A Drowned Maiden's Hair_ A Melodrama - Laura Amy Schlitz [100]
Maud gulped, “Yes,” and burst into tears.
Her response brought about a small stampede. The two women surged forward to comfort her. Muffet got there first; her crutch clattered against the linoleum as she squeezed Maud in a bear hug and thumped her on the back. As soon as Muffet let go, Mrs. Lambert whisked her around, stroking her dirty hair and murmuring babyish endearments that Maud ought to have hated, but didn’t. Once Mrs. Lambert released her, Muffet reclaimed her, sweeping her up so that her toes left the floor. When Maud regained her footing, her face was shiny with tears and flushed with emotion.
“I want to,” she assured the two women. She wiped her eyes on the back of her wrists, sniffed twice, and drew herself erect. “Let’s go home.”
THE END
LAURA AMY SCHLITZ is a librarian at the Park School in Baltimore. She is the author of a biography for young people, The Hero Schliemann: The Dreamer Who Dug for Troy; a picture-book retelling, The Bearskinner: A Tale of the Brothers Grimm; and a book in verse, Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!: Voices from a Medieval Village. About the inspiration for the main character in A Drowned Maiden’s Hair, she says, “Maud first appeared to me when I was halfway between sleep and waking. From the first, she was alive to me — I saw her vividly — but I didn’t know how to begin her story until I remembered the outhouse of the Quaker meetinghouse I went to as a child. That outhouse was a terrible place — to be resorted to only in the direst emergency. Once I’d imprisoned Maud in the outhouse, her story began.” Laura Amy Schlitz lives in Maryland.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Prologue
Part One - The Secret Child
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Part Two - The Drowned Child
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Part Three - Full Circle
Chapter Twenty-Eight
About the Author