Summer of Promise by Amanda Cabot Read Free Book Online

said, tears welling in her eyes. Though her lips formed the words, her eyes told a different story. Charlotte still harbored fears, and that worried Abigail as much as her sister’s letters had.
    There had to be something she could do to help her, and yet though she tossed so much that she tangled the sheets, Abigail had been unable to find a solution. When she’d finally slept, her dreams had been troubled, and she had wakened twice, startled by the rumbling of thunder and the sound of rain beating on the roof. Although Vermont had its share of thunderstorms, none had been as fierce as last night’s storm. It seemed that everything in this territory was bigger and wilder than at home. Was that part of the reason for Charlotte’s worries? Marriage and impending motherhood required adjustments. So, too, would living in environs like these. Perhaps the combination was more than Charlotte could bear.
    There had to be a way to help. Show me, Lord , Abigail prayed. Show me the way.

     
    “So, tell me about her. Is she as pretty as they say?”
    Ethan frowned as he stared into the mirror. Living with the other bachelor officers had convinced him that one of the few advantages of being married was the greater privacy it afforded. No one would burst into Jeffrey’s house to ask about Abigail, but here a man couldn’t even shave in peace. The sight of Oliver Seton’s face reflected next to his own was proof of that. He could, he supposed, feign ignorance, pretending he didn’t know who the “she” was who had captured his best friend’s fancy, but that would accomplish little. Where women were concerned, Oliver was as difficult to discourage as a hungry badger at a prairie dog burrow.
    Taller than Ethan by a couple inches, Oliver befuddled the cooks. Though he ate twice as much as the others, he remained the thinnest man on the post, and it was not uncommon to see the tall man with the light brown hair trying to wheedle another loaf of bread from the bakers. To Ethan’s amusement, the second lieutenant who’d been transferred to Fort Laramie along with Ethan frequently applied the same enterprising skills to the pursuit of women.
    “Miss Harding is quite attractive,” Ethan admitted as he brushed shaving lather onto his cheeks. The truth was, Abigail was beautiful, though he wouldn’t tell Oliver that. The man needed no encouragement. Even if she were as homely as a mule, Oliver would soon be chasing after her. “She looks a bit like her sister, but . . .” Ethan searched for a word to describe the differences. “Softer,” he said at last.
    Oliver leaned his lanky frame against the door frame and grinned. “That’s the best news I’ve heard all year. I know a man shouldn’t be fussy, but some of those laundresses are downright dog-faced.”
    “So long as they get the sheets clean, why do you care?” It was a rhetorical question. Oliver, like many of the single men on the post, sought the company of any unattached female, ignoring even a total lack of pulchritude. And, when he wasn’t pursuing an eligible woman at the fort, Oliver spent his evenings with the soiled doves at Peg’s.
    “I don’t understand you, Ethan. Haven’t you read your Bible? Man is not meant to live alone. That’s why God made Eve.”
    “And why Noah took the animals two-by-two.” Ethan paused as he ran the razor down one cheek. He had no intention of shedding blood just because Oliver Seton chose to dispute Ethan’s lack of interest in the fort’s single women. “You’ve already given me that sermon.”
    “Maybe so, but I still don’t understand why you’re not concerned about finding a wife. Life would be a lot less lonely with one.” And, as odd as it might seem to some, loneliness was a definite factor, even on a post with hundreds of men.
    “Not every man is cut out for marriage,” Ethan said as mildly as he could. He’d spent more than half his life listening to his grandfather expound on the reasons for