Fire Over Atlanta by Gilbert L. Morris

Author:Gilbert L. Morris [Morris, Gilbert]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-8024-7887-0
Publisher: Moody Publishers
Published: 1997-12-15T05:00:00+00:00

9

“What’s Going On?”

Cecil Taylor was pleased that Leah was paying him so much attention. He had been attracted to her ever since she first came to Richmond and now was even more so. As the two walked together along the street, he glanced at her, thinking how pretty she looked, and tried to find some way to say so. Actually, Cecil Taylor was very shy.

He was thin in his first lieutenant’s uniform. (It was new enough that he was still proud of it.) He glanced at their reflection in a shop window and thought they made a very handsome couple.

“Let’s go see if they have some ice cream, Leah.”

“Ice cream?” Leah turned to look where Cecil was pointing.

A sign advertised that delicacy.

“Let’s,” she said. “I haven’t had any ice cream in a long time.”

Leah’s plan to make Jeff jealous seemed to be working exactly as she had hoped. Almost every day for the past two weeks, Cecil had found some excuse to come to the house and visit her.

From time to time, Jeff would come by and see Cecil sitting on the front porch—or find her gone walking with him while Eileen kept Esther. She had noticed that the sweeter she was about it, the more Jeff seemed to be irritated.

Leah and Cecil went into the shop and were soon seated at a table with two large bowls of vanilla ice cream in front of them.

The proprietor, a small, heavy woman with a pair of bright, black eyes, smiled at them. “You better enjoy that ice cream,” she said. “We’ve used up about the last of the ice that we have in the ice house.” Her gaze grew troubled, and she turned away, saying, “It seems like it’s almost the last of something every time I turn around.”

“This is good ice cream,” Cecil said to Leah, “but I bet you could make better.”

Leah put a spoonful of the smooth dessert into her mouth, swallowed it, and then smiled sweetly. “And I bet you could make better ice cream too, Cecil.”

He laughed. “I never made ice cream. We always had the slaves do that. I tried to turn the freezer once, and my arm just absolutely gave out. Someday—” he grinned at her “—someday they’ll learn to hook up an ice cream freezer to a steam engine or maybe a water wheel.”

“Oh, they’ll never do that,” Leah said. Then she said, “You look so handsome in your uniform, Cecil.”

A blush spread over his countenance. “I don’t know about that,” he said. “But I do know you look very pretty in that dress.”

Leah was wearing a powder blue dress with dark blue ribbon woven into the neckline and along the hem. She and Eileen had worked hard on it for several days, and the result was just right. “Oh, do you like this dress?” she said coyly.

“I like you in almost anything,” Cecil said. He swallowed hard. Then he said, “We’ve gotten to be real good friends in the last couple weeks, haven’t we?”

Leaning toward him, Leah said, “Yes, we have.

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