"But don't you want to go to the wedding?"

Selene sat at the mirror pinning her hair up as she thought over Heloise's question. Yes she had worked hard on Annie's dress, and yes she was happy for her but she hadn't really expected to be invited. The truth was Mr. Mount-Helens wasn't too proud of the dress and had paid less than the agreed price. Selene had kept this among her sisters in order not to start a debate between the St. Clouds and the Mount-Helens since their children were about to be joined.

"I'd rather be here with you." Selene answered her honestly. "Miriam says we're going to have a celebration for ourselves! Won't that be grand?"

Heloise smiled. She also thought about that delicious cake they had baked yesterday and the petticoat tail shortbread cookies that Miriam told them they would eat. Since the wedding was to be such a grandiose event the servants of the bride and the bridegroom's households were asked to serve. Of course no one wanted to miss this ostentatious event so all the servants eagerly went, even John.

After the St. Clouds had gone the sisters prepared for their party. They lined the tables with the delicious foods they had made and put on their best dresses. With permission from Mr. St. Cloud they brought out the gramophone and played Maple Leaf Rag. They told stories and played games and of course they danced beneath the illuminated ballroom dome.

"Who wants to play hide-and-seek?" Hannah asked after the sisters had made their feet sore from dancing and Joplin's rag had played a dozen times.

"I'll play with you." Heloise said getting to her feet. "Astrid, Alifair, will you play with us?"

"Please, Astrid, you're so good at seeking." Hannah clasped her hands together and begged.

"All right," Astrid laughed. "I don't mind."

Alifair who had been sitting in silent objection on the floor now stood. "I'll play if Astrid is playing," she said.

"Are you afraid?" Hannah teased.

"No!"

"I bet you are afraid." Hannah said. "Alifair is afraid, Alifair is afraid!"

"Now, Hannah don't tease so," Miriam said. "She has agreed to play with you."

"Yes, Miriam," Hannah said then grabbed Heloise by the hand. "Let's go," she said and ran off.

"Just one minute," Miriam stopped them. "You are not to enter any rooms we are not allowed in during the day. And I don't want you opening any doors or climbing on furniture. You may use the library and the kitchen but that is all aside from the west rooms of the house."

The younger girls all said they understood and raced off for their hiding places while Astrid counted.

"Count to one hundred," Hannah said as she ran out the door with Heloise and Alifair. "No more, no less!"

As the night aged the sisters sat around the ballroom of the empty house reminiscing and talking about the future. Jethro had said the reception would carry on well into the morning and this proved true as the clock struck midnight and not so much as a wash maid had been seen.

Miriam leaned back in a chair and hummed a tune as she starred up at the ceiling. "Life seems to be in suspension here," she said over the tune of the rag.

Selene turned towards her. "I agree. You know I wander what Mama and Papa expect from us. We've been with them all our lives. Do you think they want us to marry and move away?"

"I want to stay with Papa forever," Taitiann said.

"You planning on marrying and moving away?" Miriam asked.

"Well no," Selene said. "I'm torn you see. I wish to be married and have ten beautiful children but I never want to leave my sisters."

"Well if you love your husband you won't mind leaving us spinsters," Miriam said. "Ten children." She giggled.

"Indeed!" Taitiann said from Selene's other side. "Poor Jethro."

Selene pounced on her sister, tackling her to the floor. She tickled her without mercy until Taitiann's face and sides ached from laughing.

Hannah came running into the ballroom just then her face etched with an indefinable terror. "Miriam, Selene, Taitiann."

"What's wrong, Hannah?" Miriam asked, catching her sister. "Please don't tell me you've broken something."

Hannah trembled as she pointed towards the door. "G...G...ghost."

The older sisters stepped back from the doorway as a skinny figure entered the room in a neat suit with a rifle under his arms. The man smiled an alligator smile as two more came in behind him holding Astrid, Alifair and Heloise who had been in the kitchen.

Taitiann screamed and nearly fainted as they stared at the man. The man who should be in his grave, the man whose ghost Avery Johnston had seen at the old mill. But Avery hadn't seen a ghost at all.

"Surprise."

"You're alive!" Taitiann gasped as Astrid, Heloise and Alifair ran from the men to take shelter among their sisters.

