guile in her than in him, and she’d showed her heart on her sleeve, the same as he did.
After her death, his work had ferried him through a tidal wave of grief. The medical department mercifully reassigned him to reconstruction duty in Louisiana, away from Texas, where she had met her death. He took more risks there than he should have, not hesitating to volunteer for yellow fever duty. Truth to tell, it wouldn’t have bothered him to have contracted the disease that seasonally roved up and down the Mississippi. He was almost relieved when he caught it, but damn, he survived. What was worse, he was now immune. Where was the justice?
He hadn’t been eager to transfer to the Department of the Platte, but the transfer came with an overdue promotion to major. He had bowed to duty, as he always did, mainly because it didn’t matter to him where he served or what his rank. His assignments took him to several forts, where friends tried to pair him with sisters or other relatives from back East who had come West specifically to find husbands among the officer corps. After a few years, no one tried anymore.
Joe dressed and walked slowly toward the hospital. For a change, the wind wasn’t blowing. The small bird sounds he had imagined yesterday were real now. There was still the bite of winter in the air, but he had already walked past the post trader’s store before he realized he had left his overcoat behind.
The sound of children reached him so he glanced toward the commissary storehouse, smiling to see Suzie outside with her class. He watched as she jumped rope, her skirts flying and her blond hair quickly loosed from its moorings. There would probably never be enough hairpins to anchor those curls. He knew how soft they felt, twined around his fingers. He had the strongest impulse—and he was not impulsive—to walk over there and turn one end of the rope, or jump with her.
He swallowed once and then again, and knew he loved Susanna Hopkins, the bravest woman he had probably ever met. He had tentatively suggested it earlier, then backed away from the idea. Only this morning he had watched the hope in her eyes dim when he’d said it wasn’t wise of them to help each other through another night. It may have been proper, but all he wanted to do was discard duty and jump rope with his darling.
There she was, lovely and brave and funny. He thought about his feelings when they were together, and realized Suzie made him brave and funny, too. M’liss was gone now and not coming back in this life, at least. He was still alive, a healthy man. As he watched his newest darling, he knew in his heart that his first darling would be terribly disappointed in him if he wasted his life mourning her.
Joe stood there a moment longer, enjoying the sun finally warm on his neck. He counted Suzie’s little class, picking out Maddie in her pretty red coat, probably cut down from something of Claudine’s. He wasn’t surprised to see Eddie Hanrahan. No doubt he had insisted he not miss school, because his mother had women to comfort her, and Eddie knew Mrs. Hopkins loved him.
Joe looked down. Soon there would be dandelions everywhere. For the first time since Texas, he knew that spring had truly come, because he felt it inside.
Claudine Wilby was buried in the military cemetery a half mile north of the fort. Susanna walked with the Rattigans, Maddie between Maeve and James. To her surprise, she felt a little hand in hers halfway there, and looked down to see Eddie Hanrahan.
“My dear, you were sweet to come,” she said, kneeling by him and tucking his muffler into his coat. “Does your mama know?”
“She said I should be here,” he said. “Maddie’s my friend.”
Before they reached the post trader’s store, all of her pupils walked with her, some with a parent, and others alone. She thought none of the residents of Officers Row would join their little procession, but there was Katie O’Leary with Rooney.
“I left Mary Rose with Emily,” Katie said. “Rooney insisted we come.”
Susanna knew Joe would be there, and he did not disappoint, coming to stand beside her. She didn’t think she moved, but soon they were touching. She glanced at Maddie in Sergeant Rattigan’s arms, her face turned into his uniform coat, her shoulders shaking.