Box Set: The ArringtonTrilogy Read Online Free PDF Page B

dirty
work.
    On this warm winter afternoon, the school
girls sauntered up to where Hattie and I sat under a magnolia tree
eating our lunch. Pretending not to notice us, they began a game of
Ring Around the Rosie. Hattie and I watched them go a few times
around, and then we rose up and wiped the dust off our dresses.
    “Where y’all goin’? Don’t like our singin’,
Amelia?” Susannah sneered. She was as tall as Hattie, with pale
yellow hair and narrow eyes that were set too close to her nose.
“We hear you at church, singin’ like a dog howlin’!”
    All the girls behind her giggled.
    John was hovering near a crabapple tree,
gathering up the small apples and jamming them into his pants
pockets.
    “Come on, Hattie, let’s go,” I said, ignoring
Susannah’s remark, and we hastily walked past the small posse.
    John then whipped an apple at Hattie, which
hit her straight in the chest.
    Again the girls laughed. I picked up the
apple and barreled it back at John, who caught it and came charging
over to me.
    “Run, Amelia!” Hattie shouted.
    I lifted my dress and headed for the safety
of the school, but John was too fast. In an instant, he grabbed me
by my one of my ringlets and yanked me back against him.
    Susannah rushed over to watch me struggle
while the others held Hattie back.
    Panic filled me as the much older John Mason
began to slip his hand under my skirt.
    “Let me go! Stop it!”
    John pulled up my skirt, exposing my chemise
for all to see. While they were all laughing, I was able to free
myself and I took off running for home. Hattie wasn’t far behind;
she ran fast to catch up to me. As soon as she could, she stopped
and brought me into her embrace, where we clung to one another.
    “Maybe I shouldn’t go to school anymore,”
Hattie choked. “All I do is cause trouble for you.”
    I pulled back and stared up at her. Her
expression was smothered in defeat as her eyes lowered to the
ground.
    “If you don’t go, Hattie Arrington, then
neither will I.”
    “But you love school,” she groaned.
    “I love you more. Now, no more talking. From
this day on, we pretend to go off to school, but instead of
reaching the school, we will play by the river.”
    “Hooky? You think we should play hooky?”
Hattie choked in disbelief.
    “That’s exactly what I am saying. And no time
like the present.”
    Hand in hand, Hattie and I hurried along,
laughing and skipping, not looking back.
    For the remainder of the afternoon, Hattie
and I sat by river’s edge and soaked our feet in the cold water and
then leaned back against the trees and talked about things to come
and our deepest secrets.
    “Tell me, Hattie, do you still want to marry
Ruben?” I asked. “Do you write about him in your journal, the way I
do about Mr. Montgomery?”
    “You’re too young for Mr. Montgomery.”
    “Well, Ruben is probably twenty years old,” I
retorted. Ruben was the blacksmith, Oswald’s, apprentice on the
plantation.
    “Maybe, but he isn’t married.”
    “I don’t imagine marrying Perry Montgomery,
just marrying someone as handsome,” I confessed through my hot
blush.
    “He is awfully handsome,” Hattie added, and
lay back into the marsh with me.
    The sun was hot, the air typically moist and
dewy. We closed our eyes and allowed the sun to bake our faces.
    “I think this is going to work out just fine,
don’t you, Hattie?”
    “I sure hope so, ’cause if we get caught, we
will sure be in for it.”
    I turned over and leaned on my elbows. I said
optimistically, “Even if Daddy finds out, the worst he will do is
lecture us and tell us not to do it again. Surely he will
understand why we had to stay away. He will probably be so furious
at what John Mason did that he will demand John be expelled from
school.”
    “You don’t think we should tell Momma?”
    “Absolutely not. She is unhappy as it is. We
can’t burden her with our problems.”
    Hattie nodded knowingly, keeping her eyes
closed. I smiled, content with