A Most Unsuitable Match Read Online Free PDF Page B

shaking his head, “now that’s impressive.”
    “What about your begats?”
    “Now, son, you know how it is with us. I was born in Tennessee at a place called Belle Meade. Don’t know who my papa was. Mama’s name was Grace. She worked in the kitchen. I don’t recall it real well, except I know something bad happened when I was barely old enough to talk. All I remember is screaming. I’m thinking she got burned. Anyway, after she died, an old groom name of Henry found me crying in the stable one day. I grew up helping him and trying not to get kicked or stepped on. Mostly I succeeded. Soon as the Federals arrived in Nashville, I took the opportunity to offer my services to a General Scofield. That’s where I met a young officer name of Otto Busch. Dragged him off a battlefield and to a surgeon and been trailing him ever since.”
    Samuel turned to look at Lamar. “You saved Captain Busch’s life?”
    The old man shrugged. “He seems to think so.” He chuckled. “If he didn’t think that, I’d have been kicked off the Delores a long while ago.”
    Samuel closed the Bible, leaned back, and closed his eyes just as thunder rolled in and the skies opened. A couple of the horses tethered nearby seemed nervous. Lamar got up to calm them, and Samuel followed suit. As the two men stroked the animals’ broad necks and spoke to them, water poured off the upper deck in a torrent that made Samuel feel like he was on the back side of a waterfall. Then, just as quickly as it had begun, the storm ceased. The animals whickered softly, and if he didn’t know better, Samuel would have thought they sounded relieved. When he said as much, Lamar chuckled. Someone opened a door above them on the hurricane deck. Feminine laughter spilling into the night made Samuel think of Emma.
    A freighter Samuel had questioned on the levee early that morning remembered seeing her. “Red hair, pale green eyes, you say?” He spat a stream of tobacco juice onto the cobblestones. “Saw her with Major Chadwick. They boarded a steamer bound for Fort Rice just a few days ago.” The freighter squinted up at Samuel. “Too bad about that scar.”
    It had to be Emma. Just thinking about it made Samuel reach up to touch his cheek. He would have to get off at every stop along the way north. Emma had famously dark moods because of that scar. If Major Chadwick decided she was more than he could handle— The idea of Emma’s being abandoned at some woodlot or village between St. Louis and Fort Rice was enough to keep Samuel awake half the night.

    “Let me by, little miss.”
    Relief at the sound of Hannah’s voice made Fannie weak in the knees. She turned, pressing her back to the wall so she could look up. How had Hannah made it all the way down the stairs so quietly? The old woman slid past her and, as moonlight illuminated her profile, Fannie saw Hannah raise her left hand and brandish a—curtain rod?!
    She grabbed Hannah’s arm. “We should just slip out the door,” she whispered, and bent down to set her small lamp on a stair. Apparently that was what Hannah had had in mind all along, for without a word, she reached for Fannie’s hand, and together, the two women padded outside. Fannie longed to run, but she couldn’t leave Hannah behind. “Give me that,” she said, and reached for the curtain rod.
    Hannah resisted. “No offense, little miss, but if we’re to face a criminal, I’d trust my own right arm before yours.”
    Hannah was right. Fannie couldn’t imagine doing violence to anyone. From the look on Hannah’s face, the older woman would be disappointed if she didn’t get the opportunity to swing at someone. Grateful for her bravado, Fannie followed her across the side yard toward the archway that led into the Beauvaises’ garden. The further they got from the house, the more ridiculous Fannie felt. “We’re going to feel like fools when it’s discovered that the wind blew that side door open.”
    Hannah didn’t seem to