Heart of Glass Read Online Free PDF Page B

she told Eugenie. “And for her parents, God rest their souls.”
    Eugenie smiled through forming tears. “Miss Kate, I know you’re gonna have Mr. Colin up and around real soon.”
    Relieved to have an ally, Kate smiled.
    “Thank you, Eugenie. Colin is going to have my help whether he wants it or not.”
    G ray skies cast Colin’s sanctuary into a gloom that matched his mood as he tried to forget the sight of the audacious young woman who had flounced out a few minutes earlier.
    The last time he’d seen Katie Keene was on the eve of the war. She had been silent as a shadow, a bookish thirteen-year-old withwren-brown hair and owlish blue eyes trapped behind overly large spectacles.
    He had no idea where or how she had weathered the war years, but from the look of her expensive getup and new boots, the Keenes had survived far better than the Delanys and
Belle Fleuve
.
    Slowly shifting positions, Colin gritted his teeth and cursed his injury. The incessant pain in his shattered ankle never diminished. The laudanum he’d just downed made it hard to recall Kate Keene’s explanation for her appearance. Something about restoring the house.
    With what? Was he supposed to pull money out of thin air?
    What he’d saved from his army pay was almost gone. On his way back he’d heard talk of federal troops being withdrawn and home rule restored to Louisiana. Once the carpetbaggers were out of office, the reinstated government would demand any current taxes he owed.
    Why bring the house back to life just to lose it? It was hard enough living day to day; he was in no condition to worry about the future.
    He pictured the smiling, undeterred Miss Keene and her irritating stubbornness. Last time he’s seen her he’d been what? Seventeen? Wealthy and confident, he’d known who he was and what he was destined to become. His future as a prominent Louisiana planter was assured.
    He’d planned to go on a world tour after the war and had been sure he’d end up marrying someone stunningly beautiful, equally wealthy, and well connected. His Confederate uniform turned many lovely heads.
    They were all shocked when the war dragged on and on. Within a handful of years, his family, wealth, and future were gone. Now Kate Keene was back, a living reminder of everything he’d lost.
    She and Amelie had been constant companions. Their fathers had been close too; members of the Irish community descended from the first-wave immigrants who helped found New Orleans.
    Gil Keene was a wealthy banker who, along with his wife, Nola, preferred spending most of his time at a townhome in New Orleans rather than with Kate at their plantation, Captain’s Landing, which neighbored
Belle Fleuve
. They’d left Kate on her own so often she became a fixture here. Though she was always around, she’d been so unobtrusive he remembered little about her. A watchful, quiet child, she was always just
there
, easily overshadowed by his vivacious, lovely little sister.
    Colin rubbed his temple, attempting to ease a throbbing headache in his muddled head. When someone knocked at the door he yelled, “Go away, Miss Keene.”
    “It’s me, Mr. Colin. Come with your dinner.”
    Not Kate Keene, but Eugenie.
    “Come in, then.”
    The woman opened the door, carefully balancing a tray. She halted just inside and stared at the pieces of broken vase littering the floor. Eugenie shook her head and fussed as she set down the tray and then went back outside, returning with a washbowl that she placed on the table near Colin. She struck a match and carefully lit the oil lamp, then pulled a straight razor and scissors out of her apron pocket.
    Colin nodded toward the washbowl. “What’s all this?”
    “Thought since you have company you might like to shave and clean up a bit.”
    “You thought wrong. I told Miss Keene to leave. She’s not wanted here.”
    “She’s not going.”
    “Tell her I’m flat broke, Eugenie. That ought to do it.”
    “Miss Kate don’t care