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Authors: Ann H. Gabhart
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arriving with his governess at the end of the month, would begin in earnest at once.
Charlotte felt as if she should run up the stairs and bar the door to her room to at least keep the woman’s changes from it. Her father may have felt the same, because each day as soon as breakfast was over, he retreated to his library. The library with its great cherry desk was his sanctuary and the place where he plotted his political campaigns and curried favors from influential visitors and backers. His political strategy room.
He cared little for the books filling the shelves from floor to ceiling on one side of the room. That had been her Grandfather Grayson’s passion when the library had been his retreat before her father. Grandfather Grayson claimed to have read every book on the shelves, some over and over until those books fell open to his favorite passages when Charlotte pulled them from the shelves to read. As she curled in the chair in front of the library’s fireplace, Charlotte often imagined the old gentleman reading over her shoulder.
After her mother died, Charlotte had free access to the books as there was no one to tell her which books were proper fare for a young lady and which were not. Her father certainly didn’t know. He had little time for literature or even history. He claimed to be too busy making history to worry about dwelling on the mistakes of the past.
Charlotte had no argument with that. She also shared her father’s passion for politics, and some of her best times with her father were spent in the library listening to the political news from Frankfort. She saw no need to give up these talks just because he had brought a wife home. If Selena’s strained look was any indication whenever Charlotte’s father began talking of the necessity of preserving the Union at all costs, the woman had little interest in politics.
But Charlotte was eager to know her father’s thoughts on whether the Southern states could be wooed back into the Union. President Lincoln hadn’t been able to do so in his first month in office, but diplomacy took time. Or so her father always told her. Coaxing an opponent back to your side could be more difficult than doing so by force, but the extra effort was well spent.
However, from what Charlotte read in the newspapers, the South didn’t seem to look with favor on any sort of compromise. Even before President Lincoln took office, the Secessionist states had already established their own government—the Confederate States of America. Charlotte had read about their meeting in Alabama, but surely saner heads would prevail as they had in crises of the past. Those in positions of power would want to find a way to heal the breach without picking up arms.
Charlotte was anxious to hear her father say as much. Plus she was eager to know his plans for the next campaign. That was more than a year away, but a man who wanted to be reelected couldn’t wait too long to get his name on the right people’s lips. While it was unseemly for a candidate to go out begging for votes for himself, it was vital to have a great many supporters who would. Even more, she wanted to laugh with him about the ridiculous bills some of his fellow senators at times tried to push through the Kentucky legislature.
She wanted to feel his hand patting her head and hear him saying, “Charley, you should have been a boy. You could have been the next governor. Right after me. We could have kept it in the family for years.” Even though he always said it as if he’d made a big joke, she knew that thinking about running for the governor’s office wasn’t a joke to him.
But Selena managed to steal those times with her father from Charlotte too, for now when she carried coffee to him after breakfast, he wanted to talk of nothing but Selena. Selena this. Selena that.
It didn’t seem to matter what the woman did. On the very first day, she ordered Gibson, their butler, to carry Charlotte’s mother’s
Charlotte felt as if she should run up the stairs and bar the door to her room to at least keep the woman’s changes from it. Her father may have felt the same, because each day as soon as breakfast was over, he retreated to his library. The library with its great cherry desk was his sanctuary and the place where he plotted his political campaigns and curried favors from influential visitors and backers. His political strategy room.
He cared little for the books filling the shelves from floor to ceiling on one side of the room. That had been her Grandfather Grayson’s passion when the library had been his retreat before her father. Grandfather Grayson claimed to have read every book on the shelves, some over and over until those books fell open to his favorite passages when Charlotte pulled them from the shelves to read. As she curled in the chair in front of the library’s fireplace, Charlotte often imagined the old gentleman reading over her shoulder.
After her mother died, Charlotte had free access to the books as there was no one to tell her which books were proper fare for a young lady and which were not. Her father certainly didn’t know. He had little time for literature or even history. He claimed to be too busy making history to worry about dwelling on the mistakes of the past.
Charlotte had no argument with that. She also shared her father’s passion for politics, and some of her best times with her father were spent in the library listening to the political news from Frankfort. She saw no need to give up these talks just because he had brought a wife home. If Selena’s strained look was any indication whenever Charlotte’s father began talking of the necessity of preserving the Union at all costs, the woman had little interest in politics.
But Charlotte was eager to know her father’s thoughts on whether the Southern states could be wooed back into the Union. President Lincoln hadn’t been able to do so in his first month in office, but diplomacy took time. Or so her father always told her. Coaxing an opponent back to your side could be more difficult than doing so by force, but the extra effort was well spent.
However, from what Charlotte read in the newspapers, the South didn’t seem to look with favor on any sort of compromise. Even before President Lincoln took office, the Secessionist states had already established their own government—the Confederate States of America. Charlotte had read about their meeting in Alabama, but surely saner heads would prevail as they had in crises of the past. Those in positions of power would want to find a way to heal the breach without picking up arms.
Charlotte was anxious to hear her father say as much. Plus she was eager to know his plans for the next campaign. That was more than a year away, but a man who wanted to be reelected couldn’t wait too long to get his name on the right people’s lips. While it was unseemly for a candidate to go out begging for votes for himself, it was vital to have a great many supporters who would. Even more, she wanted to laugh with him about the ridiculous bills some of his fellow senators at times tried to push through the Kentucky legislature.
She wanted to feel his hand patting her head and hear him saying, “Charley, you should have been a boy. You could have been the next governor. Right after me. We could have kept it in the family for years.” Even though he always said it as if he’d made a big joke, she knew that thinking about running for the governor’s office wasn’t a joke to him.
But Selena managed to steal those times with her father from Charlotte too, for now when she carried coffee to him after breakfast, he wanted to talk of nothing but Selena. Selena this. Selena that.
It didn’t seem to matter what the woman did. On the very first day, she ordered Gibson, their butler, to carry Charlotte’s mother’s
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