Heart Of Texas (Historical Romance) Read Free Page A

situation and looking at it only as a new adventure,
curled up on the grass and yawned. Her eyes
drifted shut almost immediately.
    For two hours they unloaded the wagon and
carried everything onto the riverbank.
    As Casey and Sam carefully lowered the wooden
crate that held their mother's china, their gazes
met, communicating the unspoken worry that the
dishes might have been broken in the mishap.
Their mother had valued her Spode china above
all her other possessions; therefore, the delicate
dishes were important to her family. The trunk
that Casey's mother had brought with her when
she married her father had fallen into the river
when she and Sam tried to carry it to shore. The
fine linens inside were soaked and had to be hung
across branches to dry.
    Daylight was fading fast, and it was after dark
when they finally rescued everything from the
wagon. Casey carefully unpacked and examined
every piece of her mother's china. Fortunately,
none of it was broken, so with the same care she
packed the dishes back in the crate.
    It was a bedraggled brother and sister who
stood amid their few possessions as afternoon
turned into evening.

    They had been so busy they hadn't even had
time to observe their surroundings.
    Casey stretched her cramped muscles and
winced in pain. Her shoulder ached, but she tried
to sound cheerful. "We are on our land now,
Sam."
    "Yeah, I guess so," he answered wearily. "But so
far it isn't going all that well, is it? We're just lucky
the river isn't swift, or it would have carried everything we own downstream with the current."
    Thunder rumbled in the distance and lightning
flashed across the sky. "Pray it doesn't rain tonight."
    It was late when Casey spread quilts on the grass
while Sam tended to the stock. "I hope today isn't
a sign of troubles to come," she mumbled to herself.
    Jenny woke up the minute Casey lifted her onto
the quilt. Childlike, she smiled as if the day's tragedy had not touched her world.
    "I'm not going to have a cookfire tonight,
Jenny," Casey told her. "You'll have to eat one of
the biscuits and bacon from this morning."
    The child nodded and settled next to her.
"Casey, will you tell me about Mama and Papa and
when you all lived together in the big house?"
    Sam joined them and sat with his back braced
against a tree, staring broodingly in the direction
of their wagon as if he could will it up the embankment. "Jenny, Casey's tired, and besides, you have heard that story a hundred times. Let her
rest tonight."

    "It's all right." She smiled down at her sister,
who never tired of hearing about a brighter time
in their lives. The child snuggled closer to her,
melting Casey's heart with her sweetness. "Well,
let me see," Casey began. "Papa's family had
owned a bank in Albemarle County, Virginia, for
generations."
    "Charlottesville," Jenny supplied. "That's where
we lived, wasn't it?"
    "That's right Our house was on a wide boulevard with many trees. It was a big house with an
upstairs and a downstairs. There was a fireplace
in every room, and a wide veranda surrounded
the house on all sides."
    "Tell what happened to our house," Jenny
urged. "Tell how it got all burned up."
    Sam smiled faintly and shook his head. He
knew jenny could have recited the story word for
word if she chose to. But Casey patiently continued, hugging the child to her. "You were born in
that house, and so was Sam, and so was I.Papa
bought the house when he married Mama."
    "And Mama was born in Texas and traveled all
the way to Virginia to meet Papa. Then she stayed
with him in Virginia." Jenny's eyes clouded.
"Then she left us."
    "Yes. But she didn't want to," Casey said softly.
"Mama had to go away."

    "Tell about the soldiers that came to town and
what they did to our house."
    Casey drew in a deep breath. The memory of
that awful day still haunted her, and it probably
always would. For Jenny's sake, she had managed
to sugarcoat the tragedy. "There was a