Silver Creek - G.L. Snodgrass Page 0,2

None of it made sense.

A fierce anger began to build inside of her. Her world was destroyed. Turning on Mr. Travers, she stared up into his cold eyes. “You killed him, didn’t you? You paid him a large price because you knew you would steal it back off his corpse.”

“Rebecca!” the sheriff gasped.

Mr. Travers ignored her, instead saying to the sheriff, “A dozen people know I haven’t left town. Not until we rode out here today. And you know it.”

Sheriff Reed’s shoulders slumped as he nodded to Rebecca. “He’s right. You know me. I keep an eye on the comings and goings. He’s been holed up in the Red House saloon all week.”

Rebecca’s jaw clenched tight. She knew deep in her soul that her uncle had been murdered so that her home could be stolen. And there wasn’t anyone in this world to help her prove it.

Chapter Two

Appomattox Virginia

1865

Four years of war had left a hard hole in First Lieutenant Lucas Parker’s soul. The kind of emptiness that he knew would never be filled.

Sighing to himself, he ran a finger down the list of names. Too many dead men. But a letter had been written for each one. A family would know that their loved one had died honorably fighting to preserve the Union. Fighting for something more than himself.

It wasn’t enough, he thought as he leaned back in his chair and stared up at the canvas tent top. Slowly, his mind wandered to four years earlier. A buck private all the way from Oregon. He’d been so sure of himself. So sure he was doing the right thing. And so desperate to prove himself.

Was it worth it? he wondered as he glanced back down at the list.

Hanna, his sister had cried when he left. Jacob had looked up at his big brother as if he was a hero out of some book. But it had been Zion who had pulled him aside and tried to tell him the truth.

“War changes a man more than he changes the world,” his brother-in-law had told him. “You try and hold onto that part of you that is good. You hear?”

Luke had been tempted to dismiss him, but Zion had been right, just like always. The war had changed him. Burned the hope and happiness out of him. The evil men could do if they let themselves was shocking. The carnage, the pain they could cause was truly unbelievable.

Something had shifted inside of him. As if a callus had formed over his heart. The kind that couldn’t be cut away.

Taking a deep breath, he pulled out the supply list. Colonel Forest wanted every rifle, shovel, and spittoon accounted for. The Army couldn’t rest until they knew what happened to Private Jackson’s saber. And the fact the boy had broken it off in the chest of some Johnny Reb wasn’t enough. They would want to know the day and time and why Private Jackson had been so careless.

Of course, it wasn’t as if he could ask the young man. He’d been lost at Sailor’s Creek a month earlier. So close to the war’s end, but not close enough to get over the line.

Sighing to himself, Lieutenant Parker turned up the kerosene lamp and focused on the paper in front of him. He was writing up a report on the loss of a wagon at Richmond when someone coughed loudly outside his tent.

“Enter,” he said as he wrote out the last sentence.

“Mail call, Sir,” Sergeant Kennedy said as he pulled back the tent flap with a serious frown. “Any word on the Capt’n?”

“No,” Luke said as he felt his gut tightened. The company had fallen to him a month earlier when Captain Taylor had been wounded.

“Both blind and losing an arm,” the sergeant said as he shook his head. “It might be better off being dead.”

The young Lieutenant grimaced as he pulled out another piece of paper to start on a report about a burnt tent and asked, “How’er the men doing?”

Sergeant Kennedy grumbled under his breath. “More rumors than a Baltimore brothel. Either, they’re going to keep us here for half of forever. Or, we’re getting discharged tomorrow with none of our back pay. But what do you expect? The war is over, we won, and they want to go home.”

Then, remembering why he had interrupted his commanding officer, the sergeant held up a dozen letters. “What should I do with these?”

Luke let his head drop to his chest as he held out his