Everlasting Light - A Civil War Romance Novella Read Online Free

Michael came up behind her and set his hand on her shoulder. “Why are you doing this?”
    “I miss my friend. I miss her so very much.” She whirled around to face him. “This surely is the end of the world, isn’t it? Just like something out of the Book of Revelation.”
    “We should be so lucky.”
    Ignoring the quip, Alaina turned back to the cemetery. She’d come to pay her respects. Somebody had to, after all, and Jennifer Marie was family.
    She had died from smallpox a year ago today—just weeks before Christmas, just months before Sherman’s army burned Columbia. Jennifer Marie’s mother had died of the same deadly disease a month later, and her father was killed by Yankees when he resisted attack on their home.
    “It’s time to go, Lain.” Michael took her arm.
    “I don’t even have any flowers to place at their graves.”
    “Come spring, there’ll be flowers again.” Michael leaned close to her. “You’ll see.”
    “This surely is the end of the world,” she repeated.
    “No, Lain. It’s just the beginning.” Michael forced her to turn and look at him. “We can rebuild our homes … and our lives.”
    Alaina recognized the ardor darkening his brown eyes and tried to take a step backward, but it was no use. She was standing with her heels against the fence. “Michael …” She put her palms against his chest to forestall him.
    “Admit it, Lain, you’re as lonely as I am.” His eyes bore into hers.
    She swallowed hard. “All right. I’ll admit it.”
    “Then marry me.” His tone softened. “I might be maimed physically, but I’m still a whole man emotionally and spiritually. I’ll make you happy, I swear I will.”
    “But—”
    “Braeden is dead,” he said as if divining her thoughts. “You need to accept that.”
    “Oh, Michael.” She choked out the reply. Was it true? Could he be right? Had her hopes and prayers for Braeden’s return been sheer fantasy?
    “I know it’s hard for you.” He lifted his hand and caressed her cheek. “But I’ve got enough love in my heart for the both of us. That, and time, will heal all our wounds.”
    He dipped his head, his lips lowering toward hers. Alaina closed her eyes in bittersweet anticipation.
    Alaina.
    Her eyes opened wide. Was that Braeden calling her name?
    She drew back, her gaze searching the little cemetery and then the yard. “Did you hear that?”
    “Hear what?” Michael’s brows drew inward as he glanced around. “All I hear is the wind. What did you hear?”
    “I heard—” She closed her mouth, shutting off the rest of her reply. If she admitted to hearing Braeden whisper her name, Michael would think she’d lost her mind. Perhaps she had. “It’s nothing.” Alaina shrugged the matter off. Still, the voice sounded so real. Perhaps it was this ghostly place.
    “Come on, Lain.” Resignation edged Michael’s tone. He took her hand. “You’ve had a long day. Let’s go home.”
    She allowed him to lead her back to the wagon and help her board. Michael climbed up to his perch without a word and seemed pensive all the way to the farm, but she didn’t mind. She was busy with her own troubled thoughts. Was she going crazy or was she enveloped in so much darkness, she couldn’t see the light?
    Oh, Lord, where are you?
    Alaina recalled what her father-in-law had said several nights ago. “I don’t know what I believe anymore.” Somehow the comment seemed to encompass more than just Braeden’s whereabouts. Were they all losing their faith?
     
     
     
     

Chapter 4
     
     
     
    The sunshine warmed Alaina’s cheeks as she hung bedding out to air on this exceptionally pleasant December day. Not far off in the distance, she heard the sounds of her father-in-law’s ax chop-chop-chopping as he felled the last of the dead trees on the McKenna property. To her far left, remains of miscellaneous farm equipment stood in a great heap, looking like a pile of twisted, metal bones. But Alaina refused to so much as