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Closer Than Brothers - Chapter Thirteen

It's NOT romantic comedy with cowboys. It's Closer Than Brothers--Part #12 of 13 episodes of how my heroes from Trouble in Texas met
and how they became so loyal to each other. Book #3 Stuck Together --Vince's story--releases in THREE DAYS! June 3.  
  Closer Than Brothers
Chapter ThirteenCallie and Seth Click to Buy           "Miss Stone!"            Seth's lips left hers and she missed them terribly. Lantern light shone in her eyes. The room had been nearly pitch dark with only moonlight coming through the uncurtained windows in this large upstairs room.            "Y-yes?" She couldn't see beyond that glaring lantern, but she recognized the voice. Dr. Coolidge. The Fort Worth doctor who was supposed to take her home.             "Get up immediately."            That actually took some doing, tucked beneath Seth as she was. Her skirts twisted up with him and his nightshirt and his blanket and his legs and oh, mercy.            Finally she stood. She had an irrational desire to salute.             "Wh-what are you doing here, Doctor?" The doctor wasn't alone. He had five men with him. Callie didn't know much about the army honestly, but there were stars on one man's shirt, and other decorations on these men.             "We have a very important reason to be here that is not your concern. I told your father I would see to your well-being, but I had no idea I was dealing with a young lady who was no better than she ought to be."            Callie had never even been kissed before.            Well, before Seth. He'd kissed her any number of times. "I'm sorry. I was just…Seth is…that is…it's not like it seems."            "Oh, it seems as if you were in bed with a man, not your husband. How am I misunderstanding that?"            "I w-was…he was having a nightmare. I was waking him up."            "By kissing him?"            As a matter of fact yes, but Callie didn't think it was wise to say that.            Seth, newly relieved of his fever, very, very newly, stood beside Callie. In his nightshirt. Not proper at all. He slid one of his strong hand to the small of Callie's back, supporting her.            "You will leave this hospital immediately, Miss Stone."            "B-but I am working here. You said you needed my help."            "I don't need the kind of work you are doing, I assure you."            "Doctor,” Seth said, running his hand up and down her back, “Sally has been nothing but…"             "It's Callie," the doctor snarled.            "What?" Seth, the dunce, asked.            "The woman who was sharing that bed with you, her name, is Callie. Perhaps you should familiarize yourself with it."            Seth looked at Callie with wide, confused eyes. Maybe he wasn't fully awake yet.             "Callie, I mean. Callie has been nothing but generous and…"            "We saw ample proof of her generosity, soldier and we don't fault you for accepting her generous offer, but women of the street aren't welcome in here."            "Women of the street?" Callie's fist clenched.             "Now there's no call to say such things. Callie taking care of me like she did tonight is the nicest thing anyone's ever done for me."            "Seth, stop trying to save me. Right now."            "What kind of women do you employ in this hospital, Coolidge?" The man with the stars on his uniform gave Callie a very sharp-eyed look. "I would think you'd know to keep an eye out for her sort."             "I'm not letting you talk to Callie that way, General." Seth leaned toward the older man. Callie heard the threatening tone in Seth's voice and looked at him. He had a wild look in his blue eyes. A dangerous look. A mad look.             She wondered what happened to a man who attacked a general. Surely it went badly for the attacker.            The general didn't even react to Seth, instead he turned on the doctor. "If you can't manage this hospital, I'll relieve you of the job and give it to someone who can."            The doctor stiffened and turned furious eyes on Callie. "Get out, Miss Stone. Immediately." Then he glared at Seth. "And if you're well enough to issue threats to one of the Union Army's generals, then you're well enough to leave this hospital, too. Get out."            Seth's fever had only broken today. Callie wasn't sure how he'd walk out. He didn't have any clothes. Callie wasn't sure how he was managing to stay on his feet.            Seth even seemed to calm down a bit. He subsided from his threatening stance and said, "I'm sorry to have been so rude. But…but…well, you interrupted us. I'd just persuaded Miss Stone to marry me. That kiss was to celebrate her accepting my proposal."            Callie gasped and turned to look at Seth. He was staring right at her with eyes so blue they glowed in the lantern light. She knew it was a terrible mistake but she wanted him so badly. Yes, Seth was sick. And all right, yes, he'd just said her name wrong. And yes he wasn't probably even thinking clearly. But the kiss they shared and the way she alone could get him to come out of his nightmares, there was something between them, something real. She knew it was love that would grow into a lifetime of happiness.            It was meant to be and if they were marrying in haste she would not repent at leisure. She'd enjoy herself thoroughly at leisure.            One of the men was a chaplain. They were married immediately.            To Callie's surprise, the doctor wasn't placated. He still kicked them out of the hospital. He did relent enough to let Seth find a pair of pants in a stack near the wall. Callie quickly helped him dress, packed up all the meager possessions Seth had around his hard little cot, and took him to the room she was staying in. She didn't have to wake him from his nightmares because they didn’t sleep all night.             By morning she was a thoroughly married lady.            By the end of the week she was so madly in love she was walking on air.            Seth wasn’t really fit to travel and, unlike Luke, he didn’t seem determined to head out. So they stayed mostly in that tiny room, leaving only to find food. Callie considered this stretch of time their honeymoon.They spent the first two weeks of their married life mostly in bed. The passion between them Turns out love doesn't cure crazy
Callie learns that...a bit late.was something Callie could never have imagined. There were no nightmares and very little talking, there just wasn't time to fit much in between lovemaking and working up the energy to make love again. Callie had cured Seth. They dozed but rarely did they sleep deeply before waking to make love again. After two weeks of such pleasure their bliss finally wore them out. Seth slept deeply enough to have his first nightmare, which Callie cured him of in her usual efficient way.It was glorious and they both agreed marriage was a wonder. She did notice he had a mild fever and worried about it, but he fell back into a peaceful sleep and she hoped it wasn't serious.            She awoke the next morning alone.            She searched frantically. She went to every hospital. So many homes were being used as temporary hospitals that it took her weeks to make sure she’d been to every one of them. She remembered how those men had grabbed Dare and Vince, so she badgered every soldier, trying to find someone who remembered dragging Seth onto a train. She tearfully visited morgues and walked through alleys looking for men sleeping on the streets. She searched until all hope was gone. He had to be dead, he'd have never abandoned her.No man could make love to a woman like that and then just leave.Through tears of grief, she remembered Vince’s money. She used it to get herself back to Texas.
When she got there, she found Pa had fought with Luke, and Luke had run off.             By October she'd realized she was pregnant. Which was when she produced her marriage license and admitted her folly with Seth. Pa was furious, but then Pa was furious most every day.            By February she had a son named Connor who was the image of Seth Kincaid right down to his wild blue eyes.            By summer her pa was dead and she was running for her life from Flint Greer who claimed Pa had sold him the S Bar S. She considered the promise of help from Luke’s Regulator friends. She knew they would help her, though they didn’t know her at all. She even wondered if she’d find Luke with them.But she couldn’t remember who they were. Vince Yates. He’d given her the money. Chicago. But such a huge city. She had no idea how to go about finding one man in a town that size. Dare. She couldn’t even remember his last name, let alone where he’d hailed from. Jonas Cahill, but he’d been on his way west to work as a missionary on the frontier. He’d ridden with Pa and Luke as far as St. Louis. Callie had no idea where Jonas had gone. And anyway those men, despite their promises, had no responsibility for her.However her son had uncles.She remembered, 'Rafe! Ethan! Help! I’m burning!’              Rafe and Ethan Kincaid. Callie and Seth hadn't talked much but he had said his brothers lived in a little mining town called Rawhide, Colorado.             Callie was a western girl. Unlike Chicago which terrified her, she wasn’t afraid to tackle a small town named Rawhide. It sounded like her kind of place.Stuck Together
releases in 4 daysSeth had brothers. Uncles bore some responsibilities for their families, and Callie had nowhere else to turn--she couldn't count Chicago. She wrote to those uncles and threw in a letter to her husband, just in case he had the nerve to not be dead. Then set out, still living on what was left of Vince Yate's money.She wished Vince knew he’d saved her, he deserved that, but she had no idea how to tell him.Heading west, Connor in one arm, her rifle in the other, Callie thought of the trip ahead of her.Her brother was gone, her husband and father were dead, and her ranch stolen— she didn’t believe for a second Pa had sold it.            And if Seth wasn’t dead, that’s where he’d go.
            Home.            But of course Seth was dead. And if he wasn’t, he would be by the time she was through with him.~~~~~Please sign up for my newsletter by clicking HERE

Closer Than Brothers - Chapter Twelve

It's NOT romantic comedy with cowboys.It's Closer Than Brothers--Part #12 of 13 episodes of how my heroes from Trouble in Texas met
and how they became so loyal to each other.
