The Cumberland Plateau
Page 93
“I want you to pursue your dream. We can wait. I want you to be sure this is what you want,” he said as he turned to look her in the eye.
“It is what I want, and a year will pass quickly, especially if we see each other every chance we get. And whilst I’m away studying, you can continue with your physical therapy and rehabilitation. You will grow strong again. This will not defeat you. Together we’re going to make it.”
He smiled and bent down and kissed her again, pulling her close. Breaking the kiss, they turned and walked back into the hospital. The arrangements for his discharge and the return to Longbourn were made. General Haines spoke with the Pentagon for a special assignment and promotion to major, but Bennett’s resolve was firm. He was leaving the Corps and one bad dream behind. Joseph knew he had done his duty, but at what price?
With their plans made, Joseph returned home as Master of Longbourn, and Georgiana returned to London for the summer semester in the master’s degree program at the Royal Academy of Music. He was grateful that there were men like General Haines, but as he looked closely at the General’s life, he saw the high price the man had paid for duty, honor, and country. The General was a tough, rugged individual who barely knew his wife and children. After much reflection, Joseph knew he was making the right choice. A chest full of medals and the GI Bill along with the glory and prestige were not worth the cost.
~*~
Joseph went about his duties, preparing for the spring planting and keeping a close watch on the newly birthed calves. Another bobcat was heard in the area, and the red wolf had migrated out of the national park onto the plateau, creating a potential problem. Pork bellies were down in the Futures Market, but the prices of corn, wheat, and barley were up. He had two hundred head of cattle to sell by the first of June, and before summer’s end, he would order another stone plaque to accompany the one his brothers-in-law had placed at Longbourn Baptist Church Cemetery. The circle would soon be complete in triplet, and all was peaceful as the crickets chirped in the night and the future looked bright as life carried on like it always had in the Cumberland Plateau.
The End
Read on for a Preview
Of
Dana Darcy
Published July 13, 2010
Prologue
St. Thomas Hospital
London, England
It was the twenty-fifth of December, and outside the weather was cold and bitter, but inside it was warm and comfortable as a woman lay resting in a hospital maternity ward. As was the custom for this time of year, the room was decorated with festive adornments that twinkled and sparkled, and a tree stood in the corner, laden with lights and colorful glass balls. The mood should have been bright in keeping with the room and the birth of a child, but that was not to be the case. After a long, difficult night of hard labor, the woman was still and somber. Except for the child she’d just given birth to, the woman was alone.
With a faint smile, the woman turned to the door as a ward sister stepped through with a little bundle wrapped in pink. Approaching the bed where the woman lay, the sister peeled back the blanket to reveal the crumpled face of a contented sleeping child.
“You have a beautiful daughter, miss. Look at this head of dark hair and those lusciously long lashes. And to be sure, I’ve never seen such indigo blue eyes. Why, they’re as blue as the bounteous ocean, and look at these slender, elegantly long fingers. She’ll be the darling of her father. I’m sure of it.” The nurse laughed a jolly round as she handed the bundle to the mother.
The woman took the child and laid her to her breast. On instinct, the child grunted and rooted until she began to suckle. “Yes, she is beautiful…just as beautiful as her father is handsome,” said the mother.
“Well, I daresay, if he looks anything like this little daring, he’s a handsome bloke indeed. Now, what should we call her? A little girl like this one needs a distinguished name. Shall it be Rebecca or Sarah, Margaret or Anne, or how about Caroline or Diana? What shall it be, miss?”
“No, none of that will do for her. She is to be… Dana…Dana Darcy Hamilton,” the mother replied as she gazed upon her suckling child.
~*~
While the child suckled her mother’s breast, a being in white stood by, a lone red rose in her hand. As the young woman closed her eyes in sleep, the being laid the rose on the side table next to the young woman’s bed and took flight; for now her vigil was complete until...Dana Darcy.