The Colonel's Lady by Laura Frantz Read Free Book Online

best. To her father, and only her father, did she truly matter.
    And so here she was—a surprise.

    Bella watched Roxanna slip a darning egg in a stocking she was knitting. “You sure is handy with a needle. How many o’ them socks have you made yo’ pa? The way you’re goin’, I ain’t ever goin’ to have to wash a one. He’ll have a new pair every day o’ the week all year round.”
    Sheepish, Roxanna looked at the overflowing basket at her feet. “I can give some to the regulars who need them—the ones who don’t have any womenfolk to tend them.”
    “Oh, there’s plenty o’ that kind around here. Just be careful who you give ’em to lest they think you come with ’em.”
    Roxanna managed a halfhearted smile. Bella couldn’t possibly know about the broken betrothal—or her age. Past spinsterhood, she was. The reminder nipped at her with fierce little claws, though it was the memory of her mother’s reprimands that most haunted.
    Roxanna, how many times must I tell you not to slouch so? Proper posture is essential to the female form. No man wants a hunchback for a wife!
    I’d never thought to have a spinster daughter. By your age I’d been wed eight years and become a mother three times over.
    Are you applying lemon juice to your complexion? Why, you’re as brown as an Indian! If I catch you without your bonnet one more time . . .
    I suppose you might have a chance with one of your father’s soldier friends, though the very idea makes me shudder. Look what marrying beneath one’s station did in my case. You must promise me   . . .
    Roxanna sighed. “I promised Mama I’d not marry a soldier. And I doubt I’d tempt one—or be tempted.”
    Bella clucked her tongue. “You ain’t met Colonel McLinn.”
    “No, but I’ve heard about him.”
    “Hearin’ ain’t seein’. ”
    She looked up from her knitting in surprise. “Why, Bella, you sound bewitched by him.”
    “Law, Miz Roxanna. I just wash his clothes and tidy his house. Every woman from here to Virginny is smitten with him. Settlement gals come canoein’ upriver just to eyeball him. He’s that handsome. Some say the Almighty was so pleased after He made the one that He had to make two.”
    Twin McLinns? “He has a brother, then?” Roxanna’s interest piqued and her needles picked up in rhythm. “Papa never described Colonel McLinn to me except to say he’s the finest officer he’s ever served under since Light-Horse Harry Lee.”
    “Hmmm.” Bella got up to take the hissing kettle off the fire. “Them’s mighty fine words. Your pa was always one to find the good in folks.”
    The scent of sassafras, brewed strong and pink, warmed the pewter mug Bella handed her. Abandoning her knitting, Roxanna sipped it gratefully, thinking she hadn’t been warm since her arrival. She sat opposite Bella in a rare idle moment, and they huddled close enough to the flames to singe their hair and homely dresses. Like a pair of old crows they were, Roxanna thought, drinking tea and trying not to gossip. But the fodder in the fort provided plenty, and it seemed Bella was about to enlighten her further.
    “Your pa ain’t uttered one bad word against Colonel McLinn?”
    “Not one,” she answered honestly, thinking back to the letters he’d sent since coming under the colonel’s command. “I think Papa considers him something of a son, working with him so closely and all.”
    “And all .” Bella’s black brows knit together over piercing eyes.
    Obviously Bella was itching to spill some secret. Roxanna bit her tongue to keep from uttering the maxim she’d oft repeated to her pupils. Be not hasty to believe flying reports to the disparagement of any. She eyed the half-finished sock in her lap, the indigo wool soft as thistledown. She didn’t want to delve deeper—indulge in gossip. Truly, Papa had only spoken well of the man.
    Bella licked her lips. “Did your pa, saint that he is, ever mention why Colonel McLinn was sent