The entire city of New Orleans was electrified with the news. Eighty-two-year-old Francis Hampstead found a package at his door containing the exact amount needed to pay his back taxes. He, his daughter-in-law, and her two grown daughters had been working the farm since Francis, Junior, had been killed at Fredericksburg. This land was all they had. Hard work was the only thing they knew. The very day they had been prepared to leave their home, to turn their backs on everything they loved, they’d been offered a reprieve.Little clusters of people stood on street comers and discussed the Archangel of Mercy’s second miracle. Businessmen huddled in shop doorways, speculating on the turn of events. The women in Hannah Elliott’s House of Pleasure, like the women all over town, wondered if this mysterious hero was someone of their acquaintance.Annalisa didn’t bother wondering. Another piece of the puzzle had just fallen into place. Hadn’t Nate Blackwell been standing just outside the parlor when Jasper Willis had revealed his plans to foreclose on Hampstead House?
