by Lori Benton
“The Watauga,” she said, liking the feel of the name on her lips.
“I’d be glad to have you by my side in any case,” Jeremiah said, nodding respectfully to her uncle. “Wherever we decide to settle. But no sense in rushing into anything,” he added, his arm coming around Clare’s shoulders. “We’ve a roof and a fire, so we’ll seek the Lord on the matter, see how He leads.”
“Besides which, we’ve a wedding to arrange,” Clare reminded them. “First things first.”
“Sounds like a fine plan,” Alphus Litchfield said, nodding his approval.
Clare knew a peace in that moment, a contentment laced with the excitement of knowing life as Clare Ring—or Clare Ringbloom, whatever they ended up calling themselves—was going to be an adventure. Not an unguided one. Jeremiah would lead her with wisdom to match any danger life threw their way, would keep his word to her because he would never give it unless he was sure of it, and wouldn’t drag her heedlessly down a path of reckless dreams.
From the shelter of his encircling arm, Clare gazed over the farm, thinking that while she’d known a fleeting happiness there, she liked the idea of someplace new to them both.
The idea of the Watauga was growing on her.
“And to think, Uncle,” she said, “had you not chanced upon that conversation with Sevier and the others in camp that evening, we likely wouldn’t be standing here contemplating heading overmountain into Carolina.”
“Oh, I doubt very much it was chance,” Alphus Litchfield said, gazing at the two of them. “Just the Almighty working things out, step by step.”
The farmhouse door opened, and Jacob bolted outside, raced across the yard, and threw himself into the snow, where he proceeded to thrash about, making a snow angel. Abigail came to the threshold, Pippa on her hip, started to call him back, then shook her head and looked toward Clare, as if to judge whether she was displeased.
Clare couldn’t stop smiling.
“We don’t always get to glimpse His plan,” Jeremiah said. “How He’s working all the while, before and behind and beside us. Not in this life anyway.”
“True.” Clare watched her little boy playing in the snow, his laughter music on the cold air, while in the doorway Abigail, holding Pippa, returned her smile. “And yet sometimes we do.”
READERS GUIDE
1. Clare Inglesby struggles with trust. Her disappointing marriage, Philip’s death, Jacob’s abduction, and the subsequent culture shock she experiences among the Shawnees create many layers of distrust around her heart. The peeling away of those layers is a process that spans this story. What are some of the key turning points on this journey for Clare?
2. Jeremiah Ring still finds it difficult to wait on God’s timing when outside pressures tempt him to make hasty decisions. Why do you think this is? Is there something fundamentally impatient in human nature? Is there an area in your life where you experience this temptation?
3. The struggle over land between settlers and natives is a long one. Before you read this story, did you know about Dunmore’s War and the struggle of the Shawnees to preserve their land? Did anything surprise you? What was the most interesting thing you learned about this pre–Revolutionary War period?
4. Two sides of a frontier collide in the pages of Many Sparrows. While the history of Dunmore’s War, the Yellow Creek Massacre, and the violence that happened along the Ohio River during this era cannot be rewritten, as a writer I’m drawn to pen stories of men and women who face the perils of that cultural collision and overcome evil with good. Cite some examples of characters who do that in this story. Are there examples of characters who repay evil for evil instead?
5. There are two tragic figures in this story, one real (Logan) and one fictional (Philip Inglesby). Each man’s fateful decisions set the story in motion. Could you understand the choices of either of these characters? Could you sympathize with them? If not, what was your reaction to the life-altering consequences of their actions?
6. Indian captives on the eighteenth-century frontier met different fates depending on a wide set of factors. Some, like Jeremiah, chose to be adopted. What about those who didn’t choose that life? Should they have been returned to their birth families, as the Shawnees were forced to do at the treaty signing with Lord Dunmore? What sort of challenges do you imagine such a person would face, readapting to white culture? Do you agree with Clare that Wildcat, with neither family to return to nor memory of another life, would be best left with his Shawnee father?
7. A little more seasoned in life than Clare, Jeremiah Ring has suffered his own painful past, which has left its scars. Did you understand his decision to remain with the Shawnees? What did he need to overcome in order to open his heart to loving a woman again?
8. When her every effort to reclaim Jacob fails, Clare is forced to remove her hands from the situation and allow God to fix it for her, and to accept it if He never does. How might this story have played out if she had reached that place of surrender sooner?