Book #3 Stuck Together --Vince's story--releases in June 3.

 
Closer Than BrothersChapter TwelveCallie and Seth Seth calls out for Rafe
Out of Control-free on Kindle“Rafe! Ethan! Help! I’m burning!”            Callie was right there. Ready from the first cry. Seth's arms swung. He was trying to put the fire out on his back. She'd figured that out at some point. It made her want to cry.            She waited. He swatted at his shoulders hard. Thrashed, then drew back to take another swipe and she dived under his flailing arms, grabbed his face, held him steady and kissed him.            He didn't scream a second time.            He froze. Utter stillness.            Silence.            The seconds ticked. Then his arms came around her hard.             She'd seen the awful scars. She could only imagine what he'd gone through. The pain. Of course he had nightmares. And the doctor said the burns were old. They had happened years ago. They must have happened near the beginning of the war, though the doctor was amazed a soldier could be hurt this badly and not just be sent home.            And yet here he was.            Oh, yes, here he was kissing her.            Seth was still asleep, but there was no more crying out for Rafe and Ethan. She'd asked when Seth's brother Ethan
Has his own storyhe was awake and he'd told her those were his brother's names. Seth was pretty confused most of the time, his fever up and down, though she thought they'd finally seen the last of it today. The bullet wounds in his back had gotten infected and he'd run a fever that had nearly killed him. He'd been operated on when he'd first been brought in from prison and all of that was over before Callie had arrived.
            Luke had been so near death that Callie had been sick with worry. But Seth had been worse. Callie hadn't known Seth at first of course, she'd only known there was one patient with nightmares worse than anyone else.            And she'd volunteered one long, awful night when everyone was so busy no one could help the poor man, to wake him up.            And she'd shaken him and coaxed. A nurse who'd rushed by said she'd have to slap him, scream in his face and be careful because he'd punched more than one person.            Callie couldn't bear it.            She'd sat beside the tormented man and thought of a fairy tale.            Waking someone with a kiss.            Of course there'd been one about turning a frog into a prince with a kiss, too, but that wasn't going to happen.            She'd ducked under his swinging arms and tried it. The screaming had stopped. The kiss had gone on far too long.            Seth had been kissing her from the first moment, but he wasn't really awake…and he'd been a while getting there. Callie had been talking with him ever since. He was the sweetest man she'd ever met. Poor sweet, wounded, tormented soldier. Delirious a good part of the time. In pain from his wounds. Feverish. He wasn't skin and bones like Luke. Seth didn't think he'd been in Andersonville long but that story was garbled, too.            Callie didn't tell anyone how she woke him and no one asked. In fact, no one seemed to notice. Things were mostly quiet at night now that Seth wasn't screaming and more and more patients were heading home. Even before Luke left the hospital, she was spending every night sleeping in a chair at Seth's bedside, ready to kiss him awake.            Her sleeping prince.            Pa would kill her if he knew. Or no, he'd kill Seth.            Seth stopped kissing her in his sleep. The kiss changed. He stopped It's all leading up to Trouble in Texas
Stuck Together Book #3
Releasing June 3rdcrushing her, but he still held on tight. The kiss wasn't so frantic, but it was more. He turned his lips, slanted them.
            "I'm so glad you're here."             She was so glad she was here, too. But she couldn't say that because her mouth was extremely busy.             Every night it was more passionate. Callie couldn't believe how deeply she'd fallen in love with poor, wounded, confused Seth. She was so upset that his family hadn't come for him. She thought of her own family, gone.            The loneliness made her cling all the more to Seth. They were alone. Two people against the world. When he pulled her out of her chair, she let him.            He'd done that before, but that was when she'd ended their embrace on other nights. Tonight she couldn’t do it.            Instead, she sat beside him on the bed. Then he pulled her forward until she lay on top of him. His strength amazed her. His body was strong and muscled, not wasted away like Luke’s, like nearly everyone else's in here.             He rolled until she was tucked under him and then she really didn't know exactly where she was, she only knew it was someplace wonderful and she wasn't ever leaving.~~~~~ Please sign up for my newsletter by clicking HERE

Closer Than Brothers - Chapter Eleven

It's NOT a romance. It's not very funny. No ropin' and ridin' anywherePart #11 of 13 episodes of how my heroes from Trouble in Texas met and how they became so loyal to each other.
Book #3 Stuck Together --Vince's story--releases in June 3.

Closer Than Brothers Click to See how Callie handles
Seth Kincaid when she's madChapter ElevenCallie and Seth"They're letting you go, Luke."             Callie wasn't going to tell him her big news until she absolutely had to. She'd told Pa and it'd taken some fast talking, but she'd gotten her way.            She didn't think Luke would like this, but Luke didn't get to decide what Callie did or did not do.            She handed him a shirt and a pair of pants. They'd brought Luke a couple of changes of clothes from home. She'd spent every spare minute, and they had been very few, working with her needle to make them fit. Callie could never have imagined how much weight he'd lost.             Luke took them and gave them a wry look. He swung his legs over the edge of the bed. He was in some kind of nightshirt. He couldn't possibly ride home to Texas wearing that and it appeared to be all he owned.             They'd had him out of bed a few times so he was steady, mostly. But Callie stayed nearby.            Luke stood and pulled the britches up under his nightshirt and buttoned them.             Callie pulled a rope out of her apron pocket. "Use this to belt your pants or they'll fall right off."            Then she eased his nightshirt off and had to fight back tears as she looked at his rib bones. His brutally skinny body made her want to pick up a gun and start shooting any Reb she saw. How could one human being do this to another?            She dressed him like a helpless child. Only the sickest were left and there were still plenty. A month after Andersonville had been opened by the Union Army, the ailing were still too many to count.            Like Seth.            Keeping her eyes focused firmly downward, because she was afraid she might be blushing, she helped Luke get his foot firmly seated in his boots, then, when she had her unruly thoughts under control, she stood just as a bald man came over, walking straight for her and Luke.            Luke smiled. "Did you get them in?"            "Nope. But they're waiting outside. We found your pa. He looks just like you and we figured it had to be him. He's out there with a wagon and he said you were coming out, so they're going to see you're alive and well, and say good-bye all at once." The man shifted his eyes to Callie."            Luke said, "Callie, this is Jonas. He's a preacher and one of my best friends. We all helped each other get through Andersonville. Jonas Cahill, Callie Stone, my baby sister."            Jonas smiled and gave her a nod.            Callie couldn't believe Jonas was up and acting so steady. He was as skinny as Luke. "You survived that place, too?"            "Yep, and I handled it a sight better than this weakling kid, did."            Callie gasped. She remembered well that her brother didn't like being goaded.            Luke rolled his eyes. "Don't call me kid."             Jonas slid his arm around Luke's waist.            "I can walk." Luke tried to step away.            "If I don't look like I'm helping, the guard at the front door is going to catch me and throw me on a train going who knows where. Your pa said I can ride in the wagon with you a long way toward Missouri. So let me act like I'm helping."            "You're going along?" Luke smiled and let Jonas help. Whether he admitted it or not, Luke could use someone to lean on.             Callie still hadn't told Luke her news. She hoped having Jonas along, with his serene smile and steady way of handling Luke, made Callie abandoning him better. She felt like she barely knew her brother anymore, maybe he wouldn't even mind that she wasn't heading back to Texas.            The three of them left the hospital. Pa arranging that wagon was the only way they'd have been able to leave and, as it was, they shouldn't travel yet. But Pa was wild to get Luke out of here. Luke was wild to go.            Callie thought they were both headlong fools.             It was too soon and she'd told them both that a dozen time. Of course she didn't want to go at all for reasons she wasn't about to admit to either of them.             Two strangers rushed up to Luke and looked him over, smiling with such pure pleasure it made her throat ache. Callie wasn't much of a crier but Luke, to see what had been done to him, and to see these friends so happy that he'd survived.             Well, it about did her in.            She was introduced.             Vince Yates. He looked and his eyes fastened on hers, she knew they were brimming with Vince--who can handle anything
can't handle crying women
Click to Buytears. Vince gave her a look of pure horror. She had no idea what that was about.
