Settling into the house in the country was much simpler than Leah had thought. When she and Silas first stepped inside Richmond Manor, she had been appalled by the condition of the old place. Dust was everywhere. The windows were so filthy it was almost impossible to see out, and the furniture was in poor condition.
They made the best of it on the first night, but at ten o’clock the next morning Tom and Jeff Majors came riding up.
Leah saw them through the window. “Look, Uncle Silas—it’s Tom and Jeff!”
They stepped out onto the porch, and the two soldiers dismounted and tied their horses. Both boys were grinning widely. “Our dad got a promotion,” Jeff said proudly. “He’s been made a captain.”
Tom took off his hat and knocked the dust from it. He was tall and dark like Jeff and wore the uniform of a sergeant. “The first order he gave was, ‘Go help Miss Leah and her uncle make that place fit to live in.’”
“Well, that was right nice of your pa.” Uncle Silas beamed. He looked around and said, “Quite a bit of work to do around here.”
Jeff nodded to Leah. “Make us another one of them apple pies,” he said, “and just watch our smoke.”
Later he told her, “Pa was really pleased that you and your uncle have made your house available to our men. I think it’s fine too.”
“Oh, it’s what we should do,” Leah said quickly. She smiled and touched the locket that hung from a gold chain around her neck. “And I love my locket. That’s the best birthday present I ever got.”
Jeff shrugged. “Well, a girl ought to have something pretty like that. I’m glad you like it.”
Later on she prepared a fine dinner—including apple pie.
As they were eating, Tom said, “Did you hear what happened in the North—what Lincoln’s done?”
“No, what’s that, Sergeant?” Silas asked.
“Well, Lincoln’s called for three hundred thousand men to serve for three years.” He took a bite of pork chop and chewed on it thoughtfully. “Three hundred thousand men! I expect that’s more than we’ve got in the whole South. And to serve for three years…. ”
“I guess most of our fellows will serve as long as the war will last. But that can’t be three years!” Jeff said.
The two soldiers worked hard all day, and at dusk Tom said, “Well, we’ve got to get back to camp. Come along, Jeff.”
Jeff lingered long enough to say, “I’ll be coming back from time to time, Leah. It looks like the fighting’s over for a while. McClellan’s retreated, gone back to Washington, so maybe we’ll get to see each other. Maybe there’s a creek around here or a pond we can go fishing in.”
“Oh, that would be nice, Jeff. You be sure and come every chance you get.”
The next day Leah said, “Uncle Silas, I’ve got to have some more groceries. I saw a little store down the road. I’m going to walk down and get some things.”
It was a good day for walking. The sky was blue, and white clouds drifted across it. The grass was so green it almost hurt her eyes. Once she crossed a bridge that arched over a small creek. She stopped and leaned out over it and looked down into the depths, hoping to see fish, but all she saw was shiny minnows schooling over the shallow water.
Finally she walked on and came to the one-room store with a little house sitting behind it.
“My name’s Leah Carter,” she said. “My Uncle Silas and I are living down the road. We’ll be needing groceries from time to time.”
The couple behind the counter looked at her strangely, she thought.
“Well,” the man said, “my name’s Henry Wiggins. My wife, Pearl. Glad to have you in the community.”
Mrs. Wiggins asked, “Which house did you say you lived in?”
“The one just on the other side of the rise, sitting out in the field under the cottonwood trees.”
“Oh,” Mrs. Wiggins said shortly. She gave Leah a peculiar look but said no more.
“What can I help you with, miss?” Mr. Wiggins said. He moved about, picking up the few items she asked for. “We don’t have any coffee.” He shook his head. “Don’t know where you’ll get that.” He added up the items and said, “That’ll come to two dollars and sixteen cents.”
Leah paid for the groceries and picked them up. “It’s nice out here. I like it out in the country, and it’s really a nice house now that we’re getting it fixed up.”
Mrs. Wiggins was a large woman and had a round face. Her mouth grew tight. “Well, I hope you’ll be all right there.”
Leah noted the strange expression on her face. “Well, of course we’ll be all right there. Why wouldn’t we?”
Mrs. Wiggins sniffed. She picked up a can of snuff and filled her lower lip, then said tartly, “Well, I wouldn’t spend one night in that place!”
“Now, Emmy,” Mr. Wiggins said quickly, “don’t be saying things like that.”
