Page 432 of Conveniently Wed
“Katherine.” Josiah gentled the voice that wanted to scream. “Tell me who this man was to you before I lose my mind.”
“Yes, Philadelphia.” She dropped her gaze again. “They lived with his aunt and uncle, the Warrens, and we met him at school. He was a couple years older, closer to my brothers’ age, so he didn’t stay in school long, but long enough for the two of us to hit it off. He often joined my brothers and me for an afternoon of fishing and swimming.”
She’d been swimming with Charles? He could imagine the young man splashing and laughing and ogling her beauty.Josiah’s blood boiled in his veins. Drums beat in his temples. He clamped his lips shut so he wouldn’t say anything he’d regret.
Katherine looked at him as if to receive permission to continue.
“Carry on,” Josiah said with what sounded like strangled encouragement even to his ears.
She offered him a forced smile and stared at the grandfather clock behind his head, as if unable to make eye contact.
“I cried the day he left to join the army. He promised to return, refusing to say good-bye.” Her voice warbled. “I never saw him again.” Tears slipped free of her thick lashes, and pressed her eyes shut.
Silence filled the room except for the tick of the clock. Josiah was doing everything he could not to get up and leave. He hated himself for being so jealous, so tortured, so not present when she was so clearly distraught. He dug in his pocket and handed her his handkerchief. It was the most he could offer.
She dabbed at the watery flow and twisted the square cloth into a tight ball. Her every nuance cried out pain. He felt the agony for a whole different reason. Would she cry if something happened to him? Maybe, but not the way she obviously still ached for this Charles fellow.
“My parents had a terrible marriage,” Colby said. “Father’s infidelity finally broke my mother. They came to an agreement to separate.”
Katherine stared as if hanging on Colby’s every word in a way that nearly drove Josiah insane.
“Mother told me she was going to visit her sister in the Shenandoah Valley, yet looking back, I realize the tears she shed that day… She took Charles and never returned.”
Katherine gasped. “That must’ve been so difficult. I know Charles often talked of his older brother and how much he missed you. But he said he couldn’t leave his mother.”
“Father finally confessed. They’d agreed that I would stay and help him run the business, being the eldest, and Mother would take Charles, her baby. The two of us were separated without knowing it was to be a permanent arrangement. I’ll never understand, nor forgive, either of them for that.” His voice thickened.
Katherine reached across the table and squeezed Colby’s hand. “I’m sorry.”
Josiah fisted his hands in his lap. He should be consoling his friend, but he couldn’t get his anger under control.
Colby gave them a sad smile. “Just before the war broke out, I realized Charles and I could end up fighting against each other. There was no way I was letting that happen. So, I left before travel got impossible. I told father I wouldn’t return until I found Charles. We argued. I told him what I thought of how he’d treated Mother. He called me a coward and said how ashamed he was of me.”
“Why?” Josiah found his voice.
“He thought I was making excuses to run off so I wouldn’t have to fight. I didn’t care what he thought. There was no way I was lifting a gun against my brother. I tracked down my relatives and found Mother. But by that time, the war had started, and Charles had already enlisted. The only way to find him and not get shot on the spot was to join the Confederate Army. They never questioned me since my brother was already on the roster.”
Colby looked at Josiah, his words flooded with affection. “That’s when I met you, my friend. You were like my lost brother. In the midst of such horror, you held me steady. How will I ever be able to thank you?”
Josiah’s anger melted, and guilt seeped in. How had he allowed jealousy to get the best of him? “You did the same for me, brother. You did the same for me.”
“Did you find him?” Katherine asked. The way her eyes followed Colby, the compassion in her voice, and her inquiry of Charles, all rubbed like salt in Josiah’s wound.
“No.” Colby cleared his throat of the emotion. “Later, I learned that Charles died in those first months of war. My uncle said that Mother wrote me when she received notification of his death, but the letter never reached me, nor did the news that Mother died of diphtheria not long after.”
“You lost your mother too?” Katherine asked. “I hadn’t heard.”
“And Father. It wasn’t until the war was over and I returned to this valley that my uncle handed me a letter from Father’s solicitor. He requested I return home to settle family affairs. My father had enlisted and not survived either.” The pain in his voice leaked through.
“In the span of a few years, you lost your whole family?” Katherine’s eyes filled with tears.
Colby nodded, his eyes showing the depth of his pain.
Josiah couldn’t help but think how the same had happened to him, and he didn’t remember her tears when he’d told the story. It seemed her heart immediately connected with Colby in a deep way.
19
The meal passed in a blur. Katie felt as if she’d seen a ghost. The face of her sweet, sweet Charles sat across from her. His voice spoke a story she didn’t want to believe. She answered each question directed her way and nodded when it seemed appropriate, but her mind wandered miles away.
