Read Online Heart of the Sandhills by Stephanie Grace Whitson - Free Book Online

hate me.” She changed the subject. “You’ll have to wire Daniel and Gen. We can’t possibly go now.” Her voice wavered a little. ‘And I don’t quite know what to tell them about Meg.”
    Hope appeared at an upstairs window. When Betsy opened the window, the child called down to her uncle, demanding to go with him. Jane told her she must stay inside and insisted that she could not go to Uncle Elliot or Aaron. Hope began to wail.
    “I’m sorry, Captain Leighton,” Betsy said as she pulled Hope away from the window and pulled down the sash.
    “I have to go, too” Jane said wearily. “I just wanted to—” she held in a sob, “I had to see you.”
    “We’ll be back as soon as we’ve made arrangements,” Elliot said.
    As the men made their way through the village, they noticed more quarantine signs in windows. At the hotel, they were questioned so vigorously about their health that Elliot stormed away.
    “Where are we going?” Aaron asked.
    “We are going home to Leighton Hall where we belong,” Elliot said firmly. “We’ll drag the old tent out of the carriage house and you can stay there. I’m going to help Jane. I don’t care what the doctor says.”
    “But, Uncle Elliot, you could—”
    “I cannot,” Elliot said. He pressed his lips into a fine line. “The disease hasn’t been created yet that can fell an old soldier like me. I’ve been exposed to everything there is, including a cannonball. And all that managed to do was blow my hand off. I’m too stubborn to let measles get me. And I’m not going to let my wife spend another day alone in that house.”
    “Then I want to help, too,” Aaron said.
    “And you shall,” Elliot said. “We’ll put the tent up in the garden before I go in. You can live there.”
    And so he did. Aaron camped in the garden. He ran to the apothecary, ran for the doctor, and did the marketing. At the doctor’s behest he set up a huge iron pot near the carriage house, daily washing linen with lye soap and then dipping everything into boiling water before hanging it out to dry. He waved at Hope when she appeared at the window and did everything possible to make her laugh, including dancing and strutting like a rooster. Every morning he put a fresh white rose beside the back door to be taken up to Meg’s room, and on the day when Meg herself finally appeared at the window, Aaron shouted for joy.
    Measles had finally left Leighton Hall. It took no one’s life and spared everyone but Meg. But for Meg, life would never be the same, for when measles left Leighton Hall, it took Margaret Marie Dane’s sight with it.

    “I’ll write,” Aaron whispered, touching Amanda’s arm. “Will you—will you answer?” They were seated together on the swing in Leighton Hall’s garden, so close to one another Aaron could just catch the faint aroma of lavender that seemed to follow Amanda Whitrock everywhere she went.
    Amanda snatched her arm away and studied the rose garden a few feet away. “I don’t imagine they will have mail delivery off in Indian territory,” she sulked.
    “Why, of course they do, Amanda,” Aaron said, eager to explain. “Even when I was a little boy we got regular mail. They brought it up from Fort Ridgely every week. Now there’s a railroad all the way to St. Anthony and beyond. We get Gen’s letters the same month she writes them. Sometimes within just a week or so.” He dared to touch the back of Amanda’s hand, thrilling at the softness of her skin. “Please say you’ll answer me. Please.”
    After a prolonged sigh, Amanda turned her clear-blue eyes upon him, studying him for a moment before looking to one side. She bit her lower lip to dramatize how very hard it was for her to decide before grimacing slightly and shrugging. “All right. I guess I’ll answer. But don’t think I’m not still angry about you missing my birthday party!
    The notion that Amanda Whitrock, the prettiest girl in school, had set her attentions upon him