âPromise me youâll help her.â
Former Union soldier Jeremiah âJackâ Murphy should never have given his word to a dying man, especially a Rebel. But now he feels honor-bound to carry the message to the manâs young bride. Besides, with false charges following him, Jack needs somewhere to turn. After he fulfills his promise, perhaps the North Carolina mountains can give this weary soldier some shelter. Yet when he meets beautiful widow Sayer Garth, leaving is the last thing on Jackâs mind. Sayer, and her young sisters-in-law, need help that Jack is more than willing to provide. If only he could be certain that his presenceâand his secretsâwonât put them all at risk....
âIs my husband dead?â
Sayer clearly surprised him with the directness of the question. She had been waiting month after month, year after year, first for a letter or some word of him, then for Thomas Henry himself, and she couldnât bear to wait any longer.
âIs that why youâve come here?â
Jack hesitated, then looked into her eyes again. âYes.â
She made a small sound and looked away, clutching at her skirts in the great effort it took to stay upright and in control.
âIâm sorry, maâam,â he said again. âTo bring you such bad news. I see this isnât the time for us to talk, maâamâyou arenât well enough yet. I shouldnât have said anything. I will take my leave. When youâre strongerââ
âI want to hear what youâve come to say. I want to hear all of it, Mr. Murphy.â
CHERYL REAVIS
The RITA® Award-winning author and romance novelist describes herself as a âlate bloomerâ who played in her first piano recital at the tender age of thirty. âWe had to line up by heightâI was the third smallest kid,â she says. âAfter that, there was no stopping me. I immediately gave myself permission to attempt my other heartâs desireâto write.â Her books A Crime of the Heart and Patrick Gallagherâs Widow won a Romance Writers of Americaâs coveted RITA® Award for Best Contemporary Series Romance the year each was published. One of Our Own received a Career Achievement Award for Best Innovative Series Romance from RT Book Reviews. A former public health nurse, Cheryl makes her home in North Carolina with her husband.
For he shall give his angels charge over thee,
to keep thee in all thy ways.
âPsalms 91:11
In memory of Joanne and Dot,
two of the finest nurses Iâve ever known. Thank you for teaching me. Thank you for helping me. Thank you for making me laugh.
I miss you rascals.
Chapter One
Jack Murphy hadnât intended to go looking for the wounded man. He couldnât hear him now, and it was likely that he had finally died, but for which heartfelt cause, Jack couldnât say. The soldier they all heard calling from the battlefield could be one of their own or one of the Rebelsâor it could be a ruse engineered by either side to draw some gullible soldier into the open.
He stopped crawling and listened intently. It wasnât gullibility that had brought him out here, and it had nothing to do with the Golden Rule Father Bartholomew and the Sisters at the orphan asylum had done their best to teach him. His hands were still shaking badly, and he simply hadnât wanted the others to see him like this. He was Jeremiah âJackâ Murphy, and Jack Murphyâs hands never shook.
The sweet, dank smell of scarred earth rose up from the ground beneath him, land that should have been plowed for spring planting by now, not fought over and bled on. He could hear his comrades in the distance, the quiet murmur of their voices. Every now and then, one of them laughed despite their recent ordeal. Little Ike was finally reading his letter from home, sharing it with the others. Jack envied him that letter. It had been a long time since he himself had gotten one from the only person who ever wrote to him, Elrissa Suzanne Barden, the girl who had promised to marry him when the war was over. The irony was that he hadnât wanted to go to war at all. Heâd enlisted because so many of the boys heâd grown up with in the orphanage had already joined. Heâd always looked out for them; most of them had been culled from the dirty backstreets of Lexington as he had. They looked up to him. He couldnât let them deliberately go into harmâs way without his overseeing the effort. He gave a quiet sigh. So many of them dead now, despite his determination to keep them all safe and together, their faces coming to him whenever he was on the verge of sleep, faces of the boys who had too quickly become men and then were gone. A line of clouds moved across the moon. He lifted his head, trying to see in the darkness. He couldnât detect any movement, couldnât hear any sound. Most certainly the wounded man had died.
His hands were steadier now, the tremors fading as they always eventually did. There was no reason for him to stay out here. Heâd made what must at least seem like a humane gesture, and now he could go back. He could eat some hardtack and wish he had coffee to soften it. He could make Little Ike reread his letter. He could think about Miss Elrissa Barden standing in lantern light on a dark and windy railroad platform and try to remember her pretty face.