Progress: 29,023 words, Four Chapters (All first or second draft)

I’ve just begun chapter 5, “Leaving the Farm.” I enjoy simple chapter titles, which match the style of writing I chose for this book. While it is not strictly a “just the facts” approach, I tried to refrain from long poetic descriptors and let the details of the world provide the foundation for the reader’s imagination.

I may backtrack and add posts for previous chapters, so I’ll give the briefest of lead-ins for the characters’ present situation. Nathaniel, a German Baptist farmer and father to Amity, his half Indian daughter, was confronted by our villain, Alden Cabot, in chapter 4.

A previous business arrangement between them went sour when Nathaniel pulled out of the deal at the last minute for moral concerns. Alden’s right hand man is injured and he needs someone to ensure that a shipment of his is delivered overseas. Feeling Nathaniel needs to make amends, he orders Nathaniel to travel with the shipment.

This is a predicament. Nathaniel does not want to work with Cabot in any way, but Cabot gave not so veiled threats to him and his daughter if he did not carry out the task. If he leaves, the trip will take around two months at sea, leaving Amity alone on the farm. Another German Baptist Brother, Joseph, was living on their farm as well, but recent events have made Nathaniel question his trust for the young man, a young man for which Amity may have romantic interests.

Readers don’t know what decision Nathaniel has made when we reach Chapter 5, and Nathaniel is visiting an old friend at her farm. Is he there to say good-bye? Is he going to ask someone else to go abroad on his behalf? Will he put his trust in Joseph?

Random excerpt:

Mary’s 7-year-old came up to her with meek tears. Her straight brown hair was her father’s but she, like all their girls, had her mother’s striking azure eyes. “Mama, I dropped the dough on the floor.”
“Well, is the floor clean?” Mary asked.
“Sister says it’s not, and that I ruined the bread,” she started to cry.
“Anna, you tell Sister that since her job was to sweep the floor that she made the bread dirty and now she has to make it again.”
Anna stopped crying and smiled. She ran back to her sister. “Hee, hee. Mama says you have to make the bread now!”
“Awwwwww.”

What do you think Nathaniel should do?

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