“Henry, you know that place’s haunted. I tell you, I wouldn’t stay there for ten minutes.”
But Mr. Wiggins shushed her up. “You come back, Miss Leah, and tell your uncle to drop by too. We’re glad to have you in the neighborhood.”
When Leah returned to the house, she told Uncle Silas about the conversation.
But he merely smiled. “Folks are real superstitious. You’re not afraid, are you, Leah?”
“No, I don’t believe in ghosts.”
Two days went by, and by that time they were comfortably settled. Leah had worked hard on the house so that it was clean as a pin. They bought five hens from Mr. Wiggins, who also had a farm, and they hoped to get a milk cow soon.
“This is real nice out here, isn’t it, Uncle? So much quieter than it is in town.”
She was sitting in a rocking chair on the front porch, across from Uncle Silas. He was reading a newspaper, and he looked up to say, “Yes, I like this country air.” Then he studied the paper carefully. “Listen to this, Leah. It says, ‘General Nathan Bedford Forrest has captured Murfreesboro. General Forrest captured 880 Federal prisoners, including an entire Michigan regiment.’” He looked up. “Now, that’s something, isn’t it! That Forrest must be some general.”
And they talked about the war.
That night after they had had their Bible reading, Leah went to bed. She slept poorly for some reason, tossing and turning on the cotton mattress. Finally, she dozed off—or almost so.
As she lay there, not quite awake yet not asleep either, she thought she heard something. At first she thought it was something outside, but then it seemed that footsteps, very faint, were coming from somewhere in the house.
She lay still, listening, and she thought, I’ve been hearing too many stories about haunted houses. There’s no such thing.
She went to sleep finally, and the next morning at breakfast she told her uncle.
“I guess I’m getting nervous,” she said. “I thought I heard footsteps in the house last night, but I know that couldn’t be.”
Silas glanced up. “Well, whoever it was, you can shoot him with my pistol. If it’s a ghost, it won’t hurt him, will it?”
Leah thought no more about it and that day took some time to go for a walk. She did find a creek close by that looked as if it might be full of plump fish, and she resolved to come back and see if she could catch any.
She went home and began to prepare supper, but when she reached into the potato bin, she stopped suddenly, staring at the potatoes. “Why, I know there were four potatoes here. I put them in yesterday. Now there are only three.” Slowly she closed the lid and cooked supper, deciding she had made a mistake.
Later though, when going to bed, Leah was still thinking about the missing potato. “I know I can count to four,” she said to herself as she put on her gown and got in between the thick blankets. She lay listening to the wind rising. A summer storm was coming. “Maybe Uncle Silas ate it, although I can’t imagine him eating a raw potato.”
In the middle of the night, Leah awoke, filled with terror.
Something was touching her back!
Without thinking she let out a wild scream and jumped out of bed. She ran down the hall into the living room, her heart pounding, and soon Uncle Silas came stomping out of his room, carrying a candle and trying to pull his robe about him.
“What’s the matter?” he demanded.
“Something—something was in my room! It touched my back!”
Silas cocked an eyebrow at her, then walked over to a desk and opened the drawer. He set down the candle, pulled out a huge pistol, and cocked it. Then picking up the candle, he said, “We’ll see.”
Leah followed closely behind her uncle as they went down the hall. She had slammed the bedroom door behind her, and he opened it and stepped inside. Leah was right behind him. She looked around wildly, and then Uncle Silas laughed.
“Well, there’s your ghost, or your burglar, whatever you thought it was,” he said.
Leah saw the old calico cat, Peanuts, sitting on her bed. He yawned, showing enormous teeth, as cats do, then curled down and went to sleep.
Uncle Silas took the pistol off cock and patted Leah on the shoulder. “It’s all right. A thing like that would have scared me too, getting touched in the back in the dark. You want me to put Peanuts out?”
“No, it’s all right, now that I know he’s here. You go on back to bed, Uncle Silas. I’m sorry I woke you up. Good night!”
“Good night!”
Leah walked to the window and looked out. The trees were tossing, but she saw nothing else. Then she got back into bed, and Peanuts came and touched her hair tentatively with one paw.
“Leave me alone,” she said crossly. But she picked him up and held him close, finding comfort in the warm, furry body.
She closed her eyes and tried to go to sleep. The wind blew, making a high-pitched sound, and the apple tree outside her window seemed to lean over and scratch on the glass with skeleton fingers.