When Jenna Connolly is orphaned in eighteenth century London, she faces two problems: first, she must find a way to stay out of the workhouse and off the streets; second, she must find a way to shake the disturbing visions she’s been having ever since her father’s death. Jenna doesn’t want to hear what animals are thinking. She doesn’t want to know what diseases lurk inside complete strangers. Jenna solves her first problem by disguising herself as a boy and calling herself “Jem.” This lands her a home with a doctor and a job with an apothecary. She even gets to take lessons from the American scientist, Ben Franklin. But Jem’s visions get scarier and harder to control, especially when she learns that a stranger with a patch over his eye has hired spies to find her. Who does Patch work for? Why does he want Jem? Why can’t Jem shake her strange visions—and why did she start having them in the first place?
Part of CHAPTER 1--JUNE 1757
AN EXPLOSION MAKES ME HALF AN ORPHAN
I saw a ghost the day my father died in the mine,
but it wasn’t his; it was my mother’s, only she wasn’t dead.
The day it happened, she was watching for Da out of the window as she always did. He was so late back that the afternoon sun already had lit the world orange. Suddenly, a thunderous boom made the windowpane rattle.
Mum whirled from the window, threw on her cloak, snatched up my baby brother and cried, “Come, Jenna—quickly now.” We ran outside, and found the whole village of Lamesley on the road, all jostling and talking and shouting and running toward the billowing black smoke.
We’d heard of coal mines going up in other places, but it hadn’t happened in County Durham in a long time. We got as close as we dared. We milled like animals at auction, all of us with thumping hearts. Smoke poured up like the genie in Mum’s storybook. I smelled burning straw, too, and that meant the stables down the pit had caught fire, and the ponies had no way out but up the shaft.
A bucket chain started. Men sluiced water down the opening.
“Which crew was down?” asked a voice, and Mum’s head swiveled to hear the answer.
“Day crew,” said someone else, “hadn’t come up yet,” and Mum turned back to face the mine. Da was down there. My friend Rose was, too.
That’s when I saw…what I saw: a queer shivering of the air around my mother, like something leaking out of her. I’d never seen anyone do that before. The shimmer was separate from my mother but it was her, too, like an egg yolk separated from the white. I couldn’t take my eyes off it.
The shimmery part slid away from me and Mum toward the mine shaft. Part of me wanted to follow it like you follow an animal into the woods to see how it goes, but the other part of me wondered why a spirit would leak out of my mother unless it was hers, and if it was, why it was walking about on its own. The body and spirit are supposed to stay together until you die.
I squeezed her hand, hard. “Mum!” and just like sparks up a chimney, the shimmer flittered away and Mum was…there again, looking at me out of her blue eyes. “Where did you go?”
“What are you talking about, Jenna Connolly? I’ve been standing here with you this whole while.”
“Yes, but— Just now, did you see Da down the shaft?”
“How could I see him?” Her voice wobbled. “He’s down in the dark, behind some rocks.”
“He’s all right, then?”
She closed her eyes. “I think so. I hope so. It seems like I feel—” She shuddered. “Jenna, stop talking. We should be praying.”
Da was alive, I knew it! I doubted Mum’s shimmer could move rocks, and I didn’t know how to be a split egg so I could help, and then there was James, who couldn’t even walk yet, let alone understand if we said, “Be an egg now, there’s a good boy.” I didn’t want her spirit to go down the pit, for what if it couldn’t come back out again? So I held tight to her hand as the last rays of sun lit the topmost leaves of forest on the other side of the valley. Past them, I could just see the towers at Ravensworth Castle. I wondered if Sir Henry had heard the boom in his coal mine.
The leaves changed from greeny gold to gray as soon as the sun ducked behind the hill. The sky blued into twilight, and people fetched lanterns. Finally, when the smoke died to a trickle, the foreman asked for volunteers to go underground and see how bad it was. I couldn’t bear the waiting another minute.
“I’ll go!” I said. I ran between skirts and legs to get to the front of the crowd.
“Jenna, wait!” Mum called. But I didn’t stop because if anybody could find the missing people, it was me. I always could feel where my Da was, just like I always felt my heart beating. I could find him even if it was pitch black, even if there were rocks in the way.
Copyright 2014 All Rights Reserved
The day it happened, she was watching for Da out of the window as she always did. He was so late back that the afternoon sun already had lit the world orange. Suddenly, a thunderous boom made the windowpane rattle.
Mum whirled from the window, threw on her cloak, snatched up my baby brother and cried, “Come, Jenna—quickly now.” We ran outside, and found the whole village of Lamesley on the road, all jostling and talking and shouting and running toward the billowing black smoke.
We’d heard of coal mines going up in other places, but it hadn’t happened in County Durham in a long time. We got as close as we dared. We milled like animals at auction, all of us with thumping hearts. Smoke poured up like the genie in Mum’s storybook. I smelled burning straw, too, and that meant the stables down the pit had caught fire, and the ponies had no way out but up the shaft.
A bucket chain started. Men sluiced water down the opening.
“Which crew was down?” asked a voice, and Mum’s head swiveled to hear the answer.
“Day crew,” said someone else, “hadn’t come up yet,” and Mum turned back to face the mine. Da was down there. My friend Rose was, too.
That’s when I saw…what I saw: a queer shivering of the air around my mother, like something leaking out of her. I’d never seen anyone do that before. The shimmer was separate from my mother but it was her, too, like an egg yolk separated from the white. I couldn’t take my eyes off it.
The shimmery part slid away from me and Mum toward the mine shaft. Part of me wanted to follow it like you follow an animal into the woods to see how it goes, but the other part of me wondered why a spirit would leak out of my mother unless it was hers, and if it was, why it was walking about on its own. The body and spirit are supposed to stay together until you die.
I squeezed her hand, hard. “Mum!” and just like sparks up a chimney, the shimmer flittered away and Mum was…there again, looking at me out of her blue eyes. “Where did you go?”
“What are you talking about, Jenna Connolly? I’ve been standing here with you this whole while.”
“Yes, but— Just now, did you see Da down the shaft?”
“How could I see him?” Her voice wobbled. “He’s down in the dark, behind some rocks.”
“He’s all right, then?”
She closed her eyes. “I think so. I hope so. It seems like I feel—” She shuddered. “Jenna, stop talking. We should be praying.”
Da was alive, I knew it! I doubted Mum’s shimmer could move rocks, and I didn’t know how to be a split egg so I could help, and then there was James, who couldn’t even walk yet, let alone understand if we said, “Be an egg now, there’s a good boy.” I didn’t want her spirit to go down the pit, for what if it couldn’t come back out again? So I held tight to her hand as the last rays of sun lit the topmost leaves of forest on the other side of the valley. Past them, I could just see the towers at Ravensworth Castle. I wondered if Sir Henry had heard the boom in his coal mine.
The leaves changed from greeny gold to gray as soon as the sun ducked behind the hill. The sky blued into twilight, and people fetched lanterns. Finally, when the smoke died to a trickle, the foreman asked for volunteers to go underground and see how bad it was. I couldn’t bear the waiting another minute.
“I’ll go!” I said. I ran between skirts and legs to get to the front of the crowd.
“Jenna, wait!” Mum called. But I didn’t stop because if anybody could find the missing people, it was me. I always could feel where my Da was, just like I always felt my heart beating. I could find him even if it was pitch black, even if there were rocks in the way.
Copyright 2014 All Rights Reserved
