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"Yes, and I’reat-grandfather and a young woether in the 1920s, so, yes, he is a Donegal!" she said

"Well, yes, I suppose you’re right on that"

Marshall Donegal had followed her when she went out to the stables, deter to dissuade her while Cliff kept trying to dissuade her

Before she’d"I love you, cousin!" she told hiely and then shook his head "Look, Ashley, you don’t have to defend rinned at hiht you did I just wanted to say that I love you!"

She hadn’t bothered with a saddle; she had to find out if there was really a stone near the bayou If so, she wasn’t is

Or she was ihost, and he was really suppressedwell fighting the concept of iht as well try to use as happening And it didn’t look as if she’d be running to Jake for comfort She’d be business, strictly business, froht that she had ridden out alone; she should have known better Marshall Donegal was riding behind her--on a ghost horse, of course His mount was a beautiful roan, cos

"Dammit, wo as he and the roan seeh the woods, following hihost horse let out a whinny and stopped, and her haunting ancestor slipped froe pine He tried to rip away the vines and grass and weeds that grew around the base; Ashley saw that the grass an the task herself

She gasped out loud It was there, a large, flat, stone marker One word had been crudely etched into it

FRIEND

Ashley sat back on her haunches and looked up Marshall Donegal leaned against the tree, watching her

"Why? Why did Emma bury him out here? There’s a tomb for the slaves--and then the servants--who stayed on to work the plantation," Ashley said

"Emma was truly a wonder," he said sadly "Any ruhts between us--or my indiscretions--were stories created because people need stories We fell in love, and when that first blush of love was gone, we still loved one another deeply She was a strong woether after I died--with the help of Harold Boudreaux In 1864, they became lovers The world would never have accepted it Even after the war ended, they would have been in grave danger There was a pecking order for those of mixed blood in New Orleans, you know that Quadroons were all the rage to become a man’s mistress, and the Quadroon balls were infamous But after the war, the KKK was started up, and if they had been discovered, Harold most probably would have been burned on a cross, and Emma would have been subject to rape and ridicule They had to keep their affair entirely secret So he raised their child as one of his own Another of the for woman of mixed blood herself--was accepted as the child’s mother"

"Did you mind? Did you hate what happened?" Ashley asked hihost, were you bitter or…can you still hurt?"

"My soul can know agony," he said quietly "But did I mind this? No I loved Emma with my whole heart And a dead man knows that the color of his skin doesn’tI admired Harold I loved what he did for ht and defended ht you should know Maybe it can help you in some way"

They both started at a sound that seeht to the bayou Ashley quickly stood up "Probably a raccoon or even a squirrel," she said and griator" She walked toward her ator As she ain

"Quickly," Marshall said "I’ll hold the path!"

"But it "

"You’re alone out here Get back to the house! Please!"

She alhost protector that he was dead

But she didn’t She turned to ride, finding the quickest path back to the house and kneeing her h the trails without killing the darted into the path in front of her

Varina reared, and she wasn’t as prepared as she should have been She cursed herself for her carelessness as she felt herself fly into the air

And land hard on her rump in theher injured section, she realized that it had grown late