lack of diplomacy.
At the first opportunity, someone will point out that I employ only free people. After that, my presence will speak for itself.
At the second opportunity, I predict that someone will make mention of the fact that General Lee himself has freed his slaves. After that, no more will be said, because no one else in the delegation can claim the same status. Nor do they want to.
I must bare my personal feelings on this page, as the urgency of our mission does not allow time for a visit home. I miss you, Viola. And beyond that, I grieve for what this war may cost us. We married late, though not so late that we could not hope for children. Yet no children have come. Such a long separation at this point in our lives may take away our last hope for a family. I regret that loss deeply. But it is time with you that I miss most.
I love you, Viola, and I will come home to you.
Your adoring husband,
Jedediah
***
In his basement bedroom, Joe lay staring at the ceiling. He worried about Faye most of the time, but the worries spoke louder in his ear these days.
Was she safe? Was she happy? If she wasn’t safe or if she wasn’t happy, was there anything he could do about it?
He knew she wasn’t sleeping, though an entire floor of the vast old mansion separated them. He knew this because he knew Faye, and he had recognized the signs that she had an obsessive fit coming on. Her eyes were bright. Her voice was tense. She had a knotty problem in her sights—solving the murders of Douglass and Wally—and nothing so unnecessary as sleep would interfere with her efforts to unravel it.
He didn’t know how to help her in that quest, but he did know how to lie still and think calming thoughts. He’d always believed that an undisturbed mind sees straight to the heart of a problem. For the time being, the best thing he could do for Faye was to help her comb the tangles out of her mind. He meditated on the problem and, when he thought Faye was finally asleep, he slept, too.
Chapter Nine
“So you went to Tallahassee yesterday? You took Joe with you?”
Faye took exception to the implication that she was dim-witted or a liar. “I told you I would, and I did. I need to go back and finish yesterday’s research and I’m going the first chance I get. I’ll take Joe then, too. I’m not planning to take a bodyguard everywhere I go for the rest of my life, but I’ll keep him around for the time being, if you think it’s important. Do you really think I’m in so much danger?”
Sheriff Mike glanced around his office as if he’d rather do just about anything than argue with Faye. Such an argument would be a losing proposition, and Faye knew he lost pretty much all of the arguments at his house. He shifted in his desk chair and sighed. “I haven’t the slightest idea. You could’ve been hurt if you’d still been with Douglass when the burglars arrived, but I don’t think you were their target. Since I don’t know who stabbed Wally or why, I can’t say whether the killer would have gone after you if big, strong Joe hadn’t been standing there.”
“Why would they?”
“Well, I don’t know. But it sure doesn’t hurt to have a six-and-a-half-foot-tall man standing next to you when there’s bad guys afoot. Joe’s not complaining. I think he kinda likes looking after you. And having Joe be your bodyguard gives me something to tell your friend Ross when he calls me up, worrying about your safety. Which he does on a daily basis.” He reached in his desk drawer for his cigarettes, which weren’t there and hadn’t been there since Magda made him quit. “You have an interesting effect on men, sugar. I never met a woman who needed a male protector less—other than my wife—yet you’ve got guys fighting for the privilege. I say let them look after you, until we figure out what’s going on. After that…if they get on your nerves, I say you should kick ’em both in the butt. That’s what my charming bride
At the first opportunity, someone will point out that I employ only free people. After that, my presence will speak for itself.
At the second opportunity, I predict that someone will make mention of the fact that General Lee himself has freed his slaves. After that, no more will be said, because no one else in the delegation can claim the same status. Nor do they want to.
I must bare my personal feelings on this page, as the urgency of our mission does not allow time for a visit home. I miss you, Viola. And beyond that, I grieve for what this war may cost us. We married late, though not so late that we could not hope for children. Yet no children have come. Such a long separation at this point in our lives may take away our last hope for a family. I regret that loss deeply. But it is time with you that I miss most.
I love you, Viola, and I will come home to you.
Your adoring husband,
Jedediah
***
In his basement bedroom, Joe lay staring at the ceiling. He worried about Faye most of the time, but the worries spoke louder in his ear these days.
Was she safe? Was she happy? If she wasn’t safe or if she wasn’t happy, was there anything he could do about it?
He knew she wasn’t sleeping, though an entire floor of the vast old mansion separated them. He knew this because he knew Faye, and he had recognized the signs that she had an obsessive fit coming on. Her eyes were bright. Her voice was tense. She had a knotty problem in her sights—solving the murders of Douglass and Wally—and nothing so unnecessary as sleep would interfere with her efforts to unravel it.
He didn’t know how to help her in that quest, but he did know how to lie still and think calming thoughts. He’d always believed that an undisturbed mind sees straight to the heart of a problem. For the time being, the best thing he could do for Faye was to help her comb the tangles out of her mind. He meditated on the problem and, when he thought Faye was finally asleep, he slept, too.
Chapter Nine
“So you went to Tallahassee yesterday? You took Joe with you?”
Faye took exception to the implication that she was dim-witted or a liar. “I told you I would, and I did. I need to go back and finish yesterday’s research and I’m going the first chance I get. I’ll take Joe then, too. I’m not planning to take a bodyguard everywhere I go for the rest of my life, but I’ll keep him around for the time being, if you think it’s important. Do you really think I’m in so much danger?”
Sheriff Mike glanced around his office as if he’d rather do just about anything than argue with Faye. Such an argument would be a losing proposition, and Faye knew he lost pretty much all of the arguments at his house. He shifted in his desk chair and sighed. “I haven’t the slightest idea. You could’ve been hurt if you’d still been with Douglass when the burglars arrived, but I don’t think you were their target. Since I don’t know who stabbed Wally or why, I can’t say whether the killer would have gone after you if big, strong Joe hadn’t been standing there.”
“Why would they?”
“Well, I don’t know. But it sure doesn’t hurt to have a six-and-a-half-foot-tall man standing next to you when there’s bad guys afoot. Joe’s not complaining. I think he kinda likes looking after you. And having Joe be your bodyguard gives me something to tell your friend Ross when he calls me up, worrying about your safety. Which he does on a daily basis.” He reached in his desk drawer for his cigarettes, which weren’t there and hadn’t been there since Magda made him quit. “You have an interesting effect on men, sugar. I never met a woman who needed a male protector less—other than my wife—yet you’ve got guys fighting for the privilege. I say let them look after you, until we figure out what’s going on. After that…if they get on your nerves, I say you should kick ’em both in the butt. That’s what my charming bride
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