The Officer and the Traveler (23 page)

Michaela stared at her sister, speechless. Had her sister just insulted both of their husbands and all of their friends as well? “He said that because of those boys who snuck out of camp and got themselves stranded on the top of a mountain.”

“
Yes, I know,” Ella said dismissively. “But I think he was onto something.”
 

Michaela continued to stare blankly at her sister.

“
Just hear what I have to say.”
 

“
I didn’t realize I had a choice,” Michaela muttered.
 

“
You don’t.” Ella flashed her a grin. “Remember in Savannah when all the young men would anticipate a lady’s need before she spoke?”
 

“
I suppose so.” Michaela hadn’t been on the hunt for a husband with the same eagerness as her younger sister. Or at all, to be honest.
 

“
Men who join the military are real men.”
 

“
Real men?”
 

“
Yes,
real
men. They’re not the kind to anticipate a lady’s needs or waste time on cryptic
sentences. At least that’s what I’ve learned from my time here.” She squeezed Michaela’s forearm again. “If you want him to join us for lunch, you’d do better to just ask him rather than suggest it.”
 

“
And you’ve divined this because you always ask Jack directly for what you want?”
 

A telling blush colored Ella’s face, leading them both into a fit of girlish giggles. Apparently her sister held back nothing in her newfound bravery.

Gray sagged against a tall oak tree and ran a hand over his sweaty face. He hadn’t had so much physical exertion since he first went to West Point and was made to run and do exercises all day. That was miserable. This was excruciating. There wasn’t a single part of his body that didn’t throb.

“
Need help, Captain?” Private Dobson, one of his men, asked.
 

Gray grunted a ‘no’. It was the best response he could form. He wanted to collapse right there and let his men carry him back to the barracks. But he had more pride than that. He pushed off the tree. “Back to work.”

All of the men in his unit picked up their chains that were looped under the forty-foot log they were hauling up to where the new barracks was being built and began to walk. Not one to let his men do all the work while he barked orders, Gray clenched his teeth together and held tight to his piece of chain.

They’d been carrying cut logs from down the river up a mile to where the new barracks was being built all day. It was a slow, grueling process. Due to the sheer size of the logs, it took all the men in a single unit to move it. And even then, it wasn’t easy. They had to stop to rest every fifteen minutes or so, making it impossible to carry more than three logs in a single day to where they needed to go.

At this rate, this new barracks might never get built.

And to be frank, Gray didn’t really give a damn.

He wasn’t a fool. He knew why he’d been given this assignment. Though not intentional, Gray had made General Rigid look like a fool and this was the price the general felt he needed to pay. Gray wouldn’t lower his pride enough to ask how long he’d be made to do this, but he’d hope it wasn’t too long.

Sneering and snarling, Gray and his men got the log to its destination, dropping it with a bone-crushing thud. “That’s all for today,” he said to his men.

Some wiped their sweaty brows with their dirty shirtsleeves, smearing mud across their skin while most of the others sank to the ground in an undignified manner the way Gray wanted so desperately to do.

By some miracle, his weary legs carried him over to the Lewises’. Just as he rounded the corner to their door, he caught a glimpse of Wes and Allison and what looked like Jack and Ella slipping into the alley that served as the southern entrance of the barracks. He briefly wondered if Michaela had decided to go with them, but didn’t think he’d be able to make it back here to meet up with her if he made it there only to realize she was still with Mrs. Lewis. He mustered enough strength to make it up the stairs and to the Lewises’ door.

He’d just closed his hand around the knob when it jerked open.

“
Gray!” Michaela practically shrieked, her green eyes flaring wide. “What has happened to you?”
 

“
Are you ready to go home?”
 

She shook her head wildly, her hair falling from its pins. “What happened?”

He forced a shrug. “Work.”

“
Slave labor looks more like it.” She reached for his hand and gave it a gentle tug. “Come sit down.”
 

“
Michaela, I’d prefer to go home,” he said quietly. He tried to stretch his lips into some sort of semblance of a smile. “You can dote on me there.”
 

She cocked her head to the side and squeezed his hand. “Promise?”

“
Yes. Now, let’s go.”
 

She called a quick goodbye to Mrs. Lewis then they were on their way to their home.

“
Do you mind if we make a quick stop over at Ella’s?”
 

Gray’s body screamed,
“NO!”
His lips, however, said, “If that’s what you want.”
If that’s what you want?
Since when had her need to socialize with someone she’d seen all day become more important than his need to rest. “You did say quick, didn’t you?”
 

She laughed. “Yes. I wanted to tell her that we won’t be able to join her for dinner like she’d asked.”

“
You’re welcome to go...”
 

“
No, I’d rather stay with you.”
 

He started at her statement. Pursing his lips, he said her name in a silent warning. It was becoming apparent whatever feelings she’d once had for him were starting to reform and he didn’t like that. It was dangerous.

“
What? Is it illegal for a wife to wish to dine with her husband? Besides—” she squinted her eyes at him— “if I’ve learned anything about you and your friends,
it’s that you all like to bring up past transgressions and torture each other for them.
Do you honestly think I’d give you such easy ammunition against me? Absolutely not. I see this as insurance.”
 

“
Insurance?”
 

“
Yes, see, if ever I get hurt the way Ella did, I’d like to think you’d be in the room with me while I
was sick and not out dining with your friends and bringing me the scraps.”
 

He gave a slight half-chuckle at her reasoning. He suspected there was more to it than that, but decided it was best to keep his mouth closed.