"Yes I am," Mr. Callaway said, "Very much so; which is more than I can say for the seven of you in a few minutes. You see I can't have you meddling in my affairs and messing things up. That gold is mine, all of it!"

"You know about the will," Miriam said holding fast to Hannah and Mr. Callaway nodded to this.

"And I know you took my scroll from that hick, Kincaid Keller."

"Well then you know that the house is ours and the land, all of it. Including the acres your house is on."

Mr. Callaway laughed. "Do you really think the law is going to care what some disenfranchised Jezebel is going to say? Your daddy is proof that the law is not on your side, sure he was a decent man even I admit that but he had to go. In fact this whole process would be a lot easier if you were all dead!" He raised his rifle and the sisters scattered.

Miriam, Taitiann, Astrid and Hannah ran for the south doors of the ballroom while Heloise, Selene and Alifair ran out the east. They heard Mr. Callaway command his men after them and the men drew their bayonets and split in opposite directions.

The first man pursued, Miriam, Taitiann, Astrid and Hannah up the halls of the west wing of the house. The girls ran into a dark room with the man right behind him. Right before he entered they ducked behind a lounge chair and Miriam put her hand over Hannah's mouth.

"I know you're in here," the man said. He twirled his bayonet like a baton making an ominous hiss in the air. He went over to the curtains. "Hide all you want, there's nowhere else for you to run. Aha!" He yanked the curtain back and raised his weapon but found no one.

Miriam and Taitiann peeked from behind the chair as the man went over to the next curtain and did the same thing. When he went over to the last curtain the sisters sprung from behind the chair and pulled it over his head. He panicked, swinging his weapon around blindly. Using both her hands Taitiann grabbed his wrist and pinned it against the wall disabling the weapon.

While she had him occupied Miriam reached to the wall and grabbed a billiards cue and wacked him with it. The man went down, taking the heavy burgundy curtains with him. Taitiann and Miriam stood over him panting.

"Oh, Miriam." Taitiann said. "Is he killed? Oh I think he's killed."

"He ain't killed." Miriam said kicking the bayonet aside as Astrid and Hannah came from behind the chair. She cast the billiard cue aside and proceeded to tie the man's hands together with the curtain cord.

/

Selene had run into the kitchen and closed and locked the door and the man was throwing himself against it and demanding entry. The girls armed themselves with pots and pans as the door yielded to the weight of the man. He raised his weapon as he advanced on them aiming to dispatch them quickly. As he reached them Selene raised her pan deflecting a blow from his bayonet.

"Alifair, Heloise run!" She shouted to her sisters. The man then kicked her down and she fell between the cupboards and the kitchen table.

Seeing her sister in distress Heloise turned back for her. "Selene?" She tried to help her sister up then looked behind her when she heard the swish through the air. As the blade neared her neck her life passed before her eyes. She saw herself on the swing in the yard at Fairchild Place, being teased by Amy and Olive as she walked home from school, walking into town to bring Selene lunch, running across the frozen lake...

She held both her hands up in vain to shield herself from the blow  as the blade glimmered in the kitchen light. There was another hiss through the air and the blade tittered and turned down before it reached her. It clamored to the tile floor and the man stumbled backwards and fell over a chair.

"Stay where you are!" Taitiann shouted as she fitted another arrow to her bow. "Don't you move!" She stood over the man who held his hands up in surrender. "Selene, get the bayonet!" Taitiann ordered her sister who scrambled for the weapon. Once it was in her hand she joined her sister standing over the man.

"Where's the second?" Selene asked.

"Tied up at the moment." Taitiann answered. "Get up." She ordered the man who obeyed. They made him walk before them back into the ballroom where to their dismay they did not find Mr. Callaway. The open window told of his escape and Taitiann started after him.

"No," Selene stopped her. "He has a gun."

Miriam came running into the ballroom with Hannah and Astrid carrying the second man's bayonet in her hand. "You got him. Oh Taitiann, I've never seen you move so quickly before." Holding the bayonet out of the way she hugged her sisters. "Wait, where is Alifair?"

The sixth Fairchild sister was halfway up the road when she flagged down a horse and rider. It was Jessop returned from the party early of a headache.

"Oh, Mr. St. Cloud you must come quickly. There a men at the house and they are killing my sisters!"

Jessop quickly helped her into the saddle in front of him and pushed his horse into a gallop. It surged up the road at lightning speed. He dismounted in the drive and told Alifair to stay put and to leave with the horse at the first sign of danger.

