Southern Beauty - By Julie Lucia Page 0,3

disgust. And then she watched Patricia stroll pass the iron-gate, nod to her driver, and step into her carriage.

As Johanna closed the door, her condescending smile disappeared. As she thought about Clarice’s party, she felt nauseous. She walked over to the mirror that hung on the wall. She leaned in to get a better look at herself, tears began to swell up in her eyes and she watched them trickle down her rosy cheeks.

It didn’t matter that Johanna was alone, she was used to it. Johanna became a recluse since her parents’ financial ruin and their embarrassing escape. She preferred to stay home and read. It was a favorite pastime of her mother’s and she in turn enjoyed it herself. Since her best friend Abigail wed in September to a lawyer from Georgia and moved to be near his family, she had few friends. She had no one really to be confidantes with except her matchmaking friend Mary Alice, who always tried to set her up to meet the most boorish of snooty men at parties they were expected to attend. The men rarely fussed over her, which didn’t bother Johanna in the slightest. She actually welcomed becoming another tapestry on the ballroom walls. She did hate that when the General’s daughter, Clarice, came around, Johanna was but forgotten.

Clarice Beauregard was an auburn-haired Cajun-goddess. She was extremely admired by young eligible men for her beautiful looks and her flirtatious nature. Actually the whole family was extremely handsome. Clarice’s twin brother, Rene, was one of the most eligible bachelors of the South. During teatime at Miss Patricia’s there was so much gossip about Clarice and Rene, Johanna stopped attending them. She only wanted to stay as far away from the women who gossiped, and the men who they gossiped about.

Johanna’s heart ached for a new life in Virginia. She longed for the day she would unite with her family. Johanna’s tears began to flow even harder now, and she ran up to her room and fell hard onto her bed. At her beside she cradled the last book her parents had given her, an 1859 copy of Blackwood’s Magazine, all the way from London. She had it book marked to her favorite novel, by a Miss Austen. She liked it not for the romance, but the family’s closeness, especially that of sisters. It was something she had always longed for.

Romance was the last thing on Johanna’s mind. She hadn’t had much luck with it in the past and she hated the drama that always seemed to accompany it. She had more important things to think on.

Since December, Charleston had become independent from the Union and while many celebrated others were fleeing in fear of Lincoln’s army. This fear ran rapidly through Johanna’s plantation. Many of the workers fled and the ones who stayed behind began to migrate to their new appointed employer a mile away. Although being in the South slavery was legal, the Lees did not believe in it. Therefore all men who worked were paid in some kind of form. Johanna had many acquaintances who believed differently. She believed no one should be someone’s property. They were all handmade by God and should be treated alike. There were several who felt like the Lees but would not fight against it. Johanna just wanted to be away from all the turmoil and the extreme emotions that this controversy stirred up. Virginia seemed like a safer place being near family and those who shared her point of view.

# # #

Private Malcolm Graystone eyed his new dress clothes. His commander had him wear a new Southerner’s uniform to ward off any trouble retrieving Johanna. It seemed they just washed a union uniform many times with lye to turn it gray. He laughed at his predicament. Pretending to be someone he wasn’t was not new territory for Malcolm. Ahead he spied a local tavern. His stomach growled and he decided to stop for something to eat. Only five miles down the road from his destination was Johanna Lee and if he wasn’t so tired and hungry he would have continued on, but his hunger pains began to make him feel weak. He just needed to regenerate, and he would be on his way.

Malcolm couldn’t wait to meet the woman his commander told him so much about. He was 21 and ready to start a family. The barmaid approached him and asked him his order. Malcolm decided to order a drink to calm his

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