The Whippoorwill Trilogy - Sharon Sala Page 0,311

around.”

“Did he harm any of you?” Letty asked. “Did he touch you in a—”

“Sush now,” Mary said. “None of that happened, so don’t fuss. He might have thought about it, but it didn’t happen. He just kept talking about your gold mine and your money.”

Letty frowned. She’d never dreamed how much trouble it could be to be rich.

They buried the stranger in the town cemetery without knowing his name. Someone carved the words greedy bastard on his tombstone. It seemed to fit the situation.

The incident was, for a while, all the gossip down in town, and then like everything, it was superseded by an even greater event.

The territories had been hearing rumblings of discord for some time between the northern and southern states regarding many things, most of which hinged on the aspect of slavery. What with having to worry about droughts, prairie fires, Indian raids, and generally surviving in an unforgiving land, they’d paid little mind to suppositions. However, the last freight wagons to come through had brought news no one could ignore.

The southern states had seceded from the Union of the United States of America.

They were at war.

Letty shut down the mine. She had more money than she could ever spend in two lifetimes, and now that the country was at war, moving gold bars, or large amounts of money from one place to another without being robbed was impossible. Breaking men’s backs for the accumulation of more wealth seemed redundant, especially since she’d learned firsthand, the reality of what happened to people who were filthy rich.

Without asking what anyone thought, Robert Lee packed up his belongings and moved into a tent at the edge of the woods near Letty’s home.

Letty didn’t know what to think. Robert Lee kept watch on the women, but he kept his distance. She had to satisfy herself with glimpses of him from time to time, and tell herself that whatever was not happening between them was for the best.

The townspeople whispered among themselves about Robert Lee’s new home, but no one had the guts to tease him to his face. Even if they had, it wouldn’t have changed a thing. He wasn’t going to let another man lay a harsh hand on Letty, or for that matter, any of the women living in her house.

Within a month of Robert Lee’s arrival at the hen house, the war was all the gossip. Men began to take sides. It wasn’t unusual for a brawl to break out at a saloon over who was in the right—the north or the south.

Letty was beyond caring one way or the other. All of her days and nights were focused on the impending birth of her baby. Even though she chose to ignore a war that seemed too far away to consider, the war came to her, just the same.

Soldiers And Patriots

In his other life, Carson Mylam had been a banker. But that was before the country separated itself into a north and a south. Now there was something called the Mason-Dixon Line, and everything and everyone south of the line was engaged in battle, one way or another.

He and thousands of other men entered the ranks of the Union army, whether they wanted to or not. Thanks to his father’s money and influence, Carson skipped conscription, and upon taking the oath of office, became an officer. The only problem was that Carson Mylam’s expertise lay in money—acquiring it and saving it. He barely knew the butt from the barrel of a gun.

It had come to the attention of the powers that be in the Union army, that one of the largest depositors in Mylam’s Philadelphia bank was also the largest depositor in a Boston bank, as well as one in New York City. It was of no consequence to the war office that the depositor happened to be a woman. Seeing as how the country was at war, Mylam’s superiors decided to use him where he could best serve. Wars cost money. It seemed only fitting that one of the richest women in the country would want to donate to the war effort. The fact that she lived all the way out in the unsettled western territories was a little inconvenient. But Major Carson Mylam had been given a choice—pack his bags and head west, or saddle his horse and head south to join the battle.

He’d opted for the territories. By the time he finally reached Denver City, he’d convinced himself that it hadn’t been a cowardly