Chapter 3

"How much longer do I have to walk with these silly books on my head?" Emma protested.

"Until you learn to walk gracefully like a young lady should," the stern looking woman sitting in the corner with a stick replied.

The other girls in the room tried not to snicker. And Emma wasn't the only pupil being drilled on walking gracefully.

She found a kindred spirit in a spunky girl by the name of Maggie Madison, or Margaret Anne Madison as their teacher, Mrs. Balew preferred her she be called.

"Margaret Anne, it is hard to believe you are a cousin of a president," their teacher said.

Emma tried not to laugh and had a hard time balancing the books on her head when Maggie stuck her tongue out at Mrs. Ballew.

The truth is, Emma liked Mrs. Ballew. Like Mrs. Bedell, Hannah Ballew was not an old spinster. She was, in fact, younger than Mrs. Bedell. Her husband, like many other young men of the town, was off at war as a captain in Jeb Stuart's cavalry. But Hannah Ballew was not the flag-waving Southern patriot type.

While Emma, her sister Rebecca and new friend Maggie found the lessons in grace and manners, they actually found the "school" part of their day actually kind of fun. Mrs. Ballew drilled them in mathematics, discussed with them the latest advances and theories in science.

She also encouraged them to read the classics. She corrected their grammar and tried to get them to talk without "a Southern accent, but rather a British one," which the girls thought was funny.

But Emma's favorite part of class was listening to Mrs. Ballew talk about about the many things woman could accomplish. They could be doctors or scientists if they wanted to. They could also be philosophers, authors.

"If there is one good thing about this war, it has shown jusy how valuable women truly are in this world," she told her charges.

She led them on a tour of the largest military hospital in Richmond. It was staffed entirely by women. They served soldiers both North and South.

The girls in her school helped out wrapping bandages.

"You two would make good combat nurses," one of the women nurses told Emma and Maggie.

Emma admired Mrs. Ballew because she tried to expand the world of girls beyond the boarding houses and stately homes in Richmond.

"You want to know why I push you so much, Emma?" Mrs. Ballew told her. "I see so much potential in you, and in Maggie, too. You are beautiful young girls, intelligent, too. But both severely lacking in the graces."

She also found friend Maggie, who lived near the boarding house, as one who expended their world, too. She walked home with Emma and Rebecca, and often took them on a side adventure, or two. As a relative of the late James Madison, she was often allowed to go to places where girls her age weren't allowed to go.

One such place was the slave market, a place Emma would never forget as long as she lived.

The place had a stench that people could not believe. She saw human beings treated like cattle or horses. She saw defiant ones whipped, and families torn apart. They hid in a small corner where no one could see them.

"The most horrible people come here," Maggie said. "My mother said there will be no more slaves if the Yankees win. Well, I hope the Yankees win."

Maggie wasn't all about showing them the dark side of Southern society. They played games on the porch of the boarding house or the stately manner where Maggie lived. They made fun of people who walked down the street, tried to guess their conversations and stations in life.

*****

"I swear I think I'm going to die of boredom, Andy," Lucian said as they leaned against a tree. Life in an army camp was not all glory and glamor as recruiters and the posters proclaimed at the start of the war.

"I'd rather die of boredom than die on the battlefield," Andy said as he lit his pipe. "Quite frankly, I'm glad we haven't been involved in a major action since Gettysburg.

"You know, you've become a gloomy person," Lucian replied. "Whatever happened to that optimistic, 'I can conquer the world' girl that I knew back in Ohio?"

"The war happened," Andy said. "I've seen too many men die. I've seen too many horrors, and limbless men, I guess. And too many glory seekers."

Lucian had also seen Andy almost evolve into a completely different person. He, or she, had always been a bit boyish and pursued many manly adventures.

Things like smoking a pipe, or playing cards with fellow soldiers in camp, or gambling or being the warrior in battle, he was finding it harder to imagine that Andy was anything but the young, war hardened man he, or she, was becoming.

"What are you thinking about?" Andy said.

"Well, Andy, I'll come out plain with it," Lucian said. "It seems like you're becoming more of a man each day. You almost seem to enjoy it."

Andy took another puff of the pipe, and laughed.

"Lucian, my boy, I am a man," Andy said matter of factly. "Don't you ever forget it."

Andy told Corinne of the conversation a few days later.

"He is right," Corinne said. "I thought that when you joined in with the other boys in paying attention to those pretty young nurses who came to camp the other day."

Andy laughed as helped Corinne hang up clothes that she washed for the men in camp.

"You better watch it, Corinne," Andy said. "I may want to take advantage of you."

They both broke out into laughter. The truth is, Corinne was a very attractive woman who already had to fight off several proposals from young soldiers in the outfit.

*****

Emma and Rebecca found the boarding house to be a fascinating place.

There were a couple of young families like theirs, with mothers who brought their children to the city as a way to survive.

There was the doctor who came from North Carolina who found his work entirely consumed with caring for wounded men. There was an aging scientist who had no other place to go.

And then there was the "swashbuckling" riverboat gambler turned smuggler who used the spare room when he wasn't out trying to break the Yankee blockade. He had a thing for their mother. He proposed to her twice, but she turned him down.

She tried to keep it a secret from her "girls," but the truth is she had feelings for the man.

And Rebecca and Emma warmed to the idea of the man who seemed to bring a little adventure to thier mother's life.

The best part about life at the boarding house was the growing bond between the "sisters."

They shared clothes and helped each other get dressed. They did each other's hair. Rebecca was amazed by how well Emma caught on.

The awkward moment of sharing a bubble bath to save the heat from escaping the water was no longer as awkward. In her mind, Emma was as much a girl as she was. Emma confessed she now thought of herself as one.

The most enjoyable time was their talk at candle light as they lied in their beds before going off to sleep.

They talked about the day's events. They talked about dreams.

"Do you ever wonder what will happen when you stop having to be a girl?" Rebecca said one night before they drifted off to sleep.

"There are times," Emma said with a yawn. "Sometimes I imagine myself marching off in a regiment like the ones we see marching down the street. And there are times when I see myself as an old, gray spinster teaching girls how to act like the Southern ladies they are supposed to be."