Kary, Elizabeth Read Online Free Page B

she was obviously doted on and protected by both her husband
and daughter. Yet there was a quicksilver inconsistency in her that somehow
resolved the disparity between her air of childish petulance and her steely
willed support of the Southern cause.
    And
then there was Leigh, somehow the amalgam of these two people, these two
personalities. She was the image of her mother with the same breathtaking
beauty, yet possessed of a fresh radiance that even Althea could not claim. But
there was something of her father in her too, if not in the features, at least
in her expression. He had given her his height, his air of quiet resolution,
and those steady green eyes. Hayes found himself studying her with determined
intensity: watching her toy with her dessert, listening to her easy laugh,
sensing the affection she felt toward both her parents, even when each seemed
to feel something less congenial for the other. Nor could he deny the strange
attraction he felt for Leigh, evident from the first moment he had held her in
his arms this afternoon with the bullets flying all around them. As the dessert
dishes were being cleared away, Horace spoke, breaking into Hayes's thoughts.
    "I
hate to leave such pleasant company," he was saying, "but urgent
matters demand my attention. Stay and finish your meal, Mr. Banister, and enjoy
the rest of the evening with my ladies. You seem a man of reasonable views and
opinions, sir, and if your stay in St. Louis proves lengthy, I hope you find
your way back to our table. And thank you for what you did for Leigh this
afternoon."
    Banister
rose from his place to shake Pennington's hand. "Thank you, sir. I've
enjoyed the meal and the company. Have care on the streets tonight; there's no
telling who's abroad."
    Horace
acknowledged his words of warning and turned to go. "Good night,
then."
    "Do
be careful, Horace," Althea called after him. "It's that wretched
Yankee Wide-Awakes Club that takes him out on such a night when he would be far
safer at home," she complained. "I wish he would stay here instead of
going gallivanting with those good-for-nothing rabble-rousers!"
    Banister
had been in town long enough to recognize her florid description of some of the
most respectable men in the city, and smiled to himself.
    "How
is it, Mrs. Pennington, that you can be a staunch Confederate when your husband
is such a loyal Lincoln man?" he wanted to know. But instead of her
mother, it was Leigh who gave him his answer.
    "We
live in 'a house divided,' " she said simply, but the expression of
sadness in the depths of her eyes was not lost on the man across the table.
    "I admit
it's a trial, Mr. Banister, but neither of us can change the way we are,"
Althea added softly.
    A
pall of quiet resignation hung over the room, and Hayes felt compelled to try
to mend the rift he had caused. "Are you at odds on every point?" he
continued. "Do you condone the institution of slavery while Mr. Pennington
opposes it? And do you believe in each state's right to sever its ties with the
Union?"
    Althea
drew a long breath, wondering if Hayes Banister's questions lay in men's
seemingly endless compulsion to discuss politics or in an honest desire to
understand the conflict that was threatening to destroy not only the nation but
her family as well.
    "I
believe that the people in any state or territory should be free to choose
their course for the common good, Mr. Banister. And as for slavery..." She
made a vague, fluttery gesture with her hands. "We own no slaves here in
Missouri though it is our right to do so. All our servants are free men and
women, even my maid Julia who came with me from Louisiana when I married. And
that's fine for our life here. But in the South, where I was born and raised,
slavery is an economic necessity. My brothers could not run their plantations
without darkies, and if slavery is abolished in this country, as some think it
should be, it will be the end of a life I hold most dear."
    Hayes
watched the older woman