Free Texas Lucky by Maggie James Page A

count, but she enjoyed pitting him against her many other suitors. Still, he was the one she sneaked out of the house to be with at night, and he was the one to whom she had given her virginity on a moss-covered creek bank. He was confident that when she was ready to settle down, she would choose him.
    Then war broke out. Jordan Comstock formed a regiment and got himself elected captain, letting Curt know in no uncertain terms that he was expected to join up.
    He hadn’t wanted to leave Mary Lou, but she had made a flag for the regiment, and when she gave it to him the day they left, she had burst into tears, thrown her arms around him, and promised to marry him as soon as he came home.
    So Curt had marched off to war, bursting with joy to think she had finally said yes, and began counting the days till he could return and make her his wife.
    Only days turned to weeks, then months and years. He never got back to Texas during all that time, because he became so embroiled in the fighting that all else was pushed from his mind as he became one of the South’s most courageous soldiers.
    Not long into the war, Jordan was wounded bad enough to send him home, so Curt had taken over the regiment, which was almost completely wiped out at Gettysburg. After that, he had formed a kind of renegade cavalry unit that became legendary.
    Finally, when the last shot was fired, the last flag waved, Curt had gone home to Mary Lou…only to discover she had married someone else.
    The fire sputtered and popped, bringing him back to the present. The flames were dying, but he was not going to try to keep it going…like he so foolishly had attempted to do with his love for Mary Lou.
    Jordan had given him his old job back, and he had taken it because he didn’t know what the hell he was going to do with his life.
    He tasted bitter bile to remember how Mary Lou had brazenly sneaked into his room over the barn his very first night home, crying and begging his forgiveness for not waiting. She had described how, with her father sick and her mother crying all the time, she hadn’t known what to do and had been desperate. An only child, there was no one but her to take care of things, and when Tom Padgett, a much older man who owned the adjoining spread, proposed, her mother made her accept, saying it was the only way they could survive.
    Curt had been drinking when she came to his room. He had sat on the side of his bed, stonily listening and continuing to sip whiskey, as she knelt beside him, arms wrapped about his legs, head on his knees, and wept her tale.
    At first he had been angry, but gradually he began to think she might be telling the truth, especially when she pointed out that she had merely been a victim of the war like so many other people and driven to do whatever was necessary in order to survive.
    She had also said she still loved him with all her heart and soul. That was when he had finally taken her in his arms. They had made love with abandon till just before the first light of day forced them apart, lest Mary Lou be seen leaving the barn.
    Thus began their illicit love, although Mary Lou insisted it would not always be that way. She would divorce Tom, she swore, as soon as her father died. His war wounds had left him weak. He had a bad heart. The doctor said he probably did not have long to live. So Curt had to be patient, she said, because if she left Tom, it might upset her father and hasten his death, and she did not want that on her conscience.
    Believing her—believing that she loved him and meant every word she said——Curt reluctantly accepted the situation. It was, however, a kind of hell, living with the deception, knowing she belonged to another man, worrying they would get caught…as well as feeling guilt for wishing Jordan Comstock would die.
    And then he did.
    Curt went through the motions of grief, all the while wondering how long it would be before Mary Lou asked Tom for a divorce.
    He would lay away at night, arms