Liberty House Read online

  Liberty House

  Temperance Johnson

  Liberty House

  by Temperance Johnson

  Website: https://temperancejohnsonauthor.weebly.com/

  Print ISBN: 978-1-64826-850-2

  Ebook ISBN: 978-1-64826-867-0

  Copyright © 2020 by Temperance Johnson. All rights reserved.

  Content editing by: Allison Butler

  Cover Design by: Rachel Rossano

  https://rossanodesigns.weebly.com

  Book Interior Formatting by: Ben Wolf

  www.benwolf.com/editing-services

  Available in print and ebook format on amazon.com.

  All Scripture references taken from the King James Version. Public domain.

  All rights reserved. Non-commercial interests may reproduce portions of this book without the express written permission of the author, provided the text does not exceed 500 words.

  Commercial interests: No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means—electronic, photocopy, recording, or otherwise—without prior written permission of the author, except as provided by the United States of America copyright law.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, and incidents are all products of the author's imagination or are used for fictional purposes. Any mentioned brand names, places, and trademarks remain the property of their respective owners, bear no association with the author or the publisher, and are used for fictional purposes only. Any similarities to individuals living or dead is purely coincidental.

  Published in the United States of America.

  Orphans, Faith, Mystery, Clean Romance, True Love, Orphanages, South

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  The Families

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Self-help for families

  Acknowledgments

  Contact the Author

  To my sister, Mary Ellen, for always listening to me talk about my book at any hour. Thanks a ton for encouraging me in this work. I couldn’t have done without your input.

  The Families

  The Starry Family

  Parents: Owen and Ellen

  Maverick Starry--town deputy

  Matt Starry -- town Sheriff

  Andrew Starry---works part-time as a Deputy and works on Silkwood

  Sawyer ---work for the newspaper office

  Jesse --- works the land on Silkwood

  Pedro--- came to the family at 9, (Deceased)

  Travis--12

  Charity--10

  Johnathan--5

  The Washington Family

  Parents: Ben and Missy passed away from the fever five years ago

  Katrina--- is married to Andrew

  Gloria--- is courting Jerry

  Tommy--she is a great artist

  Hunter--- 12

  Melody--8

  David---5

  Donavan's Family

  Cole--a US Marshal, who works for himself

  Amy

  Twins: Annie, Izzy

  Isaiah--Katrina’s younger blood brother

  Jerry-- works as a Deputy

  Prologue

  Early 1861: Beginning of the Civil War

  No one really knew why this group of orphans always stuck together or why they were even friends. Nor did anyone know why they were chosen to live on a beautiful two-hundred-and-fifty-acre farm in Baldwin, Alabama. Ironically, the orphans didn’t want to live in the grandeur of the beautiful countryside. Their normal lives were with their adoptive parents, Owen and Ellen Starry, where they could spend as much time with the Washingtons, who just so happened to be ex-slaves.

  Even though Mr. and Mrs. Starry loved the children with all their hearts, the children did not know how to feel loved. Tommy was always afraid they would reject her when they found out the truth about her, so it was easier to reject them first. But her plan wasn’t working. Ellen and Owen never gave up on the adopted children even after they had their first natural child, Travis was born.

  Tommy looked around at her siblings, all lying or sitting in the hayloft. Their parents had gone to town for supplies because they wouldn’t be returning there until the war ended. She had feared the war, but unlike most children and even some adults, she had known it would come. She’d even asked her siblings, “What are we gonna do now that there’s war?”

  Matt, one of the oldest boys, frowned. He was the one who would tell them what to do though they hardly ever listened. “We should stop running away.”

  They all looked at him like he was talking crazy. Jesé spoke what they were all thinking, “Why would we want to stay here forever?” He and his twin brother, Pedro, who were both Mexicans, were the youngest of them all. In the South, it was not considered proper to adopt children from different cultures, but Ellen and Owen loved the two little terrors and kept them, though others said the boys were madcap.

  Maverick was the oldest of the group, and somehow, they listened to him—most of the time. “Because if we keep running away, they will have to let us go. They can’t make us change.”

  “The brain’s got a point,” said Andrew, the tallest of the bunch. “Who else would want two Mexican boys, two Irish slaves, and misfit children no one wants? Things are going to get worse. At least, here on Silkwood, we'll have everything we need. Most likely we won’t have the town to steal and buy from anymore.”

  Pedro whispered, “I say we stay and try to be good.”

  Jesé scowled at his 10-year-old twin, “I try to be good. Then something happens, and I’m bad.”

