Sleep Softly. Gwen Hunter

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      Contents

      Acknowledgments

      Prologue

      Chapter 1

      Chapter 2

      Chapter 3

      Chapter 4

      Chapter 5

      Chapter 6

      Chapter 7

      Chapter 8

      Chapter 9

      Chapter 10

      Chapter 11

      Chapter 12

      Chapter 13

      Chapter 14

      Chapter 15

      Chapter 16

      Chapter 17

      Chapter 18

      Chapter 19

      Chapter 20

      Chapter 21

      Chapter 22

      Chapter 23

      Chapter 24

      Chapter 25

      Chapter 26

      Chapter 27

      Chapter 28

      Chapter 29

      Epilogue

      Acknowledgments

      FOR HELP ON MUSES:

      S. Joy Robinson, who did research and brought me wonderful books on the subject.

      And Misty Massey, who gave me the idea in the first place.

      FOR MEDICAL HELP:

      I have tried to make the medical sections of Sleep Softly as realistic as possible. Where mistakes may exist, they are mine, not the able, competent and creative medical workers in the list below.

      Susan Prater, O.R., Tech and sister-in-love, in South Carolina

      Earl Jenkins, Jr., M.D., in South Carolina

      James Maynard, M.D., in South Carolina

      Eric Lavondas, M.D., in North Carolina

      Randall Pruett, R.N., in South Carolina

      As always, for making this a stronger book:

      Miranda Stecyk, my editor, who had a massive editing job in this one! Kisses!

      Jeff Gerecke, my agent.

      Lynn Prater, esthetician and owner of Serenity Spa in Rock Hill, South Carolina, who gave me all the skin info (hope I got it right) and who keeps my skin glowing.

      My husband, for answers to questions that pop up, for catching so much in the rewrites and for his endless patience.

      My mother, Joyce Wright, for editing as I work.

      To the love of my life who

      Handles all the details

      Is never boring, though is often hard to keep up with Writes wonderful songs

      Didn’t laugh when I wanted to learn to whitewater kayak

      Fixes the trucks and the RV and anything that breaks in the house.

      Painted my dining room and didn’t balk at the dark garnet color

      Learned to dance just for me

      Rubs my feet when they hurt

      Works 16 hours a day because he loves it

      And who is a man of honor. There are so few in the world today.

      Prologue

      He spotted his landmark, a lightning-blasted tree, its bark peeled back to expose pale, dead wood, and turned left onto a little-used tertiary road. The pavement was pitted and cracked, and the old Volvo shuddered as the right front wheel slammed into a particularly deep pothole. The girl who hadn’t been his daughter shifted on the seat beside him, her head hitting the window with a thump and whipping toward him.

      He caught her one-handed and eased her back to the seat. Her earrings tinkled softly beneath the music on the CD player. Violins harmonized the heartbreaking melody of a Mozart sonata.

      Slowing, he pulled the black velvet throw over her again and patted her shoulder. She didn’t respond. He didn’t expect her to. She had been dead nearly an hour.

      There were no streetlights here, the road disappearing into the darkness. A doe stood on the verge of dead grass, watching the car. She was unafraid, her jaw moving as she grazed on the coarse vegetation. “Did you see that deer?” he asked the girl. “You like deer.” She said nothing. He patted her shoulder again.

      The old graveyard appeared just ahead, the damaged bronze horse beneath the Confederate soldier casting a bizarre shadow. The nose of the horse had broken off when vandals had thrown the statue to the ground in 1998. The cost of repairing the monument had been more than the local historical society had been able to acquire, and so the horse, while returned to its perch and secured to its base, remained a half-faced mount. He knew all this and much more; he’d done tedious, fatiguing research into the family tree and this graveyard. “Research is paramount, right, honey?”

      The girl was still silent. When he braked in the graveyard, she slid down the seat, her body curling limply on the floor. “Sorry, sweetheart. But we’re here now.”

      Leaving her in the car, the motor running, he took a flashlight and walked the perimeter of the graveyard from the monument clockwise, until he reached the horse again. The New York Philharmonic continued to play the Mozart piece as he paced an approximate ten feet to the family plot. Six generations of Shirleys were buried here, several with Confederate memorials on their headstones. Others were heroes of the First and Second World Wars. A husband and wife were buried side by side, though they had died two decades apart in the late 1800s. The husband, Caesar Olympus Shirley, the wife, Susan Chadwick Shirley. Five children had died and been buried within one week. Flu? Cholera? Strep? There had been no historical documentation.

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