She reached the table, picked up three spoons, and buried the round ends in one of her apple cobblers.
Gulping for air, the twins stopped short of ramming into her side. Their brows were creased with concern. “What do you need, Miz Warner?” they asked at once.
“I need you to eat this cobbler,” she said as she handed the bowl to them. “And you can share it with anyone you want to.”
“Even Clay?” one twin asked.
“Anyone,” she repeated with a brisk nod.
“Thank you, Miz Warner,” they said before walking away, holding the bowl between them, and taking such small steps that she wasn’t certain they’d reach their destination before nightfall.
She crossed her arms beneath her breasts. It wasn’t much. It probably wasn’t enough. Watching as the twins approached the large wagon where a man sat alone, she suddenly felt as though nothing would ever be enough.
Meg watched Helen pour water over the dirt. Her four-year-old daughter, Melissa, plopped on the ground.
“Give her a mud puddle, and she’s happy,” Helen said as she sat beside Meg and Sally Graham beneath the shade of the tree.
“Dr. Martin said there’s no reason Tom and I can’t have lots of children,” Sally said quietly.
Reassuringly, Meg took her hand. “I’m sure you’ll have more children.”
Sally blushed. “Tom is so good to me. I don’t know what I’d do without him. I don’t know how all you widows survived. You’re only a little older than me, but you all lost your husbands.”
Tom appeared with a glass in his hand and knelt beside her chair. “Here you are, Sally, honey. I brought you some lemonade.”
Tom’s tender expression caused the loneliness to surround Meg. Only a few years difference in ages had carved out different lives for the women in the area. While Daniel bemoaned the fact that he’d been born too late, she wished she and Kirk had not been born quite so soon.
As though her thoughts conjured him, Daniel strode toward them. “Tom!” he yelled.
With fire raging in his blue eyes, he glanced briefly at Meg before turning his attention to Tom. “Holland took the twins to the river. While he’s gone, some of us are gonna take down the boards he nailed up. You wanna help?”
“Why are you gonna do that?” Tom asked.
“So he’ll know he’s not wanted and he’ll leave.”
“I think he probably figured out he wasn’t wanted when we all walked away this morning. He’s not stupid.”
“No, but he’s a yellow-bellied coward. Hell, Tom, you enlisted as soon as you were old enough.”
“Yeah, but my regiment never left the state. We just sat at the Louisiana border waiting for the Yankees to come. They never did. I never even fired my rifle at a man.”
“That ain’t the point,” Daniel said. “The point is you were willing to do your part. He wasn’t.”
“Tom’s right, Daniel,” Meg said. “Just let him finish his side, and he’ll go home.”
“Damn it, Meg, I think you’re getting soft. Are you forgetting it was your husband and our brothers he didn’t stand by? I can’t believe you gave him your cobbler.”
“I didn’t give it to him. I gave it to his brothers.”
“Knowing full well they’d share it with him. I told you last night I wanted to do something to preserve the memory of my brothers. Well, this is it. You coming, Tom?”
“Nope, I won’t help him, but I’m not gonna undo his work.”
“Then we’ll do it without you.”
Meg watched her brother storm back toward the barn. She knew he harbored feelings of guilt because he hadn’t been old enough to enlist alongside his brothers, but until today she hadn’t realized the full extent of her family’s hatred. If they discovered she’d spent time with Clay …
She closed her eyes, not wanting to think about what they might do. This land had too many trees growing on it.
