Angels Watching Over Me (Shenandoah Sisters Book #1)

A
NGELS
W
ATCHING
O
VER
M
E

Books by Michael Phillips

Is Jesus Coming Back As Soon As We Think?
Destiny Junction
•
Kings Crossroads
Make Me Like Jesus
•
God, A Good Father
Jesus, An Obedient Son
Best Friends for Life
(with Judy Phillips)
George MacDonald, Scotland’s Beloved Storyteller
A Rift in Time
•
Hidden in Time
Your Life in Christ
(George MacDonald)
The Truth in Jesus
(George MacDonald)

A
MERICAN
D
REAMS

Dream of Freedom • Dream of Life • Dream of Love

T
HE
S
ECRET OF THE
R
OSE

The Eleventh Hour
•
A Rose Remembered
Escape to Freedom
•
Dawn of Liberty

S
HENANDOAH
S
ISTERS

Angels Watching Over Me
A Day to Pick Your Own Cotton
The Color of Your Skin Ain’t the Color of Your Heart
Together Is All We Need

C
AROLINA
C
OUSINS

A Perilous Proposal • The Soldier's Lady
Never Too Late
•
Miss Katie's Rosewood

A
NGELS
W
ATCHING
O
VER
M
E

M
ICHAEL
P
HILLIPS

Angels Watching Over Me
Copyright © 2003
Michael Phillips

Cover photo of girls by David Bailey
Cover photo of plantation by Paul Taylor, IndexStock
Cover design by The DesignWorks Group, Kirk DouPonce

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the prior written
permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

Uncle Remus stories are the creation of Joel Chandler Harris (1848–1908).

Published by Bethany House Publishers
11400 Hampshire Avenue South
Bloomington, Minnesota 55438

Bethany House Publishers is a division of
Baker Publishing Group, Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Printed in the United States of America

ISBN 978-0-7642-2700-4

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Phillips, Michael R., 1946–
Angels watching over me / by Michael Phillips.
p. cm. — (Shenandoah sisters ; 1)
ISBN 0-7642-2705-X — ISBN 0-7642-2700-9 (pbk.)
1. North Carolina—History—Civil War, 1861–1865—Fiction. 2. Female
friendship—Fiction. 3. Plantation life—Fiction. 4. Fugitive slaves—Fiction.
5. Race relations—Fiction. 6. Teenage girls—Fiction. 7. Orphans—Fiction.
I. Title. II. Series: Phillips, Michael R., 1946– . Shenandoah sisters ; v 1.

PS3566.H492    A85    2003
813'.54—dc21

2002015797

MICHAEL PHILLIPS is one of the premier fiction authors publishing in the CBA marketplace. He has authored more than fifty books, with total sales exceeding six million copies. He is also well-known as the editor of the popular George MacDonald Classics series. Michael and his wife, Judy, have three grown sons and make their home in Eureka, California.

Contents

Remembering

1. W
INDS OF
C
HANGE

2. S
PECIAL
P
LACE

3. A V
ISIT TO
T
OWN

4. P
UZZLING
W
ORDS

5. W
AR
C
OMES

6. T
WISTER

7. A V
ISITOR

8. D
ESERTION

9. H
OMECOMING

10. T
RAGEDY

11. M
AYME

12. M
ASSACRE

13. A
WAY

14. F
IRST
D
AY

15. W
HAT
N
OW?

16. M
OVIN’
O
N

17. R
OUTINE AND A
N
EW
B
ED

18. N
EIGHBORLY
C
ALL

19. I
NVESTIGATION

20. S
PECIAL
D
AY

21. B
OOKS
, D
OLLS, AND
B
EDTIME
S
TORIES

22. W
ORKING AND
L
EARNING
T
OGETHER

23. K
ATIE’S
P
OEMS

24. M
RS
. H
AMMOND

25. T
HE
S
ECRETARY
A
GAIN

26. T
HE
G
OOD
B
OOK

27. R
ETURN

28. A L
OT OF
G
ROWING
U
P
TO
D
O

29. M
ESSAGE IN THE
B
IBLE

30. S
ERIOUS
T
ALK

31. K
ATIE’S
S
PECIAL
P
LACE

32. Q
UESTIONS

33. U
NEXPECTED
V
ISITORS

34. T
AKING ON THE
M
OTLEY
S
TRANGERS

35. I M
AKE A
D
ECISION

36. G
OOD-BYE TO
R
OSEWOOD

37. N
EW
E
MERGENCY

38. A
NOTHER
M
EETING

39. T
HREE
G
IRLS
D
OING
W
HAT
W
OMEN
D
O

40. A D
IFFERENCE

41. T
HE
A
RGUMENT

42. L
EAVING
A
GAIN

43. T
HE
D
ARING
S
CHEME

44. J
UST
M
E AND
G
OD

45. M
AKING
P
LANS

Epilogue

Katie and I’d been born in the same county only a year apart,
but it might as well have been in different centuries
on opposite sides of the world. . . .

Remembering . . .

I
’VE BEEN MAKING UP STORIES SINCE BEFORE I can remember.

As near as I can recollect, it started so as to keep my little brother from crying. If I could just get his attention for a minute or two on something besides the hunger in his stomach or wishing our mama was back in from the fields, he’d shush up and start paying attention. Then I’d have to think up something else mighty quick.

And something after that . . . and I’d string it all together with interesting expressions and in different voices so he’d keep looking at me with those big, wide eyes of his and keep listening and not take to crying again.

Before I knew it, I was spinning out tales that’d keep him quiet for hours. I had no idea what was going to come next but just made it up as I went along. Then the next day when he’d need more stories, I would string along some more where I’d left off.

Sometimes I’d look up, and there’d be our mama, finally home again and listening too, with a kind of peculiar look on her face to hear what I was telling the young’un, our little Samuel.

‘‘Where’d you hear dat story from, chil’?’’ she asked me once.

I said I didn’t hear it from anyplace. I’d just made it up.

‘‘What ’bout all them little sayin’s you add now an’ then?’’

I shrugged. I hadn’t really thought on it.

‘‘Where’d you learn dose?’’ she pressed.

‘‘No place, Mama,’’ I said.

‘‘But yo’re too young ter know sech things.’’

‘‘I can’t help it, Mama. They just come out when I’m tellin’ the story.’’

Then she said something I never forgot, and it’s helped me keep my head up through some hard times, and I’ve had a heap of them.

‘‘Well, chil’,’’ she said, ‘‘dis here’s a hard life we lead. We neber know what’s gwine happen ter any of us from day ter day. You ain’t da most fetchin’-lookin’ young’un I eber seen. But you got some unordinary smarts in dat brain of yors. So I reckon you’ll get along all right fine in dis ole worl’, whateber becomes of you.’’