A Rebel Heart by Beth White

Author:Beth White [White, Beth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781493410996
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2018-04-11T04:00:00+00:00

“What do you think I’m doing here? I’ve come to sort out this disgraceful business venture in which you seem to have embroiled our family.” Grandmama pushed past, narrowly missing Selah’s toes with the end of her cane. Clearly her opinion of the word business equated to that of brothels and voodoo rituals. “Reminds me of that Edmondson girl, cavorting with opera singers during the war and actually carrying messages tied up in her petticoat across enemy lines.”

Aurora gave Selah a big hug and pulled back, eyes twinkling. “But Grandmama, everyone says Belle Edmondson was a heroine—”

“I’m sure she was,” Grandmama said with a sniff, “but that in no way mitigates the déclassé nature of her behavior.” She paused in the center of the rotunda to look up and around. “Well. If this place hasn’t turned into a fine pigsty.”

Suppressing a shudder, Selah thought about Mose asleep upstairs in her old bedroom, Horatia keeping watch by his side, and the library turned into a surgery, not to mention the blood, mayhem, and honeycomb in the cupola. She took her grandmother firmly by the arm and steered her toward the parlor. “It sounds like you had a difficult journey. Come sit down and rest your feet. ThomasAnne will be back any moment now with refreshments.”

“I did have a nasty, sooty journey on that cursed train. But I’ve been sitting for half the day, so I prefer to stand for a while, although some Lapsang souchong would be lovely, along with a nice teacake, if you please.” Grandmama paused in the parlor doorway, absently tapping her cane, apparently carried mainly for effect. Her silver hair was coiffed in a mass of puffs and braids, with two great black feathers waving from the top of the pile every time she moved. Her suit of bottle-green linsey-woolsey, tailored in the current bustle style, showed off her tall, still straight figure in a manner that Selah could only admire. “Well? Where is the pretty one—and my pathetic niece, ThomasAnne?”

“Aunt Winnie,” came a quavering voice from the doorway behind Selah. “How nice to see you. What a surprise.”

Grandmama turned sharply. “If that isn’t like you, ThomasAnne, creeping up on one in that mousy fashion. How a woman of your size contrives to be so invisible defies all laws of nature. Come put that tray down before you drop it.”

As ThomasAnne bit her lip and moved to obey, Selah charged into the fray. “Grandmama, I wish you had let me know you planned to come. I’m afraid there is no place adequate—”

“I’m quite sure that’s the case, considering the forethought typical of this branch of the family. The Daughtrys always were a flighty lot. How you propose to run a hotel with no experience—”

“Grandmama!” Selah raised a hand. “Stop. I beg you, just stop.”

Grandmama’s thin eyebrows rose in astonishment at this unprecedented rudeness, but at least the impending tirade seemed to have been arrested. Temporarily, anyway.

Selah looked at Aurora. “How did you know about the hotel? We only just decided to take it on after we got home.

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