EPPINGTON: THE GUARDED SECRET, Tanya Taylor [books to read in a lifetime .txt] 📗

keeps him informed. As soon as we find out where they are, I’ll let you know, but you can’t just go barging in there. You need to have a plan.”

“I hear you.”

“Is there any way we can just grab our folks and get out of this town?” Rob asked. “You’d be able to drive us right out of here, won’t you?”

“There’s no driving out of here nor getting in, Powell,” Jeffreys replied. “Do explain, Hugo.”

Hugo rapidly blinked his eyelids a few times, then answered, “Mark’s right. An invisible barrier now exists between this town and the rest of the world. Cars are unable to find a road that leads into this town and vice-versa. Even planes, once they take off, will fly into nowhere and disappear. This town of Eppington has been hidden behind the barrier.”

“Holy cow!” Rob exclaimed before looking at Sam and me. “That means if we’d rowed across the lake to Crescent, we wouldn’t have gotten in…”

“Exactly,” Jeffreys replied. “It’s a really disturbing situation.”

Everyone was quiet and obviously in deep contemplation.

“Hugo and I have discussed this in great detail and we believe there may be a way to get us all out of this hot mess.” Jeffreys finally broke the silence. “For just the two of us, it would’ve been quite a hefty challenge, but with all of us, we stand a better chance.”

We were all ears as he explained what must be done.

~ END OF BOOK ONE ~

*** Get Part Two of this thrilling series today.

Will Hewey, Jeffreys, Hugo and the guys be able to rescue their loved ones and find their way out of this complicated and dangerous maze? Or will they have to adjust to a “new norm” that can never be remotely comfortable for any of them? ***

 

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PROLOGUE

It was a day and age much like today where every town, generation and household held firmly its secrets—torrid improprieties they would protect to the end of the world. Yet some secrets back then were far too shocking and disturbing to contain—ones entangled with emotions of such intensity that would shock the very life out of 'innocent', reserved folk.

The year was 1861. The town of Mizpah was on the verge of the abolition of slavery. White people with a conscience and black folk alike prayed and fought long and hard for the day when all human beings were considered equal in the eyes of the law.

Cornelius Ferguson, only the wealthiest planter in all of Mizpah, didn't support the views of the Abolitionist Movement in that territory, neither in any other for that matter. Negro labor was highly favorable for his pockets and he could not imagine conducting his plantation affairs by any other means.

June 12th of 1861 was the day his life would forever change. It was the day a colored girl by the name of Karlen Key walked through his door. She was beautiful, literate, well-spoken — a rare breed and long-awaited trade off from another planter across the river. Cornelius had been anticipating her arrival. Germina, a rotund, elderly house slave with a few long strands protruding from her chin, met Karlen at the door and showed her where to put her tattered bag. Cornelius stood thirty feet away in the great room facing the entrance way, highly pleased and mesmerized by the new addition to his household. Karlen's eyes met his for a brief moment before she quickly lowered her head, made a slight bow and greeted her master. The twenty-one-year-old had no idea that her arrival at the Ferguson Plantation would alter the course of her life and those around her in a most uncanny way.

1

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Summer of 1965

"Wade! Mira!" Sara Cullen called her kids from outside the kitchen door. "Time to come inside and get yourselves cleaned up for dinner!"

Fourteen-year-old, Wade and thirteen-year-old, Mira were in the road playing 'bat and ball' in front of their yard with Monique Constantakis and her cousin Philip. Mira had just swung the bat for her turn to run the bases.

"Let's go!" Wade shouted to his sister as she considered one last run before heading inside. "If you don't come now, I'm leaving you and you'll be in big trouble with Dad." On that, he took off up to the driveway of their home and Mira, with a tinge of disappointment, handed the bedraggled, semi-splintered bat to Monique who was standing behind her.

"See you later," Monique said, visibly disappointed that her new friend had to leave.

"Yeah," Mira said before heading up the driveway behind her brother who had disappeared into the house.

The table, as usual, had been beautifully set for dinner. Sara Cullen was a true perfectionist and wanted everything to be just right when her husband of fifteen years, Michael, stepped into the dining room for his meal. She worshipped the dirt the man walked on and kept herself in the finest physical shape she could possibly manage. She was five feet, ten inches tall, and remarkably thin. Her hair was long, black and curly, and her features narrow. Michael Cullen was not the most attractive man in the world, but he carried big, broad shoulders and a six-pack most men would die for. Furthermore, he collected a handsome paycheck at the end of each week, lived in a nice neighborhood, and sported a two-year-old red Jaguar. Nevertheless, Sara—Head Nurse at Freedom Hospital—could not be accused of being with him solely for his money or his executive status at the State-run Gaming Board. They had met fresh out of high school when all they had ahead of them were nothing more than dreams and