She’d worn her nicest dress but still felt overwhelmed as they entered a foyer blanketed with a scarlet carpet and decked in gilt chandeliers. A life-sized portrait of Abraham Lincoln hung on the wall straight ahead of her, and she started choking up. She was walking in a house where Abraham Lincoln once lived. He’d surely stood in this exact room. Lincoln came from humble roots too. He carried the world on his shoulders for four years during the Civil War. He wouldn’t have been anxious about having to work with Caroline Delacroix, and the thought made her stand a little taller.

“Ready?” Gray asked.

“Ready.”

They were to meet with Gray’s sister in a conference room on the second floor. After walking the length of a gilded hallway, the butler finally delivered them to the correct meeting room and showed them inside.

Gray stepped forward to greet his sister with a kiss on her cheek, so it was a moment before Annabelle got the full effect of Caroline’s ensemble. Her royal blue jacket had a nipped-in waist, a high-stand collar, brass buttons, and gold epaulettes at her shoulders. All she needed was a colonial-style musket, and she’d be ready to fall into line behind General Washington at Yorktown.

“Annabelle,” Caroline said in a frosty tone.

Annabelle nodded in reply. “I’m happy to be here and help however I can.”

“Then let’s get started,” Gray said. “Our goal is to force the Magruders to list every ingredient on their labels. We’ll use the government contracts to start the process.”

He held out a chair and helped Annabelle sit at a table with a glossy finish and inlaid wood. It looked too fancy to touch. Neither Caroline nor Gray had such qualms as they spread out paperwork, including an issue of Good Housekeeping.

“I’ve already sent a copy of this article to the officer in charge of finalizing the military contract,” Gray said. “Our job at the public meeting is to dangle the threat of bad publicity if the army buys adulterated food to feed the troops.”

Caroline shook her head. “Philip Ransom told me the army struck applesauce from the contract just yesterday.”

Annabelle smiled. “So that means the Good Housekeeping article is already working, right?”

“Hardly,” Caroline said. “It embarrassed them into taking applesauce from the contract, but they’ve still got maple syrup and condensed milk made with artificial thickeners in the deal. The army is interested in the bottom line, so they’ll buy it unless journalists raise enough of a stink that the army pressures the Magruders into printing an accurate ingredient list on every product they sell.”

“Oh.” Annabelle felt like a country bumpkin for getting so excited, but Caroline continued strategizing.