It had already been a week since Lesley found herself caught in the raging thunderstorm, and she was paying for it dearly. Staying in the house all day long was hard enough for the brown haired, freckled face adventurer; however, having to stay in bed all day with a terrible cold made it all the more trying for her mother, Victoria, who worked diligently to keep her child in bed. Well, even perhaps Audra, who shared in the responsibilities of fluffing pillows, reading stories, and fetching great big bowls of soup for her little sister. Lesley was in fact enjoying the extra attention and even her older brother, Nick, wasn't quite as angry with her anymore. He would come upstairs after supper each night and sneak a piece of Silas' famous apple pie into her room. Lesley was very good at keeping this their little secret even when a few minutes later Heath would visit her with another slice of pie. However, by the time Lesley's eldest brother, Jarrod, sneaked a piece of pie into her room, Victoria had received news from Silas in the kitchen that slices of his pie were disappearing. Somehow, her brothers didn't know that the others were treating the little stinker to pie. But to Lesley, the stomachaches were worth it.
The clock next to her bed kept ticking, nearly driving Lesley insane by the time day 8 had rolled around. She was now allowed to venture the upstairs, but could not go downstairs where her mother knew she could easily slip out the front door unnoticed. So, Lesley ruled the upstairs and whenever her brothers were around, she would march the upstairs balcony and demand that they pay money to come beyond the top step. Jarrod would actually humor the High Queenie as she became known to be and gave her some candy instead. This satisfied Lesley, though Victoria who stuck very close to her daughter when Jarrod was present, confiscated the candy and reminded Lesley that she was not a well girl yet. But Lesley didn't really mind, as she had already found a few other pieces of candy in Jarrod's coat pocket. As it was already stated, she "ruled the upstairs" and thus had access to bedrooms and possible goodies.
By day 9, Lesley was allowed to eat at the table; however, yet still on day 8, Lesley had found so many goodies that her stomach wasn't up to eating anything else. This now meant at least another few hours in bed with caster oil being served every hour on the hour. By the afternoon, she was feeling much better and was able to venture downstairs. Though Jarrod was in town at work and Nick and Heath were out fixing fences, Lesley figured she would be bored stiff. Audra was even visiting the local orphanage, so this left her mother and Silas to be her very own personal guard dogs, making sure she didn't venture out into the hot summer sun just yet. So, Lesley started off helping Silas in the kitchen. This was mainly due to her mother making out a "Stay Busy In the House Lesley" list. Silas was preparing a beautiful rump roast for supper that night and Lesley was in charge of cutting up the potatoes. In the process, she cut her little finger a little bit and wiped the blood on her dress. Silas sent her up to the bathroom to clean the wound, but the sound of company in the living room sidetracked the intrigued twelve-year-old from going up the front steps. She tip toed to the living room entrance and peeked around the large green curtain. There sat Lesley's school teacher, Mrs. Wilks, on the couch opposite Victoria, discussing the days that Lesley had missed in school. In other words, the teacher came bearing homework and poor Lesley wasn't about to stick around.
She turned to leave but Silas had somehow crept up behind her and Lesley backed right into him. It startled her so much that she jumped, accidentally into plain view of Mrs. Wilks in the living room. "Well, Lesley, I see you're well enough to continue your studies." What a fine howdy doody. Lesley thought to herself. Mrs. Wilks then stood to her feet, picked up a small pile of books on the coffee table before she walked over to Lesley, dumping the pile into Lesley's arms. After a brief conversation among them, Lesley remembered her cut and excused herself after showing the teacher the slowly dripping blood coming forth from her finger. Lesley smirked a little as her teacher's eyes widened and quite abruptly announced that she had better leave. As Victoria saw Mrs. Wilks to the door, Lesley looked up at Silas, who was staring down at her with one of his "Remember what you're supposed to do?" looks. Lesley grunted a little and took off up the stairs in a less than lady-like manner. The blood had pretty much stopped flowing so Lesley decided to first secretly hide the books under her bed, which was the last place anyone would think to find them. Upon spinning around to face the door, her eyes met her mother's. Victoria was short in stature, but when her arms were crossed and eyebrows raised, Lesley had it figured that her mother knew what she was up to. But her mother didn't just give her an order to retrieve the newly hidden books and catch up on her studying, she even came into the room and pulled out some other odds and ends from under the bed. Lesley's cheeks got a little red when her mother pulled out some of Audra's hair pieces that had been stuck together with used chewing gum and even the crust and plate from last night's piece of pie, along with a few other items her mother thought were worth taking interest in.
Evening finally arrived and the family was one by one coming home. Audra wanted to discuss with her mother about the new plans for the orphanage, which Lesley thought were quite boring. It wasn't as if she didn't like the kids there, but talking about what happened on the ranch today was far more interesting to her. Soon after Audra finished her exciting news, Heath and Nick arrived. Making his usual loud entrance, Nick couldn't help but boast about how he had worked much harder than Heath while Heath complained that his aching back was proof that he worked more. And once they stopped to take a break from arguing to catch their breath, Lesley jumped in with as many questions she could think of. How her horse Magic was, if the ranch looked any different, how the sun feels on your face—as she had forgotten this wonderful phenomona-and what they did all day, and you can probably imagine at least five hundred other questions the "Barkley Inquisitor" could come up with. Nick walked up to her, picked her up around the waist with one arm, while "packing" her off to toss her on the living room sofa. Her kicking and fist pounding just made Nick laugh and when he finally set her down, tickled her much that had given her a good kind of stomachache. While they exchanged more words, there was suddenly a loud banging on the front door. Heath got up from taking off his dirty boots, without first making a few groaning sounds, to answer the door. Audra was just starting to explain her plans for the orphanage to Nick when a messenger ran past Heath into the family room to announce Jarrod had been shot. Nothing could have prepared them for this moment.