She dressed in a blue cotton work dress with loose, elbow-length sleeves and a bloused bodice, then pulled her hair back and tucked it into a white net pinned tightly at her crown. Wearing only one petticoat under the dress and no corset, she felt ready to do a good day’s work. Work. She had to begin somewhere if she were to prove her independence from Justis and remain in Gold Ridge. Surely the army wouldn’t carry off a Cherokee who had a livelihood in town. She went downstairs and out the hotel’s back door. A short breezeway connected the main building to the kitchen, and that kitchen, lit by large oil lamps, bustled with the preparations to feed ten boarders at breakfast. Noah stirred corn mush in a big ceramic bowl and Lilac sliced bread. Both grinned at her sleepily. Katherine received only a scowl from Cookie, a tall, angular slave with toffee-colored skin, coarse brown hair, and the temper of a bilious mule. “I don’t want nobody else in my kitchen,” she said as soon as Katherine stepped across the threshold.
