Sample Saturday: The Zion Trail

Welcome to Sample Saturday. In this excerpt from The Zion Trail, Lije Marshall confronts his sister, Sarah, to find out what she knows about the beating of their father.
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By the time the household awoke the next day, I hadn't yet cornered Sarah, so I made it my business to do so before breakfast. Milking the cow could wait half an hour. Finding out if my sister had conspired to injure or kill our father could not.

I came down the ladder from the dim loft room I shared with John and peered into the kitchen. The edge of a brown skirt slid through the closing outside door. My sister must be going to gather eggs.

I caught up in the muddy dooryard and stopped her with a hand on her elbow. She made a little squeaking sound, as though I had startled her, and whirled around, dropping her egg basket.

"Lije-" she started to say, her face going white.

"Look here," I cut her off, feeling my anger rise. "Pa's going to be laid up for a week or more. What part did you play?"

She shook her head. "None."

"But you know who did it. I can see you do."

She kept shaking her head, her eyebrows drawn together so tightly that her normally smooth forehead looked like a freshly cultivated garden patch. "No," she moaned. "I didn't know-"

"Didn't know what?" I was so angry at having to drag the story out of her that I wanted to strike her. She must have seen my gathering storm, for she shrank away from me, making herself as small as possible.

"Please, Lije. I didn't think he would do anything. He only wanted to know about the baptism."

"Hans?"

She nodded.

"Anyone else?"

"I don't know. We were alone when we talked."

"Were you kissing him?"
~~~

Aha! What's been going on in the hen house?

Thank you for visiting. The Zion Trail will be published soon as an ebook, and after that, in print. If you liked what you read, talk to me.