Read Online To Wed in Texas by Jodi Thomas - Free Book Online Page A

and sat up slowly. “I’m all right,” she mumbled. “I have to be at the burial.” Tears ran in a steady stream down her pale face. “You have to help me!”
    Karlee gently pulled away from the woman, pattingher hand as she moved. “Don’t worry, I’ll get you there. You just sit here and rest a minute.” She looked up. “Hitch the wagon, Wolf. I’ll get the twins. We’re all going to a funeral.”

SEVEN

    D
    ANIEL WATCHED IN DISBELIEF AS WOLF MANEUVERED
    a wagon around the church and alongside the cemetery. Cold fear pounded through his veins though he stood in the cool morning air of late February. He’d sent Wolf after Jesse’s wife, but somehow the hairy giant had managed to pick up Karlee and the twins along the way.
    He wanted his daughters as far away from the cemetery as possible. If there was to be a fight this morning, blood would be spilled over the graves.
    A sparkle of silver blinked off the barrel of a rifle hidden in the trees. In the clear of dawn, it seemed no more harmful than an imaginary daylight firefly. But to the three men lowering the casket, it was a signal that all was ready. The war might be over, but in Texas, under the Union’s Reconstruction, defeated men still had to fight to survive. And somehow, with his sense of right and wrong, he’d gotten involved far deeper than he’d planned.
    Daniel watched as Karlee climbed down from the wagon and helped AmyAnn Blair. Wolf swung the twins to the ground and eased his Springfield from beneath the bench seat. The girls followed him like baby ducks as he wove toward Daniel and the open grave. They weretoo young to know of death and would only see the flowers and grass between the headstones.
    When Wolf stood within a few feet of Daniel, he whispered, “Best get the burying over fast, Danny boy. I think the widow is already in labor.”
    Daniel nodded. He knew why she had to be present. No one would believe they were burying Jesse Blair if his wife wasn’t standing over the grave. He stared at Karlee as she helped the widow maneuver across the uneven ground. AmyAnn Blair reminded Daniel of his wife when she’d been pregnant. She’d probably been a tiny woman until pregnancy had rounded her into a ball.
    Karlee glanced up and met his gaze. For a moment, he glared at her, fighting the urge to order her back to the wagon with the girls. She had no idea what she had just walked into. He had his hands full and now he added worrying about her.
    “Why’d you bring her?” Daniel mumbled to Wolf without taking his attention from Karlee.
    “When she saw the shape the widow was in, she insisted. There wasn’t much I could do without telling her more than she needed to know.”
    “Let’s get started.” Daniel frowned and opened his Bible. The three gravediggers acting as pallbearers lined up with heads bowed. “Dearly beloved, we …”
    The pounding of hooves echoed through the cemetery and Daniel raised his voice slightly. “…to bury a husband and a hero of the South.”
    Federal troops, outfitted in new blue uniforms, raced down the dusty road to the church and galloped straight for the burial sight with total disregard for the graves they thundered across.
    The widow began to cry in fear. Karlee placed her arm around the little woman, holding her upright. The twins ran to Karlee’s skirt and wiggled into its folds.
    “Hold up, Reverend!” a young lieutenant shouted.“We’ve got a few questions before you Rebs try to pull your Dixie wool over our eyes.”
    Daniel slowly closed his Bible and drew himself to full military stance. All he had to do was speak to prove his side of the Mason-Dixon line, but Daniel let the officer have more rope. He’d heard about Lieutenant Logan for a month now. The man must have missed his ration of fighting during the war and was looking for it in Jefferson.
    “Bunch of lying traitors, the lot of you,” the lieutenant mumbled. He dismounted without noticing he’d stepped on newly planted