Page 170 (1/2)

The array of Jocasta’s acquaintance was staggering Still, Brianna had noticed an increasing tendency of late for the callers to be le men

Phaedre verified Brianna’s suspicions, voiced as the own

"There ain’t a lot of single women in the colony," Phaedre observed, when Brianna mentioned the peculiar coincidence that most of the recent visitors appeared to be bachelors Phaedre cast an eye at Brianna’snoticeably under the looseof woot what?" Brianna said She stopped, hair half pinned, and stared at the raceful hand across her mouth, eyes wide above it

"Your auntie ain’t told you yet? Thought sure you knew, or I’d not’ve said"

"Well, now you’ve said that ossip, took little coaxing

"Your daddy and theone but a week, before Miss Jo sent for Lawyer Forbes and had her will changed When Miss Jo dies, they’s sooes to your daddy, and sos to Mr Farquard and so else, that’s yours The plantation, the tiantly lifted eyebrow expressed profound doubt, then dropped, dis it

"Well, it ain’t what you want, I reckon Miss Jo is kind of inclined to get what she wants"

Brianna laid the hairbrush down, slowly

"And just what does she want?" she asked "Do you happen to know that, too?"

"Ain’t any big secret She wants River Run to last longer than she does--and to belong to soot no children, no grandchildren Who else is there to carry on after her?"

"Well…there’s my father"

Phaedre laid the fresh dress across the bed and frowned at it appraisingly, glancing back at Brianna’sto last noOh, yes, there’s your daddy She done tried to make him her heir, but the way I hears it, he wasn’t havin’ none of it" She pursed her lips in amusement

"Now there’s a stubborn man for you Go off into thewhat Miss Jo want hiht of it, at that Be hiht, if he’d a-stayed"

Brianna sloisted up the other side of her hair, but the hairpin slipped out again, letting it fall

"Here, you be lettin’ me do that, Miss Bree" Phaedre slid behind her, pulled out the slipshod pinning, and began deftly to braid the sides of her hair

"And all these visitors--these ood one," Phaedre assured her "You can’t run the place alone, no odsend; don’t knohat she’d do without hie

"She’s trying to pick a husband forme off like--like so wrong with this She frowned, drawing a straying lock skillfully into the er--about Mr Wakefield! How can she be trying to hed, not without sy to find the man, tell you true Miss Jo, she knows a bit about the Indians; we’ve all heard Mr Myers tell about the Iroquois"

It was chilly in the roo Brianna’s hairline and jaw

"Besides," Phaedre went on, weaving a blue silk ribbon into the braid, "Miss Jo don’t know this Wakefield Might be he’d not be a good et you ood care of her place; add it to his own, rand place! I don’t want this place!" Outrage in turn was giving way to panic

Phaedre tied the end of the ribbon with a small flourish

"Well, like I say--it ain’t so much what you want It’s what Miss Jo wants Now, let’s try this dress"

There was a sound in the hallway, and Brianna hastily flipped the page of her sketchbook over, to a half-finished charcoal drawing of the river and its trees The steps went by, though, and she relaxed, turning back the page

She wasn’t working; the draas complete She only wanted to look at it

She’d drawn him in three-quarter profile, head turned to listen as he tuned his guitar strings It was no ht the line of head and body with a rightness that me hih almost to touch

There were others; soood drawings in themselves, but that failed to capture the man behind the lines One or two, like this one, that she could use to coan to fail and the fires burned low