush.

When they reached the farm, Levi found Em hoeing the vegetable garden. “Miss Gilmore, good morning. Have you seen anyone pass by who we should report?”

She straightened, holding the handle of the hoe in one hand. “Men pass up and down the road every day. How am I to know where they stand on slavery?”

“I’m less concerned with their moral standing than their political one.” He pushed his cap back on his head and grinned. “Have many men around here joined up with General Price?”

“Pete Small left home, but his ma says he’s gone to visit family. The Dutton boys have been talking about joining up, but they aren’t known for actually following through on what they boast.”

“If they talk that way, I’d prefer they did leave town.”

Em brushed at her cheek with her sleeve. “For a long time we’ve hoped the battles wouldn’t reach us, no matter which side of the secession argument people stand on. The only ones who’ve moved away are the freemen, like our hand, Jasper. Most of the families, whether they have slaves or not, are praying we can keep our farms safe.”

“I pray you do, too.”

She glanced down at the weeds springing up around her squash plants, then offered the hoe to Levi. “Are you here to talk, or to help?”

He laughed, but didn’t reach for the tool. “We shouldn’t stay. Shouldn’t even be out here in the open, but we wished to learn who’s been spotted in the area. It’s not as though we can go knocking on doors to ask.”

“Maybe your General Lyon needs to station a few men in town. Then you’d be able to watch the comings and goings yourselves.”

He hadn’t expected her to think much about what the army was doing. There was much more to her than he realized. He grinned. “Maybe the general needs to enlist you as his aide-de-camp.”

Her lips thinned and she swung the blade of the hoe hard into the dirt. “Maybe you’d better get on down the road and look for your loyalists.”

“What did I say? Whatever is was, I didn’t mean to offend you. I was a bit surprised, that’s all, to hear you bring up maneuvers. My sisters wouldn’t have a clue about anything we do. The only thing on their minds is their sewing bees and the young doctor my father has hired as his partner.”

“As you can see, none of us around here have time to think about bees and doctors. Except maybe in the winter, but by then it’s so wet and cold we only go out to church, or for supplies.”

She swung the hoe blade so hard at the ground, he was afraid she’d damage her plants. He stepped forward and held out a hand. “Why don’t you let me do that?”

Em snapped upright. “Now you think I can’t do my own work properly? You’d better get back to your own duties, Lieutenant Lucas.”

The sharp glance she threw his way made him back out of range of the hoe. “I stuck my foot in it, I guess. I’m sure you know more about farming than I learned in the few years I helped my grandfather. And it’s clear you have a sharp mind.” And a sharper tongue, but he kept that to himself. “I meant it as a compliment when I compared you to my sisters.”