Sharyn Mccrumb_Elizabeth MacPherson_07 Read Online Free

And I said so like a shot! But then she misted up on me, said she supposed one couldn’t trust
any
man if her own son wouldn’t even come to her defense in her time of need. She went on in that vein until I was ready to disembowel myself with the tape dispenser. Finally I just said I would represent her. I’d have said anything by that time. Probably have chipped in for a hit man if she’d asked me to.”
    A. P. Hill shook her head. “You must learn to be firm with people, Bill. Besides, didn’t it occur to you to recommend counseling before they break up a decades-old marriage?”
    â€œShe wouldn’t hear of it. Said something like,
‘I’m
not the one who needs professional help!’ ” He groaned. “I suppose I’d better review the stuff we have on divorce procedures.”
    â€œYou have a client coming in this afternoon. I was just drafting the agreement.” Briefly she told him about Mrs. Trowbridge and her querulous husband.
    â€œShe’s putting us on retainer?” said Bill. “Let me get this straight. Mr. Trowbridge asks whatever silly questions he wants and I root around in the law books and come up with an answer for him.”
    â€œRight.”
    â€œAnd he doesn’t want to sue or press chargesagainst offenders or anything like that? He just wants to know—for his own satisfaction?”
    â€œApparently so.”
    â€œAnd she’s
paying
us for that?”
    â€œFifty dollars per question. In advance. Almost the whole year’s rent.” A.P. permitted herself a triumphant smile. “I’ll just go and type this up so that we’ll be ready when she gets here. Don’t forget to write to your sister and thank her for the check.”
    â€œMy sister!” cried Bill. “You’d better believe I’m going to write her!”
    â€œShare the bad news, huh?” said A.P. “How do you think she’ll take it?”
    â€œYou know that legal phrase
in loco parentis?”
    â€œYes. And that’s not what it means at all.”
    â€œIt ought to,” muttered Bill. “It describes her perfectly.”
    We don’t know how it started
    But they’ve invaded us now and we’re bound to fight
    Till every last damn Yankee goes home and quits.
    We used to think we could lick them in one hand’s turn.
    We don’t think that any more.
    â€” STEPHEN VINCENT BENÉT,
John Brown’s Body,
Book 4

    RICHMOND—APRIL 2, 1865
    G ABRIEL H AWKS RECKONED he wasn’t in the navy anymore. It was amazing how fast a peaceful afternoon could turn into a foretaste of hell. He still hadn’t taken it all in. After the admiral had given the order to sail the fleet up to the signal station at Drewry’s Bluff, there had been scarcely time to think. The sailors had been like ants scurrying around the ship, almost knocking one another over in their haste to get things done. And there was a strained silence to the work, not like the usual bustle on board when the men chaffed one another and larked about as they worked. Now they communed with their thoughts and hurried through the tasks, tight-lipped and pale. It seemed that the end was coming, and while it hadn’t exactly been a surprise, it was still a shock to find that the inconceivablehad come to pass. They were retreating. Richmond would fall.
    They brought the provisions out of the hold and began to hand them out in packages, one to each member of the crew. These were rations to last who knew how long as they journeyed to who knew where. Suddenly Gabe had more food than he’d seen in weeks, but he wasn’t hungry anymore. His stomach felt like a bucket of James River water. The men gathered up their few personal possessions, unlashing hammocks and scrounging for canteens and blankets, muttering all the while among themselves about what this might mean.
    â€œWe’re for it now,” declared one grizzled