title: The Spirit of Josephine
author: Ms Florence Ladd
description: Florence Ladds novel, Sarah's Psalm (Scribner), received the 1997 best fiction award from the American Library Association's Black Caucus. With Marion Kilson, she is the co-author of Is That Your Child? Mothers Talk about Rearing Biracial Children. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts and Flavigny-sur-Ozerain, France.
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  There was only the sound of their breath between them.
  
  “Ma’moiselle,” he whispered, and not once did the intensity of his gaze
  falter. His eyes had darkened to a smolder that held her so completely that
  she could not look away. It seemed as if she were transfixed by him, unable to
  move, unaware of anything save him and the strange tension that seemed to bind
  them together.
  
  Her eyes flickered over the harsh, lean angles of his face. She was acutely
  conscious of the hardness of his chest and hip and, against her, the long
  length of his legs. Her breath wavered, and she was sure that he would hear
  its loud raggedness.
  
  “Josephine,” he said, and she could hear the hoarse strain within his voice.
  “God help me, but you tempt me to lose my very soul.”
  
  His hand moved around to cradle her head. His face lowered toward hers, and
  she knew that he was going to kiss her. Slowly Josie tilted her face up in
  response, and the blanket slipped from her shoulders to fall upon t