“The bible verse, your bullet stopped at the end of that line. ‘Woman, what am I to do with you?’ It is certainly appropriate, don’t you think?” There was a hint of a smile at that last.
Mary blinked. “Oh.”
Elizabeth rallied. “I do realize this is a bit of a scandal Mrs. Lodge, but I know that it was never Mary’s wish to cause any problems.”
“Other than shooting him on occasion, you mean?”
Mary fixed herself into a frozen smile. “He was a Yankee soldier, after all.”
The older woman’s smile grew, just a touch. “Then the shooting is to be expected.” She sighed. “We can survive a scandal. A family must have the occasional scandal, after all.” She studied Mary. “He’s been looking for you for quite some time young lady, much to the annoyance of the unattached women of Boston and New York. He even brought Colonel Mosby into my house, where they drank entirely too much brandy and spent entirely too much time laughing about the trickery and cunning of a certain she-devil.” She shook her head. “Imagine, John Singleton Mosby, a guest in my house.”
Mary felt herself flush red.
The older woman suddenly stopped and stood. “I believe Elizabeth and I have some private matters to discuss.”
Even Mary was surprised at the sudden breach of protocol and she stood to watch them sweep out of the room with shocking speed.
Service with Mosby had taught her, however, to recognize an ambush; she whirled around to find Jeremiah standing in the other doorway.
Breathing was suddenly an effort.
Jeremiah eyed her cautiously. “I should have asked Nathan to ensure you were unarmed. You do have a tendency to shoot me whenever we meet.” The glitter of humor in his eyes was just enough.
“I only have a little boot gun.”
“Well, you have shot me with one of those before and I suffered little from it, so I think you can keep it.” He looked serious for a moment and touched the scar on the side of his head. “I would have written to you if I was able. I didn’t even know you believed me dead.”
Mary swallowed an involuntary cry and caught her breath, then she took one hesitant step toward him. “I need to know Jeremiah. Am I yours or the Devil’s?”
“I don’t know. I’m afraid our Minister seems to have gotten swept away in a deluge. But I do know there is only one way to fix it.”
*****
The wedding was both utterly scandalous and wildly popular. The sheer spectacle of one of the Brahmins of Boston, a Lodge, marrying a West Virginia hill country girl, a completely unreconstructed rebel, no less. The Matron of the family made very clear that she would tolerate no disrespect to the girl. The Lodges normally believed in quiet family weddings, and yet the three-day celebration of the wedding of Jeremiah Lodge to Miss Mary Jane Green was the largest social event in Boston for over a decade.
That the Bride was given away by Colonel John Singleton Mosby in his full Confederate dress uniform was no small cause for comment, of course. Despite some lingering animosity from the war, Colonel Mosby and the many Union officers present for the event appeared to have been quite at ease together, although that may have well been the result of the medicinal properties of a rather large amount of brandy consumed over those three days.