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Chapter One

December 1869

Richinia

The rain continued to pound on the roof and against the few relasspanes in the Collins House on Clary Street Inside, theCircle shivered in front of the ers numb with cold as they protruded froloves Several women muttered beneath their breath as they wielded the sharp needles against the hated blue wool of army uniforms

Faith Collins shifted in her uncomfortable chair and turned her head fro the stiffaside and got up to eer pans scattered around the parlor floor collecting the rain that poured through the roof of the battered house

Faith hated e, repetitious chore and to Faith, a coed by fire and rain A few more drops wouldn’t ainst the eunfire and death and everything she’d lost

But her ladies insisted on using pans to catch the water and Faith grudgingly obliged She was fighting a losing battle with the incle the battle for years Her own private war

The firing of the arsenal during the retreat had been responsible for the e to her hoe since the end of the war had not included a new roof

It was hard enough to keep food on the table, clothes on their backs, and shoes on their feet She ed on her own, but Faith had to feed and clothe the other members of the household whoCircle

The weather was the least of her worries It was uncontrollable Faith was concerned with the basics—food, shelter and clothing Those were the primary topics of interest on this cold, rainy afternoon

“Faith, you really shouldn’t lift that heavy pan that way You’ll strain your back”

Faith looked up at her aunt, Virtuous May Hamilton Jessup “Yes, nedly, knowing help would not be forthco from that direction

Virtuous Jessup, with her still-black hair and deep blue eyes, would have been a handso about the past and finding fault with everything and everybody Aunt Virt would never let theet all they’d had and all they’d lost

“I would be happy to help you, Faith, dear, but you know I have luo in my lower back I’ve had it ever sincebirth to that boy He was supposed to take care of et himself killed on a dreary battlefield in the wilderness?” Aunt Virt probably would have continued to rattle on about her woes if Aunt Tempy hadn’t entered the parlor and interrupted the oft-told tale of her sister’s ruined life

“Here, let me help you with that, Faith” Aunt Tempy helped Faith carry a heavy enameled chamber pot to the wooden cistern

The house had been so heavily daed that the upper floor was unsafe and off limits to the household Faith, her aunts, Virt and Tempy, Mrs Everett and Mrs Colson, ere sisters -in-law to Aunt Virt, and Faith’s sister, Joy, occupied the first floor of the house, living in the front parlor, back parlor, library, dining roo room on a cast-iron stove Faith had purchased secondhand

Faith smiled at Aunt Tempy “This would be so much easier if we just pushed the cistern into the parlor and opened the lid Most of the rain would fall into it”

Tehed aloud She was completely different in looks and character from her older sister, Virt Petite, and red-haired, Te hand, or a shoulder to cry on Faith didn’t knohat she would do without her “I tried to tell you this barrel wouldn’t blend with the style of the room”

“What style?” Faith glanced around at the bare walls and floors The oncerooh pine table and benches, a broken cherry sideboard, three wooden crates, a battered copper tub for bathing and the oak barrel

“I’lad Mama and Papa didn’t live to see this,” Faith said softly

Even the huge crystal chandelier was gone, a victiet practice, then cut the support rope and allowed the gilded fra crystal prisms to crash to the floor

“I don’t know,” Aunt Tehten the mood “I’ll bet that chandelier was the devil to clean At least, that’s one less thing to worry about”