The Revelation of Louisa May Read Online Free PDF

warned. “He’s too old for you.”
    â€œMother!” Louisa felt the flush rise in her cheeks and she wished for one moment that Marmee’s eyes weren’t so sharp.
    â€œNever mind, my dear. Your calf-love is safe in his hands. Henry’s a good man, not one to tease you. You’re only young once.” She kissed Louisa on the cheek. “Now go.”
    As Louisa pulled her shawl around her shoulders, she thought how her youth was mostly being devoured by hard work and poverty. But not today.
    Today she was saving a fugitive.
    And she would have the chance to talk with Henry David Thoreau.

CHAPTER FOUR

    The dim, dusty room, with . . . the wilderness of
books in which she could
wander where she liked, made the library a region
of bliss to her
.
    D eep in thought, Louisa stepped into the road without paying attention.
    â€œWatch out!” A man on a black horse cantered along the road directly in her path. Louisa fell against the gate into the dust. The rider pulled back on the reins and his horse wheeled to a halt, rearing, its front legs pawing the air above Louisa’s head.
    Cursing, the rider dismounted and threw his reins around the gatepost. “Are you blind? I could have killed you!”
    Louisa patted herself and realized that she was bruised but not broken. However, her sharp tongue had not suffered any damage. “You should look where you are going! What kind of idiot rides that fast along a main road in town?”
    Squinting her eyes against the sun, Louisa tried to get the measure of the stranger. She couldn’t see his face clearly, but she had earned enough money as a seamstress to know his clothes were expensively tailored. He wore a top hat covered with dust from the road and his pale hair spilled out from beneath the brim onto his thick neck. Not young, but not old, perhaps in his early thirties.
    â€œI was in a hurry,” he replied tersely. In his voice, she heard a hint of the South.
    â€œHardly an excuse for running me down,” Louisa replied. She knew she was being impertinent, but her bottom hurt from the fall. With dismay, she saw her skirt had a rip.
    He reached out to help her up. “I rather think you stepped in front of me. This was your fault.”
    Feeling ridiculous and at a disadvantage, Louisa clambered to her feet, ignoring his outstretched hand. “I disagree. You were riding recklessly. This road is used by children and livestock, all moving at reasonable rates of speed. If you aren’t careful the next time, you’ll kill someone.”
    He took a deep breath, as if to control his temper. Louisa recognized the technique; she often used it herself with varying degrees of success. “Young lady, I beg your pardon,” he said, his tone suddenly courteous. “What I did was unforgivable.”
    â€œI do pardon you,” she said, knowing she should apologize in her turn, but he had put her back up.
    His lips twitched, perhaps to resist smiling at her rudeness. “My name is Russell Finch,” he said. She inclined her head, acknowledging the introduction but still wary. In her experience people did not go from rude to ingratiating without a hidden motive.
    â€œI’m from Concord originally,” he said. “I’d be very grateful if you can tell me where Henry Thoreau might be found.”
    â€œHenry Thoreau?” she repeated, eyeing Finch. She didn’t like the look of this stranger. He could ask her until doomsday before he would get any information from her about Henry. “I’ve heard the name, but I don’t think I know him.”
    His pale gray eyes stared her down in return. “Really? Unless Concord has gotten much bigger in my absence, I find that hard to believe.”
    She shrugged and started walking, leaving him behind. She heard him mount his horse and come up behind her at a decorous pace. “Well, thank you, Miss . . .” He paused,