The General's Daughter

Chapter 19

The idea of resting turned out to be fairly absurd. Once we arrived at Uncle Jeremy's house and everyone was roused, I was passed from person to person to person for hugs. My mother took several lengthy turns. Not that I minded.

Initially, I'd wondered why my parents had chosen to stay with Uncle Jeremy and Aunt Susan since Aunt Charlotte and Uncle John's house was much larger and could accommodate so many people easily. But then I remembered that Mother knew what it was like to be separated from her family. Now that I understood the circumstances of the separation, I felt worse for my idiocy putting her through something just as bad.

But it made sense that she would have wanted to be close to her brother.

I'd expected Samuel to be pretty upset, but I was surprised by how distressed and responsible the other boys felt. Richard more than the others. He felt that he was the man of the house while Papa was away, even for a few hours. In his mind, that made him responsible for the rest of us. The way he'd always acted toward me, I would have never guessed. It wasn't that I thought he didn't like me, exactly. Just that sisters were not terribly exciting to him. More a source of irritation or amusement than anything else. It also bothered him that I was older. But he'd actually cried when he saw me. Considering that he'd said crying was a stupid, silly woman's reaction, I took that as quite a statement on how much he loved me.

Poor Reed seemed even more out of place than before. He awkwardly stood out of the way of all the activity, looking as if he'd rather be anywhere else. There was so much fuss over me from so many people (even my youngest cousins were awake), that I couldn't get a word in to acknowledge him.

I'd thought that once everyone had the chance to calm down, I would be able to introduce him and tell everyone how wonderful he'd been, but Mother insisted that I have a bath and that I was to be checked by a doctor immediately. I was only able to send Reed an apologetic glance before I was dragged away to be tended. But at least I knew that Papa would see that he was taken care of too.

I was fawned over and pampered for a long time. All the while, Mother refused to leave my side. The hot water felt wonderful, and of course it was amazing to finally be clean again, but honestly all I felt like doing was sleeping. I'd lost track of how long I'd been awake and it was starting to feel like an eternity.

Thankfully, Mother didn't try to make me talk about what happened. Even though I could tell she was dying to know, she didn't even ask where I'd been. She simply sat with me, playing with my hair the way I loved.

It was close to dawn when I was finally able to crawl into bed, and I couldn't believe how soft the mattress felt. After sleeping on the ground, it was like a cloud.

I got comfortable and lay there for all of about a minute before I heard shouting. Wondering what was going on, I sat up and shook the grogginess from my eyes.

"I don't care what time it is!" he blustered. "I demand to see her at once!"

Alex! My heart lept. I shot out of bed and ran to grab my borrowed robe before rushing into the hallway.

I was suddenly glad for where I was. My bedroom at home was nowhere near the entryway like this and I wouldn't have heard a thing.

"Your Highness, please!" The timid servant tried to quiet him. "Everyone's asleep."

"Then wake them!" Alex shouted obstinately.

I reached the railing overlooking the entryway and my stomach gave a little flutter when I saw him standing there. I'd never seen Alex less than perfectly groomed, even when we were children. Those times when we would climb trees or chase one another till our lungs felt like they would burst, or whatever other wild activity we'd done, Alex always looked immaculate. My appearance never failed to testify to what I'd been doing, but with Alex, rarely was there even a hair out of place. That wasn't the case now though. He looked an absolute mess. He wasn't in night clothes the way I was, but it looked as though he might not have changed his outfit or even looked in the mirror for several days. His normally clean-shaven face bore stubble, and his hair, slightly longer than usual, was in complete disarray.