Anna: Bride of Alabama (American Mail-Order Bride 22) by Lily Graison Page A

go.
    She smiled up at Julia and reached out to lay her hand against her arm. “As much as I’d love to see more of Alabama, I’ll admit I’m still rather tired from the trip. Could we go another day, perhaps?”
    Julia opened her mouth to argue no doubt, but shut it with a snap. She wasn’t happy but she didn’t try to persuade her any longer either. “Fine.” She blew out a breath and crossed her arms over her chest.
    “I have the sweet tarts ready,” Ruth said. “Why don’t you deliver them for me. You can show Anna around the plantation and introduce her to the tenants.”
    Julia pulled one of the empty chairs away from the table and flung herself into as if the world were ending.
    Ruth sat a cup of tea in front of Anna and she picked it up, hiding a smile behind the white porcelain.
    Breakfast wasn’t the formal affair the meal the night before was and Anna was a bit disappointed to learn Gabriel had already eaten and was out in the field with James. Apparently, the older man still thought he was young enough to put in a full days work like a man half his age and if someone didn’t watch him, he’d wear himself out and end up sick.
    Ruth packed a basket as they finished their meal and by the time they were ready to go, Anna was actually excited. She’d never seen a working cotton plantation before. She’d worked with thread and cloth for longer than she wanted to remember but had never once wondered how all those fine fabrics started.
    She’d put on one of her nicer dresses before coming downstairs and ran up to change into something more appropriate. Walking cotton field and dirt roads called for more rugged attire. She dressed in a plain brown skirt and white shirtwaist and pulled her hair into a loose bun at the nape of her neck and headed down the back stairs to the kitchen. Julia stood by the door swinging the basket of sweet tarts back and forth when she rejoined them.
    “Ready to go?”
    Anna smiled. “Lead the way.”
    They headed across the yard behind the house and Anna had a chance to get her first real look at the property. It wasn’t as opulent a view as you received when traveling the road up to the front of the house but it was no less spectacular. There were several outbuildings, barns and stables and the fields ran for what seemed like miles.
    They took the road that ran along one of the fields and headed towards the cabins she could see in the distance. There were people everywhere doing various things and Anna couldn’t help but ask what everyone was doing.
    Julia lost patience with her after the tenth question and Anna laughed, then apologized. “I’ve never even seen a real farm. Well, nothing of this size. Its just not something you’d see in the city.”
    “Get used to it. There’s nothing in this part of the country but farms.”
    “You don’t sound as if you enjoy it here.”
    She shrugged. “I love Laurel Haven but it gets a bit lonely. There’s children in the tenant cabins but they won’t play with me much. Something about social classes or some such nonsense.”
    Anna could only imagine how difficult it was living in the south now. The war was long over but she was sure tensions still rose on occasion. She looked toward the fields. There were as many white men and women working the crops as there were black and Ruth had said the cabins belonged to tenants. Did they purchase the land from Gabriel, then work it? Or did they work the land in order to live in the cabins? She was about to ask but the look on Julia’s face halted her words.
    They were halfway to the cabins when Julia yelled out to her father. They stopped and Anna raised a hand to shield her eyes from the sun. Gabriel was headed their way, an older gentleman close behind.
    “What are you two up to?”
    Julia lifted the basket for him to see. “We’re headed to the cabins. Ruth made more sweet tarts.”
    “Yeah?” Gabriel reached for the cloth covering the basket. “What did she put in