The Courier's Wife by Vanessa Lind

Author:Vanessa Lind [Vanessa Lind]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Running Fox Books
Published: 2022-04-10T00:00:00+00:00

Hattie woke the next morning thinking that even though Thom was still sick, she needed to extract the message from her petticoat and deliver it to him. She hated to burden him with a difficulty of her own making while he was feeling poorly, but she had no way of knowing when the next opportunity would arise, and she felt the importance of the message more deeply now that she was here in Richmond, experiencing firsthand how each element of the Union’s strategy—including the limits on food and supplies that her father was circumventing—was necessary to bring a swift end to the war.

She and Lucy rose and began dressing for the day. As Hattie went to put on her petticoat, she lifted its hem, running a finger along the stitching. “It’s coming undone,” she said. “I don’t suppose you’ve brought needle and thread.”

Pulling the laces of her corset, Lucy glanced her way, and Hattie quickly dropped the hem. “I haven’t, but the concierge should have some.”

After a breakfast of johnnycakes and chicory coffee, Hattie stopped to speak with the concierge while Lucy proceeded to the room. A thin, bespectacled man, he gathered a spool of white thread, a sewing needle, and a small pair of scissors into a red velvet pouch which he presented to Hattie.

She returned to the room with the pouch, and Lucy asked if she wanted to mend the petticoat before they left to make their deliveries. In need of privacy to extract the paper, Hattie said no, it could wait till evening.

Downstairs, Lucy hired a carriage, and they set off through the streets of Richmond, Lucy calling out one address after another to the driver. As they traversed the city, Hattie wondered whether one of the letters in Lucy’s satchel might be for L. Blackstone, matching the letter she’d secreted in her petticoat hem.

At each stop, Lucy and Hattie went together to deliver the letters. When the doors were opened, usually by a servant, Lucy would ask to speak to the letter’s intended recipient. If that person was out, the letter went back in the satchel.

“Can’t risk letting them fall into the wrong hands,” Lucy had explained when they began their deliveries. “Richmond is rife with suspicion of spies, and there’s no telling what the Rebels would do if they doubted our intentions.”

Whenever they were able to complete a delivery, Lucy lingered, chatting with the recipient about Thom’s illness and promising to convey wishes for his speedy recovery. Sometimes, the person would drop a bit of information, like the man who mentioned the number of Rebel troops stationed at Fredericksburg and a woman who told Lucy where she bought her black market tea. Hattie made mental notes of these facts, and she assumed Lucy did too.

At one house, an attractive young woman came to the door. When Lucy explained about Thom, the woman said with a lilt that suggested French lineage, “Have you heard Mrs. Greenhow’s back?”

Hattie listened even more closely, remembering what the Trents had said about Mrs.

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