Into the Wilderness

217 Pages·2006·0.84 MB·English

by  Abbot Laura

WOUNDED BY LOVE AND WAR
He survived a battlefield massacre and, before that, his fiancée’s betrayal.
Cavalry officer Caleb Montgomery is unable to trust in anything now, especially
himself. But then he’s stationed in Fort Larned, Kansas, where Lily Kellogg, the
lovely army surgeon’s daughter, begins to rekindle his faith—and his hope.
Caleb is the kind of gallant, surprisingly sensitive man Lily never expected
to find on the Western frontier. Since childhood, she has longed for the stability
and culture only the big city can offer, and her most cherished wish is suddenly
within reach. Still, putting both their dreams to the test is the one way she and
Caleb can find their road home…to each other.
“Is there still hope for us, Lily?”
“Honestly? I don’t know.” She turned away then. “St. Louis is everything I
thought I wanted. Until you.”
Caleb knelt in front of Lily, hoping against hope that she would hear and
respond to the urgent call of his heart. He picked up her hands and held them in
his, seeking in her astonishing blue eyes the response he longed for. “Dearest
Lily, I ask you before God to become my wife. I pledge you my undying love.”
Her eyes filled with tears, Lily shook her head back and forth, gripping his
hand tightly. She opened her mouth to speak, but no sound came. Adrift, Caleb
could only stand, draw her to her feet and enfold her in his arms. Her slight body
trembled in his embrace and muffled sobs gave evidence of her distress. Finally
she stepped away and gazed at him with such love he feared ever forgetting this
moment. A glimmer of hope. That was all he needed….
LAURA ABBOT
Growing up in Kansas City, Missouri, Laura Abbot was deeply influenced
by her favorite literary character, Jo from Little Women. If only, Laura thought, I
could write stories, too. Many years later, after a twenty-five-year career as a
high-school En-glish teacher and independent school administrator, Laura’s
ambition was unexpectedly realized. When she and her husband took early
retirement and built their dream home on Beaver Lake outside of Eureka
Springs, Arkansas, he bought her a new computer and uttered these life-
changing words: “You always said you wanted to write. Now sit down and do
it!” Happily, she sold her first attempt to Harlequin Superromance, a success
followed by more sales to the same line.
Other professional credentials include serving as an educational consultant
and speaker. Active in her church, Laura is a licensed lay preacher. Her great
blessing, however, is her children—all productive, caring adults and parents—
who have given her eleven remarkable, resilient (but who’s prejudiced?)
grandchildren, including at least three who show talent in writing and may
pursue it as a career. Jo March, look what you started!
Laura enjoys corresponding with readers. Please write her at
[email protected].
Into the Wilderness
Laura Abbot
I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I
will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.
—Isaiah 43:19
To Paula Eykelhof, editor extraordinaire,
with gratitude for her encouragement,
guidance and enduring belief in me.
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Dear Reader
Discussion Questions
Chapter One
Fort Larned, Kansas
March, 1869
L
ily Kellogg stood before her mother’s small grave marker, oblivious to the
raw spring chill. Mathilda Louise Kellogg, b. 1820, d. 1868. Beloved wife and
mother. From these few words, who would discern the bravery and compassion
of the woman buried there? Or how quickly she had succumbed to the influenza
that swept through the fort a few short months ago, despite the heroic efforts of
Lily’s father, the post surgeon.
Once again Lily asked the familiar questions. Is this ultimately what we
amount to? A few facts etched in cold stone? Do we rest for eternity beneath a
blanket of grass battered by wind, sleet and snow, subject to infestation by
creatures both crawling and flying? Standing there motherless, she struggled to
believe in a merciful God.
Too late she thought of the questions she should have asked her mother, but
hadn’t, and the family stories she should remember, but couldn’t. Yet she knew
her mother had loved her, as she had loved her father, brother and sister. In part,
she blamed this isolated place for her mother’s death. If only they had remained
in Iowa, living with her maternal grandparents as they had while her father
served in the Union Army. When the conflict ended and her father elected to
remain in the military, her mother, not without misgivings, had insisted that she,
Lily and Lily’s older sister, Rose, accompany him to this remote fort on the
Kansas plains. Her mother had loved fine things and had assumed she would
always live in the familiarity of the town where she grew up and in comfortable
proximity to her well-to-do parents.
Since her death, Lily had harbored a painful question: Would Mama still be
alive if the family had stayed in Iowa? She cast a baleful glance at the headstone.
It all came down to choices, and her mother, a faithful wife, had chosen to
follow her husband. Now that Mathilda was gone, Lily knew her father
depended even more upon his daughters and worried whether Fort Larned was a
suitable home for two unmarried women, one twenty-one and the other twenty-
four.
Gazing at the gray clouds scudding overhead, Lily permitted herself a
moment of self-pity. She tried not to complain and to trust in God’s plan for her.
But surely her destiny lay someplace else—in a city lively with creativity and
dedicated to progress. Blinking back tears, she laid her hand gently on the grave
marker.
marker.
The clatter of mounted horses interrupted her reverie. The arrival of new
troops was no novelty, and, like others before them, these soldiers deserved a
welcome. Gathering her cloak around her, she waved. Their leader glanced in
her direction, smiled and lifted his hat.
Whether it was his erect posture astride the black horse, his light brown curls
blowing in the wind or his engaging smile that caused her heart to skip a beat,
she couldn’t say. Perhaps it was his air of confidence, the hint of mischief in his
smile or his fleeting resemblance to the brother she had lost in the war that
moved her. She turned away. He is just another officer, she reminded herself.
Just another officer.
Dismayed by her spontaneous reaction to the man, Lily hurried toward
home. No good could come from idle speculation about the new captain,
handsome or not, and no such man could ever derail the exciting future she
planned for herself.
When Lily returned to their quarters attached to the hospital, her sister met
her at the door. “You look chilled. Come warm yourself by the fire.” Rose
gathered Lily’s cloak and hung it on the hook in the entryway. “I’ve brewed
some tea.” She bustled to the stove to fetch it while Lily settled in the rocker in
front of the hearth, grateful for her sister’s solicitude. Rose, always a steadying
influence, had moved effortlessly into her mother’s homemaking role.
Her ample body swathed in an apron, Rose handed Lily her tea and sat on the
bench across from her. “Did you see the new troops arrive?”
“Yes. They’re fortunate to be assigned to this modern post, rather than one of
the more primitive ones.”
“And we are fortunate to have received an invitation from Major and Mrs.
Hurlburt to dine with them and the newly arrived captain.”
“How thoughtful.” Ordinarily Lily would have been delighted by such a
welcome invitation from the fort’s commander and his wife. Yet she was
suddenly overcome with uncharacteristic shyness. The possibility of
acquaintance with the new captain should not so unnerve her.
Rose leaned forward. “I’m wearing my apple-green. What will you choose?”
They smiled in concert, knowing full well that aside from their few everyday
dresses and recently discarded mourning clothes, they had only two Sunday
gowns. “You look best in the lilac,” Rose ventured. “Do wear it.”
“Why are you so bent on how I look?”
Rose took a sip of tea. “You know I will not leave Papa. I am a homebody.
But you? It’s time to consider romance. Past time. If a dashing cavalryman is to