Surrender the Wind Read Online Free PDF Page B

birthday. “They would not venture to do so themselves?”
    “Hardly. Women of the South depend on their men folk, their husbands to care for them.”
    “There is no need for a woman to depend on a man. A ridiculous notion.” Her hands froze in her lap. She had asked, high-placed friends of the Fitzgerald’s to intervene but one by one they withdrew fearful of Francis Mallory’s powerful political machine. She had gone to her family’s lawyers, and they challenged Mallory. Two of them had been found dead in their front yards, the rest backed away. No more could she risk anyone else’s life. In a letter, she poured out her heart to her uncle and both decided that for the time being, disappearing was her only option. The blue jay lifted off the branch and took flight.
    “You’ve never had an attachment?”
    “I didn’t say that.” A smile curved her lips and her thoughts pulled back to Jimmy O’Hara, a scrappy thirteen-year old, orphan who never ceased to amaze her. Found in the alley outside the orphanage her family had built, and shot in the leg, he had begged her not to tell anyone. The boy touched her heart and sympathetic to his cause, Catherine ordered her driver to convey them to her home. She had Jimmy placed in the room next to hers and summoned, Dr. Parks, the family physician and assisted him in removing the bullet. He congratulated Catherine, admired her mettle and disdained the condescension bred in her peers. He encouraged her to assist him in his surgeries at MacDougall Hospital where they were short of hands due to the high influx of wounded soldiers.
    Despite Agatha’s objection to having Jimmy in the house, Catherine fed, changed bandages, played checkers, bought him new clothes and taught him how to read. He was a quick learner, so she engaged a tutor for him. The orphan grew stronger, more filled out, his eyes a sparkle. Jimmy taught Catherine tricks in the scandalous game of poker, regaled her with tales of his years as a street-rat, and educated her about real-life beyond the protected walls of her world. They had forged a special bond, Jimmy like a little brother. She was saddened when the restless Jimmy chose to return to the freedom of the streets. She made him promise to keep up with his lessons. Jimmy told her he’d look out for her, although she doubted he would have any wherewithal since he was so young.
    “Of course not. Was it lacking in your appeal?” John asked.
    Lacking in her appeal? That jerked her out of her woolgathering. Her hands balled into fists. “I was the toast of New—”
    “Go on,” the Reb waited.
    Stupid. He was far too clever in drawing her out. She veered to a more cerebral discussion. “I believe the great experiment of democracy our forefathers began must be preserved. Less than a century later, we are fighting against each other. Is all to be lost? The experiment, this idea, must work and must be steeped in form and tradition. The Union cannot be allowed to divide—to diminish the greatness of what it will be—to understand that our United States is part of a larger idea and to be preserved at all costs. The South has never left England with its inherent aristocracy.” She would not yield on her opinion of the war. It was more than about war and the cause of morals and humanity than just politics. Those beliefs had become unshakable and ingrained in her heart as well.
    “You Northerners with your large cities full of rabble and decay espouses one notion of liberty, yet ignores our plea for freedom to choose the life we wish.”
    To hear the censure in his tone was music, how stimulating to turn the tables on him, and as stirring as her escape had been from New York. Two days before, Catherine had informed her stepmother, she was shopping for the orphans and climbed into the Brougham Coach. Mallory’s thugs followed her. In the city’s traffic, a horrendous shouting and screaming pierced the air. Catherine looked behind her. A runaway cart