Fight for Glory (My Wounded Soldier #1) (28 page)

“Well, he had to
go off with the Choctaw,” I said to Jimmy.

He laughed for
sure. “His runnin’ days….” He looked at Allie and shrugged, and she pretended
to swat him. We tethered the horses. If William ever returned he’d see to them.
Far as Black went, nobody did it to Jimmy’s liking but William.

They led me into
a pleasant home. Allie had been busy. I knew Jimmy wouldn’t keep it this way. He
was proud and all. It was a one room with a lean-to on back. I tried to ignore
the big bed along the wall. Well, what did I expect? Folks got together. And they’d
said the vows, so he was doing it right. Well, right as he could. Damn with all
this love about…I wanted Addie so badly I could taste the longing on my
tongue…along with the smells of Allie and Lenora’s good cooking.

But Allie got
coffee, and we were all business now.

“Best hear about
Gaylin,” Allie said laying out biscuit. I had just taken a biscuit and held it
before my open mouth ready to bite, when her little finger was in my face. I
saw the wedding ring flashing. “Don’t you dare to touch him,
Tom.
He didn’t mean it. Jimmy was on the laudanum pretty bad, and I blame you for
some of it. So don’t you….”

Jimmy lifted up
enough to grab hold of her and bring her down on his lap, his arms tight around
her. “Let me tell it Sweetness,” he said.

She quieted, but
she was glaring at me, in his arms, wearing each other like armor.

“Guess I got to
raving about Garrett,” he said.

“Everything?”
I looked at Allie and felt the heat. My baby
sister knew? A trapdoor opened in me, and all my new hope took a look down then
and thought about running into my boots. But she had received me in love. She
had already forgiven me. But not another from my family really knew about it
until now.
And her of all?
Not her.

But she knew me
better than I imagined. Her hand reached for me. I still held the biscuit, but
my hand rested on the table, and she put hers on my arm. “It’s not me you need
to worry about,” she said. “I do not judge you harsh for it. I have shed many a
tear for what you and Jimmy had to do. I am not the simpleton you think me. If
it weren’t for you…Jimmy would have died. I meant what I said outside. You are
a hero to me.”

I shook my head.

“Gaylin took off
mad. He’s just like you,” she said.

“Then let him be
mad,” I said, unable to look her in the eyes.

She took me by
the face and made me look at her. “You do know how much we love you?
How proud?”

I shook my head. “You
say hero. No. Not a devil. Not a hero. Not God.
Just a man.
Addie helped me see it.
Just a man.
But a man who has
to carry some things he’s learned to understand.”

She nodded. “She’s
so right for you,” she said.

Now I agreed. “When
did he leave?”

“He brought me
home,” Jimmy said. “Even after…he knew. He did his duty. Then he said he was
going to Springfield
to get his share. I told him he had to wait for you…you’d bring the reports and
make it official. He said he had no heart to wait. I told him if I was well I’d
throw him in jail just because I could
cause
he needed
to simmer down. He said he bared us no ill will, but didn’t want to look on our
faces ever again. So now he’s you, the tragic rider goin’ west. Frankly he’s
got the excuse he was looking for to raise some hell.”

I pressed the
heels of my hands into my eyes. I let my hands drop. “Then let him go.”

“He needs his
cut,” Jimmy said. “He’s staying at the hotel there. Ma Avery’s Inn, it’s called.”

“Sounds real dangerous.”

Jimmy laughed. “Once
he gets that money…I fear he’ll be reckless.”

Now I laughed. “He
has to play the prodigal…let him do it. We’ve all raised hell. I’m not his pa. He’s
told me enough.”

I thought of him,
the way I’d seen his heart. It had been hard going for him. I couldn’t chart
his map.

By the time
William and Lenora returned, I was packed and ready to get on the road. You
could feel it between them, the spark and tinder. Once he delivered her to the
porch, he gave her not a glance, but took care of the spare horses. While he
did that I readied my pack and said my good-byes. We would not wait for the
train here, but would pick it up the next day in Farnsboro. Soon we were back
on the trail.

As soon as we
rode I thought of her. Mayhap I would order the bricks there, for I wanted a
good foundation for Johnny’s room and the other I would build with it.
For now.
The boards I could have sawn near home. I had all
kinds of plans. I didn’t care to fill dead man’s shoes, I’d always said it. I
would make that house new, that’s if I didn’t tear it down and start over. Well,
Riley had not built it, so it had a chance. And the barn…my people liked them
big. That barn was as sad as the house. She had said I made them pathetic the
way I thought of them. But they deserved all the good I could do for them, and
there was so much I would do.
For her?
For them?
I’d move whatever mountain showed.

