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According to her briefing, Le Veq had been sent to steal the plans detailing the movements of Crete’s troops, but he’d obviously failed.
“That’s the Butterfly.”
The nom de guerre Butterfly was well known in Union intelligence circles. If the rumors were true, the woman behind the name had spent the last few months posing as a house slave in the kitchens of some of the South’s most important generals, feeding Federal forces valuable information on everything from troop movements to how much food the Rebs still had in their stores.
In April 1865, her parents, like other freedmen, had been awarded land under General Sherman’s Special Order 15.
During the war, Araminta had headed up a shadowy network of Black spies the army called Black Dispatches.
Zahra thought back. “You led out eight hundred captives that day.”
“Folks are talking about leaving the South and heading west where the Democrats can’t reach them. Everything you find out in New Orleans we’ll send onto the Loyal Leagues and veteran’s societies across the South. If Grant pulls those soldiers, all hell is going to break loose.”
At 6:00 a.m. on November 22, 1871, forty-five-year-old Oscar James Dunn, the first Black man to be duly elected lieutenant governor of the state of Louisiana, drew his last breath.
“Wilma!”
They shared one last hug and Wilma was gone.
Trusting Wilma seemed logical, but Zahra knew that many former friends of the race were just that—former.
“On and off for almost a decade. When he’s not eavesdropping, he’s rather efficient.”
“Or because you are legends in your own minds.”
“The common man need not ask because I am unavailable to him, but for a man who matches me in strength and purpose—there is no cost.”
“For all your legendary expertise, Mr. Le Veq, you know nothing about a woman like me, so, shall we return to the business at hand?”
Then as now, she was attracted to the Black Frenchman, but even more worrisome was the knowledge that he was very attracted to Domino as well.
After Alfred’s departure, Archer asked, “Is he just protective or in love with you?” “The former.” “Then tell him he’s doing a damn good job because he scares me to death.”
“Don’t like him. Too pretty, too Creole.”
“Shall I offer you a kiss in exchange for my ineptness?”
“None needed,” he said, then drawled, “but I suppose I should go. I do have business to attend to today and it won’t get done if your pet has me for lunch.”
“In that case you and I are very much alike. We both accommodate men who are not our husbands, non?”
She wondered why he’d not come around to see her again, and now that the reason had been revealed she felt foolish for thinking he’d been interested in someone like Domino.
“Five,” Philippe contradicted. “When Raimond comes home and finds out those sheet-wearing cowards shot at his Lovely Juliana, all hell is going to break loose.”
“Yes, ma’am, but if you need me, I can make his nose look just like mine.”
“Only that we have members in Kansas assessing conditions there. They are touring town sites, weighing housing possibilities, and discreetly buying land. The race may need to flee the South, and we must have a place to go.”
Were she able to present one of the books to the president, it might go a long way in convincing him of the race’s plight and of the necessity of keeping the troops in Louisiana.
Before her performance could gain any momentum, Zahra reached for the coffee mug Adair was holding and calmly tossed the lukewarm contents in the crone’s face.
Suddenly the hair stood up on the back of his neck. It was the razor! Where had he seen it before? His mind raced; seeking, sifting, frantically searching for the answer, and then he remembered a fetid Georgia barn and a remarkable woman.
He placed his lips against her ear and husked out, “It means…‘butterfly.’”
He shook his head. She wasn’t a butterfly; she was a chameleon.
It was as if talking about Juliana’s sorrow had opened up a closed place within him, and whatever had been imprisoned there had been freed. Deep in thought and not sure what any of this meant, he slowly lowered his head and touched his lips to hers.
Zahra took a few sips of the tea, then looked in her cup. The brew had a strange taste. She was about to bring the cup to her nose to smell the contents when a dizziness began creeping over her. She stood up intending to call for Wilma but she crumpled to the floor and everything went black.
