House on Diablo Road: Resurrection Day (The McCann Family Saga Book 3) by Jeanie Freeman- Harper Page B
Authors: Jeanie Freeman- Harper
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couple in the last fifty-seven years?”
“ Pretty much. Phoebe Monet came into town one time, twenty years ago. I saw her strolling down the boardwalk past the barber shop like she was Queen Esther. I watched the sheriff escort her out by following her wagon on horseback. Not a doubt in my mind he told her to take him to where Louis was holed up. I figured she most likely led him on a wild goose chase out into the thicket. Phoebe Monet was no halfwit.”
“ People seem to either vanish or go into hiding out there in the sticks—another one of those things nobody talks about?”
Clancy ignored the question. “Guess we’ll see what happens when Nathan Bonney takes control of that house. He's turned thirty now, and he's ready to settle down.”
Jesse recalled Katie’s glowing face the night Nate brought her home from the library. “That might be quicker than you think,” he said.
Clancy shook his head. “Lord protect the bride who comes to live in that house. Every servant who went to work there, even in later years has been scared off.”
“ By what or by whom?”
“ No one wants to say exactly—afraid of being ridiculed or jinxed, I guess. Folks have their own peculiar superstitions, mixed with fear of being ostracized. Crow knows and will tell you in a heartbeat. He’s not scared of the Devil himself.”
Jesse nodded, but his mind was still on the man his daughter was in love with and the house where they would live as man and wife. He was torn between his own sense of logic and half-baked stories.
“ Would Nathan want to actually live in that place?”
“ Oh yeah...if he has a wife to help him with it. He's always wanted it. He’s foolhardy like his great grandpa. I’m telling you Jesse, there’s something unnatural about the pull of that house. If you don’t believe me, ask Granny Minna. She used to go there as midwife when the workers' babies came and even stayed overnight in the main house. You know those old full-bloods are tuned in to the spirit world.”
“ I don’t know if Granny will ever be able to say. The stroke took away her ability to communicate to a large degree.”
Jesse felt something akin to electric current in the tips of his fingers and his toes. His mind shifted to his family in that instant. Both of his biological children possessed a fair amount of Annie and Minna’s Caddoan blood. Were they also tuned into dark forces and what would protect them? He felt a sudden impulse to get home. He thanked Clancy, shook hands and rushed through the front of the bookstore. The bell jangled wildly as a sharp wind blew the door shut. Startled by the noise, Clancy raced into the alley and trudged up the back staircase, glancing over his shoulder as he climbed. With worrisome thoughts rattling around in his skull, he rejoined the revelry in that room that no one talked about—where secrets were made and secrets were kept.
“ I feel a storm brewing on the horizon,” he muttered, and then he realized no one was listening. Illegal elixirs had taken control.
7: Founders' Day
The Morgans Bluff Founders Day parade kicked off right on time. The mayor rode in a old fashioned horse and buggy while tipping a worse for wear top hat. Behind him, pulled by a team of mules, rolled a antiquated pulp wood wagon, upon whose sides were painted the words Morgan-McCann Mill s. Next came the band from the temperance marches of years gone by, most of whose members had been replaced by youth from Morgan’s Bluff High School. Behind them, waving from a float festooned with flowers, was “Miss Founders Day”—rosy cheeked and bright-eyed and cut with the same Americana cookie cutter as her predecessors .
Every local dignitary and organization was represented; when it ended, everyone rode down to the Neches River for a picnic. There they spread their patchwork quilts in front of the bandstand and listened to local bluegrass musicians. The women compared recipes for pickles, and the men threw
“ Pretty much. Phoebe Monet came into town one time, twenty years ago. I saw her strolling down the boardwalk past the barber shop like she was Queen Esther. I watched the sheriff escort her out by following her wagon on horseback. Not a doubt in my mind he told her to take him to where Louis was holed up. I figured she most likely led him on a wild goose chase out into the thicket. Phoebe Monet was no halfwit.”
“ People seem to either vanish or go into hiding out there in the sticks—another one of those things nobody talks about?”
Clancy ignored the question. “Guess we’ll see what happens when Nathan Bonney takes control of that house. He's turned thirty now, and he's ready to settle down.”
Jesse recalled Katie’s glowing face the night Nate brought her home from the library. “That might be quicker than you think,” he said.
Clancy shook his head. “Lord protect the bride who comes to live in that house. Every servant who went to work there, even in later years has been scared off.”
“ By what or by whom?”
“ No one wants to say exactly—afraid of being ridiculed or jinxed, I guess. Folks have their own peculiar superstitions, mixed with fear of being ostracized. Crow knows and will tell you in a heartbeat. He’s not scared of the Devil himself.”
Jesse nodded, but his mind was still on the man his daughter was in love with and the house where they would live as man and wife. He was torn between his own sense of logic and half-baked stories.
“ Would Nathan want to actually live in that place?”
“ Oh yeah...if he has a wife to help him with it. He's always wanted it. He’s foolhardy like his great grandpa. I’m telling you Jesse, there’s something unnatural about the pull of that house. If you don’t believe me, ask Granny Minna. She used to go there as midwife when the workers' babies came and even stayed overnight in the main house. You know those old full-bloods are tuned in to the spirit world.”
“ I don’t know if Granny will ever be able to say. The stroke took away her ability to communicate to a large degree.”
Jesse felt something akin to electric current in the tips of his fingers and his toes. His mind shifted to his family in that instant. Both of his biological children possessed a fair amount of Annie and Minna’s Caddoan blood. Were they also tuned into dark forces and what would protect them? He felt a sudden impulse to get home. He thanked Clancy, shook hands and rushed through the front of the bookstore. The bell jangled wildly as a sharp wind blew the door shut. Startled by the noise, Clancy raced into the alley and trudged up the back staircase, glancing over his shoulder as he climbed. With worrisome thoughts rattling around in his skull, he rejoined the revelry in that room that no one talked about—where secrets were made and secrets were kept.
“ I feel a storm brewing on the horizon,” he muttered, and then he realized no one was listening. Illegal elixirs had taken control.
7: Founders' Day
The Morgans Bluff Founders Day parade kicked off right on time. The mayor rode in a old fashioned horse and buggy while tipping a worse for wear top hat. Behind him, pulled by a team of mules, rolled a antiquated pulp wood wagon, upon whose sides were painted the words Morgan-McCann Mill s. Next came the band from the temperance marches of years gone by, most of whose members had been replaced by youth from Morgan’s Bluff High School. Behind them, waving from a float festooned with flowers, was “Miss Founders Day”—rosy cheeked and bright-eyed and cut with the same Americana cookie cutter as her predecessors .
Every local dignitary and organization was represented; when it ended, everyone rode down to the Neches River for a picnic. There they spread their patchwork quilts in front of the bandstand and listened to local bluegrass musicians. The women compared recipes for pickles, and the men threw
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