As promised, Michaela was quick in her venture to tell her sister they wouldn’t be joining them for dinner. Ella, however, didn’t seem to accept that she couldn’t do
something
for them and insisted that she’d cook them dinner and bring it over when it was done. Gray wouldn’t argue with that. Michaela didn’t, either.
 

In their room, she helped him undress and get comfortable in their bed.

“
Thank you,” he murmured.
 

“
You don’t need to thank me.” She tucked his boots under the edge of their bed. “I know we don’t share the same feelings and affections that Ella and Jack do, but I know you well enough to know that if the circumstances were reversed, you’d help take care of me.”
 

“
After I beat the man’s ass who dared to hurt you,” he corrected, garnering a grin from her.
 

She cast him a sidelong glance. “Yes, after that.” She twisted her lips and partially closed her left eye. “You’re not trying to suggest I go find Lieutenant Jefferson and beat him black and blue with my parasol, are you?”

“
Only if you take Wes and Jack with you.”
 

Her throaty laughter filled the air. “I’ll be sure to arrange it with them.” She grabbed the edge of the blue and white quilt on their bed and pulled it snug around his neck. “Meanwhile, you get some rest. I’ll wake you when Ella comes over with the dinner.”

Dinner never came. Or if it did, Gray was too tired to wake up and eat.

By the next morning, Gray felt far better than he had the day before.

He sat with a grunt and looked around the room, trying to decipher the time by the amount of light coming into their room from the curtains.

“
Good morning,” Michaela said from where she sat brushing her long, auburn hair with a large silver brush.
 

He looked around the room in awe. It was immaculate. Everything was straightened and cleaned. The shelves were even restocked.

“
Sorry, I missed dinner.” He winced at the roughness in his voice that had nothing to do with the pain in his ribs.
 

“
It’s all right.” She winked at him. “I enjoyed your share.”
 

Gray brought his hands softly to his chest and dropped his jaw. “You didn’t save it for me?”

“
No. But only because I was thinking of you.”
 

“
Thinking of me?”
 

“
Of course.” She pulled the iron pot of water off the fire. “You’re debilitated as it is, I couldn’t imagine how awful it’d be if you became sick from the spoiled meat, too.” She went to the bureau and picked up his folded uniform. “Then of course there is the other reason.”
 

“
Which is?”
 

“
I hear the medicine man around here hasn’t a modest fiber in his body. I’d hate to have to go seek him out only for you to grow jealous or insecure.”
 

A broken bark of laughter erupted from his chest. He grimaced in pain, but smiled nonetheless. “As a boy, I saw more undressed men walking about than is good for a body, but at least they were merely walking.”

She stilled for a moment, then understanding lit her features and she pretended to swat at him for the vivid and obscene thought he’d put into her head.

He threw his arms into the air. “Don’t hurt me. I only speak the truth. That man was jumping and running and screaming and flailing. I was thoroughly scandalized.”

“
Ah, I see,” she said slowly, handing him his uniform. “And do you not think I haven’t recently been scandalized?” She gave a pointed glance in the proximity of his covered waist.
 

“
I’d hardly call it scandalizing when it’s your own husband.”
 

“
I think that might depend on the wife,” she said cryptically, filling him with an odd mixture of hope, dread and mostly uncertainty.
 

The second day of hauling logs seemed much easier than the first. Of course, that might be because Gray had rested so much the night before.

He was still exhausted though when it was time to stop for the day.

“
Are you ready to go home?” he asked Michaela from the threshold of the Lewises’.
 

“
I will be in a moment.” She turned and picked up a plate covered with a white towel.
 

He arched an eyebrow.

She did the same.

“
Do you plan to reveal what you have on that plate?”
 

“
No. Now, let’s go.”
 

In comfortable silence, they walked home.

“
Why don’t you rest while I start dinner?” she suggested once they were inside.
 

Gray couldn’t argue with that logic. He removed his boots and sat on top of their bed, closing his eyes and leaning his head back. He felt a sliver of guilt that he was such a useless burden to her, but it couldn’t be helped. His body still ached with crippling pain. One day, he promised himself. One day he’d be more attentive to her.

“
Dinner is ready.”
 

Gray’s eyes shot open and his head snapped up. “It smells delicious.”

She gave him a queer look. “It’s just salt pork.”

“
No salt pork is ever
just
salt pork.” He flicked his wrist. “Perhaps I’ll take you for a pass of the dining hall one night so you’ll know the difference.”
 

Shrugging, Michaela brought him a plate.

“
Thank you,” he said, taking it from her. He licked his lips in anticipation. Very few times in his life had he eaten food made fresh just for him. As a boy, he’d eaten whatever scraps his mother or her friends had given him, with only a full plate on the occasion that one of them was sick. When he’d gone to Fort McHenry, the Jones family had been stingy with their food, never allowing him to dine at their table. Still, General Davis had seen to it he was given an equal portion at every meal with the men in the dining room. The food hadn’t been good, but it’d been more than he’d had for any meal before and he quickly formed a taste for it. The years between Fort McHenry and West Point he’d been
reduced to scrounging again. Since then, he’d once again grown accustomed to undercooked (or sometimes overcooked depending on who was cooking) meals covered in salt and oozing with some sort of fluid. It wasn’t the most appetizing, but it would do the job.
 

Since coming to Fort Gibson, he’d been invited to the Lewises’ to dine for certain holidays and a few times for no reason other than them just inviting all of the officers under his command over for dinner, per Mrs. Lewis’ request, of course. Allison’s arrival had secured him about one improved meal per month and Ella had let him pilfer a few fresh tarts last week.