9. Rain Crow tries to fix what is broken in her life by her own wisdom and the traditions of her Shawnee people. Did you have sympathy for Rain Crow in her desire to keep Many Sparrows for herself? Did your feelings about her change over the course of the story? If you were Clare, would you have allowed Rain Crow to stay at the farm? Why or why not?
AUTHOR’S NOTES AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
World-building is a term used mostly by those writing in the fantasy genre, but world-building is essentially what I’m doing with my historical novels. Book by book, I’m weaving a broad eighteenth-century world in which a character from one story could (and probably will) wander into another. Many Sparrows is no exception.
Readers of my earlier novels may have recognized two of the characters living in Cornstalk’s Town. I’ve introduced readers to Wolf-Alone and Wildcat before, under different names—Cade and Jesse Bird. For readers new to my books with Many Sparrows, if you’re curious about these two characters and their mysterious past before they each became Shawnee, as well as what happens next in their story (which is far from over in these pages), you’ll want to read The Pursuit of Tamsen Littlejohn next.
Clare Inglesby and Jeremiah Ring’s story is woven around the events that took place along the Ohio River in that pre-Revolutionary War year of 1774. The massacre of Logan’s family at Baker’s trading post, near the mouth of Yellow Creek, really happened. In autumn of 2016 I spent a night in the hotel that now occupies the land where Baker’s cabin and trading post once stood. I lay awake that night thinking about the massacre that happened there—the inciting incident from which the events of this story flow—before exploring next morning up the banks of Yellow Creek, and knew there was one question my story wouldn’t answer: who actually killed Logan’s family and the warriors who crossed the river to Baker’s that fateful morning of April 30, 1774? Frontiersman Michael Cresap was initially blamed due to his reputation and previous threats of violence against the Mingos, but Cresap was innocent of these murders, as later came to light. The true culprit, leader of a gang of Long Knives who lured in and murdered these men and women—including Logan’s sister and her unborn child—was a man named Daniel Greathouse.
After the letter of lament Logan writes at the end of this story (historians debate whether it is his own words, but I chose to let him speak them), little more is known about his life. He went on to fight with the British against the Americans during the Revolutionary War, hoping to drive the latter from his people’s lands, and died before the war’s ending.
Dunmore’s War, culminating in the Battle of Point Pleasant between the Ohio and Kanawha Rivers, is also drawn from the pages of history. My go-to resource for this campaign, the battle, and the situation along the Ohio River that led to it, was the Osprey book by John F. Winkler, Point Pleasant 1774, Prelude to the American Revolution. Another good resource was Dunmore’s New World, The Extraordinary Life of a Royal Governor in Revolutionary America by James Corbett David.
This book tu
rned out to have a lot to do with babies and young children, with which I have little firsthand experience. So I asked questions. Thank you for answering them, Dr. Amarilis Iscold and Jennifer Major, both early readers of the manuscript with an eye toward childbirth, postpartum, and infant care details. You both added much to those scenes. Thanks also to new mommas Brittany Etheridge (for answering questions) and Jamie Boothby (for providing the real-life model for Pippa). Much of Jacob Inglesby’s dialogue came straight from the mouth of my husband’s namesake, Benaiah Brian Lucero, during a memorable hour in the car. Let me tell you something, buddy. God’s got good plans for you.
My thanks to Joan Shoup (author J. M. Hochstetler, The American Patriot series) for her hospitality and being a most excellent companion for our mutual research trip across four states—Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. We took back roads whenever possible and saw the shape of the land. We met some interesting folk (from a cider-brewing Amish woman and a couple of small-town Ohio historians—all fans of historical fiction—to a descendant of the Shawnee Chief Cornstalk, who took time to tell us about him, her people, and their history). Along the way we talked story and characters like crazy. Let’s do it again sometime, my friend!
As always, so much appreciation goes to the team at WaterBrook for your hard work and the clarity and depth you each add to my stories. For that and much more, thank you!
Wendy Lawton, I wouldn’t want to do this without you. I’m thankful you looked past an overblown word count years ago and saw potential there. And for everything you’ve done since, most especially your encouragement and prayers…mwah!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
LORI BENTON was raised east of the Appalachian Mountains, surrounded by early American history going back three hundred years. Her novels transport readers to the eighteenth century, where she brings to life the colonial and early federal periods of American history. These include Burning Sky, recipient of three Christy Awards, and The Pursuit of Tamsen Littlejohn. When Lori isn’t writing, reading, or researching, she enjoys exploring the Oregon wilderness with her husband.