The Spymistress Read Online Free PDF Page A

was lost.” Mr. Lewis rested his arms on the table, his shoulders slumped in exhaustion, all formality momentarily forgotten. “For weeks, perhaps longer, our erstwhile governor and his fellow radicals have been demanding that Governor Letcher seize all federal posts in Virginia before the secession vote. He refused, again and again.”
    “More credit to him,” said Lizzie staunchly, remembering how he had sent the celebrating crowds home after the Confederates captured Fort Sumter.
    “Don’t praise him just yet. Mr. Wise must have grown impatient with Governor Letcher’s delays, because he took matters into his own hands.”
    “What? But how? What do you mean?”
    “Wise ordered the Virginia militia to seize the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry and the navy yard at Gosport across the river from Norfolk. When it was all said and done, Governor Letcher had no choice but to endorse the actions after the fact.”
    “He certainly did have a choice,” Lizzie protested, stunned. So much of her hopes for Richmond’s future depended upon Governor Letcher’s faithfulness to the Union, which seemed to have crumbled. “He could have denounced Mr. Wise’s treasonous actions. He could have had him arrested.”
    “I don’t know that he could have. All was bedlam in the Capitol, Miss Van Lew—anger surging, tempers flaring, voices rising. If Letcher had given the order, I don’t know who would have dared to carry it out.” He inhaled deeply, straightening in his chair, interlacing his long, bony fingers on the tabletop. “Near the end of the session, Mr. Wise took the floor and made the most astonishing, the most supernaturally excited speech I’ve ever witnessed.”
    “We heard something of it,” said Lizzie. “I understand he brandished a horse pistol.”
    Mr. Lewis nodded. “Brandished it, then placed it on the desk before him, then lashed out at us Unionists with supernatural fury. When he announced what the militia had done, the chamber rang with wild applause. He seemed charged with electricity, the hair standing straight up from his head. I’ve never witnessed anything like it.”
    He fell silent, his gaze far away. “All around me I could feel my friends’ courage wavering, but I could not hope to rally their spirits against such a powerful display. The vote followed only moments after Wise finished, but I knew then that we had lost, before a single ballot had been cast.”
    Lizzie clenched her hands together in her lap, aching from the effort to hold herself perfectly still. She wanted to bolt to her feet, overturn the table, raise her face to the skies, and let out a ferocious howl of rage and betrayal. But she could do nothing. She could not vote. She had no husband whose vote she could influence. There was nothing she could have done to prevent her city from hurtling itself toward disaster, and yet she must suffer the consequences of actions she had not chosen.
    They would surely be swift and terrible in coming.
    Early the next morning, after a hasty breakfast, Mr. Lewis departed, but not before confiding to Lizzie and John another startling revelation—he and other Unionist convention delegates from western counties were planning to meet at the Powhatan Hotel to discuss their next step. “We may not secede from the Union with the rest of Virginia,” he said, lowering his voice. He could not be too cautious, even within the home of longtime friends; Mary, bustling and cheerful, could scarcely contain her delight at the result of the vote that had left the rest of the household stunned and outraged, and the makings of a Confederate banner were draped over her sewing basket in the parlor. “It’s been suggested that we break off into our own separate state and remain within the Union.”
    “Is that possible?” queried John. “Is it legal? Constitutional?” Then he shook his head, exasperated with himself. “Foolish question. If Virginia can secede from the United States, western counties can