Free Box Set: The ArringtonTrilogy by Roxane Tepfer Sanford Page A

in the evening. If I was hungry before then, I
would help myself to whatever fruits were set out in the kitchen.
Since the new dictator arrived, supper was served promptly at five
o’clock, whether she was there or not.
    Over the past two weeks, I had been dining
alone. When Eugenia and her girls returned from their shopping
engagements, they were served. I was long done and off playing with
Hattie and the other slave children until night was well
underway.
    Under the blanket of bright stars in the
midnight-blue sky, through the oppressive heat of the night, the
children of the Sutton Hall plantation, with the exception of
Beatrice and Violet, played hide and seek in the adjacent forest.
We all rushed into the dark woods and then scattered, hiding behind
oak trees under the cover of darkness. Hattie and I always stayed
together. Though our game of hide and seek was meant for fun, I was
always afraid of the dark.
    “You hold my hand, Amelia. Let’s go further
in. We’re always getting caught because you stay too close to the
marsh. With the moon high and bright, they will spot us for sure,”
she said breathlessly, as she hurried me into the dark, frightening
woods.
    “Haven’t you heard the stories Mammy used to
tell us about spirits haunting the woods? Spirits of your buried
family members?” I asked, with chills running down my spine and
goose bumps covering my arms at the mere thought of seeing a
ghost.
    “I’ve never seen any ghosts,” she said,
pressing her back up against a thick, moss-covered tree. “Here is a
good spot.”
    I scanned the forest and could barely see my
hand in front of my face. If Hattie hadn’t been holding my hand, I
wouldn’t even have known she was there.
    “I don’t hear them, Hattie. We’ve gone in too
far,” I said anxiously.
    “For sure we won’t be the seekers.”
    Above us an owl hooted, startling me.
    Hattie giggled.
    “Come on, let’s go back.”
    “No. I am tired of my cousins teasing me.
When they call ‘come out, come out wherever you are,’ that’s when
we will go back,” Hattie insisted.
    I leaned into the tree and tried to stay
calm. I tried not to feel my pounding heart. Then, I heard what
sounded like footsteps coming closer and closer. I tried to stop
imagining it was the ghost of Hattie’s Auntie Frannie.
    “Do you hear that?” I whispered.
    “What?”
    “Footsteps?”
    Hattie went silent. “I don’t hear
anything.”
    Suddenly I was tugged away from Hattie, and I
yelped in fear as I felt something slithery fall into my hair.
    “Get it off me!” I screamed and flailed
around. It felt like a snake, and I heard it hiss at me.
    Laughter echoed through the forest as Simon,
Hattie’s oldest cousin, stepped close enough for me to make out the
whites of his eyes.
    “Simon, you get that nasty thing off her!”
Hattie ordered.
    Simon reached into my hair and pulled it out,
as Winifred, Jackson, and Lucy came running over. They had a
lantern, which cast a glow around us and lit up the forest. I
shuddered as I watched the snake slither away.
    “You’re it!” Simon called after tagging me,
and he ran off.
    “Come on, let’s count,” Hattie said.
    “Hattie.”
    “Yes?”
    “I still hear footsteps.”
    “It’s just Simon coming back to scare you
again. Let’s go,” she said, grabbing my hand. We took off running
back to the cabins.
    Around trees, over logs, we ran as fast as we
could without tripping and falling. “Hurry!”
    Twigs and pine needles latched onto the
bottom of my dress. I increased my pace until I could run no more.
I stopped, out of breath, and fell to the ground. And that’s when
Curtis P. Boyd snatched hold of me.
    “Get yourself up!” he commanded. “Your mother
has ordered you back.”
    “My mother?”
    “You mean her stepmother,” Hattie
interjected.
    Without warning, Curtis P. Boyd reached over
and grabbed Hattie by the hair and said through gritted teeth, “Get
back to your quarters.”
    Hattie obeyed reluctantly.