            Dare Riker. He seemed nervous about something. He never quit twitching.            And Parson Jonas. They said hello and were ready to help lift Luke into the well padded back of the wagon.            Callie was out of time. She had to finally speak. "Luke, I'm saying good-bye, too."            Luke whipped his head around so fast he staggered. Vince caught him or he might have fallen. "What does that mean?"            "I told you there's a doctor here from Fort Worth. He needs help. Pa knows his family and trusts him. I'll be safe with him. I'm going to stay and work until he heads for home, then he'll bring me. There are some women traveling in his party so it'll be proper. Pa and I've talked it over. I think I'll be another couple of months, then I'll follow you to Texas."            Luke's black eyes flashed with worry and regret and some anger. Luke was always quick to substitute anger for anything else he was feeling.            Jonas lay a hand on Luke's shoulder. "I'll stay here with her, see to her…if you want, Luke."            "I will, too," Vince said. A cool character. Callie thought he might be a handsome man but he was gaunt—awful to look at. They all were. Vince watched her with cool blue eyes. Dare moved, nervous. Both were thin as cadavers.            Dare said, "I can try again to help in the hospital. Maybe now that so many have left, and I've Dare's doctoring has just begunregained some strength, they'll let me in. We won't let her take any risks."
            Luke looked at Callie a long time, as if this was his decision. It wasn't, but she'd only tell him that if he made the wrong one.            Finally, Luke looked at Jonas. "I'd like it if you rode along with Pa and me. I'm not ready to say good-bye to all of you."            Jonas nodded.            Luke pulled Callie into his arms. "It's kind of you to want to help, little sister. There's such terrible need. I wanted you to come home with me, but you won't be far behind."            They held each other for a long, quiet moment. Callie's eyes filled with tears. She didn't let them fall. She pulled away and ran a hand over Luke's fuzzy head and smiled at him.            "I hope you're good and fat by the time I get to Texas."            "I'll do my best." He gave her a kiss on the cheek.             "I love you, big brother."            Luke didn't say it back, but he nodded.            Pa said good-bye, his usual gruff self, but she saw the affection beneath it.            Luke's friends loaded him up, careful to see his bony body was well padded in the wagon bed. Jonas climbed up on the high seat and started talking with Pa as the wagon rolled away.            Callie watched them until they rolled out of sight. A tear streaked down her face as she turned to speak to Luke's friends.            Vince, for all his cool, let his eyes lock on that single tear and he stepped back as if recoiling from the sight.            Before he could recover, four military men rushed up behind Dare and Vince and grabbed them.            "All able-bodied soldiers were supposed to leave the area long ago." A man on each side held Dare and Vince's arms locked.            "No, wait." Dare gave Callie a frantic look.            "We can't leave her," Vince struggled against the grip of two men to one.            "I'll be fine." Callie really didn't want them to be watching over her. She could take care of herself.            "A train north leaves in ten minutes."            Vince broke the hold they had on him and surged toward her, grabbed her hands. She felt him press something into her fingers and his eyes burned into hers. He whispered, “Hang onto this. Don’t let anyone see it.”He was grabbed and they hauled both of Luke's friends away. Callie clutched whatever Vince had given her tight, but she didn't intervene in their departure. In fact, she waved good-bye and smiled. It was kind of them to want to stay, but they needn't worry. When they were out of sight, she looked at what she held and saw money. Blinking, in case it vanished, she saw a large roll of bills wrapped around something hard. Holding it sideways she was quite sure the center was made of a stack of gold coins.She tucked it all deep in her pocket to count later as she walked back into the hospital and got to work. She remembered that vow, they’d be there for each other. They’d come if there was a need. A bond that was closer than a brother. Vince had just given her a great deal of money in a very bold demonstration of how seriously he took that vow.Pa had left her with money for food. The room she was renting was paid in full for two months, but she felt safer knowing she had some money in case of trouble.             She'd be working all day.            All night she'd sit at Seth Kincaid's bedside and be ready when his nightmares came. She'd found a talent for waking him that no one else possessed.            A talent that made her heart race.
~~~~~

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Closer Than Brothers - Chapter Ten

It's NOT a romance. It's not a comedy. It's not a western. No ropin' and ridin' anywhere.Part #10 of 13 episodes of how my heroes from Trouble in Texas met
and how they became so loyal to each other.Book #3 Stuck Together --Vince's story--releases in June 3.

Closer Than Brothers
Chapter TenLuke—The Kid

Click to BuyCallie kept feeding him and Luke was gaining strength and staying awake longer each day. He still hadn't seen Pa, but Callie said he came in everyday and Luke was just sleeping through the visits. They'd manage to see each other real soon.
            Then he woke up to his shoulder being gently shaken and saw a skin-draped skeleton. Ghastly. He yelped.
The skeleton smiled. “You’re alive, Kid.”
Jonas.
“Why are you bald?” Luke couldn’t believe that was the first thing that came out of his mouth. Probably better than asking why Jonas was a skeleton. He’d thought he’d never see any of his Regulator friends again.
“You’re next thing to bald. Haven’t you noticed?”
Luke raised a hand, saw how it trembled and dropped it to the blanket shocked and embarrassed to show such weakness.
He looked up to see if Jonas had noticed. Jonas was busy getting Luke a glass of water.
His friend showed no concern for Luke’s tender belly like Callie had, he let Luke drink deep. The water went down and seemed to soak into a desert. His mouth and throat almost absorbed it before it got to his belly.
“More.”
Jonas was up and gone and back with more water before Luke could tell him not to leave.
It was probably good that Luke had been given a few moments break because his stomach heaved a bit from the big gulp of water, even though it didn’t seem to hardly get there. This time Luke was less desperate and he drank more slowly, the way Callie always made him. He finished the whole glass a sip at a time. When it was empty, Luke’s gut felt stretched full.
Then Luke noticed Jonas’s baldness again and reached for his own face and head. “I've got bristles on my head. Who cut it? Who shaved me?”
“All of us in the hospital got sheered like sheep. We were crawling with lice and fleas. Part of bringing us into this hospital was throwing all our clothes away and shaving us and bathing us in harsh soap. They did it so we wouldn’t start re-infecting each other with whatever vermin we were carrying.”
“A bath.” Luke sighed. “I’d have liked to have been awake for that.”
“You’ll be awake for your next one.” Jonas ran his hand over his freckled face and his bald head.
“How long was I unconscious?”
“I asked around and they told me you’ve been more asleep than awake for nearly a month, Click to BuyLuke. So you've had a month to grow some hair back. They shaved me just last night."

“The war ended a month ago?”
“Yep. We were liberated from the camp in May and it’s June now. Your fever broke about four days ago. I’ve been talking with a chaplain in here who brings me word and he said you’d woken up. It took me until now to sneak in and see you. Dare tried to get in here as a medic right when we were liberated but they told him he wasn’t a real doctor and he was too weak to be of much help and they tried to drag him on a train. He barely got away. He and Vince and I have been hiding out ever since trying to figure out how to see you.”
“You’re all still here?” Luke felt a shocking, almost uncontrollable urge to cry. He knew just how sick he was because tears were unthinkable.
“They caught Big John and shipped him off to Texas. He's just no good at hiding." Jonas smiled. "But the rest of us are still here. We couldn’t just go. Not with you at death’s door. They're trying to get rid of everyone they can, though. They don’t have food nor shelter to spare.”
“You’re not still going hungry are you?” Horror crept up Luke’s spine to think of how long they’d all been hungry and now, when his friends could finally eat, to think they’d go without in order to see him.
“No, we’re doing all right. Vince figured out a way to get money. Not easy in the chaos around here. But he’s a wily one. He got us set up with a decent place to live and we're well fed."
"Invincible Vince. It figures he could find money and food and clothes in a place with none of those things."
"He didn't even work too hard at it," Jonas said with a fond smile. "But we have to stay clear of the Army. They want everyone to go home. Even the soldiers in the hospital are starting to be released now, so things have started to ease up. We had to cook up a plan to get one of us admitted to this hospital.”
Luke looked at Jonas. “You’re so skinny you look like a corpse that’s been dead and buried for six months. How hard could it be to get yourself thrown in a hospital?”
Jonas shrugged. “I’m good compared to you and a lot of others. Vince came up with the way to get in. Dare and Vince cut their hair and shaved but I didn’t.  There are ways to get the vermin out without having to sheer yourself, but the army isn't exactly interested in making you pretty. So we were doing fine. Anyway, you know I've had fever and ague and it's come and gone a few times, but never been serious. So we saved my old clothes and waited. Last night here comes my fever. I put my old clothes back on, and with my wild hair and ragged clothes, I staggered in here and was sick enough and looked bad enough to satisfy them. They shaved me, burned the clothes and slapped me in bed. The fever didn’t last, but no one’s noticed yet. I waited until everyone left and snuck over to see you.
