I shrugged. "I couldn't sleep, so I got up to look out the window. The white curtains at one of the upstairs windows moved. I figured somebody was looking out, so I waved. They didn't wave back, though." "That's because there was no one there," my aunt said. "Nobody goes into my herb room at night." "But I'm certain-" I started. Aunt Laura wasn't listening. In 1859, Gilly's father goes in search of gold and doesn't come back. Eleven-year-old Gilly is sent to her uncle and aunt's tobacco farm in Virginia, but cannot reconcile their use of slaves with her father's teaching that slavery is wrong. Rumours abound about an Underground Railroad and the mysterious Spirit who helps slave to escape, but only when Rissy, a black slave girl, is sold to her uncle's cruel neighbour, does Gilly start to understand what is really going on. A sassy, opinionated and irrepressible new heroine, Gilly's confidence may prove to be her greatest liability.

 

This book is part of a book series called Flyways .

There are 208 pages in this book. This book was published 2003 by Floris Books .

Maurine F. Dahlberg is the author of Play to the Angel and has been nominated for a Mark Twain Award. She lives in Springfield, Virginia.