Read One Wore Blue for Free Online

we’re in trouble?”
    “Of course not,” Kiernan told her. “Maybe it’s just a late meeting down there or an inspection going on or something of that sort.”
    “Then why would they sneak around? And why would I have heard a shot?”
    Kiernan shrugged. She wanted to assure Lacey, but she herself was now convinced that something wasn’t right. The people below did seem to be slinking, or making movements that just weren’t right.
    “I’m sure we’re in no danger,” she told Lacey. After all,why would they be? It was a big town. And as two women alone, they certainly offered no one any kind of a threat. Lacey and Thomas lived comfortably, but they weren’t particularly wealthy, so there were no great treasures in the house.
    But whoever had come into Harpers Ferry hadn’t come for wealth or riches. Kiernan knew that, just as she knew that something was happening.
    “Why don’t we go down and have a glass of sherry?” she suggested.
    “We can’t see the town from downstairs,” Lacey told her. Kiernan smiled. “Then we’ll bring the sherry up here. How’s that?”
    That suggestion appealed to Lacey. The two women lit the candle by Kiernan’s bedside and hurried downstairs to the parlor by Thomas’s office for the sherry.
    They must look like a pair of wraiths, Kiernan thought. She had on a lace-trimmed white cotton gown that seemed to float as she moved, and Lacey wore a pale blue gown, an eerie color in the night. Harpers Ferry already had ghost stories. It was said that down by the old Harper house, a ghost could often be seen in the windows. It was supposed to be Mrs. Harper, watching over the gold her husband had supposedly buried somewhere in the yard. Some said that George Washington, who had been determined that this would be the site for the armory, still walked the streets upon occasion, checking out his interests.
    And there were the Indians, of course. Potomac and Shenandoah were still shedding their tears.
    Back in the guest room, Kiernan poured them each a glass of sherry. They took up sentinel in rockers on either side of the window, sipping the drink. Lacey seemed happy enough, either content that they were safe, or enjoying their impromptu party.
    Kiernan was growing increasingly more uncomfortable. There
was
movement out there, by the firehouse, and by the armory buildings. And the night was passing swiftly. Looking out at the sky and toward the mountains and the rivers,Kiernan thought that the first pink streaks of day would soon reach delicately over the water.
    Lacey was telling her about a party she had attended in Washington recently, marveling at how quickly the railroad had taken her into the capital city. Kiernan swallowed more sherry. She had just begun to relax when she heard a fierce pounding on the door below.
    She and Lacey leaped out of their chairs at the same time, staring at each other.
    “What do we do?” Lacey cried.
    “Ignore it!” Kiernan suggested.
    “What if someone is trying to help us?”
    “What if someone is trying to hurt us?”
    Wide-eyed, they continued to stare at each other.
    And then they heard the glass of the office door below shatter as it crashed open. Lacey yelped, and Kiernan managed to swallow back a scream. It wouldn’t help to let anyone know where they were.
    “Lacey, we need something, anything! Why is there not a single weapon in this house!”
    “I don’t know, I don’t know—we never needed a weapon in the house!” Lacey countered, wringing her hands.
    Barking at poor Lacey wouldn’t help a thing, Kiernan realized. She was just as terrified herself.
    Then they heard footsteps coming up the stairs.
    Kiernan saw a parasol in the corner of the room. She dived for it, wondering what earthly good it would do her. But she couldn’t just stand there and accept whatever happened. She couldn’t allow anyone to come in and harm poor dear Lacey. She would have to fight.
    With a parasol!
    They heard the door to Lacey’s bedroom across