To Dream Anew Read Online Free

man to man, looking ready to fight anyone who dared to approach.
    Another lieutenant reached out to touch Zane’s arm. “Zane, do you really know what you’re doing?”
    The woman’s head snapped up and she eyed them both hard. Just as quickly she looked away and clutched the child ever closer.
    “I’m doing what any decent Christian man would do. No one touches her,” Zane commanded, looking to his men. “Do you understand? We will not lower ourselves to the standards of savages. I will personally deal with any man who breaks this order. Understood?”
    The men grumbled affirmation. A couple of them cast disgruntled comments to the air, but Zane wasn’t sure who had spoken and decided to let it go. He could comprehend their anger—their frustration. But he also knew these men and knew that most of them would never be able to live with themselves if they harmed this unarmed woman. He wanted more than anything to tell them that. To explain that he knew their hearts were burdened because of the previous days. He wanted to let them know that he understood their anguish and the need to avenge their fallen comrades. But he couldn’t. In that moment, Zane knew they would not hear him—they would not respect him. And right now, he needed their respect.
    “Get back to your duties,” Zane commanded in a gruff tone. “If you have trouble following my orders, try to imagine telling your wives and mothers of your desire to murder a new mother and her baby. Try to picture how they would react to such thoughts.”
    He turned and walked back up the path to where his tent had been erected. He wondered if the doctor would refuse the request to help. He worried that the woman would die in spite of their care. Then he worried that if she lived, someone would seek to kill her and the baby.
    He waited outside his tent, hearing the baby cry from within. The doctor finally came some thirty minutes later, looking apprehensive as he approached Zane.
    “I understand you have found a wounded squaw and her infant.”
    “Yes, Captain. I would appreciate it if you would attend to them. They’re inside my tent.”
    The man, older than Zane by a decade, looked at the tent momentarily. “Wouldn’t it be better to just let them die?”
    “I don’t know, sir,” Zane replied. “Would it? Is that what Christian men are called to do?”
    “This hasn’t been an easy situation. I’ve treated Indians before. I’m not averse to it. However, I have wounded soldiers To deal with and no one is going to take this interference kindly.”
    “I’m asking you to see to her. I think she just gave birth. That baby didn’t look very old. She may well die anyway, but at least we will have done the honorable thing.”
    “Even if they didn’t—is that it?” the doctor questioned.
    “Exactly. I can’t help what they did or didn’t do. I can only stand before God with my own deeds.”
    “Very well. I’ll see her.”
    Zane waited outside the tent for what seemed an eternity. He could hear the captain talk to the young woman in broken Sioux and slow, methodic English. Her answers were muffled and Zane had no way of understanding what she might be saying.
    Pacing back and forth in front of the tent, Zane tried not to notice the men who watched him. They were curious to say the least, but they were also angry. Angry at him for interfering with their chance for revenge. Still, Zane couldn’t imagine the barely-eighteen-year-old Thom Martin taking a gun to the woman, even if she were Sioux. He couldn’t see Sam Daden scalping the squaw—especially after he’d spent his first day helping the wounded by throwing up every time he ate something. Then there were Joe Riddle and Will Vernon. They both talked tough and held a great deal of anger for the losses on the battlefield, but Zane didn’t think killing a woman and baby to be in their capabilities.
    “Lieutenant, I’d like to speak with you,” the doctor said as he emerged from the