Other
Titles by Diane Munier:

MY WOUNDED SOLDIER, BOOK TWO: FIGHT
FOR LOVE
(available for preorder Summer 2015):
Tom Tanner has
taken on a family. He lived through the war, but becoming a lover and pa to two
small children may be the role that breaks him. This is the story of a man’s
slow rise from black sheep to patriarch--that’s if trying to herd his family
doesn’t end up killing him. 1866 is a time of learning to carry on in the
aftermath of civil war. Tom is ready to heal, ready to take over Addie’s farm
and make it a grand place. He has money from reupping in the war and reward
money for bringing a few notorious outlaws. Can Addie’s love help him settle
and become an outstanding man like his pa? It’s the only fight worth making-- a
fight for love.

LEAPING
:
Two lonely souls on the beach.
A chance meeting or
orchestrated?
She invites him to leap to the end of what could be a
great time. She has a cabin for three weeks. He has his grandfather’s Victorian
house. He doesn’t take chances as a rule, but he’s been drifting for a long
time. Does he have the guts to take her up on the offer? It’s reckless. But his
moral compass got reset after the incident. So maybe he’ll leap and see where
he lands. 

FINDING
MY THUNDER
:
The story takes
place in the late sixties.
Hilly Grunier has been in love with Danny Boyd since she was a kid
telling scary stories on summer nights at the fire hydrant while Danny pulled
close on his bike.
But when Danny is thirteen, their
friendship ends when he and his brother Sukey have a vicious fight over Hilly.
Years pass, and Hilly carries a secret and growing love as she watches Danny rise
athletically to the top of their school’s food chain. He even dates the prom
queen and rumor says they are engaged. Now Danny has graduated and shows up in
her dad’s shop looking for some temporary employment until the army picks him
off for Vietnam. He’s thrown aside his college scholarship and the golden girl.
He seems to be searching for something new before he leaves town. He seems to
be searching for her. Hilly can’t let him go overseas without showing him how
she feels. But once he’s gone,
her own
battle
intensifies. It’s a long road to finding her thunder.

ME AND MOM FALL FOR SPENCER
:
The house next door to Sarah and her
mother Marie has been vacant since the murder that happened there when Sarah
was ten. Their neighbor, Frieda, was like a second mother to Sarah and she died
brutally and that event sends a paralysis over this sleepy neighborhood that
hasn't lifted for seventeen years. Imagine Sarah’s surprise when the old place
finally sells to an on-line buyer. She looks through the thick growth separating
her house from the other and a wild man looks back. He’s thirty-seven year old
Spencer Gundry. Once he shaves the beard and gets a haircut, he’s not hard to
look at. Well Sarah’s mom doesn’t think so. And maybe she doesn't either.
Problem is, Sarah has evolved into the neighborhood watchdog and she knows this
tumbleweed Gundry has as many secrets as the house he owns.

DARNAY ROAD
: Starts out in summer of 1963. Sweet little ten-year-old
Catholic school girl Georgia Christine meets eleven-year-old smoker with armpit
hair who really does live on the wrong side of the tracks Easy. She and Abigail
May are mystery solvers, The Darnay Spies, in their spare time, and Easy Caghan
(E.C.) and his brother Cap will keep these two little ladies on their sleuthing
toes. Darnay Road leads them into a future where their childish friendship
blooms into love. Will the Vietnam War be the one challenge they can’t
overcome?

About the
Author

Living comfortably
in the heart of America with the people I love. I live an extroverted life, but
I'm a genuine introvert. An urban kid, I spent much of my youth running in
various neighborhood establishments. There I met many colorful characters and I
learned to love them and be fascinated by them. My love of story comes from them.
I learned to sit on a bar stool or a kitchen chair or in a pew and hear story.
Hear the voices telling story. See the mouths move and the hands clutching
glasses or cigarettes. See and hear the laughter. There is no greater honor
than to hear someone's story. If you feel that way about the tales I
tell...what more could I ask.

Social Media Connections

Website:

http://www.dianemunier.com

Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/author/dianemunier

Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/dianemunierauthor

Goodreads:

http://www.goodreads.com/dianemunier

Twitter:

http://www.twitter.com/dianemunier