Brings the Lightning (The Ames Archives Book 1) Read Online Free Page B

cantered down the path towards the road.
Is she sparking that
Yankee?
he wondered. For a moment he felt a surge of anger at the idea of a bluecoat courting his sister, then mentally reproved himself.
War’s over—and besides, Pa and Ma never took for one side or the other.
    He closed the spyglass and returned it to the cloth pouch he’d fashioned for it. It had proved useful during his long journey. He dropped it into his saddlebag, then thought for a moment. If a Union soldier would be visiting the house, it might not be a good idea to keep all his weapons there, particularly since he wasn’t supposed to bring any back from the war. Better cache most of them somewhere safe—his gold, too, for that matter.
    The well-hidden cave a mile from the farm was mostly as he remembered it, although it seemed much smaller now. It had served him and his brother well as a secret retreat in their youth, but now he’d grown so tall that he could no longer easily get through its low, cramped entrance. He had to slide in sideways and duck low. Fortunately, it opened into a larger chamber inside. He could tell by the smell that animals had been living here at some time over the past few years, but there was no sign of recent occupation and there had been no tracks in the ground outside. He couldn’t get his pack saddle through the entrance, but he was able to carry most of his weapons inside, one or two at a time. He brought in some small rocks and fallen boughs from the hillside to keep everything off the dirt floor, and slid the pouch containing the gold double-eagles into a recess deep inside the cave. Even if someone found the cave and stole his weapons, they probably wouldn’t find the money unless they knew where to look for it.
    He went outside and looked around with the eyes of an experienced scout, then went about erasing all traces of his recent presence. Once he was satisfied that no one would notice anything out of place, he made his way back to his horses, swung into the saddle and headed down the hill.
    As he rode down the lane towards the farm, he looked over the fields with a critical eye. Only half of them had been plowed for spring planting. Was Pa allowing the others to go to hay, for winter feed? He never had before. He drew rein outside the house, dismounted and tied his mount’s reins to the hitching rail in front of the porch. The two pack horses, still tied to his saddle, would wait with their companion.
    He walked up the wooden step to the porch and knocked at the front door. There was a brief pause, followed by the sound of hurrying footsteps, and then the door opened. Katie said, “Yes?”
    For a moment he couldn’t speak. Clearly, she didn’t recognize him beneath his overgrown hair and beard; but then, she’d only known him when he was younger and clean-shaven. At last he managed to stammer, “I… I’m home, Katie.”
    She stared at him as if she’d seen a ghost, and clutched at the doorframe for support.
“Walter!”
    “Large as life and twice as ugly, little sister. You’re all grown up! You’re a lady now.”
    “But you–you’re dead!”
    He couldn’t help grinning. “Would I be here talking to you like this if I was?”
    She looked as if she were about to faint. “N–no–you don’t understand. W–we were told in December that you’d been killed in Virginia. Ma… she never got over the news, not after losing Charlie in the fall.”
    An icy chill ran from his head all the way down to his boots. “
Charlie?
What happened to him?”
    “He–he died of the bloody flux in Alabama. October last year, it was. A chaplain sent a letter to us with his last words.”
    Walt shook his head, unable to hold back the tears that sprang to his eyes. His older brother had enlisted a year before him, as soon as the war broke out. He’d always known that something might happen to Charlie, just as it might to him; but somehow the reality of that danger had never sunk in. He hesitated, hardly daring