Free Cheryl Reavis by An Unexpected Wife Page B

got her hands full trying to keep the peace with the Kinnards. You probably already know things will run a lot smoother for a lot of people if she does,” he added significantly, and Robert didn’t miss his implication that whatever affected Colonel Woodard would also affect Maria, and ultimately her newly resurrected brother, as well.
    “If Miss Valentina intends to address this wardrobe situation, she’ll likely keep Miss Woodard hostage until she’s got everything the way she thinks it ought to be. It’s going to be interesting to see how this turns out, what with both of them being as determined about things as they are.”
    “Why is she wearing the same dress all the time?” Robert asked, commenting on the one thing in the sergeant major’s report he found intriguing. He hadn’t actually had the opportunity to notice her dresses, but he did understand enough about women to know that while such a situation might not be troubling to a farm woman who only had one everyday dress, to someone like Kate Woodard, it could be a catastrophe.
    No, he decided immediately. It wouldn’t be a catastrophe to her at all. Valentina might think it was the end of the world, but not Kate.
    He frowned because he had no idea how he had arrived at that opinion.
    “Well, she doesn’t have much choice. All her trunks went on the train to Philadelphia. I guess you could say they went and she didn’t.”
    “Are you saying she didn’t go because I turned up?”
    “No,” he said bluntly. “I’m not. Anything else, sir?”
    “Would you tell Miss Woodard I’d like to have a word with her when she comes back.”
    “I’ll tell her—but I can’t say for sure what she’ll do about it. Like I said, she’s a determined kind of woman.”
    “Sergeant Major,” Robert said as Perkins turned to go. “Is there any word about my sister’s return?”
    “Not yet. Telegraph lines are down in places east of here. You would know how that goes.”
    Robert looked at him. It took him a moment before he understood what the sergeant major meant. In Perkins’s opinion at least, and on some level, the war was still going on.
    When Perkins had gone, Robert walked to the window and looked out. He didn’t see Kate or Valentina—which likely meant that she was still here after all.
    He took the back stairs down to the kitchen. Mrs. Justice was just putting loaves of bread into the oven.
    “Dear Robbie,” she said when she saw him. “Can I get you something?”
    “I...was just looking for Miss Woodard.”
    “She’s gone to army headquarters and then, I believe, on an emergency quest to the dressmaker’s with Valentina. All her trunks went to Philadelphia without her, you know.”
    “Yes. I heard about that.”
    “It’s terribly inconvenient,” she said. “She has her valise, thankfully, but they only carry so much. I’m still not sure why she didn’t go. The colonel had everything arranged. It was a good thing she didn’t, though. Heaven only knows what might have happened if she hadn’t been here to help you.”
    “Yes,” Robert said, but the truth was that it hadn’t occurred to him before, how timely Kate Woodard’s being in the house that night had been.
    “Robbie?” Mrs. Justice said, and she looked so troubled. He waited for her to ask the question she so obviously wanted to ask. She was frowning, something she rarely did in his experience.
    “What is it, Mrs. Justice?”
    “I— Oh, it’s nothing. Here,” she said opening the warming oven and taking down a plate. “Have a ham biscuit.”
    * * *
    “You have such adventures, ” Valentina said as they walked the distance to...Kate didn’t quite know where. All she knew was that Valentina had insisted that they leave the house immediately and just go, that it wasn’t too far for them to walk and that they would both enjoy an outing on such a sunny—if somewhat blustery—winter’s day. Sergeant Major Perkins, in the meantime, had done some insisting of his own.