“I’m sorry to wake you up. I reckon that’s the wrong thing to do to a man as sick as you, but I had to talk to you, see with my own eyes that you’re mending. How anyone as thin as you can be called better.” Jonas shook his head. “Only men who’ve spent time in Andersonville would believe how much the human body can endure.”
“I look as bad as you do, then, huh?” Luke asked.
Jonas nodded. "Worse."
Luke flinched. “I’d like to see Vince and Dare.”
“I’ll see if maybe I can slip them in." Jonas clapped Luke on the shoulder, but gently. "They’ll get caught and swept away, sent home, but maybe they can say goodbye before they get dragged off. We decided if at least one of us could see you, and report back, we’d be satisfied with it. But they want to come and look at you with their own eyes. You had us real scared, Kid.”
Luke was almost used to the ridiculous nickname, but out of habit he said, “Stop calling me Kid.”
Jonas smiled. “I’ll get Dare and Vince in if I can. If not, you can write to them at home.  I stuck a piece of paper with their addresses in your stack of clothes on your bedside. That’s where they’re both heading.”
“So Vince is really going to Chicago? He swore he’d never do that.”
Jonas frowned. “He doesn’t want to. Bad blood between him and his father. But he has to go somewhere he can rest and fatten up for a while. He may not be well enough to get a bed in this hospital, but he’d a mighty weak man. He needs good care for a while. He has to regain his strength and put on about a hundred pounds.”
Luke wanted to go home so badly. How could Vince dread it so much? “My pa is here to get me. I’ve seen Callie, and she said Pa had been in, too. I must’ve slept through his visits so far. But he came all this way. I fought with him all the time before the war, but I’m so lonely for him and for the ranch. I’m a changed man. I’m going to be the best, happiest son you’ve ever seen.”
“Glad to hear it, Luke. If I don’t see you again and if Dare and Vince can’t get past the door, you’ll hear from us somehow. We know you’ll be in Broken Wheel, Texas. We’ll be writing to you. Right now, before another minute passes, in case I get thrown out of here or we get separated somehow, I'm making you a promise Kid. If you ever need help, you only need to let me know. The way we stuck together in prison has created a bond between us that is closer than brothers. I said this to Vince and Dare and they feel the same." Jonas closed his hand on Luke's arm.
Luke felt that connection. He could never love a brother more. "I would be honored to help any of you, if you had need. I owe you my life and it's a debt I will gladly repay. You tell Dare and Vince that goes for them, too."
Jonas nodded. "I will. If you don't hear from me right away, don't give up. I'll be a while finding a place to settle. Unlike all of you, I don’t have a home.”
“Come to Texas with me,” Luke offered.
Jonas’s brow furrowed. “I’m feeling lead to the west as my mission field.”
“Texas is west.”
“It is that, Kid. But I’ve got an offer with a Missionary Society out of St. Louis. It’s the door that’s been opened for me. I’m heading to Missouri and letting God lead me onward from there. If I get close to Broken Wheel, Texas, I’ll stop in and see this ranch you’re so fired up about.”

"Aren't you going home first, to see your little sister? After all those letter she wrote."

"I don't dare. I'm a wanted man back in Ohio. I might be arrested."

"After all these years? And after serving in the Army so honorably?"

Jonas shrugged, I just don't know and I don't know how to find out without going there and the first hint I might get is having shackles clapped on. I'd love to see Tina but she'll understand. I'm heading west." 
"I hope you end up in Texas." Luke smiled.
Jonas said, “And now, I know where they keep a pot of soup simmering. How about I get you something to eat?”
Luke’s stomach growled and he nodded and wished it was beefsteak instead of the watery soup Callie kept giving him.
“Have you seen my sister?”
Jonas looked around. “Nope. But I don’t even know what she looks like.”
“I think she’s helping, doing some nursing. The things they say Dare’s too sick to do.”
“I’ll keep my eyes open for her. That’s mighty fine of your family to come all this way to care for you, Luke. You’ve got good folks.” Jonas went to find the soup.
Luke nodded, his heart warm at the thought. As he lay there waiting for the food he dreamed of how it’d be when he went back to the S Bar S Ranch. Things would be better now. He was grown up. No more of the struggles between him and Pa. Pa was a stubborn one but now he’d know Luke was a grown man. They’d be partners not father and son. It’d be a new beginning.
He could hardly wait.
What had become of Callie? She’d been here at his side faithfully every time he’d awakened. But he didn’t see her today.
Of course Jonas had probably deliberately picked a moment when Luke had been alone.
It flickered through his mind that he hadn’t been awakened by Seth the Burning Man for a while. Of course Luke wasn’t real sure about time passing so maybe it hadn’t been long since he’d last gone to sleep.
But Callie had thought she could make the man be quiet and maybe she did have a knack.Luke forgot all about it when Jonas came back with a steaming bowl of soup. It was hardier than what he'd eaten before. With more beef and vegetables in it. Luke ate it, determined to start gaining weight and get out of here.
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Closer Than Brothers - Chapter Nine

It's NOT a romance. It's not very funny, there just wasn't much comedy to be mined for me in Andersonville Prison. It's not even a real storyPart #9 of 13 episodes of how my heroes from Trouble in Texas met and how they became so loyal to each other.Book #3 Stuck Together --Vince's story--releases in June 3.

Closer Than Brothers
Click to BuyChapter NineLuke—The Kid
 “Luciano, the fever left, you’ve got no excuse now.”
He forced his eyes open and this time it worked.
The woman, staring down at him gasped. She smiled, her while teeth flashing fit to blind a man.
He looked into the black eyes of his little sister. Not so little anymore.
“Callie, did you die, too?” He felt bad about that. Callie should have a long life, and this didn’t sound or feel or smell like heaven, which could only mean…
“I’m not dead and neither are you, Luke.” Her dark eyes, a perfect match with him, were wild with pleasure as she smiled.
Blinking, trying to make sense out of her being here, he had to believe it. He’d lived. He’d survived and somehow Callie was here, right here in Andersonville. His sister had joined him in purgatory.
“Did you fight in the war? Did you get taken prisoner?” He couldn’t stand the idea.
“You’re in the hospital, Luke.”
The room was candle lit and it was dark. They were in the belly of the night. He saw a fancy glass light fixture overhead with dangling crystals. It looked like someone’s house, not a hospital. And for sure not a prison.
“The war is over and we got word you’d been found in Camp Sumter.”
That was Andersonville’s real name. Luke hadn’t heard it called that in so long it was only a faint memory.
“Our letter said you were sick and in need of doctoring.” Callie’s voice had a heavy Texas accent that made Luke homesick on top of a lot of other kinds of sick. Her eyes roved over his face. There was so much sadness he could only imagine what he looked like. Of course he'd never come close to such a thing as a looking glass, but he’d seen how horrible the other prisoners were. Walking skeletons, everyone of them. He was sorry she had to see it.
She squared her shoulders and didn’t talk about his appearance, keeping her talk cheerful and her smile firmly in place. “Pa and I got here as fast as we could.”
"Pa's here?" Luke vaguely remembered hearing Pa. He wasn't sure what was real and what was a dream. “Y-you’ve had time to travel all the way here from Texas? How long have I been unconscious?”
“The doctor told us you’ve been delirious or unconscious ever since the Union Army got you out of that place, weeks ago. Pa and I have just been here a few days, long enough to be mighty worried. Your fever broke a couple of hours ago, f-finally.” Callie’s voice caught. He thought his tough little sister was going to cry.
Luke wasn’t surprised when she lifted her chin and fought off the tears. “We’re gonna stuff you full of food and get you some clean clothes and then take you back to Texas where you belong.”
“Callie, you’re here.” She was talking too fast. He couldn’t take it all in. He could still hardly believe his family had come. “You’re beautiful, and all grown up.” His voice was so raspy he didn’t know if she could understand him. “You said Pa is here?”
“Yep. We’re taking turns sleeping. He’ll be mighty upset I got to talk to you first.” Her grin said she’d pester her dad with being first and thoroughly enjoy doing it. "And we figured you could ride a horse home but you'll take a sight of healing before you're ready for that and we don't want to wait. So he's trying to find a wagon and that's not gonna be easy. We don't want to wait until you're up to sitting a horse, so I'm on duty caring for you most of the time. The doctors working this place barely have time to breathe."
He reached for her tangle of black curls and saw his hand, bony and ugly. He couldn’t stand to touch her.
Then he remembered how regrets had eaten at him while he lay in prison, thinking he’d die without seeing her again. “I thought I’d never get a chance to tell you how sorry I am for the way I treated you since Ma died.”
With a smile, she slapped his shoulder, but Luke could tell she did it with unusual gentleness. Luke wondered just how fragile he looked. Not much made Callie pull her punches.
