Free The Abolitionist’s Secret by Becky Lower Page B

with excitement! Jas, please be happy for me.”
    Sally opened the door to the room, her arms filled with pillows and towels. She looked at the pair of sisters. “Pardon, young misses. I’ze jez gonna put dese away and den leave you alone.”
    “It’s quite all right, Sally. I just need to talk my sister out of making the biggest mistake of her life,” Jasmine replied with a wave of her hand. “It’s one of my duties as the eldest twin. You can stay.”
    “It’s not a mistake. David and I have had long talks about what he’s going to do with the rest of his life. He doesn’t want to return to the family plantation in Savannah. He wants to start his own life in the west. Just think of it. Ginger and I could be neighbors!”
    Jasmine snorted. “Long talks, indeed. You’ve barely spent any time at all with the man.”
    Sally glanced from one sister to the other. “What’s da name of your young man from Savannah, missy?”
    Heather turned to Sally, pride filling her voice. “My young man is Lieutenant David Whitman, who has just finished serving his country for four years in the Army. But, prior to that, he grew up on a large plantation in Georgia. And I’m going to marry him.”
    Sally put a hand on her heart, and her face took on an ashen hue. “If y’all don’ need anything else, I needs to go talk to your mother. Miss Heather, you needs to come, too.”
    Heather and Jasmine looked at each other as Sally retreated from the room. “Well, that was odd.” Jasmine proclaimed. She turned her attention back to Heather. “Okay, if you’re hell-bent on marrying him, tell me everything that happened on your ride. Did he ravish you? Is the reason for your quick engagement because he has compromised you by taking your maidenhead?”
    Heather blushed at the matter-of-fact tone in Jasmine’s voice. “No,” she whispered. “Just a couple delicious kisses, that’s all.”
    “Pooh,” Jasmine replied as she smoothed the blanket by her side, “I’ve done more than that with Philippe, for heaven’s sake. I thought you’d have something really spicy and juicy to tell me. I don’t get what the two of you see in each other. I find the lieutenant boring.”
    “Well, I find him exciting and wonderful, so it’s a good thing that I’m the one he’s marrying. He told me all about the plantation in Georgia and about the girl he grew up with who everyone thought he would marry. She lives on a neighboring plantation.”
    “So why is he not marrying her?”
    “Because he prefers me, that’s why. Besides, my teeth are straight, and he wants plenty of children who don’t have buck teeth.” Heather flashed a grin at Jasmine before she looked to the door. “I guess I should go find out what Sally and Mother are talking about.”
    “Hmmm. Yes, leave me alone, now, Heather. I need to take a nap.”
    After Heather departed, Jasmine threw every available pillow across the room in her frustration. She was the one who had always done everything first, with Heather following meekly behind. She should be the one to marry first, not Heather. Fat tears fell onto her cheeks as she realized that, if Heather should follow through with this marriage, she’d be leaving home, and leaving Jasmine’s side for the first time in her life.
    Well, she’d have to figure out a way to right this situation, but it was difficult, when she was bound to this bed. Jasmine beat her hands against the mattress in frustration. Damn Philippe and his red soles anyway. Had she known that the cobbler was the only man she would get to kiss this season, she’d have taken her time with him, and done much more than let him just kiss her.
    She’d think of something. Surely, even from a sick bed, she could find a way to keep Heather from marrying ahead of her. She wished she knew more about the woman David had grown up with and whom everyone assumed he’d marry. Perhaps there was something more to that story, she thought shrewdly. But how to find