Priscilla awoke. She stretched and sat up. She found her sister Grace staring at her.

“You’re awake,” Grace declared.

“Yes, I am.” Priscilla was surprised to hear how scratchy her voice was.

Grace opened the bedroom door and shouted, “She’s up. Lorna, she’s up. You told me to tell you when she opened her eyes. I’m telling you. Lorna!”

“Hush up,” Lorna snapped, entering the room. “You are going to wake John. Now get out. Finish your chores.”

Priscilla gawked at her sister. Who was this girl? Lorna was irritable from time to time, but she never told the children what to do.

Grace shuffled off. “Can we eat lunch with Cilla? You promised we could once she woke up. You said we could have a picnic in the bedroom.” She turned to Priscilla, her eyes shining. “Won’t that be fun?” She paused, suddenly remembering her manners. “I’m glad you are better.”

“I am too,” Priscilla replied with a small smile.

Grace beamed at her and turned to leave. Priscilla saw her stick out her tongue at Lorna’s back.

“How are you?” Lorna asked somberly.

“Okay, I guess.” Priscilla did not feel ill. She was just so very tired. “How’d I get here?” she asked. The last thing she remembered was … she closed her eyes. The last thing she remembered was Ester.

“Do you remember anything?” Lorna asked, sitting on the bed cross-legged. “Cilla,” she said firmly, patting her hand. “Listen to me. What do you remember?”

Priscilla opened her eyes. “A woman was shot because of me.” Her eyes filled with tears.

Lorna nodded. “And…” she said, looking at Priscilla expectantly.

“I can’t,” Priscilla whispered. She did not want to remember it. Ester, dear God, it was so painful to even think about it, Priscilla was certain she could not say the words. But Lorna was watching her, her eyes filled with such a determination that Priscilla felt compelled to speak. “It was so awful,” she whispered, her mind filling with all that had happened that morning.

“You’re okay now,” Lorna reassured her. “Please, Cilla,” she beseeched her. “Please let me do this for you. I know sometimes I have been just awful to you.”

Priscilla gave her sister a small smile. She and Lorna had fought like cats and dogs sometimes but she knew her sister was always there for her. Of that there was never any doubt.

“But I mean it when I say please tell. Let it out,” Lorna continued. “I think that is what you need most right now.”

Priscilla nodded, touched by Lorna’s concern. Slowly, almost hesitantly, she began to speak. She remembered heading toward the barn after Jimmy had knocked that other fella out. But on her way another man had grabbed her and he began jerking her about, threatening her with all sorts of things, from rape to murder. Ester had come out of the house. She tried to placate the man. Ester said she would help him get away safely if he left Priscilla alone. The man’s eyes had lit up. He knew then Jimmy was there then and he shot Ester. He had told Priscilla it was her or Priscilla and he thought Priscilla would be more fun.

“I’m sorry,” Lorna said quietly.

“Don’t be,” Priscilla said with a heavy sigh. “I do feel better.” It no longer felt like she was carrying such a heavy weight all by herself. Lorna was sharing her fear and sadness. “I really don’t remember anything after that,” she concluded with a shudder.

“Nothing?”

“Bits here and there. Coming home, the noises, people poking at me.” She furrowed her brow. “There was some drum beating and now I’m here.”

“It was an Indian ceremony,” Lorna informed her. “Buck thought you lost your soul and this was a way to bring it back.”

“I guess it worked,” Priscilla said.

“You were in some kind of trance for a long time. Father went and got you after …” Lorna swallowed hard. But she straightened her shoulders and continued clearly, “… after that woman was shot.”

“I don’t remember that,” Priscilla said softly. “Was I shot?”

“No,” Lorna replied. “I believe it when Buck says you were lost.”

Priscilla frowned. Lorna was being so cryptic.

“You were lost for over a month,” Lorna continued.

“A month?” Priscilla exclaimed. “Really?”

Lorna nodded. “I think you couldn’t handle that woman’s death and it got mixed up in your head with Aunt Elizabeth’s murder. Do you remember when Aunt Elizabeth was killed?”

Priscilla frowned. “Yeah. We moved then.”

“You were with her.”

“What? When?”

“When she was shot.”

“I was not. I would have remembered,” Priscilla snapped.

Lorna shook her head. “Mother told me. She wanted to talk to you, make sure you weren’t scared, but Father wouldn’t let her. He said you should forget. I don’t think you ever did forget. I think that is why you got so bad when this woman was killed.”

Priscilla shook her head. “I don’t remember anything like that.” Lorna was reaching, she decided. But her brain was too muddled to form any kind of coherent argument.

“Just think about it. Maybe we can talk about it more later,” Lorna said. She leaned closer to Priscilla. “Right now we have more important matters to discuss.”

“Like?” Priscilla asked.

“Jimmy.”

Priscilla laughed. “And what business is he of yours?”

Lorna sighed. “I don’t care about your affair. Okay, I do. You can fill me in later. I don’t know why I am chaperoned to death while you get to have all the fun.”

“I really didn’t plan all this,” Priscilla told her dryly.

“But you and Jimmy got close.”

Priscilla nodded. “When Cody comes, maybe he could ask Jimmy to come along.”

“He won’t come.”

“Of course he will.”

Lorna shook her head. “He made a deal with Father. He was allowed to help in the ceremony as long as he promised to stay away.”

“He won’t keep that deal,” Priscilla scoffed.

“Cill,” Lorna said quietly, “I saw him. I yelled at him. He won’t budge.”

Priscilla’s eyes began to fill with tears. “But -”

“Oh no, no tears,” Lorna said, grabbing Priscilla by the arms. “He is going to pay. Who does he think he is, he can use you and then run off?”

“Are you sure?” Priscilla asked softly and Lorna nodded. Jimmy told her he was going to run away with some woman who had a husband yet he would not even defy a man as mild as Michael Washington? It had to be some kind of excuse and a pathetic excuse at that.

Priscilla wiped her eyes. She felt her own temper rising. How could Jimmy look her in the eyes and say he wanted to see her again? How could she be fooled? It was the first easy out Jimmy was given and he took it. How could he? He could have told her he was not interested in more than a tumble. It would have hurt but at least it would have been honest.

“He is a coward,” Lorna said firmly. “And cowards deserve everything they get.”

Priscilla nodded, her chin set. She would not cry for him. He would be the one crying, she thought angrily. The Washingtons united were a force to be reckoned with.