Not until Booth helped a glowing Mary Surratt into his carriage did he tell her where he planned to take her. He paid her a sincere compliment on her rabbit-collared blue silk pelisse, which truly was attractive.
“Mary, that flatters you the way Michelangelo flattered marble.”
Her poke bonnet looked rather little-girlish, with pink flowers beneath its brim and streamers tied on the side of her chin, but he simply let her enjoy it.
“Oh, this old thing?” she tittered, her hands fluttering in short kid gloves trimmed in lace ruffles. “It"s something out of the attic.”
But he knew she"d either exhausted her life savings on this apparel or hastily borrowed it from a well-to-do neighbor. He was tempted to tell her that depleting her coffers to get gussied up wasn"t necessary or practical, bu
