The Outsider Read Online Free PDF Page B

that he’d offer comment, outraged by his opinion.
    “Noble Banning was a Confederate officer, sir. I doubt he’d jump at the chance to betray the South by joining an enemy army just to escape a little discomfort. Our boys are bred for better fortitude and honor than that.”
    Dodge didn’t back down from her cutting claim. Instead he said, “Funny, how eating biscuits crawling with weevils tends to change a man’s thoughts on honor.”
    Starla set down her tableware with a demonstrative force. “What an unappetizing observation,Lieutenant Dodge. Apparently you have no consideration for the delicate constitutions of those with whom you dine.”
    Dodge blinked. “Beg your pardon, ma’am, but you don’t look all that delicate, and I was just stating a fact to make a point.”
    “And your point was what, sir? That our men are spineless cowards who value their personal comforts over the duty they swore to uphold?”
    “That’s not a conclusion I would ever draw after facing so many of them in battle, ma’am.”
    “Or were you merely judging them on the basis of your own lack of fortitude? I am sure that, had you found yourself in such a situation, you’d have been quick to do the smart thing and betray the Cause you professed to follow.”
    Patrice looked anxiously between her guests, then to Reeve, who simply leaned back in his chair as if watching a mortar volley. He rebuffed her pointed stare imploring that he do something, offering her a bland smile that forced her to say with false gaiety, “Would anyone care for pie?”
    But Dodge and Starla were locked in a battle of wills across the tabletop. Neither looked ready to concede an inch in philosophy, because the tension tugging taut between them had as much to do with attraction as it did opposing politics—unwise attraction on Dodge’s part, unwilling on Starla’s.
    “I didn’t fight for a cause, Miss Fairfax,” Dodge continued, as if Patrice hadn’t spoken. “I wore a uniform to hold together a country I love against those who would betray its sanctity. I didn’t see it as an engagement of ideals or an arena in which toexpress political differences at the cost of thousands of lives. Honor and ideals are the first things that fall when men go to war. When you’re looking down the breeches of a dozen artillery pieces aimed to blow your gizzard to kingdom come, your only duty is to keep yourself and the men you’re responsible for alive. That’s not cowardice, ma’am, it’s survival. And it’s nothing a fine lady like you, whose family never lost so much as a night’s sleep over the compunctions of duty or honor, could discuss with any degree of insight or opinion.”
    Then Dodge reared back as the contents of Starla’s glass splashed his face, stinging his eyes. By the time he’d dried off, she’d already left the table.
    Patrice was quick with both a towel and an apology.
    “Dodge, I’m sorry. I don’t know what got into her to behave so impulsively.”
    “I’d say it’s the lady’s way of sharing a high degree of opinion.”

Chapter 3
    Starla didn’t pause in brushing her hair when she heard light footsteps behind her.
    “If you’ve come to scold me, go ahead. I deserve it for spoiling your dinner party.”
    Patrice took the brush from her and began to sweep it through the heavy waves of black hair in steady repetitions, a task she’d often undertaken when they were younger to calm her high-strung friend.
    “I didn’t come to scold you. I suppose putting you two at the same table involved a degree of risk. Something like a keg of powder and a lit match.”
    “Then why invite the odious man?”
    “That ‘odious man’ saved both our lives, and I happen to be very fond of him.”
    Starla sniffed. “I don’t see why. Arrogant, opinionated, rude—” She broke off when she saw the smile in Patrice’s reflection.
    “I knew you’d like him.”
    “Like him?”
    “There were enough sparks flying at that table to celebrate