“Spend your energy getting well, not worrying about my delicate feelings.” Callie looked to her left and right as if worried about being overheard. She leaned close and whispered. “This is a miserable place. It’s no proper hospital. You'd be better off with me and Pa on the trail resting beside a campfire. ”
Luke hoped she never heard how dreadful Andersonville was. This was luxury by comparison.
“It’s just a house. There’s not enough food or medicine for all of you. Pa and I are going to get you out of here.”
Callie smiled and straightened away from him. She got a water glass and slid her arm under his shoulders. He could remember her doing this. Suddenly Luke was so thirsty he wanted to grab the cup and drink it all down hard and fast.
“Just sips now. The doc said if you drink it too fast, you’ll cast it all up.”
The doc. Luke wondered where Dare was. And Vince and Jonas.
Luke tried to sit up under his own steam and found his muscles were weak as water. So he sat up as far as Callie had the strength to prop him and he sipped. Clean water. It was the most delicious thing Luke had ever tasted.
Callie tortured him by only giving out dribbles. If he hadn’t been so shaky, he’d have grabbed the glass and drank it down. But he wasn’t up to it and she gave him only a few swallows, leaving him desperate for more. But she kept at it until he’d had the whole glass, then she got him a second. Finally, he had enough.
She eased a rolled up blanket under his back, each move so gentle, so unlike his hoyden sister. Then she reached for a bowl he hadn’t noticed before. Soup.
She fussed with getting soup into his belly one spoonful at a time. There wasn’t much heat left in it, but it eased his throat and filled his gnawing gut. He’d been hungry so long he was full after only a few swallows. He pushed her urging hand aside, afraid he might upchuck. Not a real nice way to say hello to his baby sister.
“We rode out here on horseback, cutting every minute from the trip we could, swapping saddles, scared to death you’d die on us before we got here. We brought six horses in all, so there are two for you. We’d leave right now if you could stay in the saddle, but it’s clear you’re not up to that yet, that's why Pa's hunting a wagon. As soon as we can, we’ll head home.”
She talked with him about the journey and after a bit he was able to take more swallows of soup, this time he finished the bowl. It was mostly broth and Luke wished for meat and vegetables, but he could feel his stomach threatening to reject even the broth and knew he didn't dare risk eating anything heavier.
“I can’t believe how you’ve grown up, Callie. Have I been gone so long? You were a child Click to Buy Seth and Callie's Storywhen I left, it seems.”

A scream sounded from across the room. “Rafe, Ethan! Help me.”
Callie sat up straight and turned toward the screaming, a frown of concern on her deeply tanned face.
“That soldier from Colorado, Seth, is he in here, too?” Luke remembered him from the infirmary at Andersonville.
“You know him?”
“He was in prison with me. He was so sick and he was screaming like that. He’s got ugly burn scars on his back. Dare said they must have happened early in the war, because they're all healed. He’s having nightmares about burning. But he'd been shot recently by a shotgun and no one had tools to dig the lead out of him. When he wasn’t having nightmares or running a fever from the buckshot in his back, he said Ethan and Rafe were his brothers."
"I wonder if they’re coming for him?" Talking of prison made Luke wonder where Dare had gotten to, and Jonas and Vince. What if they'd gone home?
To think he’d never see his friend again hit him like a blow. They’d been inseparable since the night Vince had stepped in to protect Luke from the Raiders and Luke had come back to protect Vince from retaliation.
They’d been friends who were closer than brothers. It would hurt as badly as never seeing Callie again.
Was it possible to just walk away from men he’d cared about as deeply as them?
Another cry for help rang out from The Burning Man.
Callie looked away from Luke. “Seth from Colorado, huh? I got the job of waking him from his sleep the last two nights. We...that is he…he didn’t do much talking.”
In the candlelight, Luke thought he saw his little sister blush. Maybe all this working around sick men was too personal for a young, innocent Texas girl, even one as tough as Callie.
“I’ve been helping wherever I’m needed. One of the doctors in here is from near Fort Worth. Pa knew some of his family and said they're good folks. The doc is overwhelmed. He can use every pair of hands he can get.”
“Help me, Ethan!” The screaming tore at a Luke’s heart. “I’m on fire!”
The way Callie looked toward Seth made him wonder if Callie’s heart wasn’t hurt by the sound of Seth’s suffering, too. She said, “There’s plenty in here with nightmares, but none quite so bad as him.”
With his belly full for the first time in memory, Luke felt himself sliding into a natural, healthy sleep. The screaming wouldn’t let him sink all the way under and it kept getting louder.
“I’m burning. Rafe!”
Resting a strong, work-roughened hand on his shoulder, Callie gently gathered Luke close. He couldn’t believe how she felt, hugging him. It was like a slice of heaven.
Luke wanted to cry. He’d never expected to feel anything this soft and pure and lovely again after the brutality he’d survived.
His prayers of thanksgiving went so deep they scraped his soul raw.
Into his ear, Callie whispered, “I’m so glad you’re going to make it, Luke. I have prayed for you like I’ve never prayed in my life. You rest. I’ll go rouse Seth, the poor soul. Once it’s quiet you can get some sleep…and maybe he can, too.”
“Thanks, Callie.” It took all his strength to whisper the words back.
As his baby sister—a grown up woman now—walked away, Luke sank into a blurry half-world between waking and sleeping.
Finally The Burning Man stopped screaming.
For one tiny moment Luke wondered how she woke him. Luke remembered how they’d had to shake Seth, practically beat on him to get him to wake up. There’d been yelling and near violence to knock him out of the nightmares he was locked in.
Luke had felt sorry for the poor madman but, rough as it had gotten, ending those nightmares was a mercy.
Whatever method Callie had used, it was now quiet. It'd been fast, too. If he wasn’t so exhausted he’d’ve waited until she came back and asked her.
Silence reigned and he tried to keep his eyes open but she didn't return and he began to wonder if she was coming back. Maybe she’d stuffed a sock in Seth’s mouth and felt like she needed to stay close to make sure he didn’t suffocate. Well, good for her.Trust Callie to take care of everything.
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Closer Than Brothers - Chapter Eight

It's NOT a romance. It's not very funny.
No ropin' and ridin' anywhere
Part #8 of 13 episodes of how my heroes from Trouble in Texas met
and how they became so loyal to each other.
Book #3 Stuck Together --Vince's story--releases in June 3.
  Callie met Seth (the hero and heroine from Over the Edge) when Callie went to Andersonville Prison to fetch Luke home. You all know that, right?
 Closer Than BrothersChapter Eight
Enter Seth Kincaid to our Story!
Click to BuyLuke—The Kid“Rafe! Ethan! Help! I’m burning!”            Luke tore out of sleep. The screaming. Every night since they’d brought this new soldier in. All of them had nightmares but there wasn’t a one tormented like this man. The Colorado soldier made it almost impossible for the rest of them to sleep. Luke had heard Dare call him Seth, but Luke thought of him as The Burning Man—when he thought of him at all. Seth was sicker than Luke. That was saying something because Luke expected every day to be his last. He was so sick all he could do was lie there, useless, and listen to the screaming, and burn with his own fever.He didn’t have the strength to crawl over and shake the guy awake. If he did work up the gumption he’d have to crawl over twenty soldiers to get there and it wasn’t easy pulling The Burning Man out of the dreams, plenty had tried.“Help me, Rafe. Help! Ethan!” The screaming went on. Seth thrashed and beat at himself. Luke knew because for the first few nights, Luke had lay near him. Vince had been quietly responsible for getting Luke moved. Vince was fighting for Luke's life every way he could. Getting away from Seth might give him a chance to rest. But there was no where far enough. Seth had been brought in here not that long ago and he’d been in the infirmary from his first day in Andersonville.Luke had learned Seth’s thrashing was beating out flames on his own body. Luke had only seen the man once without a shirt but his back was a mass of ugly scars. Made worse by taking a shotgun blast in the back. Dare had no tools to cut out the pellets so they stayed in and got infected while Seth was tortured by his dreams, always on fire. Always calling for help from his brothers, Rafe and Ethan.  Nightmares while he slept, delirium while he was awake.Luke pitied Seth at the same time he wanted to beat him into a sound sleep.The others in the room breathed unevenly. All awake. All listening. All sick as a pack of mangy dogs. Someone shoved at the poor bedeviled soldier and shouted at him to wake up and shut up. It took a long time but finally the screaming ended.By then, Luke’s eyes had adjusted enough that he could see the black square of the small window, wide open. It let in mosquitoes and the heavy, humid night air. It was only May, and already the heat was stifling. He’d talked tough to Dare, but Luke knew he’d never live through another hot, choking summer. How long did he have to suffer before he died?He was skin and bones. He had no strength left. Dare was scared to death. Vince was at his
Vince fights for Luke's lifeside constantly with scraps of food and swallows of water. Jonas prayed over him every chance he got.Luke had shaken off a fever several times, he sure hoped he’d do it again, just like Dare had gotten over the third knife attack. But this fever was Luke’s worst one yet.            His only hope of survival was if this war ended and soon, and Luke had given up on that. The war was eternal. In fact it might not really be war. When his fever came up high and he thrashed and had nightmares of his own, he often imagined himself in purgatory. Then he’d wake up and not be sure of what was real and what was a dream.            He wondered if this might be the day he died or if he had died and this was hell. He’d pray and try to make sure his soul was right with God, but if he was dead and this was hell, then he must have done something wrong.            God, had he done it wrong?As he lay, next thing to starved to death, in the foul infirmary with Dare doing everything he Click to Buycould to keep Luke from being added to the death toll, Luke thought of his little sister. He wished he’d had a chance to tell Callie he was sorry. He’d harangued her most every day of his life. She was a tomboy and Luke had insulted her for it and bickered with her and fought with Pa over her unladylike ways.
