of extravagant promises for a rosy future for her daughter. She believed me, and maybe I believed me, too.”
“I’d be willing to sit with Claudine.”
He shook his head. “No. I won’t have you risking infection. I’m not totally sure how consumption travels, but I take no chances with people I’m … fond of.”
There. He wanted to say more, but he still had his doubts about himself, not Suzie. “If I’m speaking out of turn …”
“You’re not, but that will do for now,” she said, her voice equally quiet. “I would suffer if the, um, good people of Fort Laramie ostracize you if you are … fond of me.”
Ostracism? Child’s play. He tried out her nickname again, noticing how her eyes lit up. “Suzie, I’ve been ostracized by masters, and I include my own family, may you never meet them. I’m always amazed how ostracism ends when someone in garrison needs a doctor and all they have is little ol’ Virginia me.”
She started to say something, but there was Emily at the top of the stairs, alert, her voice full of panic.
“Susanna! Please don’t tell me it’s bad news!”
Joe got up quickly and went to the stairs. “No fears, Emily. It concerns Maddie Wilby’s mother, who is fighting a pretty good fight. Go back to sleep.”
He sat down again with a sigh. “The commanding officer often gives me the ‘death walk,’ I call it. I get to deliver sad tidings. All we know so far is that there was a fight, but every cavalry wife on this post has dread in her eyes when she sees me.”
Susanna put her hand over his. “These are difficult times. Perhaps we had better just remain fond.”
He thought it was a stupid idea and nearly told her so. A moment’s consideration forced him to agree, because he knew she was right. Still, if everyone waited until the time was precisely right to marry, or even fool around, the earth would have ground to a stop eons ago. She looked so pretty in her flannel nightgown. If he made a move toward her, he wasn’t sure if she would resist or yield. Better not test the matter. She was right; it was late.
“‘Night, Suzie. Don’t let the bedbugs bite.”
Joe was right about the tension, Susanna decided, as another day passed. She felt the whole garrison’s strain, and so did her little ones at school. One child, ordinarily so cheerful, burst into tears when the chalk broke against his slate. Another child glowered at her uncharacteristically when she said it was time to turn in her class work. Even Private Benedict had a sharp word for his best pupil, too distracted to diagram a compound sentence.
Taking her cue from her students’ worry, Susanna abandoned her afternoon lessons and just read to them instead. Everyone eventually took a turn on her lap, and she dubbed them “page-turning monitors.” The afternoon stop at Maeve Rattigan’s quarters lengthened to include ample time for Maddie on Maeve’s lap, or the sergeant’s, if he happened to be home. Susanna noticed with a pang that Maddie’s pretty hair was less tidy. Joe had told her how busy the other sporting women were, taking care of Claudine.
The odorous policing of the fort had begun, which meant the post surgeon was out at all hours, making sure the prisoners from the guardhouse scooped, shoveled and limed the ground. This led to a flaming row when one of the more lax infantry lieutenants took exception to his company’s participation, and the major thought otherwise.
“I always win those discussions,” he told her later as he passed the Reeses’ quarters, headed for his own. “Amazing how rank can sharpen even a second lieutenant’s intellect.” He held up his hands playfully to ward her off. “Close enough, Suzie! I reek.”
From a distance, he told her he had left the Carlisle newspaper for the Dunklins’ perusal, but Susanna had no expectations. The only difference she noticed was that Mrs. Dunklin avoided her eyes now, the gloat gone. Susanna didn’t look for more, especially since it was more pleasant to exchange a few words with Mrs. Burt, or spend an evening laughing with her night school students, some of whom could read better than their husbands now.
I could worry myself into an early grave, Susanna decided after a week of tension. It was a rare night. The house was her own, since Emily and Stanley had adjourned to the Burt quarters for an evening of cards and games—anything to create a