  “I say something’s gotta change, or we’ll kill each other, and it won’t be in war,” Katrina added. She was one of the Irish slaves, whose freedom the Starrys had bought. She added, “Besides, I like Ellen. She is so nice when she learned us. I think she might even love us.”

  Tommy glanced at Katrina with a glare. Ellen had taught them school in the evening at the orphanage and then decided to take them home. Missy had cleaned there and stayed to help Ellen with the mess of the children. Ellen handled them with grace when the children yelled, screamed, or sobbed at any given moment, then hit Ellen when they got angry. The snakes hid in her desk, the bugs they put in her food, the time they tied her shoelaces to the chair, and all the other stuff they did to the small brunette, she took it like a real, true grit woman--even if she was from the North and talked funny. She just kept on teaching like they were good children. They thought it would be easy to get rid of her, like the other teachers. They didn’t pay much for that amount of abuse. Nothing paid that much.

  So instead of getting rid of her, she taught them like they wanted to learn. She even learned sign language so she could talk to Katrina easier. She was a
dumb and deaf child everyone said. Ellen even talked to them all when the rest of the children had left and asked them to come home with her. She said, “You all are my Stars, God has blessed me with His Stars. Come home and be a Starry.” They didn’t believe a word she said. But what choice did they have? So, they came home and continued to try to get rid of her. Ellen had stopped teaching at the school. She couldn’t keep with both home and the classroom, and with the war started, a northern woman teaching southern---even orphans--would not be allowed.

  A couple of months later, Missy and Ben moved onto Silkwood. They reacted well to Missy and were much nicer to her. Maybe because she was black, and even the poorest children had a black Nanny who raised them. Nanny never mistreated, ignored, or abandoned them. It was their white parent who did that and sold the nannies. Nannies would always stay to love their white babies. They were stronger than their white Mamas who left them.

  So Missy was like a black Nanny, the children would even let her hold them when they got hurt, and at times, they would let her kiss them though, no one would admit that to each other, and it had to be where not a soul saw. Missy was their mercy while Ellen was driven to get them to work and make something out of their life. She always said, “If you put your strength into being good as you are disobedient, you could change the world.’ She really believed what she said.

  That was the story of how they became known as the Starry Yankees. Their Northern ma made them famous for it.

  Her eyes wide, Gloria spoke up. She was the smallest of the children but not the youngest of the girls. “Having y'all as kin sounds terrible.”

  Maverick looked at her compassionately. “We ain’t that bad. You could do worse.”

  Gloria shrugged, “How bad could being a Starry be?”

  Jesé looked terrified. Tommy knew he was afraid of it and that they’d have to stop running away, and he wasn't good at staying in one place. But what choice did he have? Tommy saw Jesé glance at his twin. If Pedro chose to stay, he would too, she was sure.

  “Then we try this family thing out for real this time,” Matt told them. “Maybe God meant us to be here for a reason.”

  The children did not believe him, but they all agreed to try to be a family.

  Katrina drawled, “Like Ellen said, we are her Stars under God’s sky. Stars of the Starry.”

  Tommy prayed to a God she had been taught to love and serve, but who had rejected her as a child. She prayed not only that they would live through this horrible war, but also that they would make it as a family. Both the war and her family were terrifying and unknown territory.

  Chapter One

  January 1872

  The Rebels had to stop, or her team was going to lose, which meant they would have to do something for the other team. And no way was the rambunctious Tommy Starry going to let her brothers and sisters win. They were horrible winners, or perhaps she was a terrible loser. A dark, blonde curl fell in front of her forehead, and she put it back into her tight bun. The Alabama air was so warm and muggy, it made her hair go frizzy. She never grew tired of smelling the gulf in Baldwin. Living here since she was ten years old, she had come to love this place. It hasn’t always been easy, but she truly felt like this was home. Looking down at Melody, she moved some of her hair out of her soft face.

  Tommy was going to have to slide down the muddy, red hill to where her team hid, but she would have to go through the Rebels first. When she pulled Melody onto her lap, Melody yelled, “Yankees, cover me!” Then they slid down. The moss was cut out of the way, so it didn’t hit them in the face like it did when they were children. She felt a few red mudballs hit her. Andrew must have shot those. He was the best shot the other team had.

  When she got to the bottom, she ended up in her camp, a small clearing tucked up in the woods just before the drop-off into a large pond. Bright, green moss hung all around it, making it feel like walls. Too bad it was way too cold for swimming that day.

