Contents

One

For a time Alice remembered the good and forgot the…

Two

The paper Alice’s father hung around her neck read:

Three

Alice carried her workbasket to the cart, stepped wide of…

Four

Alice would have said she never slept if the sound…

Five

Verley returned from wherever he’d gone and came into Alice’s…

Six

Alice clutched her basket in the fingertips of her burned…

Seven

She knelt at the foot of the companionway, the last…

Eight

Alice woke with the first sense of light against her…

Nine

The door Alice passed through on her way to the…

Ten

Freeman rode off for Namskaket to oversee the loading of…

Eleven

Alice woke to the sight of dawn just touching up…

Twelve

Next morning the widow’s face looked something brighter, Freeman’s much…

Thirteen

Alice’s eavesdropping prevented any great surprise when the Sabbath came…

Fourteen

At first it seemed some trick of time only; she…

Fifteen

The pattern of Alice’s life grew fixed; the homespun cloth…

Sixteen

Alice spun, and snuck pieces of bread to calm her…

Seventeen

After Alice had collected three more payments from Sears and…

Eighteen

As hard as Freeman tried to turn them back to…

Nineteen

In October, while out in the orchard helping the widow…

Twenty

The days darkened, and Alice saw the threat of winter…

Twenty-One

Alice watched with new eyes, listened with new ears, and…

Twenty-Two

The cold struck at Candlemas and didn’t lift. Through the…

Twenty-Three

Alice marked time by the increase in her strength, the…

Twenty-Four

Alice came to know her box well. A man named…

Twenty-Five

May came, and along with it a splash of pink…

Twenty-Six

The minute Alice entered the courtroom she felt the weight…

Twenty-Seven

The king’s attorney first brought the midwife Granny Hall to…

Twenty-Eight

They returned Alice to the gaol to eat her dinner,…

Twenty-Nine

As hard as she’d studied them, once the jury left…

Thirty

The next morning at breakfast Freeman announced that he would…

Thirty-One

The next day Alice understood what the widow had meant…

Thirty-Two

Finally, Nate came. When Freeman asked if he were prepared…

Thirty-Three

Boston rose up ahead of them with the late-summer sun,…

Thirty-Four

The Negro girl served the widow and Freeman a good…

Thirty-Five

Alice woke on the morning of her second trial thinking…

Thirty-Six

By the time they exited the courthouse the late-day shadows…

Thirty-Seven

The waterfront came awake as they walked, shutters creaking wide,…

Thirty-Eight

Mr. Rufus Dolbeare and his brother Joseph blew into the…