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“No. You?”
She shook her head. “No. Age?”
“Thirty-eight. You?”
“Thirty-two.”
“Lovers?”
“And you need to know this why?”
“In case someone who has your heart takes issue with this so-called marriage before we leave for South Carolina.”
“You don’t have to worry. It isn’t as if we’ll be alerting the newspapers.”
He noted she hadn’t answered his question. A woman with her beauty should have legions of men at her feet. “I’ll take you at your word.”
“I’m so relieved.”
Her sarcasm rivaled her beauty. The unblemished bronze skin and the coppery curls rising above the red-patterned headdress like a crown reminded him of a Boston autumn. The season’s brilliantly colored leaves and crisp cool air was always his favorite time of the year. “Is there a story behind why you were named Raven?”
“My grandmother Fanny named me. She said there were ravens in the trees during my birth. She took it as a sign. Why do you ask?”
“Because you don’t look like a Raven.”
“What do I look like?”
“Autumn.”
“The season?”
“Your coloring reminds me of the changing trees.”
She went silent for a moment, and he notedher skepticism before she asked, “Is this called flattery in Boston?”
“Consider it a simple observation.”
“The name’s Raven.”
“Understood.” In spite of the tension between them, he was, for unknown reasons, enjoying the verbal fencing. “How often does Dorrie predict the future?”
“Not often. Have you ever been to Charleston?”
He knew a redirection when he heard one. “Yes. I was stationed in South Carolina during the war. Few of my memories from the time are fond.” He’d enlisted in the Massachusetts Fifty-Fourth as a naïve young man intent upon freeing the enslaved and showing the doubting country that Colored men were as brave and stalwart as anyone else. After mustering out in April 1865, he’d returned home jaded, cynical, and angry at the bigotry his regiment had endured. The nightmares brought on by the deaths and horrors he’d witnessed haunted him for months.
Whether his being a veteran altered her perceptions of him was impossible to tell because her expression hadn’t changed. He vowed never to play poker with her. “Have you ever been to Charleston?”
“Enough times to know my way around the city.”
He wondered if those past visits were tied to swindling. “Do you have family there?”
“Yes. It’s a small branch so we’ll have assistance should a need arise.”
“Good to know. I wonder if Pinkerton Welch is aware of that?”
“I’ve no idea how deeply she’s been digging. However, I’ve learned to never underestimate an opponent or take anything for granted.”
“I wonder if there are other detectives in the city for her support.”
