Mail Order Bride- Illinois

Chapter 13

James sat and watched as his nephews opened their gifts Christmas morning with a smile on his face and coffee in his hand. James tried to bow out of Christmas morning but Abby insisted he be here since he was family. Family, since the war that was just a word. James thought that was ironic since she didn’t want him here. Oh Abby thought she was slick, but he could tell Abby thought he was dangerous.

James looked at her belly, and couldn’t blame her one bit for being afraid. James didn’t exactly run with the most upstanding of men. Abby simply wanted to protect her babies, like any mother would. James didn’t see any problem with that, he bore no ill will.

James sat there in contentment that he hadn’t known since before the war. He knew it was the woman before him. Abby, she was an amazing woman, he only wished his brother Jonathan could see it. His brother was a moron.

However, James and Jonathan had vastly different experiences with the war. James was just a grunt man, expendable While the 11th Calvary unit of Texas had been there in Chickamauga and the Atlanta campaign. His unit didn’t do much fighting. They had barely lost any of their men. There were maybe sixty wounded.

James escaped a lot of the harsh relaties of the war. However, that didn’t mean James didn’t see the horrific aftermath. James saw the people milling about the battlefield looking for scraps of metal to sell. Hell some were kids as young as his nephews. James saw woman looking for their husbands and lovers. James was still plagued by the wounded crying for help. Crying for some one to save them.

James knew his oldest brother wasn’t as lucky. While James didn’t know much, he knew Jonathan had been promoted and transferred to a Virginia regiment. That meant he was in the thick of it. The worst of it. James had heard rumors through out the war that Jonathan was serving with General Lee himself. James wasn’t so sure, but James was convinced that he did serve with General Stonewall Jackson. The man was a legend. Well he was until he got shot by his own men returning from a scouting mission.

James always wondered what would have happened if Jackson didn’t die, would they have won the war? Who knows. All James did know is that Jonathan never talked about his life during the war, neither did James. No one did. It was the thing you tried to forget. Some men tried to drink away the memories, others used morphine. The truth was, the memories never go away. They never stop haunting you. One just learns to live with the ghosts.

James had gotten a letter from a friend saying that things had cooled off back east. It turns out that card sharks really don’t like it when you cheat, who knew. So James had to hightail it out of Kansas City. Jonathan gave him money and he mailed it back a few months ago. He just got the letter that he was in the clear to return. However, looking at Abby and his nephews he didn’t want to be anywhere else.

James didn’t tell Jonathan that he had actually been in contact with his other two brothers throughout the years. Jimmy and Jamie both had been through Kansas City once or twice. Jonathan was different than his other brothers. He left, and didn’t look back.

“I think I just might need to write a couple of letters.” James frowned as he realized that no one had given Abby anything for Christmas. James looked under the tree there were no presents left, he looked at Abby she didn’t say anything. Most woman would have thrown a fit by now, but not his brothers wife. She bore it all with a grace he hadn’t seen since his mother.

After having a large Christmas feast which Abby had slaved over for several hours. All the ranch hands came together and ate the mouthwatering meal. One could tell Abby went through the impossible task of making sure every man had the opportunity to have seconds of every dish. The table practically bowed with the amount of food at the table.

The men all gave groans of appreciation and comments along the lines of “I haven’t had a Christmas like this in my entire life.” Or “haven’t had a Christmas like this since before the war.”

That really warmed Abby’s heart. She couldn’t recall feeling so contented. Despite being so exhausted. She had never made a big meal like that before. She truly was afraid she couldn’t pull it off, she had seen her mother make the Christmas meal every year. She had helped of course, but she was never allowed to do anything really important, and this year she did it all!

Abby sat in the living room watching the boys play with their new toys. She got Devlin toys soldiers, she could tell by the look on Jonathan’s face he wasn’t very happy about it, but Devlin was thrilled so Jon didn’t say anything. She felt Jon come into the room, but didn’t turn around. She simply put her hand on her stomach, the baby was kicking again.

“The dinner was amazing,” Jon said to her as he sat next to her.

“Thank you,” she said looking at him.

“You didn’t ask for your present.”

“Well I just assumed I didn’t get one,” she said tightly. She didn’t know why he was bringing it up, Abby didn’t throw a fit this morning when there wasn’t anything under the tree for her. Despite the fact that Abby had used her credit at the store to get him a nice gift. It was a pocket watch. She took it to be engraved.

“With all my love -Abby” Abby thought long, and hard about everyone’s gifts. Most especially’s Jonathan’s.

“Of course you get one.” Jonathan said as he placed a beautiful locket on her neck.

“Now there’s no picture in it. I figured we could wait until the baby is born and have all the kids in the photograph. The town doesn’t have a photographer, but some one comes every year and does them.” Abby admired the simple but beautiful circular silver locket that Jonathan placed around her neck. It was beautiful.

“I would love that,” she said with a large smile. Jonathan smiled back at her,

“You made the Christmas amazing.”

“It was amazing wasn’t it?” Jonathan smiled as they walked upstairs and put the boys to bed. Abby laid down as Jonathan read the boys a quick bedtime story. It was their nightly routine. Abby took off her dress and got in bed, trying to get comfortable. The feat being near impossible being so far along in the pregnancy.

Devlin went to bed that night clutching his tiny metal soldiers in his small hands. He had asked his father forever for him to get him these, but for some reason his daddy always said no. He asked his daddy’s new wife one time and she got them for him. Devlin didn’t miss the adult by play that went on when he opened the present. His daddy was mad that his wife got them for him. However, his wife simply said that Santa got them for him since he was a good boy. Devlin wasn’t a baby, he knew there was no Santa. However, when Cullen squealed and yelled “santa” Devlin went along with him. But Devlin knew the truth.

Devlin tried to think of his real mommy, but it had been so long that he was starting to forget what she looked like, what she sounded like. Daddy never wanted to talk about her, not until Abby came. He didn’t want to admit it, but Abby made a lot of things better. But he still missed his mommy.

Devlin wasn’t so sure his mommy was a nice person though. She would meet with lots of other men when daddy wasn’t home. They would do odd things, but the thing that always stood out was she said to him “daddy can never know about this.” Devlin agreed, but didn’t know what he was agreeing to in the first place. Maybe he would talk to Abby in the morning.