One of life’s most painful mysteries was that time moved on, with or without you. Those left behind loved and laughed and resumed living as if you’d never been at all.
I don’t think scalpin’ is what Captain Jack has in mind.” Lael looked up. “We’ve seen no sign of him or any of them since the beads and the blanket.” “Oh, you ain’t seen ’em, but they’ve been by all right. Your pa says Shawnee sign crisscrosses your place like a buffalo trace.
No need to get uppity now. There’s just all kinds of talk swirlin’ since Colonel McLinn abandoned his men at maneuvers and come to yo’ cabin like he did. You know what folks are startin’ to call you, don’t you?” She darted a sly look her way. “ ‘The Colonel’s Lady.
They that love beyond the world cannot be separated by it. Death cannot kill what never dies. WILLIAM PENN.
In the morning, he had to shake her awake. When she saw him leaning over her, shirtless, his dark hair loose and disheveled, her first feeling was one of wonder. She’d dreamed she was asleep atop her feather tick, not the hard ground, and certainly not with a husband. “You’re beautiful awake,” he said with a knowing smile. “But you’re even more beautiful asleep.
Lael Catherine Click, save every dance for me. Simon Henry Hayes.
A voice seemed the very soul of a person. Much could be had by its pitch and tone, it’s peculiar resonance. Like a moccasin print, no two alike, a voice was one’s own unique possession.
A heart is a fine thing to have in a cold world.
You’ve got to get out from under that burden of believing a lie. Folks you care about get cut down, so you stop caring, stop letting folks in.
Run away with me – tonight.” Above them the brilliant moon beckoned, promising to light their way. Her voice sounded queer and far off, weak with longing and despair. “No runnin’ off like Ma done, Simon.
Wanton kittens make sober cats.
Across the way there lies a wee lass, no’ yet five years old, suffering from a fever. Her name is Sadie Floyd. I want you tae go with me tae see her.
Lael.” Her hands stilled at the sound. The name was spoken like a caress, so soft she was certain only she had heard. When she turned, Simon grabbed her wrist. He was lucid now, looking up at her from his mattress on the floor. “It is you. I heard – ” He winced from the sudden movement, and his shoulder began to bleed afresh. “I heard – but I misdoubted you’d stay – but you come back – to me.
You are still a very loosome lass, Lael Click.” “Loosome?” “Lovely. But you need tae regain your strength. I canna wed and bed so wee a fairy.
He’d have to keep a careful watch on her once the polemen came ashore. These free-spirited Frenchmen, whom he liked well enough, became absolute devils when drunk, their antics so spectacularly sinful they made his most hardened soldiers blush.
Time in all its sweet fleetingness seemed to gather round, causing her to impress his beloved features on her heart like flower petals between pages.
Her fervent prayer went the way of her hopes and became floating wreckage. As the years passed, it hardly seemed to matter.
Lord, please steady my spirit.
Did she realize she held his heart? Not just a piece of it. The entire whole of it.
Perhaps I should apply my scholarship to your speech, milord. Labor over a dictionary of your peculiar language. ‘Tis a great garble of words and growls, at least to my Northumbrian ears.
Her defenses had been bridged, compromised. She should have continued to find him maddening, even infuriating. NOT enthralling.