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Chapters (50)
  1. Cover
  2. Half Title Page
  3. Books by Elizabeth Camden
  4. Title Page
  5. Dedication
  6. One
  7. Two
  8. Three
  9. Four
  10. Five
  11. Six
  12. Seven
  13. Eight
  14. Nine
  15. Ten
  16. Eleven
  17. Twelve
  18. Thirteen
  19. Fourteen
  20. Fifteen
  21. Sixteen
  22. Seventeen
  23. Eighteen
  24. Nineteen
  25. Twenty
  26. Twenty-One
  27. Twenty-Two
  28. Twenty-Three
  29. Twenty-Four
  30. Twenty-Five
  31. Twenty-Six
  32. Twenty-Seven
  33. Twenty-Eight
  34. Twenty-Nine
  35. Thirty
  36. Thirty-One
  37. Thirty-Two
  38. Thirty-Three
  39. Thirty-Four
  40. Thirty-Five
  41. Thirty-Six
  42. Thirty-Seven
  43. Thirty-Eight
  44. Thirty-Nine
  45. Historical Note
  46. Questions for Discussion
  47. In 2021, look for Luke Delacroix’s story in
  48. About the Author
  49. Back Ads
  50. Back Cover

“Did you follow orders?” she asked Nathaniel, who seemed irritated she should even ask.

“I’m not going to let the President of the United States wander off alone into the woods with an invalid woman. Of course I trailed them. They had no idea I was there.”

“You can’t know that,” Sullivan challenged. “I don’t want to get in trouble over this, and they might have known you were following them.”

“They didn’t know,” Nathaniel bit out.

“How can you be so sure?” Caroline asked.

“Because I got an eyeful,” he snapped.

Understanding dawned, and she tried not to laugh. “An eyeful of what?” she asked innocently. She’d been around the McKinleys long enough to know they could be embarrassingly affectionate, but it was new and unwelcome to Nathaniel.

She was still thinking about it later that night as she settled into the parlor car with all the others after dinner. She tried to concentrate on the evening’s newspaper, but her thoughts kept straying to Nathaniel and the dwindling days until they could be together. It was September 4th, and they had two more days in Buffalo while the president visited the World’s Fair, but then they would be heading home to Washington.

What would it be like when Nathaniel no longer had this job to distract him? She watched as he bent over tomorrow’s security schedule at the neighboring table. He never did anything halfway. Would he truly begin a whole-hearted courtship, or would he find some other excuse to keep her at arm’s length?

She sighed and turned to the next page in the newspaper. The word Cuba leapt out from one of the headlines. It seemed the rebellion was heating up again. There had been a bombing north of Havana, and a newly reconstructed road and a bridge to the city had been destroyed.

The road to a city of columns is in danger.

The breath left her in a rush. Luke had known this attack was coming. He’d tried to warn her.

Then a worse thought descended. Did he have a hand in this? If so, why would he have told her? A chill descended, and her hands shook. What was she supposed to do now?

It was impossible to know what to think anymore, but one thing was certain. Luke’s latest letter had another passage in Hebrew, and she needed to find someone to translate it for her as soon as possible.

Twenty-Seven

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The World’s Fair had been open all summer, but this was the first time the president had been able to visit, and Nathaniel dreaded the security nightmare it represented. The fairgrounds consisted of 350 acres of open parks and towering buildings. A man-made lake and waterways that simulated the canals of Venice meandered through the grounds, making a quick exit a challenge.