Bursting inside he passed through the house noting the signs of a struggle. By the time he came to the ballroom he saw the other six sisters had two men tied up before them. He didn't have time to wonder how they had accomplished this.

"Quick, Mr. St Cloud." Heloise said. "He escaped into the garden!"

Jessop climbed out of the window into the dark mazes of the gardens. The sound of early birds and the trickle of the fountain were all he heard. He took slow careful steps hoping to take his enemy by surprise and not the other way around.

Mr. Callaway had been around the house once only to be stopped by hedges. He had doubled back, trying to get into dark windows and escape the maze while avoiding the sisters but they were all locked. He had come with greed in his heart and an angry soul. For years he had held onto that scroll. It came into his life when his father bore witness to the will of an old woman. He distinctly remembered his father's hired man taking the scroll from her house. Perhaps the man thought it would fetch a pretty price. Callaway had since then acquired the scroll from the deceased man's relatives. This was what led him to Keller and the legend of Fair Lady. Now it was gone, and his greed, replaced by terror.

Alas he found himself in the south garden where a shuffle in the grass made him raise his rifle. "Say who you are or I'll blow you to kingdom come."

Jessop leapt out of his hiding place and blindsided the man with a punch. Unassisted by his thugs Mr. Callaway went down like an old tree. His shotgun fired echoing around the house and hushing the morning birds. "So, you like to terrorize young women and children?" Jessop said. He didn't see before him an old rich man driven by pirate greed, he saw his old enemy who he had sworn to make suffer. "I'll give you a taste of your terror." He dragged Mr. Callaway by his collar over to the pond and ignoring the man's thrashing and begging he dunked him under. As he lost his ability to hold his breath his struggle increased but Jessop wouldn't let up.

"No, Mr. St. Cloud!" Taitiann screamed as he ran into the garden. She threw herself on him and pulled back on his shoulders. "We need him alive!" He still didn't let up. "Please, it's the only way to prove my father innocent!" Alas he stopped and pulled the old man out of the water. Relieved that he was still alive Taitiann fell to her knees.

Mr. Callaway, who was not a ghost, was arrested along with his thugs. The credit went to Jessop but he knew who had really done all the work. As the men were carted away he returned to the house knowing he would have to explain the damages to his parents when they returned in a few hours. Until then though he decided to get some sleep.

/

With Mr. Callaway arrested, the sisters next moved to get their father pardoned. Jessop warned that this might take longer than expected and told them not to be too anxious for it was still possible they would find another way to convict him. The girls wore their ribbons each day in support of his freedom and sang songs and danced. Kitty and Natty St. Cloud would sometimes set up chairs and watch the sisters perform. With Ira and Annie honeymooning in Europe the house stayed quiet as spring took full hold of the land. With no news from their father the sisters began to worry but Miriam told them to busy themselves to make time pass faster.

One sunny day, Astrid came running into the house clinging to a news article for dear life. She had come all the way from the shop in town and was out of breath by the time she reached the house. "They found him!" She declared as she burst into the dining room. "They caught him, they caught him!" She nearly fell across the table as she laid the article before Jessop who was there alone. "Read this."

He took the article and after reading the first sentence he had to start again. "Feared highwaymen captured in Ohio." He opened the article further. "The Lord's name be praised." He declared then read on. "Highwayman, Kincaid Keller stopped in Ohio after shooting an officer and stealing his horse. Keller was apprehended trying to flee across the border."

"Can you believe it?" Astrid said.

"It's almost too good to be true," Jessop said as Astrid pranced around the room.

"But you know what this means? We can go home. And then Papa and Mama will be pardoned and we'll be a family again! She sat down in the chair next to him and fanned herself. "I feel as keyed up as Hannah when she gets gifts. Oh and you must come visit us of course."

Jessop looked at her sideways. "Calm down there, Rabbit. I know there's a lot to be excited about but don't get carried away"

Astrid took a deep breath then stilled herself.

Jessop reached into his pocket and counted out coins. "Your story, it reminds of the seven Pleiades in Greek mythology, also sisters."

"Does it end well for them?" Astrid asked.

"If you consider immortally being pursued by your enemy across heaven to be a good ending, then yes. I hope it ends better for you. Here," He said opening her hand and placing the coins in her palm. "Are you familiar with Mr. Wallis' place?"

