The Lieutenant's Promise by Aileen Fish Read Free Book Online Page B

home so he can take over the farm,” Levi said hurriedly, “ which will allow Miss Gilmore to return to St. Louis with me.”
    Levi could see her arms shaking and he almost laughed. If she wanted to be contrary, he’d give her a run for her money.
    “Wonderful! Will you be staying long, Mr. Lucas? I’d be relieved to know there was a man on that farm.”
    Em chewed her lower lips but kept quiet.
    Levi needed to be vague so Em didn’t have explanations to make when he returned to his company. “I can only stay a short time. I wanted to help with the harvest over the next few weeks, and getting the fall crops in the ground.”
    Mr. Harris finished tallying in his book. “Did you need anything while you’re here?”
    “No, thank you. We’d best be on our way.” She turned and marched out, leaving Levi to trail behind.
    Levi climbed onto the wagon bench beside her, grateful he didn’t have to fight for the reins for a change. He wasn’t about to speak, knowing she was ready to explode after he’d called himself her beau.
    “Why?” she finally asked.
    He wasn’t about to play innocent. “It was the first thing that came to mind.”
    “You couldn’t say you were Tom’s friend, or the new hired hand?”
    “I suppose I could have, if those had come to mind.”
    She made a noise somewhere between a growl and a squeal. “Do you realize what I’ll have to cope with when you leave? They’ll assume I was jilted, or that I sent you away, which would make me appear to be the most foolish girl in the county, seeing how few men there are of marriageable age nearby.”
    “I hadn’t thought that far ahead. I did tell Mr. Harris we’d agreed to wait until Tom came home, so it’s reasonable for them to think I went back home to wait.”
    “As long as they don’t see Tom in the meantime.”
    That was something he’d forgotten. “At least Mrs. Harris wasn’t around to hear. It might not be as bad as you think. Mr. Harris will forget the discussion in no time.”
    Now he wished he’d thought before speaking in the store. Or waited to let her answer the question. But he wasn’t a man who waited for others to take the lead. His superior officers had noticed that early on after he enlisted, and had promoted him quickly.
    Em was like him in that way, first to step up when the need arose. He was used to taking orders, but she probably hadn’t since her father had died. All Levi’s efforts to be helpful likely had the opposite effect on her. “It must be difficult for you to have someone around who is used to running things. I imagine your hired hands never told you the best way to do something.”
    She sighed. “Jasper had worked for us long enough before Pa died that I didn’t bother to tell him how to do things. Most of the time I didn’t need to tell him what to do. He knew the routine better than I did.”
    “And now some stranger finds fault with everything you do.”
    “Sure seems that way.” She plucked at her skirt. “Do you?”
    “What? Find fault with you?”
    “Yes.”
    “No, not really. You take risks that worry me. You are smart, but sometimes I fear you aren’t considering how smart your opponent is.”
    “Perhaps I don’t consider anyone my opponent.” She glanced up at him around the brim of her bonnet. “I’m not fighting any battles, unless you count the locusts and tomato worms. Mr. Harris will buy anything we produce, so there’s no race to be the first to harvest. We only need to gather the crop before it turns bad.”
    “Times are changing, at least for now. We have no way of knowing whether General Price will make a stand somewhere or push on until he finds our camp. What we do know is he and Governor Jackson won’t sit back and allow anyone else to control Missouri. Right now, your farm lies between the two armies. You cannot be too cautious.”
    What scared him the most was knowing when the rebels came through, all the smarts in the world wouldn’t help Em keep her family