Return to Me by Rosemary Rogers

Author:Rosemary Rogers [Rosemary Rogers]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2013-07-20T07:00:00+00:00

19

Cameron walked to the end of the mahogany dining table, carrying her breakfast plate with her. Bright sunlight poured in through the open windows, and the rich, comforting smell of freshly turned soil from the vegetable garden filled her nostrils. She had forgotten how much she loved the rich scent of Mississippi earth, how it breathed life into her.

She hesitated at the sideboard laden with fried meats, egg pieces and sweet pastries, then glanced at Jackson who had his head bent, absorbed in a newspaper. In the sunlight, she spotted a touch of gray in his dark hair and was taken aback by it. Then she reminded herself that he was twelve years older than she. Balancing her delicate china plate, she studied him and decided that perhaps the gray made him even more attractive. Had they been strangers in a crowded ballroom, had she been unwed, she wondered if he was a man whose company she would have sought. Would he have asked her to dance?

Cameron took her place at the far end of the mahogany table and picked up her napkin. “What news is there?” she asked.

Jackson didn’t look up from his paper. “General Hoffman, Commissary General of Prisoners, has agreed to send an expedition of men to the prison camp in Andersonville, Georgia, to attempt to identify and mark the graves of Union soldiers buried there.”

“Their graves are unmarked?” she asked quietly.

He glanced over the edge of his paper, giving her a look as if he thought her an idiot. “The Southerners did not put marble headstones on the prisoners’ graves when they buried them. They dropped their remains into trenches in mass burials.” He returned to his paper. “But at least there was some recording of the order the men went into the pits. The Secretary of War seems to think there will be some success in identifying the graves.”

Cameron nodded, taking a bite of corn muffin, though she was not particularly hungry. “Taye tells me that you’re leaving tomorrow for Birmingham,” she said after several minutes of silence.

“Yes.” He did not lift his gaze from the newspaper as he spoke. “Falcon has agreed to remain here and serve as escort for you and Taye.” He turned a page. “Two days ago the Coverdale farm three miles from Elmwood’s west boundaries was robbed in the middle of the night. A band of men broke into the house, took money by gunpoint and raped the wife and sixteen-year-old daughter.”

Horrified, Cameron pressed her napkin to her mouth. If her husband’s intent had been to shock her, he’d succeeded. But if he’d wanted to discourage her from rebuilding Elmwood, he would hope in vain. She was made of sterner stuff and no longer a stranger to senseless violence. The war years had fired her will and tempered it until it burned as hard as steel. She may have been a girl when her father fell to his death from that balcony, but no more. She was an intelligent woman who knew when to pick her battles.

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