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The women of the race wore headwraps called tignons that could be plain and unassuming, or colorful and decorated with items like beads and cowrie shells.
Another thing Val found hard to reconcile was her Creole landlady, Georgine Dumas, who shared the home with her older sister, Madeline. Both were elderly but had personalities as different as night and day. Where Madeline was kind and considerate, Georgine was haughty and intolerant. Georgine complained about everything from the weather to Madeline’s cooking, but saved her most acerbic vitriol for the Union soldiers and the newly freed. “They should ship them all back to Africa,” she declared angrily during dinner the day Val arrived. “They’re as ignorant and useless as the bluecoats.” Later,
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Georgine entered and, upon seeing Val, glowered and took her seat. Madeline said, “You could at least speak to her, Georgie.” The response was an impatient huff, before Georgine asked Val, “Have the blue bastards paid you yet?” She replied simply, “No, ma’am.” “Food and a place to sleep is not free.” “I understand.” Madeline spooned the gumbo into bowls, and said tightly, “She’s paying us what she can, Georgie. You know that.” “I know nothing of the kind. Who’s to say she isn’t giving the money that should be coming to us to those wastrel freedmen?”
Drake knew that many Bureau offices were supervised by good men like the two officers he’d previously worked under, while others may as well be supremacists for their lack of commitment to the freedmen’s plight. Merritt was among the latter. Drake longed to walk away from the inept commander but refused to leave the freedmen without a true advocate unless it became absolutely necessary.
The bearded soldier turned to Valinda. “Do you know him?” She shook her head. He asked, feather soft, “You wouldn’t lie to me, would you, cheri?”
When he arrived, the soldier took in the angry bleeding gash on his throat. “What happened there?” Giving Valinda a death stare, Appleton wheezed out angrily, “Bitch tried to shove a burning branch through my windpipe.” The surprised soldier swung her way. He assessed her silently for a moment, before saying, “Good for you.”
At their approach, he stopped, and when his gaze met hers, Val’s heart skipped in her chest. With his dark skin, close-cropped beard, and Herculean build he was breathtaking, a description she’d never attached to a man before. The men she knew back home were fine upstanding examples of their gender, but none as riveting as Drake LeVeq.
Val forked up her grits and shrimp. It was a dish she’d never eaten before and it was so flavorful, she hummed with delight. His eyes shot to her. She froze in response. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to do that aloud.” “There isn’t a man alive who doesn’t enjoy hearing a woman’s pleasure.”
Proper, well-raised girls don’t climb trees, or kneel in the dirt shooting marbles, or play baseball, or all the other things I liked doing.” He’d stopped with his fork partway to his mouth. “Yes?” she asked, humor in her voice. “Have I shocked you?” “I think I’m in love.” “No, you aren’t. Eat your food.”
“You don’t believe a man who loves you will offer you that same freedom?” “If marriage gives me the freedom I desire, why do I need love?” “For the companionship. Adoration. Bed games.”
“Your confidence is intriguing. Were you not intended for another, I’d court you.” Her breath caught. “You’re very bold, Captain.” “I’m descended from pirates. Boldness is in my blood.”
Were she his, he’d build her not just a classroom but a school, and gift it to her for her birthday or Christmas, thereby showing her what it meant to be loved and adored by a man of the House of LeVeq.
Truthfully, he just wanted to see the schoolteacher and her smile. After yesterday, he needed some beauty in his life.
“If you were going to stay in New Orleans, I’d build you a school.” She blinked.
And he ever so nonchalantly just threw it out there. I freaking love him
He handed her a glass, she took a sip, and her hum of pleasure brought his eyes to hers. “You need to stop doing that, you know.” “I can’t voice my pleasure about the lemonade?” “Only if you want me to wonder what else makes you purr.”
“More pirate talk?” she tossed back more boldly than she felt. “Yes, and it would be courting pirate talk, if you were free.”
“Does your intended prefer the hellion or the meek miss?” “Why does that matter?” “Because I see a woman settling for a small piece of cake when she can have it all.”
We often climbed the trees together, and he was always the one daring me to go higher. When my sister told on me, that was the end.” “You’re always welcome to climb mine whenever you like.” She sensed he was referencing more than an oak and she suddenly found it difficult to breathe. “We should probably get back to the house.” “As you wish.” She asked, “Are you having fun?” “Fun?” “At my expense?” “Never, cheri, but I am enjoying imagining all the fun we’d have together were you free.”
“We’d catch frogs and fireflies. Take one of Raimond’s boats and sail to Cuba to have dinner with my cousins, and then walk along the beach in the moonlight.” She met his dark eyes. “Then I’d kiss you until sunrise. . . .” Trembling, she took in the intensity in his eyes. The air between them was as charged as an approaching summer storm. If he kissed her now, she’d be lost.
“Did you hear the part about how much I absolutely adore you?” “Aren’t you late for a meeting?” she asked, looking partly skeptical and partly amused. “They’ll wait. How about after we come home from Henri’s dinner, I get down on my knees and—beg your pardon.”
“Penny for your thoughts?” “Honestly? I was thinking about Cole.” “Give me my penny back.”
“According to Sable, Val is in love with you, too. You’re a LeVeq. If you can’t figure out how to make it permanent, I’m disowning you, and putting your chair at Mama’s table up for auction.”