            He was just heartsick with loneliness for Ma, and he missed how she’d made a comfortable home for all of them and been the one gentle, soft, pretty thing in a hard life. Luke had wanted Callie, only ten years old when Ma died, to take over making the gracious home that Luke hadn’t known he’d loved until Ma was gone.            Callie was nigh onto too young to even be left home alone, let alone expecting her to do the cooking and cleaning and mending. Luke knew now that, in his grief over losing Ma he’d turned tears into anger and lashed out at Callie and Pa and anyone else who came near. If he died here in prison would his family even care? Had he been such an ugly presence in their lives that they’d never miss him?            What a legacy for a man to leave.            He was so miserable that his regrets over his family were the only thing that made him mind dying. When he was rational, he knew he’d made his peace with God. Why not embrace the next life in heaven?            Dare wouldn’t let up. Vince came. Jonas prayed.            They wouldn’t let him die…so he lived in misery.            Dare was walking death he was so thin. Vince’s cheeks had gone so hollow his face looked
Click to Buylike a skull. Jonas had spent the better part of a week in here, in the blankets next to Luke, so weak he’d left off all his minister work save prayer. And that he did without ceasing. Jonas had healed enough he’d dragged himself out to make room for other ailing prisoners.            Luke stared into the gray light of dawn, felt his fever rise and wondered if this would be his last day on earth. He hoped so.“It’s over!” Dare came shoving into the infirmary. “It’s over! The guards are gone. They’ve abandoned their post and made a run for it. The Union Army is at the gates.”Dare dropped to his knees beside Luke, who was stretched out on the floor, nothing so fine as a cot to sleep on. The impossible words made Luke’s head spin and his vision turned into a long tunnel.“We’ll get you out of here.” Dare’s voice faded as Luke tried to imagine the end to purgatory. “Hang on, Luke. Hang on. You’re going to be okay.”Luke wasn’t sure he had the strength. [sb]Cool water washed across his brow. Cool. When had he felt anything cool?“Wake up, Luciano.”             And a woman? That could not be a woman’s voice.            His ears buzzed as if they weren’t working just right and he couldn’t force his eyes open. The fever that was part of him all the time burned through the cool.            “Luciano.”            His ma called him that. She’d been dead for years. Did that mean he was dead?The noise faded and he slept.  [sb]Arms, strong female arms wrapped around him and he thought of his ma again. He was in heaven being held by his ma. Except he felt terrible, hot and aching. That didn’t fit with what he thought he knew of heaven. He was still burning. Hot.No, that fit with hell and his sweet, Godly Ma wouldn’t be there.Cool water was forced past his lips and he swallowed just to get the tormentor to stop making him drink. “Luke.” That familiar female voice. Then arms again. “Luke, please wake up. What have they done to you? How could they let you starve like this?” The arms were strong and so gentle. And he felt a kiss on his cheek and broken sobs shook whoever held him.Hot tears slid down his neck and those strong, gentle arms felt better than the finest dreams he’d ever had of heaven.Through the fever and hunger and months of filth and pain and want, the arms seemed to reach in and pull him back to life.He tried to thank her for that, surface from the darkness that held him, but it was too hard to speak, he just didn't have the strength. Instead he let her hold him while he floated, aware but unable to respond.He did have the strength to thank God she was here and beg that she stay and wonder who she was.  [sb]“Luciano, I love you.”            The cloth was cool again. Always washing him, soothing him. Another drink. Coaxing.             "Luke, son.  Take a bite of soup. You have to eat." A deeper voice. Luke knew this one was Pa. But Pa like he'd never heard him. Almost begging. Pa brought low, sad, scared and Pa wasn't afraid of nuthin'. But Pa was afraid for Luke and Luke felt terrible about that. For being such a burden.            He fought like mad to get his eyes open to relieve the fear. Pa’s strong arm slid behind Luke's shoulders and lifted.            It was almost an embrace and Luke couldn't remember the last time Pa had come close to giving him a touch in kindness, or in unkindness come to that. Pa just plain never touched him, and why would he? But this touch was strengthening, as nourishing as food when a man was starving. It put heart into Luke and made him fight to wake up.            “Son, you need to drink and eat." The raw quality to Pa’s voice made it seem as if Pa had been talking for a long time. "You need strength to fight this fever. Once we beat that, we'll get you built up, then get you back to Texas.”             Luke felt like he'd been swimming in black water forever.            He remembered a woman. Ma maybe. But Ma was dead.             Suddenly it struck him that it could only be his little sister. But the voice was no kid who’d been calling him by his Italian name. Luciano. It was a woman. Callie? But Callie was a little girl. And she knew he liked the American version of his name.            It would be like her to taunt him into responding.            He tried to respond. He really did, but it was just too hard. 
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Closer Than Brothers - Chapter Seven

It's NOT a romance. It's not very funny.
No ropin' and ridin' anywhere
Part #7 of 13 episodes of how my heroes from Trouble in Texas met
and how they became so loyal to each other.
Book #3 Stuck Together --Vince's story--releases in June 3.Closer Than Brothers
Chapter Seven
Stuck Together is Jonas' story, too
Click to Buy
Jonas—The Parson

Jonas felt the guilt ripping at him as he lay down on his blankets with a roof over his head.
