Macy Walker is a year young than I am. She’s barely 13 in Thick as Thieves and has grown up for the past five years in the company of her less-than-sterling brothers. She was born in 1869, four years after the War Between the States ended, near Fayetteville, Arkansas. Her mother left her and her three older brothers soon after Macy’s birth to run off with a traveling gambling man.
Macy’s father died two years later, and the children (Macy 3, Jase 13, Rudy 11, and Ty, 15) went to live with his sister Hester. She was delighted to raise Macy, but the boys, especially Rudy, who was a holy terror, were a different story. The boys pretty much did as they pleased.
Bonus! Read 3 unpublished scenes from Macy’s point of view >>
Five years later, Ty was grown up and took off. It wasn’t enough that he took his brothers along, but he snatched eight-year-old old Macy too. She didn’t want to leave her aunt, but Ty insisted, and the family set off for the West.
From then on, Macy’s life took a turn for the worse. Bewildered and missing her aunt and uncle, she became sullen and ornery. She hoped Ty would send her back. But he didn’t. Instead, Macy got the back of his hand or his belt when she smarted off. Instead of breaking her, the rough treatment only made Macy ornerier. She stubbornly did the opposite of what her older brothers told her. This included getting an education. She refused to learn anything at any of the numerous schools Ty forced her to attend. Instead, she ended up being a disruption, even beating up some of the older boys in the classroom. She didn’t bother to keep herself clean, which resulted in being scorned by the town children.
But thanks to my (very hard!) willingness to humble myself and become Macy’s friend, the girl did a major turnaround. She looked real pretty (and older than her twelve years) after a bubble bath. She thawed out, and I discovered she loves horses about as much as I do. She fell in love with Taffy’s colts Sunny and Shasta. Macy went on to save my life and the lives of my colts.
Now, we are fast friends. I had hoped Macy would want to stay on. Justin and Mother were willing and eager to adopt Macy legally, but she was pining away for Fayetteville and Aunt Hester. Macy’s aunt welcomed her long-lost niece back and Macy went home to Arkansas with a light in her eyes and a cream-colored colt, Sunny, by her side. Macy’s brothers went to prison for cattle rustling, kidnapping, and attempted murder.
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