Read The Turning of Anne Merrick Online
Authors: Christine Blevins
The Turning of Anne Merrick
PRAISE FOR
Midwife of the Blue Ridge
“A terrific book! A riveting tale of love, struggle and savagery on America’s colonial frontier.”
—Bernard Cornwell
“Love and adventure, pride and passion . . . A vivid evocation of time and place . . . An unforgettable novel that will capture your heart. There is simply no way to put it down once you have begun.”
—Rosemary Rogers
“A splendid novel of passion and danger in the early Virginias by a talented new author. I highly recommend it!”
—Bertrice Small
“Blevins . . . gives strong, skilled Maggie pluck and hope.”
—
Publishers Weekly
“Lavishly and minutely described . . . an in-depth and up-close look at what life was really like in those times.”
—
Booklist
PRAISE FOR
The Tory Widow
“A really well-researched novel that takes you into a period in history in a way that illuminates it or brings a new perspective to historical events . . . Pages go by quickly as scenes are brought to life with evocative language and unerring syntax.”
—
Historical Novels Review
“A self-reliant woman, turbulent times, politics, battles, and love meld together in what will hopefully be a new series from a writer who knows what makes historical fiction resonate: memorable characters and meaningful, accurate historical events.”
—
RT Book Reviews
“The author has painted what feels like a realistic portrait of New York City and its divided residents during the beginnings of the American Revolution.”
—
The Tome Traveller’s Weblog
“The plot is compelling. The writing is unobtrusive. And the research appears to me to be impeccable. And the characters!”
—
The Bluestocking Society
“
The Tory
Widow
is everything I think that a good book should be —fast paced, well written, with unforgettable characters placed in situations that make for compelling and satisfying reading.”
—
Romance Reader at Heart
Titles by Christine Blevins
MIDWIFE OF THE BLUE RIDGE
THE TORY WIDOW
THE TURNING OF ANNE MERRICK
THE
Turning of
Anne Merrick
Christine Blevins
THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA
Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.) • Penguin Books Ltd., 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England • Penguin Group Ireland, 25 St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd.) • Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty. Ltd.) • Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd., 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi—110 017, India • Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, Auckland 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd.) • Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty.) Ltd., 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa
Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
This book is an original publication of The Berkley Publishing Group.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
Copyright © 2012 by Christine Blevins.
“Readers Guide” copyright © 2012 by Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
Cover design by Judith Lagerman.
Cover illustration by Jim Griffin.
Cover photograph: floral background © DoubleA / Shutterstock.
Maps and illustrations by Brian Blevins.
Text design by Tiffany Estreicher.
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.
BERKLEY® is a registered trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
The “B” design is a trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
PUBLISHING HISTORY
Berkley trade paperback edition / February 2012
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Blevins, Christine.
The turning of Anne Merrick / Christine Blevins. —Berkley trade pbk. ed.
p.cm.
Sequel to: Tory widow.
EISBN: 9781101560174
1. United States—History-Revolution, 1775–1783—Fiction. 2. Widows—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3602.L478T87 2012
2011019252
813’.6—dc22
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To my sister, Natalie,
childhood nights, and stories whispered under the covers
PROLOGUE
A
UGUST 1777
T
HE
H
UDSON
R
IVER
V
ALLEY
B
ETWEEN
F
ORT
A
NNE AND
F
ORT
E
DWARD
In the distance, the resound of ax iron biting into wood echoed up from the valley floor, adding ringing harmony to the morning song of a nearby thrush. Legs crossed tailor-style and fingers interlaced as if in prayer, Jack Hampton sat stock-still in the shade cast by a thicket of roundleaf gooseberry—his dark brows knit in concentration. Puffing out a breath, he released his hands with grand flourish, scattering eight buttons onto the dark green wool of the blanket spread between himself and his friend Titus.
“Three brown, five light!” Titus Gilmore did not bother to conceal his glee as he whispered the tally.
“Bugger and blast!”
Jack issued the jaw-clenched curse, flicking a pair of dried beans from his meager pile into the veritable mountain of beans Titus had already collected.
With a grin akin to an undertaker’s at a hanging, Titus scooped up the gaming pieces. He had sliced the buttons from a deer’s horn,
smoothing and shaping them to belly a bit and bevel at the edges. No more than an inch in diameter, one side of each ivory-colored disk had been stained with an umber pigment that matched the deep brown hue of his skin. With a casual toss, the former slave let the buttons fly from his cupped hand to land with the lighter sides all facing upward.
“
Pah!
You lucky bastard!” Jack eyed the results and swept his few remaining beans toward Titus. “Take them—take them all! I swear to Christ, I don’t know why I bother playing this stupid game. There’s no skill to it—naught but luck—dumb and pure.”
“Passes the time, though, don’t it?” Titus sifted his bean winnings into a small drawstring sack, judging the weight of it on his palm. “I gauge that’s another dollar at least—making for a total of five dollars owed to me by one Mr. Jack Hampton.”
“Aw, now, Titus”—Jack wagged a finger—“it’s but three I owe.”
“No. It’s five. Three dollars lost at buttons and beans, and two lost at darts back in Stillwater.”
Smacking the heel of his palm to his forehead, Jack muttered, “Darts.”
A sudden spate of drumming coming up from the road snapped Jack and Titus to attention.
“The call to assemble!” Titus scooped up his buttons.
“Get your glass!” On hands and knees, Jack crept forward to peer through the bramble while Titus scrambled to fish a brass-cased spyglass from his buckskin pouch. Keeping within the cover of the brush, the men lay close to the edge of the ridge, propped on elbows, the nut-brown cloth of their shirts masking their presence from enemy eyes below.
Sliding the telescoping spyglass to full open, Titus aimed the lens to the south and fixed focus. “The road’s been cleared.”
“That can’t be…” Jack tucked a strand of jet-black hair behind his ear, squinting to see through the hazy morning mist. “We dropped those big pines into an awful tangle…”
“And those big Germans have gone and cleared the tangle away—see for yourself.” Titus passed the spyglass to Jack.
