Riddle of the Prairie Bride by Kathryn Reiss

Author:Kathryn Reiss
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781497646513
Publisher: Open Road Media

CHAPTER 8

IMPOSTOR!

An impostor?” cried Martha the next morning on the way to school. “Oh, mercy, are you sure?”

“Shhh!” Ida Kate shook Martha’s arm. The twins were ambling along just ahead, and she didn’t want anyone else overhearing this conversation. She couldn’t even really believe they were having this conversation in the first place.

“Are you very sure?” pressed Martha in a softer voice.

“Look at this,” said Ida Kate, pulling the cake recipe out of one pocket of her pinafore. “And compare it with this.” She reached into the other pocket and withdrew a folded letter. She shook it open and handed both letter and recipe to Martha. “Compare the handwriting. That’s all you need to do to see that the same person couldn’t have written both.”

Martha scanned the recipe and the letter and sucked in her breath sharply. “I see what you mean,” she murmured. “But maybe she was ashamed that her handwriting and spelling are so poor, so she asked a friend from her factory—somebody with elegant handwriting—to help, and she dictated the letters she sent your father. That’s not a crime …”

“But why would the daughter of a wealthy southern planter have such terrible penmanship in the first place?” demanded Ida Kate. “No, Martha, I just don’t believe it. Not when you consider all the other strange things about her.”

Martha’s eyes gleamed with excitement. “Then you must be right, Ida Kate! She is an impostor!”

Ida Kate twisted her braid in agitation. She wanted to find a simple, agreeable explanation for the strange handwriting and be done with it. She’d lain awake for hours last night trying to come up with some innocent explanation that would account for all the strange mistakes Caroline kept making. But there wasn’t one.

Ida Kate heaved a deep sigh. Too many mistakes altogether.

“Ooh, it makes me shiver,” breathed Martha. “What will you do?”

“I have to tell Papa, of course,” Ida Kate said firmly. “I wanted to tell him last night, but I was never alone with him.”

“Why didn’t you just announce it at the dinner table?” asked Martha.

“I don’t know,” Ida Kate said softly. She scuffed her boots along the track and watched the dust fly up. “I just couldn’t, somehow, not in front of her.”

“Well, I think you’re probably right to stay quiet for a while,” Martha replied slowly. “Because someone who can pull a ruse like this is very clever—and probably dangerous, too. And your father is so sweet on her, he’ll likely think you’re just turning against her because you don’t want another woman taking your mother’s place. It will be the impostor’s word against yours, and he’s not going to want to believe you. So you need to uncover more facts. And then you can confront her—and your father will have to believe.”

“I still think these handwriting samples are pretty strong proof …” began Ida Kate. But Martha was shaking her head.

“We’ll need to find even better proof. I know! We’ll go to your house after school and try to discover more facts about this—this stranger.

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