The Loyal Heart Read Online Free PDF Page B

kind of weight in this town,” Belle replied. “And beg pardon, but you three don’t either.”
    “Maybe not,” Winnie agreed. “But Sheriff Kern might listen to you. I think he’s sweet on ya.”
    Belle shook her head. “I don’t think so.” Sheriff Kern had moved to Galveston in the summer of ’65 and quickly been appointed sheriff. At first everyone thought it was because he was friends with the Northerners put in charge of their island. In no time, he’d corrected that misunderstanding. He told everyone that he had been loyal to the South and that it was simply his experience in the war that had enabled him to be appointed so quickly and easily.
    Most people took him at his word, but Belle had never been positive he was telling the truth. After all, he never talked about the war or where he’d served.
    Blowing out a deep breath, Cook blurted, “All I do know is that Mrs. Markham needs a champion, she does. Someone somewhere needs to step up and help her before she loses hope.”
    Belle completely agreed. But she also knew it couldn’t be her. She needed this job. The last thing she wanted to happen was to be let go for being impertinent, and denied a little recommendation to boot. “Someone will, I bet.”
    “I hope that someone does soon.” Winnie’s lips pressed together tightly. “I swear, every time I think about the way her supposed best friend Mercy Jackson turned her back on her, I want to spit nails.”
    “When I spied her pointedly ignoring Mrs. Markham on her last visit to the bank, I considered whacking that woman on the head with a saucepan, I did,” Cook stated. Glaring at Winnie, she said, “Don’t know what possessed you to mention that vixen’s name in my kitchen. You’re liable to make all the milk curdle, you are.”
    “I’m simply saying Mercy should be acting a little bit kinder to poor Mrs. Markham, seeing as her man came back from the war with hardly a scrape. She should be acting more like her name, you know.”
    “If I know anything, it’s that pain comes in all sorts of names and appearances,” Cook said. “All of us know that. Especially Mrs. Markham.”
    And, Belle realized, especially herself too. She also had suffered during the long, bloody War of Northern Aggression. All she could hope for was that no one would ever discover the things she’d had to do to survive.
    If anyone here found out, well, even these women in the kitchen would no longer give her the time of day. She’d be out of a job and out of a home.
    And once again, she’d have nothing. Nothing at all.

3

    I T WAS A JOURNEY SHE HATED , BUT IT HAD TO BE DONE . Every Friday Miranda made her way to the downtown business district, most of which was located on the Strand. It was a pretty area, and flourishing even after the war. So much so, many folks called it the Wall Street of the Southwest.
    Miranda only thought of the walk as something she had to get through as best she could. She walked quietly, striving to attract no attention to herself as she passed the row of Victorian office buildings, most of which had survived the war intact, thanks to their brick structure and cast-iron fronts.
    She would cross the small grassy expanse that filled the center of it, bypassing any number of horse-drawn carriages, groups of freedmen, exhausted from long hours working in the cotton warehouses, and noisy dockworkers eager to collect their pay. Then, at last, she would enter the bank. Once inside, she would stand in line and pretend she didn’t feel everyone’s eyes on her. As she was both ignored and observed, she would stand as straight and tall as her five foot six inches would allow. And act as if she didn’t hear the whispered comments about Phillip and the woman they all thought she’d become.
    The line would feel endless, even if there was only one person in front of her. Her nerves would grow taut, and she would coax herself to pretend nothing was amiss, that her skin hadn’t turned cold or her