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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

Time and again Caroline put the idiom in context to help Ludmila guess its meaning. Most of the examples involved Caroline’s brother. Luke and I are like two peas in a pod. Luke upset the apple cart. Luke got into big trouble and is in quite a pickle. At one point Caroline stopped altogether to tell a story about Luke. They stood before a series of sprawling artichoke plants.

“Luke and I are twins, and he always gave me artichokes on our birthday. It was a private joke between us. He’d give one artichoke for every year. As I got older, it was a challenge to find that many artichokes in October.” Her voice was achingly sad as she reached out to touch a heavy artichoke bud. “Toward the end, he needed to deliver them in a great big basket.”

“Toward the end?” Ludmila asked. “He no longer does this?”

Caroline wandered toward another aisle. “That’s enough about Luke. What does it mean to be a shrinking violet? I’ll give you a clue. Mrs. McKinley is no shrinking violet.”

“It means she is a scary woman?”

“Shh!” Caroline laughed. “It means she is a strong woman who isn’t afraid to voice her opinions. And now I need to go ensure the first lady is ready for her photograph.”

The pair wandered toward the herb garden and out of Nathaniel’s range of hearing, but he’d learned a good deal from his surreptitious spying. Contrary to all appearances, Caroline Delacroix had a deep well of kindness beneath the glamour. She adored her twin brother, but he seemed to cause her a mysterious sadness, and Nathaniel wondered why.

Six

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Nathaniel stood before the oversized map of the city tacked to the wall of his office. He had completed an initial draft of a plan to secure the White House, but the bigger challenge was to secure the president’s safety as he traveled. His gaze tracked the route from the White House to the Capitol, the War Department, and the Treasury, all of which the president visited on a weekly basis. All the routes to and from the buildings needed security plans. Then he needed plans for carriage travel, train travel, and when the president preferred to walk or ride his own horse, both of which he enjoyed.

Nathaniel pointed out a route to Sullivan. “I want you to meet with the head of groundskeeping and tell him to trim all the shrubbery along the route between the White House and the Capitol. That’s almost a mile of road that can hide anarchists and bomb threats.”

“Yes, sir.” Sullivan’s inflexible respect for the rules made him exactly the sort of man Nathaniel wanted as his second-in-command.