Read Glory for Free Online Page A

Yanks. He’d shot himself, indeed! They might even be Rebs returned from the fighting to the North.
    She lowered her head, thinking that they would be an unlikely troop happening upon her house as they had if they’d been with the fighting in the North. Yet they were Rebs, and they had guessed that she was a Union sympathizer, so they had lied.
    She wondered if they were dangerous.
    Naturally, they were dangerous. All weary, war-torn, hurt, and starving men were dangerous. And despite the high-minded ideals of so many of the men on both sides, there were those who had lost all thought of morals or honor. She’d heard numerous horror stories about deserters breaking in on defenseless plantations, stealing, destroying property, and assaulting women. Even before Richard’s death, she’d allowed nature to take back the front lawn, and she’d done her best in every way to make the house look abandoned.
    She frowned. If someone were to come and put a bullet through her heart, she wasn’t terribly sure she’d care. She’d known for a fact long before the official letter had come from Richard’s colonel that her husband had been killed. And now she alternated between numbness and pain that cut like a knife. She didn’t want to be a coward, but sometimes the pain was so bad that she thought death might be a welcome relief. But she was responsible for Rachel, her husband’s cousin, and for Mammy Nor and Angus. Though many of her neighbors did consider her a witch, she was still fascinated enough by herbs and medicinal plants and the simple power of nature that it didn’t matter—they could call her witch. Most said the word with simple gratitude. She enjoyed healing those who were sick.
    In body, and soul, she told herself dryly. It didn’t hurt, she thought, that opium was one of those healing drugs with which she was quite adept at making.
    “Miz Rhiannon!”
    She spun around. Angus, her husband’s manservant, now her right-hand man in all things, had come around the back to speak with her.
    “Angus! I need to speak with you.”
    “That’s what I thought, Miz Rhiannon. Now Miss Rachel has gone around giving all those soldiers places to sleep—she’s got that colonel upstairs in the guest room. Mammy Nor done seen to it that plenty of food is been set out for the soldiers. I think they’re well, fine, and proper cared for, I do.”
    She nodded. “Good. Now we have to report them.”
    “What?” Angus was a big man, tall and built like a bull. Startled, hands on his hips, he looked ferocious. She smiled. She liked ferocious very much—when ferocious was on her side.
    “Angus, these fellows are liars. Rebs. When the colonel has gone to bed, I want you to set out for St. Augustine. Find a Captain Cline. He’s an old friend. Tell him I think that I might have some notorious Rebs here.”
    Angus widened his eyes. “Rebs! Here, in this house! Why, those boys has been polite, courteous, downright decent.”
    “Angus, you don’t have to be rude to be a Rebel. Trust me, I know what these men are.”
    “I trust you. I knows enough to trust you! But are you sure you want me to report them?”
    Rhiannon hesitated, startled by the thought that she didn’t particularly want her guests to come to harm. But she was pretty sure that she was harboring men who continually harassed the troops around St. Augustine, men taking a toll on Union lives.
    “Miss Rachel said the colonel was a fine doctor ...” Angus began, shaking his head.
    “A fine doctor, but he carries a Colt repeater as well, Angus.” She bit her lower lip, disturbed to realize she was uncertain. She was someone with what they called “second sight,” but it felt as if the colonel saw far too much when he looked at her. Maybe it was just that he made her feel ... something. Conflict, maybe. She hadn’t felt much of anything in so long that ...
    She swallowed hard, lowering her head for a moment. She was filled with turmoil. She found him to be a very