Cordia let out a soft sigh and then a small smile formed across her mouth. “When I was a little girl, Grandma Jane and Grandpa Isaac were good friends with the Adams family, as they are now. We used to go out there near every Sunday for a good meal and socialization. Grandma would visit with your Great-Aunt Margaret, and Grandpa would go out to the barn with Uncle Arthur. I spent most of my time running around the pastures with the boys.”

“With Zacharia and Peter?” Faith asked. “Isn’t John quite a bit younger than you?”

“John wasn’t even born yet, not until I was too old to be running around outside,” their mother reminded them. “Sometimes Zacharia and Peter would be there, but they’re younger than I am, too. No, it was mainly their older brother, Jaris, and their cousin… Carey.”

Hope saw a shadow pass across her mother’s face when she spoke the first name and it grew darker with mention of the second. She couldn’t remember many details about Jaris Adams having only heard his name a few times associated with his service, but Carey everyone in town had heard of. He was the one who told Quantrill how best to get into Lamar, which led to the arsenal exploding and most of the town burning down. There was still a hole in the attic upstairs from a cannon ball that struck this very house. Hope knew her grandfather still suffered from a gunshot wound he’d received that awful night.

“You used to run around with Carey Adams?” Faith was just as shocked as Hope was, she could see it in her sister’s face. “Why have you never mentioned this before?”

“Oh, that was a long time ago,” their mother said dismissively. “And it’s never come up. I didn’t see the point in speaking about things that happened ages ago.”

“You talk like you’re as old as Grandma,” Faith interjected. “Mama, what does this have to do with courting? Are you gonna tell us you were courted by Carey Adams?”

“Or Jaris Adams?” Hope said a prayer it was the celebrated Confederate officer who had been her mother’s beau and not the awful militiaman who’d betrayed his town.

“Actually, it was both of them.” Cordia’s voice had a far off quality to it as she spoke. “I was meant to marry Jaris, but he died in the war. It was a terrible tragedy. I had already met your father by then and had fallen in love with him. I didn’t know how to tell Jaris I didn’t love him like that. He was a dear friend.” She paused for a moment, her eyes misty, and then turned her attention to Hope. “I know what it’s like to say yes to something you don’t want to agree to in order to spare someone’s feelings, honey. But trust me, it can only lead to trouble.”

Hope nodded, understanding her mother’s point in bringing up the past now. She had a million questions, but asking them seemed like prying, and she took a swallow of her milk instead of continuing to probe.

Faith was always the one with the most gumption between the pair of them, however, so she didn’t mind making their mother uncomfortable. “What about Carey? He courted you, too?”

Standing, Cordia went back across the kitchen to tend the stew and fiddle with a few other items before she returned and said, “I didn’t have much of a say in that matter. He was conniving, sneaky even.” She lowered her voice and added, “Your grandmother thought he was a fine catch.”

Hope’s eyes shot up to the ceiling, as if she might somehow see into her grandparents’ room where they were both taking an afternoon nap. It was hard for her to imagine her grandmother could’ve ever thought Carey Adams was a catch since she wouldn’t even speak his name now, but if she felt foolish for letting him talk her into courting her only child, perhaps that’s why.

“What happened?” Faith asked, an excited look on her face. “Did Daddy show up and whoop ‘im?”

Laughing, Cordia said, “Something like that. There was a big misunderstanding between your father and I, all due to Carey Adams stealing the letters I’d written to Will and destroying them. When Will found out the truth, well, there wasn’t much Carey Adams could do.”

“And then he was killed during the raid, so it doesn’t matter,” Faith added in. “It’s too bad Jaris died, but think on what mighta happened if he hadn’t. Do you think you would’ve married him, or would you have found a way to tell him you were in love with Daddy?”

“Oh, I would’ve found a way,” Cordia assured her girls. “It isn’t very often a love like the kind I found comes along.” Now, their mother was glowing. “It would’ve been difficult, though, and I could’ve saved us both a lot of trouble if I’d just been honest with him from the beginning.” Her hazel eyes focused on Hope again, and she nodded, understanding what her mother was getting at. Cordia pushed her chair out again. “I’m going to go check on your grandparents. Keep an eye on dinner, please, Hope.”

“Yes, Mama.” She watched her mother leave the room before finishing her last cookie and taking another drink. It had been a day of revelations.

“I always wondered what happened to that Carey Adams,” Faith said, pushing her empty dishes aside and picking up her gown.

“Whose gown is that?” Hope wanted to change the subject. “That’s a pretty green.”

“It’s Mrs. Peltzer’s,” Faith replied. “She’s gonna wear it to her granddaughter’s wedding. I just need to finish adding in a few more details.”

“I’m sure she’ll look lovely.” Hope gathered up the dishes and carried them to the sink.

“I wonder if he was shot by his own men, if Quantrill ended him on the way out since his plans were foiled,” her sister continued, but Hope wasn’t ready to be pulled into her game.

“I’ve got some studying to do for my lessons tomorrow. I’m going to head upstairs. Keep an eye on dinner until Mama comes back?”

Faith rested the gown on her lap and looked up at her sister. The sun was coming in through the curtains, and her light brown hair had a sheen to it. While Hope was the spitting image of their mother, Faith tended to look more like the Tucker side of the family, and their father often mentioned how much she reminded him of his deceased sister, Julia, though her hair had been blonde, and Faith’s was more of a caramel brown. Her eyes were the same shade of blue as their aunts, though, he said, and that fire that kept Faith fighting when most people would just step back he said also reminded him of his tenacious sister. Sometimes, Hope wished she could be more like Faith, that she could just go after her dreams without looking for a safety net.

“You should say no,” Faith said, her tone even. “Jimmy Brooks isn’t the one for you, sis.”

“I know,” Hope said with a nod, appreciating her sister’s insight and her candor. “It’ll be hard…”

“But like Mama said, better to break his heart now than in two or three years.”

“True.”

“Or marry someone you don’t love. You deserve to find what Mama and Daddy have, what Frankie and I have.”

Another reason to be jealous of her little sister, Hope thought. “Thank you, Faith. I’ll see you at supper.” She bounded out of the room, toward the stairs, before Faith could make any more case for why Hope needed to stop trying to please everyone else and put herself first for a change.