Page 10 (2/2)

She set her pen down "No But I haven’t tried calling anyone this ht is weary of ht away"

He reached across the desk and put his hand on hers, giving a co squeeze

"Ashley, you are part of the charm of this place

You really care None of us thinks you were torturing us I was thinking of taking the family for a horse ride later, and I know that Cliff does a lot of the riding tours, but I thought you and I could make another search of it, too"

She was surprised "Sure! And thank you"

"Jeanine and Meg don’t ride well They don’t get a chance to go riding often enough You still have two horses caler is a good old girl if I’ve ever known one Nellie loves hiether They’ll be perfect for the twins"

Justin grinned and stood "Nancy’s bringing the crew in for breakfast Say an hour or two?"

"Two hours ork for me"

Justin thanked her She finished with paperwork and realized she was constantly looking up, certain that she was going to see a Confederate soldier staring at her

"I don’t believe in ghosts," she re the words out loud sounded defensive "I don’t I really don’t!" she said to the empty room

Irritated with herself, she went out to the stables Justin’s family would be out soon

Ashley saddled Varina and stroked her ht her from when Ashley had been a teen had been an avid fan of Varina Davis, the one and only first lady of the Confederate States of America Because she had been named Varina, they named Nellie’s last colt Jeff, for Jefferson Davis, the one and only President of the Confederate States That , she and Justin chose Varina and Jeff as their htly er to the other, while Nancy, Justin’s htly irls around the paddock a few tiht about their experience, but they were sht they would do well

Ashley gave her attention to the girls as they rode around the outbuildings and then toward Beauhted by the ride, waving to everyone they passed while traversing the house and outbuildings area and then concentrating on their father’s and grandmother’s admonitions to be on the lookout for wildlife

"Are there alligators?" Meg, the bolder of the twins, demanded

"Yes, by the bayou But they’ll leave you alone if you leave them alone We won’t dis a s out there They look like dinnerti to the girls; she was looking everywhere They had searched last night, but it had been dark Noas daylight, and, hopefully, if Charles Osgood had come out here and fallen, hurt hiht find hier by fiveasked

"Soon enough," Nancy said, grinning at Ashley

"Why not now?" Meg asked

"Because Daddy is busy," Nancy answered Nancy was one of those woone to a beautiful shade of silver-white naturally

"Watch for anih to see the alligators basking in the sun These woods aren’t that dense, but with all this land, every once in a while a black bear or a cougar wanders across the road I know that you see nutria--"

"What are nutria?" Meg interrupted

"They’re the largest rat, essentially," Justin said

"Ugh!" Jeanine said

"The buggers were brought over years ago, in the 1930s, and they’ve multiplied into the millions," Ashley explained "There’s actually a bounty on them, because they can be so destructive But they don’t hurt people The animal that you do have to be careful of in these parts is the cotton in the water Ani as you leave them alone"

"Watch for herons!" Justin said

"I wouldn’tannounced

"They’re shy, too But we’ll see e see," Ashley assured them

They counted seven herons, two raccoons, an armadillo and three owls up in the trees When they ca on the opposite bank As she did so, she saw that staff ed in their work already A man dressed in a droop hat, cutoff denion that showed freshly hewn sugarcane Another, dressed more like an early nineteenth-century Louisiana French business a tour