The Major's Daughter by J. P. Francis Read Free Book Online Page B

girls want to see the soldiers, too.”
    â€œSo I’ve heard. We have a couple romances brewing. I’ve made it clear there will be no fraternization. That’s the last thing we need.”
    â€œLife goes on one way or the other.”
    Her father’s face suddenly turned solemn.
    â€œLife should go on for you, too, Collie. I feel selfish that I have you up in this small village. You didn’t enlist.”
    â€œWe all have to do our part.”
    â€œThat’s true, but I worry that you should be leading a different kind of life. A life with parties and culture and—”
    â€œAnd eligible men,” Collie said, smiling at the theme he came to often when he turned serious.
    â€œYes, well, maybe. Why not? Your mother would be cross with me for bringing you up to a tiny hamlet like this one with nothing to do socially but go riding with the Chapman girls.”
    â€œYou worry about it more than I do. I don’t mind, Papa.”
    â€œI know you don’t. You’re not like that. That’s one of your grand traits. You get along no matter what, but I shouldn’t trade on your good will.”
    â€œWe’re lucky to be able to remain together as a family.”
    He looked at her softly, then nodded.
    â€œI’m going to take this letter upstairs and get ready for the ride. Are you leaving? Going back to camp?”
    â€œI suppose so. That fire felt awfully good.”
    â€œWell, you needed a little break from the camp. And Mrs. Hammond outdid herself. I think she may have a crush on you, Papa.”
    â€œOh, good grief.”
    Their eyes met and they both began laughing. Mrs. Hammond was many wonderful things, certainly, but she wasn’t a proper match for her father. Collie gathered the last of the clippings together, then kissed her father and carried the odds and ends up to her room. She washed quickly before climbing into a pair of old trousers and a heavy sweater. She peered out the window to check the weather. The Chapman girls had been correct: the sun had worked over the mountains and now bright sparks flashed on the Ammonoosuc River, and the afternoon shimmered like an animal lifting itself from the water and shaking itself dry.
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    They all appeared comical, Collie realized as she followed the Chapman girls up the Old Mill Trail. They rode three of the draft horses, one wider than the next, all of them massive and sleepy and annoyed at being rousted out on a vacation day. The saddles the girls had dug up from Lord-only-knew-where, looked absurd on the gigantic animals. Like a postage stamp on an elephant,
Collie thought. They resembled a circus procession on its arrival into a new town.
    Still, it was good fun. She liked the Chapman girls: Amy was her age, and her sister, Marie, was a lanky fifteen-year-old, all elbows and blushes. Marie, especially, amused Collie. She liked being with the girl, because Marie could not contain her curiosity about everything, and thoughts popped into her mouth before she had the adult sense to edit them. Her outbursts caused embarrassment or awkwardness at times, but nevertheless it was fun to be around her enthusiasm for life. She reminded Collie of a spatula leaping from one bowl to the next to stir the ingredients. She hardly cared what she baked as long as she was in motion.
    Amy, in contrast, had a thin, nervous shell around her. At their first meeting, when Collie arrived from Smith, Collie learned that Amy had worn a chest-and-back brace as a young girl. The circumstances that required the brace had never been made clear, but it had left Amy with a rigid posture, as if she had been shaken out of a mold and left to stiffen in the open air. Her posture affected every aspect of her life, it seemed to Collie, and she wondered if Amy would ever loosen. Likely not. She was thoughtful, though, and intelligent: she had planned to become a schoolteacher before the war started. Now she