July 31, 1859

A Chapter by Havatara

July 31, 1859

Dear Lucy,

My, you’ve been busy! Why shouldn’t you ask the man to help out? He seems nice enough, and since he stays up late he could do the chores at night when you’re all asleep and Cindy wouldn’t ever find out about it. Ask him. It’s the least he can do for staying in your room. By the way, do you know his name yet?

I’ll answer one of your questions. Yes, she does find out who the spy is, but that’s a bit later. But now, time to continue the story.

Where did we leave off again? Ah, yes. Julia went to Sara’s for tea after Thomas warned her that she was in danger and had to be careful. When Julia got to Sara’s room, she told Sara of what Thomas had told her.

Sara laughed. “That’s Thomas for you. Always worrying about pretty girls. He did that with the last one, too.”

“Last one what?” Julia snapped. She was angry at the thought of Thomas paying attention to some girl other than her.

“The last girl he brought here,” Sara replied, still laughing.

“How many pretty girls has he brought here?” Julia asked icily, gripping her teacup tightly.

Sara smiled widely. “Dozens of them, each one prettier than the next.” She sipped her tea. “But no matter, he hasn’t brought a girl here besides you in about a year. Anyway, what shall we do today?”
“I don’t care,” Julia replied grumpily.

Sara snapped her fingers. “I know! There’s this tunnel that I want to see. Everyone says it’s too dangerous to go into, but it looks fine to me. We don’t even have to go in very far.”

“If someone says it’s off limits, I don’t want to get into trouble,” Julia replied. Back then, your grandmother wasn’t much of a daredevil. She got that later.

“Come on, please?” Sara begged. “I’ll make you a cake. Double chocolate.”

“Oh, fine, I’ll go. But only for a little while. I don’t want to get caught,” Julia replied, gulping down the last of her tea.

Sara laughed and raced out of the room, calling, “But getting caught is the best part!”

A few minutes later they came to the entrance of the tunnel and Sara shouted, “Frederick, where are you hiding?”

“I’m over here,” called the voice of a young man coming out of the tunnel. Julia made a small gasp. He was the most gorgeous man she had ever seen, with a light tan and light brown hair and big green eyes.

Sara ran over to him and hugged him. “Hi, Uncle Frederick. Thank you for taking us to the tunnel today.”

He laughed. “How many times do I have to tell you to call me Fred? I’m only ten years older than you anyway.” He looked up at Julia. “The same goes for you, too, Miss Julia. Call me Fred.”

“Then take out the ‘miss.’ I’m just Julia,” she replied as she walked towards them.

He straightened up. “Well, come on. Let’s get into that tunnel before anyone sees us here.”

Sara smiled. “Race you!” She ran into the tunnel with Fred close behind her. Julia followed slowly, thinking that maybe going into the tunnel wouldn’t be so bad.

I think that’s a good chunk of the story done. I’ll tell you what happens in the tunnel in the next letter. How’s your stomach?

Sincerely, Safiya

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