Bride of the Night Read Free

enemy.
    â€œI’ve been north before,” she repeated to Richard. “I’m not a soldier and I’m not a spy. I’m a traveler. I’mjust trying to find a place to live, to find work… I’ve been there, I’ve done it before.”
    â€œYes, I know, and I didn’t think that it was a good idea then, and I think it’s a worse idea now.”
    She touched his hand gently. She couldn’t be afraid, and she couldn’t let others be afraid for her. If she could only make her friends understand that it was almost as if she was being called to help. “Richard, it’s as if he knows me, as if he’s communicating with me through his mind. I don’t know how to explain, but I dream that we’re walking through the White House—and he’s talking to me.”
    Richard stood, paced the soft ground and paused again to look at her. “If you want to go, you know that I’ll help you. I just want you to realize what a grave mistake you’re making—absolutely no pun intended.” He hesitated. “This is home. This is Key West. This is where your mother came, and where you are accepted, and where you have friends. It’s where I’m based.”
    Tara lifted her chin. “It’s where you’re based. Half of the time, you’re off—trying to slip through the blockade. Speak of dangerous.”
    â€œIt’s what I’m supposed to do,” he said quietly.
    â€œYou never wanted the war,” she reminded him. “You said from the beginning that there had to be a way to compromise, that we just needed to realize that slavery was archaic and the great plantation owners could begin a system of payments and schooling and—”
    â€œI was an idiot,” he said flatly. “In one thing, theworld will never change. Men will be blind when a system—even an evil one—creates their way of life, their riches and their survival. John Brown might have been a murdering fanatic, but in this, he could have been right.” He gazed off into the distance, a bemused look on his face. “The state of Vermont abolished slavery long before your Mr. Lincoln thought of his emancipation proclamation. But do you think that rich farmers anywhere were thinking that they’d have to pick their own cotton if such a law existed? Yes, it can happen, it will happen, but…”
    â€œYou’re saying the war is over, that we’ve lost—but you keep going out, running the blockade.”
    He lifted his hands. “It’s what I have to do…?. But! You don’t have to. You are in a dangerous situation when you leave this place.”
    â€œRichard! I don’t walk around with a sign on my back with large printed letters that spell out b-a-s-t-a-r-d! ” she said indignantly.
    â€œNor do you have a sign that says Be Wary! Half Vampire! ” Richard warned.
    Tara was silence a minute. “And you’re my friend,” she murmured dryly.
    He knelt back down by her in the bracken by the pines near the tiny spit of beach that stretched out along the causeway to the fort. “I am your friend. That’s why I’m telling you this. You know I’ll take you aboard the Peace when you wish…you know that. What I’m trying to tell you is that every journey we make grows moredangerous. The South started the war with no navy, had to scrounge around and build like crazy—beg, borrow and steal other ships—and then count on blockade runners to carry supplies. My ship is good, but the noose is tightening on us, Tara.”
    He was quiet for a minute, looking downward, and then he looked up at her again. “Tara, I’m saying this to you now, here alone. If I were heard, it might well be construed as that I was speaking as a traitor, and God help me, I’d fight for my state, no matter what. Yet, every word we’ve spoken here is the truth of it. The war is ending.