Angels Watching Over Me (Shenandoah Sisters Book #1) Read Online Free Page A

yours,’’ she said, pulling on Katie’s hand as they walked away. ‘‘What gets into you to wander into the street like that?’’
    ‘‘Ah wouldn’t be too hard on da chil’, ma’am,’’ said Henry from behind them.
    ‘‘I’m grateful for what you’ve done, Henry,’’ rejoined Mrs. Clairborne, turning back toward the stable hand, ‘‘but now you must really mind your own business. The child is careless and scatterbrained. She needs to watch where she is going.’’
    ‘‘Yes’m,’’ said the black man. He tipped his hat to mother and daughter, then ambled back in the direction of the livery.

P UZZLING W ORDS
4

    A N HOUR OR TWO AFTER FALLING ASLEEP that same night, Katie awoke to voices coming from downstairs. She recognized her mother and father talking in hushed tones, not wanting Katie or her older brothers to hear. They weren’t exactly arguing, but her father sounded urgent and determined, her mother tense and afraid.
    Strange and undefined fears filled Katie’s heart as she lay awake and strained to listen. She tiptoed toward her door.
    ‘‘Don’t you understand, Rosalind?’’ her father was saying. ‘‘I have to go. If we don’t fight, everything we have lived for will be taken away.’’
    ‘‘Why does it have to be you?’’ implored her mother.
    ‘‘What would you have me do, stay home when the rest of North Carolina’s men are risking their lives for our freedom? I won’t spend my life thinking I was a coward.’’
    ‘‘But the boys, Richard, surely they don’t have to—’’ ‘
    ‘We will be back in a few months, Rosalind. It won’t take longer than that.’’
    ‘‘I can understand Joseph,’’ Katie heard her begin again. ‘‘But the others are so—’’
    ‘‘Caleb and Jason want to go,’’ he interrupted. ‘‘ I’m not going to stop them. They’re men now too.’’
    ‘‘Sixteen and seventeen—that’s hardly men.’’
    ‘‘You can’t keep them boys forever, Rosalind.’’
    It was quiet for a few long seconds. Not wanting to hear her parents argue but unable to prevent herself from eavesdropping, Katie put her ear closer to the opening.
    ‘‘Where will you be—will I be able to get in touch with you?’’ she heard her mother finally say. Her voice was soft and hesitant. Katie could tell her mother was starting to cry.
    ‘‘I’ll be moving about,’’ answered her father. ‘‘Fort Sumter at first, then I don’t know. It depends on how long it takes us to drive the Yankees back north. You’ll just have to take care of things.’’
    ‘‘What if your brother . . . what if Burchard makes trouble with you gone?’’
    ‘‘There’s no reason for him to find out.’’
    ‘‘He always seems to know what you do, almost before you do it.’’
    ‘‘He’ll be busy with his own crops now that spring’s come. I doubt you’ll even see him before I’m back.’’
    ‘‘What if I do?’’
    ‘‘He can’t do anything legally in the short time I’m away. You’ll be fine, Rosalind.’’
    ‘‘What about the plantation . . . the crops?’’
    ‘‘Everything will be all right for a few months. The winter wheat’s in, the new wheat’s planted. The cotton will be in within two weeks. The boys and I will be back in time to harvest.’’
    ‘‘What if you’re . . . you’re delayed?’’
    Katie could feel the shakiness in her mother’s voice. By now her mother was crying in earnest. It filled Katie with a kind of fear she had never known before. Her mother was the focal point for everything in life— a rock, strength itself. Her mother knew everything and could do anything. To hear her cry seemed to unravel the very fabric of her existence. Katie would not have put it into those kind of words back when she was a child. But as she stood trembling, she felt dreadful forebodings. She had never heard her mother sound this way, so uncertain, so afraid. She had never heard her mother weep.
    But then her father’s voice