Lizzie and the Redcoat by Susan Martins Miller

Author:Susan Martins Miller [MILLER, SUSAN MARTINS]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-62836-214-5
Publisher: Barbour Publishing, Inc.
Published: 2006-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 9

What Joshua Saw

Punching her pillow, Lizzie wondered what time it was—again. Then she answered her own question. It was ten minutes later than the last time she had punched her pillow and wondered what time it was. Her bedding was a tangled mess. Across the room, Olivia slept serenely. Lizzie could hardly believe that anyone, even an exhausted child, could sleep through the night that had just passed. Lizzie herself had not slept a minute all night.

When Joshua had not arrived for supper, her mother and father had turned their attention to Lizzie. They were convinced that she would know where to find him. Since Lizzie and Joshua had been instructed to stay together when they were walking around town, her parents reasoned that she had been everywhere that Joshua had been in recent days. Lizzie reminded them that although she had been forbidden to go out alone, Joshua was still free to come and go as he pleased. Surely he had had many opportunities for conversations or activities that Lizzie knew nothing about.

Mama had burned the supper, and no one ate much. The silence at the table was broken only by Mama’s occasional coaxing to get Olivia and Emmett to eat a few bites. Lizzie had cleared the table and washed the dishes without being asked. Hardly noticing her efforts, her parents went out looking for Joshua. By then he had been missing for several hours. Lizzie tucked Olivia and Emmett into bed—over their protests about the absence of their parents—and sat alone in the front room. She tried to focus her thoughts on the usual sounds of a summer evening: crickets in the grass, horses clip-clopping on the cobblestone, boys playing with sticks and rocks in front of the house next door. But she did not hear those sounds. Carriages rumbled past the house, one after the other. Their tumult drowned out the crickets’ song, and the boys were shouting patriotic slogans instead of keeping score on their game.

Something was going on in the street that night. Every few minutes, Lizzie got out of her chair to part the drapes and peek outside. People ought to be finishing supper and settling in for the night. Why were so many people running around the streets? Even if she could muster the courage to investigate, she dared not leave Olivia and Emmett alone in the house to go find out.

And what did Joshua know about all this? For surely he had known before this all began. His steadfast refusal that afternoon to tell her where he was going had been the beginning of her suspicion.

When the light grew dim, Lizzie did not bother to light a lamp. She simply sat wondering where Joshua was and what he was doing, and worrying about what her parents might find. As best she could, she prayed that Mama and Papa would find Joshua and bring him home safely. She wanted to believe, as Aunt Johanna did, that they were all in God’s hands, whether what happened was good or bad.

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