Carrie's Hired Hand

By Mary C. Findley

A widow fights Confederate soldiers to save her hired man and her husband's honor in this Civil War novella.

Carrie Wilkes can't understand why Robert Salinger says he blames himself for her husband Ben's death. He swears he will look after Carrie and the children, but they go home from the funeral alone. 

Things look better after that deaf and dumb stranger Robbie hires on. He discovers Carrie's shameful secret and she learns that he can help with more than just farm chores. But Robbie has a secret of his own that brings Confederate soldiers storming onto her farm with accusations of spying leveled at her dead husband. Carrie and her family have to help a stranger who has become a friend ... or perhaps something more. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Findley Family Video
• Release date: Aug 16, 2015
• ISBN: 9781516348756

Mary C. Findley

Mary grew up in rural NY and Michael is from AZ. We met at college, taught school in AZ, MO and PA, homeschooled, and created curriculum and videos for church and commercial productions. We have three supposedly grown children and traveled the 48 states and Canada together in a tractor trailer.Findley Family Video Publications has the key verse “Speaking the Truth in Love” from Ephesians 4:15. We have four main goals:To Present a Biblical WorldviewTo Exalt the Lord Jesus ChristTo Edify BelieversTo Teach and to DelightMichael J. Findley has been on the road most of his life and his writings reflect that motion. From the rise of the ancient Hittite Empire to a generational saga of a Space Empire, the one constant is his desire to communicate the truth of God's Word through fiction and nonfiction. Homeschoolers, church leaders, and ordinary believers who want to go deeper into the Word and reach higher to put God in the exalted place where He belongs will find many answers here.They say write what you know. Mary C. Findley has poured her real life into her writing -- From the cover designs inspired by her lifelong art studies to the love of pets and country life that worm their way into her historicals. The never-say-die heroes in her twenty-some fiction works are inspired by her husband, a crazy smart man with whom she co-writes science and history-based nonfiction. These works were jump-started by a deep awareness of the dangers in our future if we don't understand ideological enemies rooted in the past. She's a strong believer in helping others and also has books about publishing advice and the need to have strong standards in reading and writing.She has traveled internationally and around the lower 48 and Canada multiple times. Anecdotes from her small town life, college experiences, European, Canadian, and south-of-the border travels, as well as adventures as shotgun rider in a tractor trailer fill her contemporary works. She has also donned the cloak of alt-Victorian adventuress as Sophronia Belle Lyon, steampunk writer with her own League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (and ladies) from the great 1800s novelists. In all her works you will find faith, family, friendship and fulfilling stories. Do come have a look!

Book preview

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Carrie's Hired Hand

a Civil War Novella

by Mary C. Findley

copyright by Mary C. Findley 2012

Findley Family Video Publications

Carrie's Hired Hand by Mary C. Findley

copyright 2012 Findley Family Video Publications

No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or in part, or stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the publisher. Exception is made for short excerpts used in reviews.

Speaking the truth in love.

This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance of characters to persons living or dead is coincidental.

Note to the Reader:

This story contains graphics depicting the deaf alphabet used in American Sign Language and fingerspelling. The words they spell out appear below them. Our daughter is hearing impaired, and when she read this story, she pointed out that she did not think even she, with partial hearing, could do everything the deaf character in this story does. So the reader may have to suspend belief a little to accept all that happens in my little book. If the Lord provides an opportunity to continue this story one day, I may share what I imagine it would take for a deaf person to function in a hearing world as well as my character does.

Table of Contents

BEN

ROBBIE

SPY

ABCs

LETTERS

BELIEVE

QUESTIONS

MAP

ROBERT

PRETEND

I LOVE YOU

YES

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BEN

Carrie Wilkes looked out the window as the train hissed to a stop. Four-year-old Bethany, sprawled in her lap, stirred and gave a small cry. Carrie shushed Bethany and that woke six-year-old Matthew, sleeping on her shoulder. He sat up without a sound. Seeing that the train had stopped, he immediately climbed up on the seat and got their carpetbag down from the overhead rack. Carrie did not even try to take the bag from him.

His father's gray eyes in his thin little face had looked up at his mother in faint surprise when, at the beginning of the journey, she had protested that the bag was too heavy for him.

Papa tol' me t' take care of you an' Beffy an' be a man an' help all I could, he had told her gravely.

Is this where we find Papa? Bethany asked.

Yes, dear, I'm sure this is the place.

They got down off the train and Carrie tried to ignore all the stares. The sign that said Yankee must still be hanging around her neck. How do people know where you were born when you don't even open your mouth? She had asked herself this question ever since the war had begun.

They had just taken over the farm in Virginia that Ben had inherited from his father when the war broke out. Ben had enlisted immediately, and Carrie had been left alone with the two children, Beth just a baby then, and Matthew so small. The few neighbors shunned her, the northerner who had dared to marry one of their boys.

The town grocer and dry goods proprietors dealt with her