That Dickinson Girl by Joan Koster

Author:Joan Koster
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Women's Fiction, Historical Literary Fiction, Civil War, Book Club Fiction, LGBT, women's fiction
Publisher: Joan Koster
Published: 2022-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

JULIA HURRIED DOWN the street, cursing the slush that trickled into her half-boots and the hidden ice that threatened to tip her into a drift. She rounded the corner and startled a group of blackbirds pecking at stale bread thrown out by some fastidious housewife. She dove forward and grabbed for the biggest bit. The birds rose up in front of her, screeching in protest, black omens against the white sky. She ignored the grumble of her stomach and shoved the bread into her pocket. One bird swooped down about her head.

“Watch out, stupid bird,” Julia said, waving her arms to chase it off. “I’m hungry enough to eat you.”

Julia ignored the protest of her starved stomach and pressed her hand against the flaky leaves of papers that she carried inside the breast of Anna’s coat. Her feet wanted to stop, and her arms wanted to toss the letters into the wind. Instead, her sense of duty carried them to Anna, praying Anna could keep the crows from singing.

When she entered their room, her patient was leaning over the windowsill, her head poked out into the cold. Julia nearly dropped the packet. How dare Anna tempt fate after all she’d done to save her life? She wanted to seize her and shake some sense into her.

Instead, she placed the letters on the stool and drew out a lump of crumbly cheddar and the bit of bread from her pocket as a lure.

Anna looked over her shoulder and smiled. She looked so vibrant and alive that Julia had to blink.

“I’m so glad you’re back. I have something to—”

“I don’t want to hear it,” Julia cut her off. “Get back in bed. You’ll catch a chill again.” She bit her tongue. Her voice sounded pinched, like her mother’s after her father had left them. Sucking in a whiff of cheese-scented air, she willed her jealous belly to silence and held the food out. “Come and eat.”

Anna, her eyes silver in the winter light, stared at her for a long moment. Then, breaking the spell, she strode across the narrow space and flopped down on the bed, her legs spread wide, her stocking feet sticking out from under her skirt. With the riot of black curls hanging around her white face and the redness on her cheeks from the cold, she looked like a china doll on some rich child’s bookshelf.

Julia handed her the lump of cheese, and Anna gnawed around the edges with tiny bites. She’d never had a china doll that would break into a thousand pieces if you dropped it. She didn’t want one now.

With her fingernail, she poked at the packet on the stool. “Some letters came today.”

“For us?” Anna’s eyebrows flew up. “No one could possibly know where we are.”

“Someone does. Found out we bought a ticket to Gorham, I imagine. How many young ladies travel to the White Mountains in dead winter?” Julia untied the string that bound the letters together and held them out without looking at them.

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