Leaving Independence Read Online Free

lane. Then Rascal’s tongue licked them as they dropped, as the sorry horse she’d borrowed walked the long road back to Marston in the cold.

    When a letter from Captain Robert Charles Baldwyn arrived a week later from Idaho Territory, Abigail stood once again under the gaze of the postal clerk. But this time she did not slide the letter back into its envelope and press the flap down. She did not smile, she did not nod, and when she reached for the door, her legs were strong and ramrod straight.
    The warming wind whipped past her face and her temperature rose with every click-click-click on the sidewalk as she stepped toward home. When the sole of her boot swiveled and she turned up the walk she peeled off both gloves, her shawl, even her hat, so great was her risk of overheating.
    Mimi was in the kitchen when Abigail burst through the door and handed her the letter.
    “What’s this scrawl?” Mimi peered more closely at the letter. “That ain’t Mr. Robert’s handwritin’.”
    “His hand. Remember?”
    “Oh, that’s right.”
    His hand had been injured in a battle—two fingers shot off in a skirmish. The words were legible, just not written in Robert’s formerly neat penmanship.
    Mimi read the words aloud. “‘Abigail, it looks like you tracked me down.’”
    Her eyebrows shot together in a V.
    “‘You always were a resourceful woman, so I am sure you will figure something out on the house. Here is my suggestion, if you care to know. Sell the house. Drop those children at your father’s or leave them with the colored woman.’”
    “ The colored woman! What, he forgot my name? And those children?”
    “Keep reading.”
    “‘Come join me in Idaho Territory. I like it here and do not intend to return to Tennessee.’”
    Mimi stared at the letter a minute as if trying to process its contents. “Well, Lord have mercy. What has got into that man? The Lord ain’t whispered nothin’ about this in my ear. I had no idea, Miz Abigail. How could any decent man have that to say after so long with no word?”
    “Keep reading.”
    Mimi eyed the paper suspiciously before finishing.
    “‘You are a beautiful woman. Lord knows, I wouldn’t mind having you here.’”
    Mimi’s jaw dropped. She read over the letter again and shook her head. “I don’t know what to make of it.”
    “I told you he was altered. It’s the first time in years he’s even mentioned the children.”
    “What do you mean? He loves his children.”
    “He did when he left. I thought he loved us all.”
    Abigail paced the kitchen. Rascal, who had followed her in, stood in a safe corner and watched.
    How could Robert do this to her? She put a hand to her chest, as if that could soothe her heart. It hadn’t ached this badly in years. She looked at the letter that now lay like an unwelcome cockroach on the table. “Why couldn’t he have just died, like we thought?”
    “You don’t mean that, Miz Abigail!”
    “That would have been more kind than choosing not to come home to us!”

    That night when Charlie slapped his hand on the dinner table and said, “We should go out there,” Abigail waved the suggestion off.
    “No, I mean it.”
    Charlie, oldest of the blue-eyed Baldwyn children, was also the most serious. It wasn’t like him to be impulsive, so it surprised Abigail when he looked to Corrine, Jacob, and Lina for support. “We should go. Join him! I bet he loves it out there.” He turned back to Abigail, his eyes bright with hope. “We could make a new start. You said the banker—”
    Abigail stopped him by raising her hand. “No.”
    She knew Charlie and Corrine felt Robert’s absence the most. They had been the oldest, eleven and ten, when their father left five years ago. Charlie had wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps . . . attend law school in the East. But he’d stopped talking about it, knowing they no longer had the money. Going west was the other direction. No . . . she would think of