            He slept on a filthy, lice riddled, moth eaten blanket in a room with twenty other men that was large enough for two and prayed God would forgive him for having this when so many had nothing.             Yesterday he’d eaten a handful of dry corn meal that writhed with maggots, and he’d gotten half a potato, rotten at the center. He’d gobbled up every bit, the bugs, the foul blackened potato, even the bugs were food. His hunger was so deep, so profound he was like an animal, fighting for scraps. Then, after the food was gone, still viciously hungry, skeleton-thin, he felt wrenching guilt. He should have shared. Others were worse off. He should sleep under the stars in solidarity with his fellow Andersonville prisoners. But he was too weak, physically and spiritually. He couldn’t resist the roof nor the potato. How many men had died today while he ate? God forgive me. I need the courage to give my life away. Give me a sacrificial heart for the other prisoners. The sun was just lighting the sky in the stifling, crowded room. It was so humid Jonas could barely breathe. The misery of hunger, the mosquitoes that plagued them, the reek of diseased, filthy bodies, the constant mournful song of thousands of suffering men—Jonas wondered at heaven and hell. God is hell truly worse than this? How could it be worse? It made Jonas shudder to the marrow in his bones to try and fathom something worse. He clung tight to his faith and tried to reach the lost. He spent time every day in Dare’s hospital praying for the men who would face the Pearly Gates within days. Save them. God, save them. Father in Heaven help me to lead them to You. Give me the words. Give me the strength to sacrifice my very life. He thought of that potato. If he’d given it away would a man have seen the parson and his sacrificial generosity and turned toward the Lord? Could a shared potato be the price of a man’s soul? The men who weren’t interested in his preaching would always sit and let him read to them. His little sister’s letters. Her letters had opened many a man to listening. First the letter, then Jonas’s words of faith. Jonas thrust his blanket away. As the heat rose with the morning sun, the blanket was unbearable anyway. He looked across the room and saw Vince, lying with his back to the wall. Surveying the room. Jonas met his eyes. Vince nodded as if acknowledging that another day had begun in purgatory, then rose and went to the door, leaning his back against it. Always on guard. Vince. Jonas had to smile. Vince was who had brought him that potato yesterday. And Jonas remembered now that he had considered giving it away, even started to do it. Somehow Vince had blocked the effort and given Jonas no choice but to eat it himself. Jonas wasn't even sure quite how Vince managed it. He certainly didn't shove it down Jonas's throat. But Vince tended to get his way. The man was determined to get them all through this place alive and it was hard to defy him. As Vince leaned, footsteps sounded and Dare came in carrying envelopes. Letters. Andersonville wouldn’t feed them but they’d deliver the mail. They’d let prisoners send mail out too, but Jonas had no paper, no pen, no money for a stamp. Dare, moving in his usual restless way, came straight for Jonas, five letters in hand. Jonas reached for them eagerly. He always got mail. Tina never failed him, despite how Jonas had failed her. More men stirred, the ones who didn’t might be more unconscious than asleep. Luke sat up, rubbing his eyes, so young, so painfully thin Jonas was scared for him. They Add captionwere all skin and bones, but Luke had been in the hospital the longest and he’d been sick a couple of times. Each time he was weaker, his recovery slower. With contaminated water and little food, how was a man to heal? Now, Luke smiled at the letters in Jonas’s hand. “Read ’em out loud, every word.” Of course Jonas was planning, too. But he was glad to hear Luke ask. The Kid was quieter every day. Jonas opened the envelope, savoring the touch of paper, the civilized stamp and neatly penned address. The letters even smelled good. Not perfumed, but they hadn’t soaked up the stink of Andersonville yet. They hadn’t been in here long enough. He’d let every man in here touch each letter and read them himself before he got it back. But for now, no one wanted to wait to hear Tina’s latest news. He even read the envelope aloud:   Tina Cahill Grable, Ohio   To Jonas Cahill Fort Sumter Andersonville, Georgia   Dear Jonas,             We got the saloon closed and to my disgust, four days after it closed, some other wretched man opened one a few blocks away. What is this obsession with demon rum?”   “I would kill for a drink of rum.” A man in here for reasons other than being a Regulator, spoke quietly.             Everyone laughed. It wasn’t the drink, it was the thought of such a civilized thing as a saloon, a bar to lean against, or tables with chairs. Drinks available to order. It was hard to remember such things existed.             For a few fleeting moments while Jonas read Tina’s letters they could let themselves be transported to a place where woman wrote letters on fine white paper and men came and went to suit themselves.               And to my horror, I have learned that they intend to have their saloon open even on Sunday. Not even the Lord ’s Day will be set aside by these vile men. Well, if they think I will be defeated they do not know who they are dealing with.   “I’ll bet they are counting on having her out front to tell the folks in town they’re open for business.” Vince said dryly. The group laughed. They might tease, but not a man here didn’t love Jonas’s little sister. She brought light and happiness with her preaching little letters about a world that still existed beyond these walls.   I still have my picket sign and I will simply move my mission field to this new den of iniquity. You will be glad to know I have found a saying I believe will spark quite a bit of interest in the men unwise enough to consider hard drink. Aunt Iphigenia said to me the other day, 'A man who drinks puts a thief in his mouth to steal his brain'. I thought that was quite a piquant turn of phrase and intend to use it, in perhaps a somewhat shortened form for my sign. It’s all quite complicated to get a good message across briefly enough to fit on a sign. Lettering them is surprisingly time consuming and with school and caring for Aunt Iphigenia’s home, besides the time committed to walking the actual picket line, I barely have enough hours in the day.   "Your Aunt Iphigenia works her like a slave,” Dare said. “We oughta tell Abe Lincoln to write up an Emancipation Proclamation for your little sister.”   I know you will think me frivolous, Jonas, but if I am to write every day as I am determined to do while you are in prison, I must tell you the smallest, even foolish details, so I will describe the dress I wore to church this morning.   Every man in the room, even Luke, sat up, leaned forward. This was their favorite part. Jonas remembered his sister well. Chubby. White blonde hair and not much of it. Persnickety and prone to fist fights. And now she spent her time picketing. It didn't amount to a particularly attractive package. He didn’t tell the men here that. He suspected they were all picturing some beautiful girl. Or maybe they thought of their own sweetheart back home. No sense ruining their pleasant daydream.             Jonas went on reading. Tina spoke of fabric and ribbon. She detailed every bit of food she ate which was both wonderful and a kind of torture. She went on at length about her chores, which only revealed what a crotchety task master Aunt Iphigenia was. Jonas probably should have felt sorry for Tina. But the life he was living was so miserable he couldn’t think she had it so bad. She spoke of picketing a saloon. Circulating a petition. Denouncing liquor at a city council meeting. The little one was growing up to be a snippy, trouble-making reformer and Jonas smiled to imagine the chubby little girl, hair as light and white as a puffball atop a gone-to-seed dandelion. She’s always been a talker, and she’d always spoken her mind. It had gotten her into trouble time and again. Jonas had been mostly gone, but he’d been there once to teach a few bullies a lesson about picking on a little girl, no matter how ill-thought-out some of her statements were. And when he’d saved her from a thrashing, Tina had looked at him with pure hero worship in her eyes. He’d done more damage than Tina had known. Jonas had already been a dangerous man by that time. Aunt Iphigenia had told him to get out, go back to his gang of outlaws and leave decent women alone. It had come to light that he was a wanted man and he'd had to hightail it. But he’d heard that folks left Tina alone after that, because she had a dangerous big brother. That gave him satisfaction back then. Now it shamed him, especially because it meant he’d probably never see his little sister again. He didn’t dare show his face in Grable, Ohio. It’d been long enough he might not be arrested, but he wasn’t sure. He couldn’t risk it. Jonas had wanted to save his little sister from that awful woman. But what Jonas had to offer was worse. He had no home. He was an outlaw. He rode with hard men. He boiled with rage that he knew had started with his cruel stepfather—Tina’s father. That rage had awakened long before his stepfather killed Jonas’s mother, then hung for it. That anger drove him to recklessness and crime. It felt powerful when he’d been powerless to protect his sweet ma. He’d ridden away years ago and never gone back, but still his little sister wrote every day. The letters didn’t get delivered every day, but when the mail did come, there was always a stack of them from Tina. And everyone wanted to hear them, then read them for himself. Jonas was a mighty popular man. Jonas had managed a few letters, right at first before he’d been stripped of his last possession by the Raiders. He’d gotten word to her that he was in Andersonville so her letters could find him, thank God. She knew he’d found God on a battlefield early in the war. Tina needed a home, but Jonas couldn’t fetch her. And of late he’d felt God leading him to a mission field on the American frontier. All he had to do was survive hell on earth. As he read on, the men laughed and rolled their eyes at her antics and her enthusiasm. Sometimes they sighed with longing for their own loved ones or jealousy for Jonas’s letters. Whatever their reactions, his little sister shined a light in this darkness for every man lucky enough to hear her letters. She was serving a mission field of her own with each word she wrote.
  Jonas had no way to let her know, but he prayed that somehow she realized it.
~~~~~
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Closer Than Brothers - Chapter Six

I have a cover!
Thanks to Deb Harkness
:DIt's NOT a romance. It's not very funny.
