Little Love Affair (Southern Romance Series, #1) Read Online Free

wondered how to ask his friend more about his home without tipping his hand.
    “When I was young—” Horace hissed in pain as one of the bandages came away. “We would play blind man’s bluff in the forest. A summer storm came up and we lost my sister. My father was so mad. Even when we found her, he still beat me. It was the first time he told me I had to protect her.”
    “I’ll get you back to your family,” Jasper said, and though he had meant to comfort his friend, he saw narrowed eyes when he looked up. Damn, he hadn’t meant to say that.
    “Where are we, Jasper? Yes, yes. A hut. In the forest. Now the whole truth.”
    Jasper dipped one of the makeshift bandages in the hot water and dabbed at the wound before replying.
    “Pennsylvania.” He could not bring himself to meet his friend’s eyes. He swallowed as he cleaned dried blood from the wound. No matter how he tried to change the bandages each day, the redness seemed to be spreading down Horace’s arm, and the man winced when Jasper touched the inflamed flesh.
    Horace let him bind the wound in silence, but his eyes were faraway, the delirium very far gone. When Jasper asked about the pain, headshakes were his only answer.
    “You shouldn’t have done this,” Horace said at last.
    “What was I going to do, leave you?”
    “Yes. Go home to...” Horace’s voice trailed away, but he rallied. “Your town needs you, Jasper.”
    “What’s the point in rebuilding when the Union can burn it all down again?” Jasper asked bitterly. He sighed and dipped another bandage in water, beginning to dress the wound again.
    “They’re trying to preserve one country,” Horace chastised him, and Jasper’s head came up.
    “What?”
    Horace had been one of the Confederacy’s staunchest supporters, nodding around the fire as the men spoke of their families and their defense of the south. He had given all of them courage. To hear him utter kind words about the Union was shocking.
    “Slavery.”
    “Yes.” Jasper nodded. “We need it. I know. They’ll see someday. You’ll get better and we’ll show them.”
    Horace’s lips moved and Jasper could hardly make out the words.
    “...shouldn’t...”
    “Try to rest.”
    “You shouldn’t be here. Neither of us should.”
    “What good would it have done if you died in the camp? You know they don’t have the supplies for this.”
    “You’re well,” Horace insisted. “You should go home, before someone spots you. Two people attract more notice than one.”
    “You’re not well enough to travel on your own,” Jasper said bluntly. “And without this food, we’d be close to starving. Two people attract more luck than one too.”
    “Luck?”
    “A woman in the farmhouse down the hill gave us this.”
    “You were seen ? Jasper, we have to leave.”
    “She brought food, not soldiers. It’s been hours. If they were going to kill us, they would have. She’ll...I think she’ll let us be. What?”
    “Your face looks...odd.” Horace coughed slightly and winced.
    “It’s nothing.” Jasper realized he had been staring into the middle distance and shook his head to clear it.
    “You’ve been away from civilization too long if you’re getting misty-eyed over some old farmer’s wife.” Horace lay back with a wince.
    “She was...young.” Jasper busied himself trying to wash out the old bandages. He would need to take them to the creek nearby, but there was time enough for that at dawn. His mind was only half on the task, however. “She was beautiful.”
    “A young famer’s wife.” Horace tried to laugh and his breath caught.
    “Unmarried.” Jasper thought back to her hands without a ring on them and felt a ridiculous stab of hope. Nothing more foolish than a young man’s heart, his father had said once, and it was surely true. Jasper’s heart, apparently, could not tell the difference between an upstanding southern woman and a Yankee oppressor.
    “Oh?”
    “Yes.” He tried to harden his heart,