Sentinels Read Online Free

thankful Sheriff Cole recommended I take his place.”
    â€œI am too. You aren’t much of a farmer, honey,” she said while looking through the open window at a small patch of land meant for corn and assorted vegetables. Only a small swath of it bore tomatoes.
    â€œYou know I tried,” Noah barked. “General Canby felt my time would be more useful establishing local governments, helping draft charters and the like. It helps that the freedmen overwhelmingly voted in Republicans, makes our jobs easier.”
    He opened a small wooden cabinet next to the bed and retrieved his gun belt. He slid six bullets into his Colt’s cylinder and holstered it, and then inserted bullets into loops along the belt before fastening it to his waist.
    â€œThose Democrats don’t hesitate to kill freedmen and the white folks who help them, Noah.”
    â€œI’m aware.” Noah climbed downstairs and sat at the small table. He placed aside the blue kerchief and bowl of water to make room for breakfast.
    â€œI believe Sheriff Cole and the mayor signed off on me because I’m local, so to speak,” he said. “The Chandler name carries some respect around town.”
    â€œ Some respect.” Natalie placed a bowl of warm oats in front of him and sat across the table to eat a dish of her own. The Chandler family, one of the most prominent in town, made its fortune by way of cotton fields. “Not everybody takes kindly to you.”
    â€œI know,” he said through a mouthful of cereal. “I survived the war. I can survive its aftermath.”
    â€œSo it’s just you and the sheriff?”
    â€œâ€™Course not. Some of my fellow dastardly carpetbaggers are deputized.”
    â€œBut it doesn’t have to be forever, right? I mean, you never set out to be a lawman.”
    â€œNah, but it’s what’s best for the town right now. That’s the way the mayor sees it. We’re less than three months away from the election—Democrats’ll do anything to keep the freedmen from voting. That’s why he’s trying to find deputies left and right to help try to stop it. I’m not looking forward to that first Tuesday in November.”
    â€œKlan’s killing elected representatives, honey—state senators even,” she said. “They’ll shoot a county deputy between the eyes just as soon as look at him. You know that.”
    â€œYou worry about nursing the little one and getting back to teaching.” He shoveled in the last bits of oats. “Let me worry about the town, and me.”
    â€œThey could come here , Noah, when you’re in town.” Her tone bordered on desperate. “I know how to use that rifle above the fireplace to handle an intruder—but a mob?”
    â€œThey won’t attack a pregnant woman or a woman with a baby.”
    â€œThat’s bullshit and you know it.” She slapped her palm on the table, jiggling the bowls. “The Klan’ll do anything to get power. You’ve read the newspapers. You’ve seen the stories about what they’re doing in Georgia—burning down houses with families inside, all because they support the freedmen. You don’t have to be black to be lynched by the Klan. I make sure that gun’s loaded when I go to bed just so I can be ready quick if I hear anything outside.”
    Noah pushed the empty bowl aside and dipped the bandana in the water. He squeezed out excess fluid before tying the wet cloth around his neck to help keep him cool during the horse ride into town.
    â€œI know you’re scared.” He stood and retrieved his tan Stetson from a hook on the front door. “But someone’s got to do this. We deserve better than what’s out there now.”
    He spotted the double-barreled shotgun, both its hammers cocked, mounted above the fireplace.
    â€œYou want me to stay until your mom gets here?”
    â€œNo. Just go.” She