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Chapter One

Letwith it the utmost Passion of her heart

—Nathaniel Hawthorne

Florida…1851

The nolia trees were abloom

White herons and pelicans shadowed the bright blue sky as they soared from one tree to another

Spanishfancy lace, festooned the cypress forest and nearby swae, pillared white arden She was delicately forhtly freckled from the sun

Although her flower garden was already vast and colorful, Lavinia was on her knees, planting new seeds, which would one day grow into more beautiful flowers

Tired, her face flushed fro heat, she rose slowly to her feet

She reroaned when she looked down and saw the dirt s had been so beautiful, without a cloud in the sky, and she had been so anxious to get outside to work in her garden, she hadn’t changed froarden

Now dirt was smeared across the front of the full-skirted pink dress with the delicate white flowers embroidered on it

She swatted at the worst s dust up into her nose,her sneeze fitfully

When the sneezing finally subsided, she caught sight of her eight-year-old daughter, Dorey, as roht-year-old African girl, the daughter of slaves at the Price Plantation

Twenty-four years of age, Lavinia had been blessed with only one child, her sweet Dorey, but she still hoped for ave her so much joy and peace

Lavinia sreen yard She and Tere playing tag

Lavinia always enjoyed seeing the girls together She hated slavery with a passion and regretted that her husband kept slaves on the plantation he had recently purchased with his brother Hira to free their slaves, but Hira they would never find anyone to work their tobacco fields

Lavinia sighed heavily as she thought about how her husband and Hiram, his older brother by oneyear, didn’t approve of Dorey’s association with Twila and the other slave children

But when both hter permission to play hoht the same dolls for Dorey and Twila last Christmas

It had warether when her husband and his brother were away on business, as they were today

She turned and looked at the Bone River, which ran alongside the vast plantation Sunlight poured over the green and brown expanse of saw grass and water, shining and slow-