Sinning with My Fiancé's Twin Brother novel · Chapter 15 of 32

Chapter 15: Papa's Diary

I sat down on the tack room floor with the book in my lap.

The calfskin was soft as a glove.

I opened it to the first page.

"January 1st, 1857. Cold. Bought the bay filly at Breaux Bridge for forty dollars. Too much. Don't tell anybody."

I laughed out loud in the empty barn.

Then I had to stop and wipe my eyes with my sleeve.

It was Papa at twenty-two.

Foals and weather and prices, a line or two a day.

"Rain. The filly kicked me. She is a genius."

"Rode to the dance at the church hall. Saw the girl in the yellow dress again. She laughed at my boots."

Mama had kept a yellow dress in the cedar chest until the day she died.

I turned the pages slowly.

February was all mud and colic.

Then March.

"March 3rd. Storm all night. Devereux's wife brought to bed early. The bridge is out at Breaux Bridge and the doctor can't cross. They say Mademoiselle Odile is attending."

"March 4th. Twin boys, both living. Devereux came to the stable at dawn and cried on my shoulder. Asked me to stand godfather to the elder. I said yes before he finished asking."

"March 5th. Madame Devereux died this morning. God keep her. He hasn't come out of the room."

I went cold all over.

I knew those boys.

I'd been engaged to one of them.

I'd lain in the hay with the other one not six hours ago.

"March 10th."

Papa's handwriting changed here.

It was faster, pressed harder into the page.

"Baptism at St. Martin de Tours. Held my godson, the elder. A brown mark on his left shoulder like a thumbprint. Odile took him out of my arms for the font and gave the priest the other boy."

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