“There’s a nice hard-boiled egg and some bacon.”

How could I tell her I had no appetite because I had drunk too much of some European lemon drink full of alcohol? I nodded and began to nibble on the food. We heard a knock at the door.

He’s come for me, I thought. How should I act? Should I be angry? Or forgiving?

“Now, I wonder who that could be?” Hazel asked me with a smile. “I’ll go see, dearie. You eat,” she said when I started to rise.

I sat again but turned to hear. The words were mumbled, and the door was closed quickly. I waited, holding my breath, expecting to see Garland, but Hazel returned alone and held out an envelope.

“A young man, the driver of a very fancy carriage, gave me this for you,” she said.

“Thank you.”

I took it slowly and opened it. There was a short note inside.

Dear Corrine,

I’m so sorry, but pressing business has called me away. Perhaps in the near future, you will return to Charlottesville, and I can show you Foxworth Hall in all its daytime splendor.

Until then . . .

Yours very sincerely,

Garland Foxworth

I read the note twice, because my brain would not accept the meaning of the words the first time. Then I folded it up neatly and put it back into the envelope.

“Good news or bad news?” Hazel asked.

“I’m not sure,” I said. It was the best answer I could provide, both to myself and to her.

Right now, I didn’t want to think about it.

I didn’t want to think about anything.

Chapter 7

The hours that passed after I ate as much as I could and excused myself from the table seemed to tick away more with the length of days instead of minutes. I returned to my closet of a bedroom and lay there staring up at the ceiling, with its chipped paint and cobwebs in the corners. Street sounds mixing the clip-clop of horses with people talking and shouting to each other, pans and tools clanging on the backs of wagons, and hawkers calling out their wares floated up and through the windows. I never realized how much I cherished the quiet interrupted only by the music of birds back home because our house was outside of the city proper.