"Yes," Astrid said. "He and his family live in the first house on the colored side of town."

"Well why don't you go on down there and buy some frozen treats for you and your sisters, just as a little celebration." He closed her fingers around the coins. "Now, you don't let these go until you get there, you understand?"

Astrid nodded and thanked him then hurried out the door. Wanting to surprise her sisters she didn't stop back by the shop. She passed it up and headed for the colored side of town. As she drew closer to the residence fewer people appeared on the street. Not to worry Miriam about her return she quickened her pace in order to get back to the shop sooner.

She was looking down at the money in her hands when the sharp whinny of a horse made look up. The tall animal came towards her with an open mouth fighting against the rider who held too tightly to the reins.

Andrew Addams reined his horse until it halted in front of her and leaned forward in his saddle. "Where are you going?"

"I'm going to see Mr. Wallis for frozen treats."

Andrew looked over his shoulder. "Wallis' place is still a ways off from here," he said then nodded to her clenched fist. "What's in your hand? Let me see."

Drawing her fist up to her chest she drew back. "Mr. St. Cloud says I'm not supposed to let these go."

Andrew snickered. "Jessop told you that?" He asked and laughed when she nodded. "You give him a message for me." As Astrid looked up waiting for him to tell her the message that needed relaying he struck his foot out, jabbing the toe of his boot into her collar bone and sending her to the ground.

"I'll give birth to cows before Jessop St. Cloud makes a fool of me and gets away with it!"

Astrid squirmed out of the path of the horse, barely dodging another kick from Andrew.

"You let him know I'll be watching him. I'll be watching all of you."

Astrid took off like a jackrabbit back the way she had come, dress skirts flying and her hand still folded around the money. She ran all the way back into town and into the shop which at the hour was empty. "Miriam!" she cried and fell upon her sister.

Immediately alarmed, Miriam held Astrid at arm's length. "What happened, tell me!"

Astrid was so engulfed with tears she could barely speak. "Mr. St. Cloud he...he."

"You're trembling." Selene took her hands and led her over to a chair to be seated while Miriam closed the door where their younger sisters were having lessons. She knelt before her taking both hands in hers. "Now, tell us what happened."

"He..."

"What's this in your hand?" Taitiann asked.

Astrid opened her fist. "Mr. St. Cloud, he gave me money. I was going to Mr. Wallis to get frozen treats for all of you it was supposed to be a surprise."

"And?" Miriam said. "What happened on the way to Mr. Wallis, Tell me!"

"Miriam, please." Selene said.

"I was going to come straight back." Astrid wept. "But Mr. Addams stopped me on the way. I was so afraid." She heaved in sobs and Miriam needed no more explanation.

"There, there," she said touching her sister's hair. "It's not your fault so you need not be ashamed. Are you very hurt?"

Astrid shook her head as Selene gave her a tissue to dab her eyes. "I ran as fast as I could. I've never been so afraid..."

Miriam paced in anger. "Nothing has changed." she said and Selene looked back at her. "They preach we are the same, but here comes old Jim Crow. They claim to be our friends and to fight for our rights in their little fancy meetings but nothing has changed. A colored man can't sit next to a white woman on a train but we colored women are open season."

"Don't say that," Selene said. "There are plenty of white folk who are our friends, Papa would quickly say so. There's Mr. and Mrs. Calico and Mr. and Mrs. Siegfried and Mr. and Mrs. St. Cloud and Jethro."

"Old friends," Miriam said. "People who have known us since we were less than a knee high. They are different. And that Jessop St. Cloud he knew what an enemy we've all made of the Addams he shouldn't have sent you off that way alone."

"Now is not time to throw blame," Selene said.

"Are you really going to defend him?" Miriam fired.

"I'm not...I just..." Selene sighed. "What will we do?"

"We will leave. And this time I mean it." Miriam concluded. "We've saved enough money to start out on our own. We'll find us a place closer to home and wait for Mama and Papa to be released. No one must tell the St. Clouds just yet." She went back over to Astrid and put her hand on her shoulder. "We'll pack everything tonight and leave as soon as we can." She walked back over to the counter to prepare for the afternoon customers.

Selene watched her sister, fearing she would slip back into her cold self.