She sighed and warmed to the subject. “My mother happened to be the most beautiful girl in the county. My grandfather had orchestrated a brilliant match with the son on a neighboring plantation. The engagement was heralded as the wedding of the season. My father happened to be visiting a friend in Richmond. With all the balls given, it seemed inevitable that they would meet. When they locked gazes on each other, it was as if Cupid’s arrow had hit them. Since my grandfather did not sanction a marriage to a no-account Yankee lawyer, they eloped. Enraged, Grandfather disowned my mother, and they moved to Illinois.”
Lucas let out a low whistle. “I detected a northern accent from you at times, but I considered it to be Ohioan with the way you roll down on your R’s and your I’s are short vowels.”
Rachel bumped her head on his chin, turned and stared at him, her amber eyes flickering with interest. “I’m surprised by your perception. I have taken great lengths to eradicate my northern accent. Everyone I encounter never guesses of my time in the north.”
“You forget, I’m head of Civilian Spying. You’re in company with the best.” The fragrance of roses clung to her. When she nestled her head against him and innocently stroked the hair on the back of his neck, a spike of heat hit him low in the gut.
“At first it was hard for my mother to adapt to the wilderness since she was accustomed to a life of leisure with many servants to wait on her. But my mother was deeply in love with Father and both remained tremendously happy regardless of the hardships. The most difficult thing for my mother to adjust to was my father’s long absences. He rode the circuit with another lawyer and a judge, and since it encompassed an expansive area, his work took him far away from home. Due to my father’s brilliance, he prospered and provided a larger cabin with a servant to lessen her load.”
“When I came into the world, they both lavished their love on me. Father refused to send me to a boarding school in the east and insisted on a generous education, bringing many books home from his journeys. At a young age, I acquired a voracious appetite to read, and then my father discovered my talent—a photographic memory. I possess the rare ability to memorize everything put before me.
“Father said I should have been a boy, claiming my mind bright enough to debate a favored colleague of his. I loved his associate. He was tall and would set me up on his lap, telling me amusing stories and let me pull on his beard.
“Despite not having worldly amenities, I couldn’t have had a happier childhood…except for once when I almost drowned and for that I have a terrible fear of water.”
She became so wrapped up in her story that she pushed back from him to see if he remained listening. “Confidences shared at this time…I expect will remain confidences?”
Not only was she hinting at the intimate details of her history, but at the closeness they were now sharing, an act which society ordained scandalous and branded an unmarried woman forever. “I’ll take your secrets to my grave.”
With his assurance, she continued. “There were no other children in our settlement, so I played with the Indian children of the Illini tribe, where competing in the woods provided a challenge and indoctrination for survival. Like the rest of them, I grew up to run fast, hunt, and track. Are you horrified, Colonel Rourke?”
“I’m intrigued.” The indisputable truth of her history fascinated him, and pieces of a puzzle started to fit together by her extraordinary upbringing. Living in the harshness of the wilderness, and with Indians as companions accounted for a lot about her and gave her an inner strength that in no way allowed her to fail. It also explained her lack of material need and strong conviction in what she was doing. She triumphed, smarter and more sophisticated than any woman he’d ever encountered.
“Mother practically had a heart attack as soon as I started blossoming, and the chief’s son declared his love for me. Every day a haunch of deer hung on our front porch. Horrified, Mother cried to my father that her daughter would never learn the refinements of a lady growing up in the wilderness with Indians.
“Yet, providence had its hand in the matter. On my grandfather’s deathbed, he had a change of heart about his only child, heir to his home and fortune. We moved to Virginia, and my mother made me trade in my buckskins for corsets and dresses.” She pulled back to look at him. “Are you shocked yet?”
Lucas chuckled. “Not at all…do go on.”
She leaned back and, in thoughtful silence, she struggled to remember where she was in her story. After a short pause, she began again.
“Richmond happened to be a very different and difficult world for a girl accustomed to living as a tomboy. Mother insisted I learn every nuance of becoming a lady.” Rachel made a study of her hands, folded in her lap. “I have failed her.”
“She would have been very proud.” Distracted by the myriad of emotions playing across her lovely face, Lucas suppressed a grin, smoothing his expression into an admirable imitation of earnest gravity.
“The sad part is that I have to pretend to be meek, unintelligible and weak. Can you imagine the chagrin of male suitors of the county if they knew I could outshoot and outgun them?”
“I imagine their mamas would grieve and take to their hartshorn, fainting away at the mere suggestion,” said Lucas.
Rachel burst out laughing and Lucas’ mood buoyed like a million warm sunny days rolled into one.
“I haven’t laughed like that for a long time. Thank you, Lucas,” she said huskily, and toyed with the wooden button on his shirt, driving him mad.
“I want to get back to the night you were kidnapped. Do you remember anything unusual about anyone, peer or supervisor, who had knowledge of the Saint? Anyone who would possibly set you up?”
“Other than waking up in a cell with the sadistic Johnson debriding every inch of my skin, there is nothing unusual I can recall. There are three others that have knowledge of the Saint…my superior, General Grenville Dodge, and my immediate subordinates, Bowman and Andrews who are above suspicion.”
“Sometimes the least suspicious are the most suspicious.”
“Bowman helps me at every turn and comes from an impeccable background. He performs errands, second guesses messages from spies and breaks down the latest intelligence, formulating successful hypotheses. He has worked hard to get where he is, and he’s very dedicated. Andrews is young, intelligent and gets the job done. Impossible to think about any one of them betraying me. If they were to hand me over, they would have done it years ago. I trust all of them with my life.”
“May I point out it was almost your life.”
Lucas gritted his teeth, impatient with his southern sojourn when the answers lay in Washington.
She tilted back her head. “There are two others who trust the Saint implicitly.”
“Who are they?”
