Legacy of the Dead - Charles Todd [152]
“The church is gloomy, too dark perhaps for black. White is also the color of mourning. And of youth dying before its time.”
“Yes,” she said again, thinking about it. “I like that choice. I’ll see to it—afterward.” Looking into the troubled brown eyes, she added impulsively, “You were in the war. Was it very terrible? I’ve seen the wounded in London, and that’s grim enough. I can’t imagine being on a battlefield, and knowing that death was coming— watching the men beside me drop and not move again—” She faltered, and then confessed, “I wonder about my cousins, you see. No one told us how they died—the letters only said that they’d been brave and didn’t suffer. Which is a lie if I ever heard one!”
“Some of the men suffered terribly.” Stevens answered her with bitter honesty. “Screaming in pain, or lying there in silence, which is somehow worse, trying to be—brave about it. But sometimes it’s quick enough. With no time for thought or grief or pain. They may be the lucky ones.”
Francesca nodded. “I pray my cousins were among them.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Charles Todd is the author of The Murder Stone, A Fearsome Doubt, Watchers of Time, Legacy of the Dead, A Test of Wills, Wings of Fire, and Search the Dark. He lives on the East Coast, where he is at work on the next book in the Ian Rutledge series, A Cold Treachery.
Also by Charles Todd
A Test of Wills
Wings of Fire
Search the Dark
Watchers of Time
And available now in hardcover
from Bantam Books
The Murder Stone
LEGACY OF THE DEAD
A Bantam Book
Copyright © 2000, by Charles Todd
All rights reserved.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 00-036076
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. For information address: Bantam Books.
Bantam Books are published by Bantam Books, a division of Random House, Inc. Its trademark, consisting of the words “Bantam Books” and the portrayal of a rooster, is Registered in U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and in other countries. Marca Registrada. Bantam Books, New York, New York.
www.randomhouse.com
eISBN: 978-0-307-41821-0
v3.0