No ropin' and ridin' anywherePart #6 of 13 episodes of how my heroes from Trouble in Texas met
and how they became so loyal to each other.Book #3 Stuck Together --Vince's story--releases in June 3. In This Chapter...Mr and Mrs Hunt's story is true contained in this chapter. Dare's part is fictionalized but there WAS a baby born in Andersonville Prison

Closer Than Brothers
Click to Buy
Chapter Six
Dare—The Doctor

Twice. Stabbed in the back twice. Honestly a man got no thanks for being a doctor in this place.             Dare stood in the doorway of the infirmary, looking out over the men, sleeping on the ground, some with blankets formed into tents. Pondering his choice of professions.             As if he'd been given a choice.             The prison yard was a wretched sight. A sound weighed on the air, a low moan that was constant, day and night. The sound of sickness and misery. Starvation and death. It was so much a part of this place Dare hardly noticed it anymore but it left a dark stain on a man’s mind to live in the midst of such steady suffering. Dare was a doctor but he could do nothing about most of it. The moans came from the camp but also from behind him. There were men in the small infirmary. Almost certainly each was dying. With good food and clean conditions and medical care they might all survive. They had none of those things. Instead, each of them lay in squalor, starved until they were skeletal. Plagued by dysentery and too sick to even get to a chamber pot. The stench was sickening.             Where he stood, in that doorway, he knew a roof over his head, no matter the vile filth inside the infirmary, was a luxury he’d been granted because being a Regulator was a good way to get killed.             He stood there and tried to count his blessings. As the days in this house of misery stretched to months he could hardly remember life outside the walls. He could hardly remember what a blessing was.             A high keening cry cut through the night. It sent a chill up Dare's back. The cry was quickly muffled.             `”What was that?” Dare muttered the words aloud, testing his own sanity.             His mind went to ghosts and banshees…magical things because it was no sound Dare could imagine. No man nor animal made such a sound and, when the possible wasn’t possible a man’s mind went to the impossible. It almost sounded like…like a woman. A woman suffering.             Everything in Dare’s muddled doctor training woke up and drove him to see what it was.             To step out on the grounds alone was to ask for death. Many prisoners thought him a traitor for rounding up Yankee soldiers, no matter they were vermin. Other prisoners were part of the Raiders and still hated the Regulators who had killed their leaders.             Dare had already taken a knife in the back. Twice.             He knew better than to go out there, but that cry sounded again and no power on earth could stop him from rushing out to see what it was. He reached a rigged tent, two blankets propped up with sticks in a triangle that, at the peak, reached Dare’s waist.             A man crouched, covering a second man’s mouth. The second man lay on his back, his spine arched in agony. When Dare dropped to his knees the crouching man whirled to face him, in the shadowed night Dare knew he faced death. With his mouth uncovered the man cried out again. A high pitched cry that had Dare shaking his head and speaking words that could not be. “I’m a doctor. I’m not going to hurt her.” Her. It was a woman. It wasn’t possible but the person lying there in such agony was definitely a woman. “Keep her quiet. We can’t let anyone know there’s a woman in here.”             Dare knew the depths of the brutality in this place. Many men were reduced to near animals. What this hoard of savages might do to a woman in their midst was horrifying.             “She’s my wife. My name is Hunt.” Hunt looked torn near in two, ready to fight Dare, wanting to silence his wife. It was more than Dare could do to believe a woman was here in this madhouse, this desolation. When Hunt’s wife cried louder, he quit glaring at Dare to cover her mouth. Dare crawled in the tent, which was only a foot or so longer than Mrs. Hunt’s body. After tense moments the woman slowly relaxed. Her body, arched off the ground in pain, settled back to the ground and the man released her. “What’s the matter? Is she sick?” Hunt gave Dare a wild look and ran both hands through his long, filthy, dark hair. “She’s having a baby.” Dare nearly fell backward. “What?” His shout echoed out of the tent. “Quiet!” Hunt snarled. “You’ll draw attention just as surely as she will.” Clamping his jaws shut, Dare tried to think. His brain was still reeling from finding a woman in here, but a baby? It was like rats scurrying and clawing in his head, the frantic thoughts, the desperate wish to deny this. But then the wonder of it struck Dare hard. New life. So many had died, but new life was here, too. The sense of awe was overwhelming. It made something tight and grieving in Dare’s chest unwind and for the first time in a long time he could feel something joyful. Terrifying but joyful. Mrs. Hunt cut through his thoughts. “Thank the Good Lord you’re a doctor. You can deliver my baby.” Dare looked at her with dawning horror. He had absolutely no idea how to deliver a baby, for heaven’s sakes! He thought of the infirmary and knew he couldn’t take Mrs. Hunt into such filth, she was better on the ground, and it was plenty bad out here. “God has sent an angel in our hour of need.” The painfully thin woman, who showed almost no sign of a rounded belly and was dressed in britches and a ragged shirt like any man. Dare had only a normal man’s knowledge of birth. His dad was a wheelwright, and Dare had helped in the shop most of his life. But they’d had a few milk cows who’d given birth time to time and he’d seen a barn cat deliver six kittens. Swallowing hard, Dare tried to remember all the doctor had told him in his training about keeping men calm and sounding confident to encourage the sick. That advice probably applied here. It was little enough to give this woman, but he could give it. Imagining what lay ahead, Dare looked the women in the eye, then turned to her husband. “You know we’ll have to…to…she’ll need…” Confidence. Dare squared his shoulders to the extent a man could in this tent. “We’ll need to get her trousers off.” Hunt bulled up over that, and Dare didn’t blame the man. But then any man who’d let his pregnant wife stay with him in this slice of Purgatory was none too bright. Dare took charge. “It’s a mighty private thing, Mr. Hunt. If you’d like, I’ll go. Most babies are delivered without a fuss and your wife and child will most likely be fine without me. I understand if that’s your wish.” Mrs. Hunt’s hand grabbed her husband’s forearm. “It’s all right, he’s a doctor.” Dare didn't open his mouth to tell them that honestly, he was no such thing. Hunt hesitated a long time. His eyes burned in the darkness as he took Dare’s measure. Dare sure hoped Hunt wasn’t a good judge of a man’s measure or he’d throw Dare out for sure. Of course, maybe that would be a good thing. And then Mrs. Hunt let her husband go. “It’s coming!” She arched her back and started clawing at the buttons on the front of her britches. Dare was too busy to think of modesty again for a long time. So were the Hunts come to that. And then, with scrambling and prayers and panic in about equal parts, Dare found himself holding a squirming, soaking wet mess of a baby in his hands. He thought he’d heard a baby was supposed to be smacked on the backside when it was born, though he wasn’t sure where he’d heard it or why he’d do such a thing. He wasn’t about to whack away on such a tiny infant. The baby, a boy, started in hollering. They’d been able to silence Mrs. Hunt but something wild and defiant erupted in Dare along with the cries. “You cry little one.” He balanced the wriggling little guy in one hand and tore the tattered shirt off his back. He’d go bare-chested if he had to so the baby wouldn’t get cold—although in Georgia as always, the night was warm. He did a mighty poor job of wrapping the child as the Hunts looked on. Then he handed the wee one to his father, who looked down with shining love in his eyes while Mrs. Hunt wept and rested her hand on her baby’s head. It took a few minutes, but thundering footsteps were inevitable and here they came. “Give her the baby, Hunt. Trouble’s coming.” Hunt jerked his chin and looked to the tent opening with the fire of a papa grizzly in his eyes. Dare made quick work of getting Mrs. Hunt’s clothes restored to order. Dare didn’t care what he had to do. The need to protect this child gave him the determination and, he hoped, the strength of an angel straight from God. Then a men came into view, rifle in hand. Dare braced himself as the man slowly knelt to look in the tent. Dare recognized one of the guards that stood on the fence, ready to shoot anyone who stepped over the Dead Line. The man’s face bore no look of cruelty only wonder. “Is that a baby?” The man stared past Dare and Hunt to the squalling child. The tone gave Dare hope. “It sure is.” There was a stunned silence then the guard spoke so fast his word tumbled over each other “Let’s get you all out of here. Fast.” The guard stood. “Hand me the baby, Hunt. You carry your wife.” Dare, figuring he didn’t have much choice, crawled out of the tent. “W-wife?” The guard stepped back almost as if he was afraid, as Dare lifted the baby into view. Much as the guardian angel had been awakened in Dare, he hoped it had come alive in this guard. The man seemed ready to fight for the baby, too. Mr. Hunt came next and Mrs. Hunt right behind him. He tried to pick her up but she slapped his hands away. “I can walk perfectly fine. Let’s go.” Mrs. Hunt was proving to be a mighty sturdy woman. She caught up to Dare and fussed with the shirt wrapped around her baby son as if was the finest knit wool rather than a dirty, ragged shirt that had been hanging, unwashed, on Dare’s back for months. They quickly followed the guard. The baby kept up his crying. Dare felt strongly that he shouldn’t be carrying the baby. Mrs. Hunt should. Then she reached a hand out to rest on her child and he saw the fine trembling of her hand and knew she was standing upright mainly through pride. It was important to her to appear strong. But she wasn’t sure that strength was enough to carry her child. Dare was glad because he thought it was more than he could bear to let the precious little boy go to someone else. The new father stayed on Dare’s right while the mama was on his left like a pair of armed sentries. Men raised their heads as they passed with the squalling child. And Dare felt something change in the ugly prison yard. The moaning from the sick men faded as a hush came over everyone. They stood, many of them coming close, straining to see a miracle. New life in the midst of death. Something inside Dare woke up. A spark deep inside, like a kernel of fire as hot as a drop of pure sunlight came alive in his heart and glowed and grew and spread. Dare knew right then that there was more to being a doctor than throwing a blanket over a man’s head when he died. There was more than hacking off limbs. There was glory. There was letting his hands do the work of God. There was a chance to be part of a miracle, because right now that’s what this moment was. And it suited him all the way to his soul. If he survived this place, he was going to see about saving lives or bringing new life into the world. He was going to be God’s hands here on Earth. Heal the sick. It was in the Bible, a calling that Dare was hearing as if God spoke the words aloud. There was no doubt in his mind that God was guiding him to this choice. ~~~~~
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