and knifing peopleââ
Annie exclaimed, âHattie!â
Verity laughed. âI donât know the story, but that does sound like what they were playing.â
âIt was part of the Battle of Wyoming, in the War for Independence,â Carrie said.
âI learned about it at school.â Verity cast her mind back. âAs I recall, we lost.â
âThe Americans were ambushed and routed,â Hattie confirmed. âAfterward the British ordered the Indians to burn all the homesteads in the area.â
âThe Indians were working with the British?â
âIndeed. Mohawks, mostly,â said Carrie. âWith French blood. They had a score to settle with the Americans.â
âDutch blood, too,â put in Hattie.
âNot Dutch,â Annie corrected.
Hattie pursed her lips. âYes, Dutch. I know thereâs Vanderpooles in that line.â
âVery true! The name was shortened to Poole somewhere along the way.â Carrie raised her eyebrows at Verity. âYour Beulah Pooleâs ancestors were on the wrong side of that war, and most people around here never forgot it.â
âThe British captured or killed most of the patriot soldiers,â Hattie continued, âbut according to legend, some of the men got away with a whole packet of gold coins, a payroll for the Continental army. They disappeared into a swampââ
âAlong with all the settlers who were trying to escape the Indian raiders,â added Annie.
âAnd none of them ever came out again.â Hattie lowered her voice to a sepulchral tone. âWe call that place the Shades of Death now.â Verity shuddered obligingly, and Hattie appeared gratified.
âWell,â Carrie said, âone man came outâwith the gold. Silas Clayton.â
âI donât believe it,â Annie replied. âHis descendants live here still, and theyâre as poor as dirt.â
âBecause the army caught up with him a few years later and shot him for desertion,â Harriet retorted. âAnd no one ever found where he hid the gold.â
Carrie turned to Verity again. âOver the years thereâve been stories of gold coins turning up. Boysâand grown men, tooâhave been searching the swamp for almost a century, looking for the lost payroll.â
âNo one ever found it, though,â said Annie.
âAs far as we know,â murmured Hattie slyly.
Hattie and Carrie burst into giggles, and Annie swatted them both with her fan. Verity looked back and forth among the three of them, smiling. âI would like very much to share the joke.â
âItâs not a joke,â Annie said, âonly a silly rumor.â
âIâm sorry, Verity,â Carrie said. âItâs just that your father and your uncle were known to be ardent treasure hunters when they were younger.â
âMy father?â
Annie nodded regretfully. âHe spent half his youth trudging through the swamp looking for that payroll.â
âWell, boys will be boys,â Verity murmured. It did sound like the kind of thing her uncle would do. But her father . . . ?
âVery true. Every inch of that swamp has probably been searched by now.â Carrie looked at Verity from beneath coyly lowered lashes. âSome people say the lost treasure isnât really all that lost.â
Â
When the sisters were ready to depart, they hugged Verity affectionately, as if she were already a member of their family. Annie, in particular, held her close and kissed her cheek. âI remember your mother as if it were yesterday,â she said unexpectedly, glancing at the portrait of Sarah Ann Boone. âI was only fourteen when she died, and I was brokenhearted.â
With effort, Verity managed to bite back her questions.
What was she like? Why was she buried that way? What had she done?
She couldnât ask Nateâs sisters questions like that on
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