CHAPTER ONE

The Tillman Homestead

A furious wind attacked the billowing sheets flapping them back and forth until the cotton cloth cracked with the sound of angry gunshots. Black clouds seemed to gather out of nowhere while a bolt of lightening etched its crooked finger in a streak of bright light followed by a loud explosion and long rumblings. Heavy raindrops thunked loudly against rubber-like palm leaves and rattled the matted undergrowth of rough-edged palmetto fronds. Spawned in the nearby warmer waters of the Gulf Stream current, the storm forced itself across Florida's golden sand beaches of the Treasure Coast and inched its way inland toward the vast open swampland river of grass, the Everglades.

Laura hadn't paid attention to the first signs of the gusting wind. She was too engrossed in reading a dime novel,Torrid Romance. She had the well-worn book hidden above one of the exposed rafters in the out-house to steal moments when it was time to get away from crying babies, an irritable husband, or the pile of housework and laundry that never seemed to end. She had spent more time than intended, but this was just getting to the best part where Sidney was bending down to help Amanda to her feet and they found themselves in a passionate embrace and their lips met. The loud explosion of thunder sent Laura scurrying to wipe with a torn page from the catalog, dog-ear the page she was reading, and tuck the novel back in its hiding place. After throwing a cup of white powdered lime down the hole, she quickly closed the smelly old two-seater lid. She always wondered why in the world Edgar had made this thing with two seats? It just wasn't right to have two people sitting side by side doing their thing inside here. One thing for certain, she had decided, this was 1920 and a woman had her rights. She just