The Lady and the Officer Read Free Page A

specifically for the horse you described. I cannot promise, but you have my word I will do my best to find Bo.” He bowed from the waist as though they had just been introduced socially.
    Madeline leaned back from his close proximity. “Thank you, General. I’m sure your best will be more than adequate. It’s truly more than I expected. Good day.” In her haste to leave, she knocked over the chair she’d been sitting in. If she had paused to pick it up, she might have recovered enough composure to make a graceful exit. But when she noticed thedeep wrinkles around his eyes and the smile tugging at his lips, she fled from the room like a startled rabbit.
    He is laughing at my clumsiness!
    She saw that the young lieutenant was still holding Reverend Bennett’s horse when she reached the porch. Madeline swiftly crossed the dusty yard, mounted, and rode home as though the entire Rebel cavalry was breathing down her neck.

    James Downing had seen pain and suffering without measure during the past two years. He had witnessed deprivations of every sort in both civilians and soldiers alike. Yet something in Mrs. Howard’s tender plea for a beloved horse tore at his soul. From his window he’d watched her disappear into a cloud of dust on the road with her bonnet ribbons streaming behind her. His intrigue with the perplexing woman went beyond a pretty face and comely figure. Was it small-town living that had preserved her sincerity and innocence? Why else would she worry about ruined flowers when the eastern theater of war had arrived at her doorstep? Yet she possessed enough spunk to ride into chaos to rectify an injustice.
    He allowed himself one long, delicious moment to stare after her before turning back to his duties. Great Scott, did I just agree to find a blasted horse in the middle of an engagement? But before he slept that night, he would endeavor to keep his promise. If he had it to do over, he would agree to that and more. And the realization that Mrs. Howard had such power over him didn’t sit well. Closing his eyes, his brain etched a picture of her face to carry into battle tomorrow. With creamy skin dusted with freckles, wavy hair the color of ripe wheat, and blue eyes that flashed in amusement or pique, Madeline Howard would be a hard woman to forget. He’d been smitten the first time he saw her on the road to Cashtown, and he would remember her long after he moved his corps to the next battlefront.
    Her long limbs had moved gracefully beneath the cotton dress in her woebegone garden. Considering the fierce look on her face, his staff thought they had met the enemy sooner than anticipated. Never in his lifehad an upbraiding been so pleasurable. The moment she marched from her house, he lost his entire train of thought, having no idea what they had been discussing. And when he glanced back over his shoulder, he thought the window curtains had parted an inch. Had Mrs. Howard been peeking from between the lace panels? If he thought so enchanting a woman could be interested in him, he had indeed gone mad.

    There was a surreal quality in the air before a battle. The din of the afternoon had mercifully yielded to an unholy quiet that evening. The common sounds of crickets and tree frogs not only failed to calm her, but also added to her trepidation of what the morrow would bring. Madeline had barely touched her dinner. She’d completed her chores in a dreamlike state and headed to the porch to read her Bible. Tobias’s squirrel rifle, leaning against the post, offered little security. She had just settled into her favorite rocker when the distinctive sound of a sliding latch gripped her heart.
    What on earth? There is nothing left in the barn to steal!
    â€œWho’s there?” she called into the dark. “Identify yourself or I’ll shoot.” She lifted the single-shot musket to her shoulder. Moments passed interminably until a familiar face stepped into the