  Maverick helped her up. “Man, you’re muddy,” her twenty-six-year-old brother told her. He picked Melody up, and laughingly, declared, "You both muddy." His accent was a sign that his wealthy, southern upbringing was splashed with the Baldwin culture. He could change his voice whenever he wanted or needed to. He had come to the mudballs in his teens. Older than any of the other children, unlike them, he had never lived at the orphanage. With dark, blond hair and green eyes, he was the best looking of the brothers. He was also the smartest, which is why they called him ‘Brains.’

  Melody giggled. “I sure am.”

  Hunter joined the conversation. “You got any ideas, soldier? They’re wipin’ us out there.” Hunter was one of the oldest Washington children, though he lived with Ellen and Owen now since his parents died of fever a few years back.

  “Thanks, I didn’t know that,” Maverick said. He called Jerry, Katrina, and Jesse to gather around in a tight circle. “Let’s surprise them. We’ll all wait here as Tommy goes behind them and gets ‘em. When you whistle, we’ll attack. Sounds good, sis?”

  She nodded. “Sounds like a plan. But you gotta cover me, soldier.”

  “You bet I will.”

  “Well done.”

  “Quit talkin’ and get goin’,” Jerry told her. His Florida accent wasn’t as thick. He’d come to Mobile on the backs of soldiers, but hadn’t lost the twang of his home state.

  “Yes, sir.” Tommy made a face then moved up the hill.

  Jerry smiled, his green eyes bright and his light, blond hair damp with sweat. He’d moved in with the Starry family at the end of the war and was close with them all, especially Matt. Sometimes Jerry worked with Matt, Maverick, and Andrew in the sheriff’s office as a deputy, even at the young age of twenty-five.

  Twenty-two-year-old Tommy bent down as she headed up the hill with Maverick a few feet behind her. She loved this game. Ben, Ellen, Missy, and Owen had adopted the children, most from an awful, abusive orphanage. They knew much of their childhood was taken. To make up for some of it, they played with them as children during the hot Alabama summers, trying to make them feel like children again. Now, they continued mud fights as they got older because it helped them not feel so lonely when other folks their age were going to balls, parties, and weddings they were never invited to. They all knew the game was childish, but that didn’t matter much to them. They’d lived without friends for a long time now, so what was the difference? And now they got to play with the Starry children, who loved it too.

  When they played mud fights, they almost always stayed on the same teams, they couldn’t cross a piece of the enemy's side. When one side would lose, they would have to do something else for the other team. Though this time, Sawyer didn’t play. Tommy sure missed him. He was away working for a newspaper company. Tommy was still a little miffed he wasn’t there, especially during this time of year. They had Katrina on their team to make up for his absence, but it wasn’t the same.

  When Tommy saw her teammates, she flattened to the ground, her front soaked, mud splattering her face, instantly making it feel itchy. But the adrenaline rush was worth a little mud and discomfort. She inched close enough to hear what the boys and Gloria, who Jerry was courting, were talking about without them seeing her.

  “What’re they doin’?” Andrew drawled. Of all the children, he had the thickest accent. He was a southern gentleman to a fault. One could hardly see him for all the mud on his dark skin. He had coal-black hair that curled, his eyes, black pools.

  Now she heard Gloria comment, “Yeah, Tommy and Melody flew by a bit ago.”

  “Yeah, she sure did fly,” Andrew teased.

  “I meant she...never mind.” Gloria sat back against a tree.

  Tommy saw Gloria was as dirty as she was and wearing the same thing as her; a black swimming suit, loose all around, baggy pants, and a long-sleeve shirt that went down to her knees. Gloria’s long, brown braid and narrow, hazel eyes contrasted with her muddy face. She looked much younger than her twenty-three years.

  Hu
nter and Charity hung back in the trees. They loved playing this game as well.

  As usual, Isaiah didn’t say a word. He was Katrina’s blood brother, who had gotten wounded in the war and came to Silkwood to heal. He had just never left.

  “You think Tommy will mind if Susan moves in?” Gloria asked Matt.

  Tommy moved closer, her curiosity taking over.

  Twenty-five-year-old Matt had fallen into the role of a spiritual mentor, leader, and teacher of their Christian faith. He was also sheriff, in name only, while Maverick was the real sheriff and got the job done well. Susan was his sweet, beautiful fiancé. Matt considered Gloria’s question for a moment. “She might have a little problem with it, but she’s hospitable. And she likes Susan,” Matt answered, but he didn’t sound like he believed what he’d just said. “You brought it up yet?”

  “No, I’m goin’ to deal with Cole comin’ first.”