Mrs. Lee and Mrs. Gray Read Free Page A

for it.”
    “So you are still not interested in fashion.”
    “Not in the least.”
    Elizabeth and her girls returned from their visit to the foal then, exclaiming over Robert and asking a thousand questions about his life at West Point. By the time Thomas and the boys returned, it was too late for breakfast, but presently an early dinner was set before us, during which Robert described his studies and his plans to become a member of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
    Wilhelmina came in with dessert—a strawberry cake with boiled icing. Robert ate two pieces, and after a polite interval in the parlor he caught my eye.
    “What do you say, Mary? Shall we go riding?”
    We set out across the meadow at a smart canter, giving the horses their lead. We forded a shallow stream and passed through a forest thick with old oaks clothed in summer green.
    I was so happy to see Robert I could have ridden with him all day, listening to his tales of life at West Point, but after an hour the sun disappeared and black clouds boiled up in the distance.
    “We ought to head back,” Robert said, and we turned our mounts for home.
    But the sky suddenly opened and we were caught in a downpour. We sheltered beneath a stand of old oaks. Raindrops glittered in the gusts of warm, humid air that blew against our faces. A low rumble of thunder startled my little mare, and Robert reached for my reins.
    Our fingers touched. His eyes met mine and held, and all at once everything changed, and I knew .
    The storm slackened and we rode home. Leaving our horses to the stable boy, we went inside, laughing together and shaking off the rain.
    Supper that night was a feast to welcome Robert home. Everything was delicious, but I was too jittery, remembering the touch of his hand on mine. I pushed my food around on my plate, listening to the Turner clan chatter on about the new foal, all the while wondering how on earth I could continue to breathe if Robert did not return my tender feelings.
    Thomas said something that made everyone laugh. Robert caught my eye across the candlelit table and smiled. And I saw then—to my great delight—that he too understood we were meant for each other.
    I knew he couldn’t declare himself for a long while yet. He still had two more years at West Point, and after that the challenge of his first posting as an army engineer. But on that warm May evening at Kinloch, I was as happy as I had ever been. One day Robert Lee would be mine.
    T HREE YEARS LATER
    He proposed marriage over a plate of fruitcake.
    It was summer and Arlington was in its full beauty. The broad green lawn sloped gently toward the shimmering Potomac. The gardens brimmed with myrtle and roses and lilac. Children and dogs played among the trees. A family of orange cats lay sunning themselves on the front steps.
    Robert was visiting, and we had spent every moment since his arrival walking by the river or talking politics with my father. Following Sunday services, Papa read to us from the new play he was writing. After that we enjoyed an hour of listening to Robert reading aloud a novel by Sir Walter Scott.
    When he reached the end of the chapter, Mother caught my eye and said in that sweet, gentle way of hers, “Mary dear, perhaps Cousin Robert could use some refreshments after such a long reading.”
    Her smile was an unspoken apology for the disagreement we’d had earlier that morning after church. I had changed into an old yellow calico dress with a frayed hem instead of the new apricot silk she had recently made for me. To keep the peace I’d donned the silk, but during dinner I treated her with cool detachment to underscore my displeasure.
    Then Robert had arrived, impeccably attired as always, and Mother had sent me a look that plainly said, See, I have saved you from embarrassment .
    Now I returned her smile, for it was impossible to remain at odds with someone of such refinement and gentleness. Mother was a quiet-spoken woman whom nothing ever defeated,