Cadence

Prologue

Prologue

 

September 20th 1867

Charleston, South Carolina

 

Blood poured in hotred rivulets from her hands onto the pale blue fabric of her gown.

How could this have happened?

Cadence Jamison stared with a mixture of horror and disbelief from the crimson stains on her hands to the man lying dead in the darkened alleyway.

“Papa, no,” she whimpered as salty tears and raindrops splattered onto the motionless form. Her thick skirts billowed in the blustery wind and raindrops stung her face as small rivers of rainwater mingled with the thick, dark blood pooling around her mud caked shoes. Sobs racked her body as she fell to her knees shaking the motionless figure of her father, willing him to rise, and for this all to have been a terrifying twist of the imagination.

A clattering from the cobbled street adjacent to the alley alerted her to a carriage creaking and splashing ever closer. Panic welled in her breast as she stared at the condemning red stains marring her skirts and hands.

“Richard!” a voice drifted through the storm. “Richard, look there!”

The carriage stopped at the mouth of the alley and as the carriage door swung outward Cadence leapt to her feet. In a fleeting moment of indecision she wiped the wet tangle of curls from her eyes. A booted leg emerged from the carriage and panic boiled over as she turned to flee through the black rain slicked streets.

“You there,” a man’s voice called. “Stop! Murderer!”