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

and they never got their hands on a newspaper, somehow they learned of the proclamation within a few weeks. How news traveled so fast among slaves was a mystery to Katie’s mother.
    But soon enough she saw signs that they had heard about it and were wondering what it was going to mean in their lives. After that it became yet more difficult to get the work of the plantation done.
    All through the South, colored folk were restless. And white plantation owners were nervous.
    By now Katie was getting to an age where she could be of some actual help with the chores around the house. She still could be distracted with daydreams, but for the first time in her life Katie’s white cheeks were often stained with dirt and her dainty hands wore blisters. With money scarce, there were no more pretty dresses or new dolls.
    Another year went by.
    Things on the plantation did not improve. Still the war dragged on. Rosalind had heard nothing from her husband for over six months when a brief hurried note was passed along to her from a wounded soldier returning home. Mr. Clairborne was still alive—at least he was then.
    In the fall a rare tornado swept through North Carolina.
    As the day progressed and the wind rose into a howling frenzy, Katie’s mother kept close watch on the dark horizon. Finally the wind whipped into such a fury she wondered that the roof didn’t blow off. Then she saw the shape of the wind funnel. It appeared out of nowhere. Suddenly there it was just a few miles away!
    ‘‘Elvia!’’ she cried to the Negro cook, who was younger and about half the size of Beulah. ‘‘Run to the slave quarters and tell everyone to hurry up here as fast as they can.’’
    ‘‘But, Miz Clair—’’
    ‘‘Now, Elvia! Run as fast as you can. There’s a twister coming. Everyone—especially the little ones . . . hurry!’’
    The eyes of the terrified woman were now as big as two white saucers in the middle of her brown face. Finally grasping the urgency of her mistress’s command, she turned and left the kitchen at a run.
    Mrs. Clairborne yelled for Katie, then ran to the middle of the parlor, pulled back the rug, and opened the hinged door in the floor that led to the underground cellar. She didn’t stop to wonder what her husband would do in this situation. There’d never been a tornado this close before. She knew it wasn’t proper to bring any but house slaves inside. None of them but Beulah and Elvia had ever set foot in the plantation house.
    But she couldn’t worry about that now. She’d think about the right and wrong of it later. If her husband was angry that black folks had come into his home, so be it. Right now she had to find a way to keep them all alive.
    But before they came to safety she had to make sure they saw nothing that shouldn’t be seen. She hurried down the narrow stairs.
    ‘‘Mama,’’ she heard a voice through the trapdoor a few moments later.
    ‘‘I’m down in the cellar, Kathleen,’’ she called. ‘‘Come down the ladder.’’
    ‘‘May I bring my doll?’’
    ‘‘Yes, Katie—just hurry.’’
    While Katie climbed down, her mother finished her business.
    ‘‘Wait for me here, Kathleen,’’ she said as soon as Katie reached the bottom. ‘‘I’ve got to run back upstairs and bring Beulah and the others down. I’ll be back soon.’’
    ‘‘What about Rusty?’’
    ‘‘Rusty will have to take care of himself.’’
    By the time Mrs. Clairborne reached the kitchen again and looked out the window with Beulah at her side, already she saw a line of black folks running toward the house, some of the women carrying babies, the men hurrying them along as fast as they could. Behind them, the black twister was maybe only two miles away, close enough that she could see the swirling wind whipping up bushes and small trees and debris inside it.
    ‘‘Hurry . . . into the house, all of you,’’ she cried. ‘‘Beulah—show them where to go!’’
    In ones and twos they ran