Chapter One LIKE I SAID, my secret hiding place saved me and Maxine that day, just as I used to fancy it would. Id stocked it well with sugar cookies, slices of smoked ham, even tins of food like Seth used in his guerrilla unit when he fought with Quantrill and his Raiders. Maxine, our house nigra, cook, and all-around friend to Seth and me, had given me a stone jar of water, pillows, and blankets to make it comfortable. And, of course, I had my box of treasures: marbles Id won from Seth at our last game; a blue feather from a peacock; one of Pas cigars, unsmoked, that Id stolen from his desktop; some quills for a pen; a set of teeth from an animal that I like to think was a baby dragon found by the creek in back of the house; and my mothers good pearl necklace that she gave me when I turned twelve. Right before she died. Maxine was having some difficulty climbing the ladder to the tree house. I had to help her up. We spent the rest of the afternoon there. We ate the cookies and ham. We could see the house from where we were, disappearing in the smoke, belching flames from its windows. And Pa, standing there alone one minute, alone in the barnyard, like he was cleaning his rifle, but waiting for the Yankees to return from the wheat fields. And in the next minute lying at the feet of the Yankees. Shot. I didnt love Pa. I never had. Not like I loved Mama and Seth. Pa was gruff and had a quick, hard hand to slap and no patience with a little girl. Seth knew how to handle him; I didnt. Seth even bad-mouthed him, jokingly, calling him an old codger or some other term that Pa never seemed to mind. If I did that, Id be put in a closet in the cellar and made to wait there until Seth talked him into pardoning me. Then Seth would come down and get me. "Dont you know any better?" hed say as I clung to him. "You cant talk to him like that." "You do," Id sob. Though they had their fights, Pa gave Seth freedom to "sow his wild oats" and would lecture him at the table the next morning. Seth yes sird and no sird him to death. "Hed be disappointed in Seth if he didnt sow his wild oats," Maxine told me. Once, when Seth didnt get home by four in the morning, Pa sealed up the house. Locked him right out. Seth came rapping softly at my window and I let him in. I got time in the cellar closet the next day, and Seth had to talk him out of my punishment. I know Pa didnt like girls. I know hed wanted another son, instead of me. And he never let me forget it. For fatherly affection I went to Seth. Pa didnt care at all. Still, Pa shot! It was outside the realm of all family pettiness. He was still my father. Shot for what? For not giving out the whereabouts of his sons guerrilla army unit? For not telling where their cache of ammunition was stored? I shivered. Maxine put a blanket around me. "Pas dead," I told her. "I know, chile." "Im an orphan. Will the authorities put me in an orphanage in Kansas City?" "Aint no orphanage in Excerpted from Juliet's Moon by Ann Rinaldi All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
