Abbie stared at the smiling boy for a brief moment then crossed her arms on the table, lowered her head to them, and laughed. She tried to muffle the sound but the laughter of others at the table was too much to ignore. There was no solution to her problem yet, but she already knew that she would not be sending the boy back to Mrs. Beaton.
“I think she is laughing at what you said, boy,” said Reid and gave a chuckling Mrs. O’Neal a big smile when she filled his bowl with stew and set it in front of him.
“She does that a lot when I try to have a talk with her. When she is done, then I can tell her more.” Noah stared wide-eyed at the full bowl Mrs. O’Neal set in front of him and picked up his spoon, then barely mumbled out a thank you before he dug in.
The idea that Noah had even more to lecture her about only made Abbie laugh harder. Forcing herself to calm down, she wiped her eyes and sat up just as Mrs. O’Neal bent close to set her bowl in front of her.
“The lad will settle in very nicely, miss,” she said softly. “He could go sit with the others if he isn’t scared.”
Abigail glanced at another table set near the window where Mrs. O’Neal’s older children and young Ned sat. There was an empty seat next to Ned so she slowly coaxed Noah over there. She returned to her seat but kept an eye on him until she was certain he was again relaxed and settling in well. As she began eating again she glanced at her brother, still a bit stunned that he was there.
“How did he end up with you?” she asked.
“I tracked you to the Beaton house and he was suddenly there. He had already heard Mrs. Beaton and the others tell me about your stay and where you were headed. He even had that puppy and a little bag and politely told me he would go with me. I said no and he never said a word. Just walked away. Then I was leaving and just happened to look behind me to see him following.”
“Oh dear.”
“‘Oh dear’ is right. As I told Matthew, I did everything short of shooting him to make him go back, but he kept on coming.”
“He can be stubborn.”
“Bullheaded.”
Abbie laughed and nodded. “So you gave in.”
“Not much choice. He was company too, and I had little of that in the last few years. He even got me telling him stories at night because I was told you did it.”
“Ah. So, of course you had to.” She shook her head. “He is going to be a challenge to raise.”
“What he is is smart and a survivor.”
“He is only five years old.”
“He is smart and he is a survivor,” he repeated. “Never forget that about him.”
“It is a good thing, miss,” said Mrs. O’Neal from beside her. “Doesn’t often show so young, but bet the war drew it out. And your brother is right. It is a good thing to keep in mind about the boy. It is what he is deep at his core. Like our Iain,” she added softly.
Abbie thought about it for a while but soon got caught up in the men’s talk. They included her brother without pause and she could see he appreciated it. She started to wonder how he had gotten out of the service he had been forced into.
“How did you get out of the Confederate hold?”
“It was Night Riders who took me, or so they liked to call themselves. Butchering ba”—he blushed and continued—“pigs.” He dragged a hand through his hair and grimaced. “Fortunately, it seems they just wanted someone to do all the work they hated. I mucked up after their horses, cared for the beasts, which I didn’t much mind as they treated them poorly, and even had to cook a lot. Then one of them caught me trying to free a young woman they had grabbed. I killed him, freed her, and then ran for my life. Knew they’d find the man, so had to get as far away as I could. Stole one of their horses I was particularly fond of and just rode.”
“Where did the woman go?”
“She headed straight for the town not far from our camp. Told her it might not be the safest place but she was determined. Figured she knew someone there she felt would protect her.”
“So you aren’t a deserter?”
“Don’t think so. Never signed or swore to anything but that won’t necessarily stop someone from trying to try me for it.”
“I feared they would have made you fight in the war for them.”
“They didn’t do much fighting in the war,” he said, disgust thick in his voice. “They attacked innocents, stole money and anything else they could get their hands on, and raped the women they found. They were outlaws wearing the shield of war.”
“There were a lot of those, especially up this way,” said Matthew.
“Some of them were even disowned by the army they supported,” Reid said and shrugged.
