Ed abandoned the damp cold near the window and moved to the fireplace. “Nonsense. I’m the worst man for the job.”
“I’m just saying, you described yourself. What she want? What do you know ’bout her?”
Ed shrugged. “Nothing really, except she’s from a large family in Georgia, she’s poor, and has no prospects.”
“Then you should get to know her at breakfast. Ask about her life. What she likes. You know, so you can find the right match for her.” Ghost plopped his hat on his head and retreated, but not before he had the last word. “Never knows what you might discover.”
Ed drove the poker into the crumbling wood and mumbled to an already gone Ghost, “Not that I’m the right man, if that’s what you mean.”
“Sir?” Grace stood in that servant stance of hers in the doorway.
“Nothing. Just talking to myself.”
Grace stepped into the room. “I do that sometimes. Mrs. Clint says there’s something wrong in my head. I don’t think she’d say that to you, though.”
Ed wasn’t in the mood for idle chatter. “Was there something you needed to tell me?”
“Yes, sir. Breakfast is served in the dining room.”
His pulse quickened at the thought of dining with Cora. He shrugged off the feeling and joined her, where she was already seated at the dining room table, still in the same dress. The place settings were not set out at the ends of the table but next to each other. Deciding not to make a scene, he sat by Cora and cleared his throat. “I trust you slept well.”
“Better than you, I assume.” Cora cut into her hotcakes, releasing steam into the air. “Working all night again?”
Ed nodded. “I do what needs to be done.”
“Let’s enjoy a meal together, and then I’ll go over my plans with you.”
Enjoy? There was that word again. “Plans?” He sipped his coffee, savoring the eye-opening brew.
Cora pierced a triangle-shaped piece of hotcakes. “Yes. I didn’t go out yesterday for a walk of leisure. I went to search out ideas.”
“And?” Ed raised a brow at her.
“And we’re going to enjoy a meal.” She smiled, that teasing, alluring kind that drew him closer.
He hid behind his coffee mug. The awkward silence stood between them like a thick fog. Maybe Ghost was right. He needed to know more about Cora if he was going to find the right husband for her. He cleared his throat and set his coffee cup down. “What things do you like?”
Cora batted her long, dark lashes at him. “What do you mean?”
“I don’t know. Growing up? What were your favorite things besides magnolias?”
“You remembered that?”
“Yes.” He sipped his coffee, once more avoiding the allure of her green eyes the color of…a blade of grass in the summer. No, that wasn’t it. He knew her eyes looked like something, but he couldn’t place it.
“When I was younger, I loved to cook and help my mother run the house along with my sister Abigail.”
“Was she the oldest?”
“Yes. How did you know that?”
Ed chuckled. “I surmised it because your name starts with a C. When Mr. Miller mentioned about your sisters, you stated Abigail, Dinah, and Elizabeth, and you stated you had a brother, Benjamin. And based on Josephine, I’m thinking you had nine siblings or more.
A shadow crossed her face. He couldn’t help but cover her hand in comfort. “I’m sorry. Did I bring up bad memories?” He would do anything to chase the darkness from her and see her hope and happiness again. A rare sight in this world.
“No. Not at all. Yes, there were ten of us. I enjoy speaking of my family and the life I once lived. I won’t dwell on it or only look backward, but I guess talking about it makes it feel like it really happened. My brother Benjamin was an amazing man. He looked after us older girls but taught us things my mother would never approve of. Fishing, frogging. You know, the boy stuff.”
It was Ed’s turn to feel the shadows of the past creep in. “I wish I could’ve done that for my sister. You inspired me last night.”
