CHAPTER 1

Amber-Jade LeBlanc was born Eula Bell Scruggs on a small dirt farm about thirty miles north of St. Joseph in the panhandle of the Florida Territory. In 1836, on her sixteenth birthday, she stuffed her few belongings in a croker sack, dug up her money jar from beneath the stump of a red maple tree, and headed south, abandoning both her name and her life on the farm to search for a style of living she was certain she would find more desirable.

She waited until after dark to leave, but as she shuffled through the woods, she realized she needn’t have waited—no one would follow her and try to bring her back home. Her absence would mean there were only nine mouths to feed instead of ten on the skimpy money Ma made at the Duck-In Café where she cooked for travelers going between coastal St. Joseph and Jackson County, up near the southwestern border of Georgia.

The only person who would miss Eula Bell was Daisy, her fourteen-year-old sister. Daisy would have to pick up the slack with the cooking, and the washing, and minding the younger kids, but at least she would have the narrow cot all to herself at night.

After listening to a cowhunter’s tales about all the rich cotton farmers and cattle ranchers in Jackson county, Eula Bell almost decided to head north. But when that same dream-spinner began to talk about the folks of Jackson County, and how they were mostly family people who spent their time going to church meetings, Eula Bell figured a rollicking town like St. Joseph had much more to offer a girl of her exceptional talents.

She was not exactly certain how to get there, but the exciting tales she kept hearing about that place convinced her that St. Joseph was where a golden future awaited her. By traveling south, she knew she would eventually hit the coast, and from there she would find someone to direct her to St. Joseph—or maybe even take her there.

Eula Bell wasn’t sure just how far she had walked, but her head began to ache, her legs grew tired, and she shivered from the cold night air. She dropped her croker sack on the ground, brushed a clear spot beneath a live oak tree, and piled enough sticks and branches to make a small fire. The cold December night made her thin clothes seem mighty poor. A fire would help a lot.

She pulled out the packet of phosphorus matches she had wheedled from Jimmy Joe behind the woodshed last week. A girl could get most anything she wanted from a boy if she was smart enough, and Eula Bell was plenty smart!

The flames from an established fire soon bathed her face with warm currents of air. Stretching her thin body on the cold ground, she laid her head on her sack. Even this, she thought, was better than lying cramped up against Daisy on the cot, smelling the wet flour-sack diapers that always stunk up the air in the one-room shack she had called home for sixteen years.

She breathed in the fresh air and listened to the night sounds—crickets and frogs and unidentified creatures that scuttled through the leaves. There would be no bears out at this time of the year, and nothing would bother her as long as she kept her fire alive.

She was just beginning to doze, dreaming of the exciting new life waiting for her in St. Joseph, when she was jerked to attention by the sound of dried leaves crackling in the darkness. Was it an animal? A panther, perhaps? She had no weapon except the fire. She selected a limb to ignite as a torch, but before she had time to push it into the flames, she realized the sounds were not made by a wild animal at all! The approaching steps were decidedly human! Visions of Indians flashed through her mind.

“Eula Bell?”

“Pa?” She recognized his voice at once. She had been wrong—they did want her back! They did care! Although she was determined to carry out her plans no matter how much they objected, her heart felt an unexpected surge of warmth. They cared!

But she was adamant. “I ain’t goin’ back, Pa. I done made up my mind.”

 Her father stepped into the clearing, and she was surprised to see that, for a change, he appeared to be sober. Noah Scruggs was a massive man, mean when he was drunk but gentle as a baby when he was sober.

Eula Bell sprang to her feet and faced him. “I mean it, Pa. I ain’t goin’ back!”

“Ain’t nobody asked you to, as I kin see.” Noah dropped down on his haunches and warmed his hands over her fire.

Eula Bell eyed him suspiciously. “Then why’d you come here fer?”

Noah waited a long time before answering her. Finally, he twisted his face from the fire to look at her. She was by far the prettiest of his eight children, and the smartest, too. Her brassy, gold curls glistened in the firelight and her green eyes hinted of the Irish heritage of her distant past. He suspected that she did something to give her hair that special color, but he had never asked. She was small, barely over five feet, he would guess, and slender, but she was strong in ways that did not show through her clear, fair skin. This girl of his would make her mark in life; of that he was certain. Finally, he spoke. “I aim to go with you, honey.”

Eula Bell was caught off guard by his term of endearment. He had never called her by such a name before. He must want something. “What about Ma and the kids? You just gonna walk off and leave ’em?”

“Well, you did, didn’t you?”

“That’s different, Pa, and you know it! You’re the head of the family.”

 Noah gave a derisive snort. “Eula Bell, we all know yor Ma is the one who runs the family. If it warn’t for the money she makes at the café, we’d ’a all starved a long time ago. I ain’t been able to raise a decent crop in the last five years. ’Bout the only thing I’ve been able to give your ma is a new baby every year. I figure they’ll be better off without me. But what about you? Who’s gonna see to all them younguns and cook the meals and all?”

“Daisy’s fourteen. That’s two years older than I was when I started. It’s time she took on some of the responsibilities.”

“Yeah, but does she know how?”

“If she don’t, she’ll learn quick enough. I did.” Eula Bell’s mind was in a whirl. If she allowed him to come with her, she could foresee that his bare strength could be a big advantage if he turned it in the right direction. But on the other hand, he had weaknesses she was not willing to tolerate. She might as well set things straight from the beginning.

“Pa, if you’re of a mind to come with me, then I reckon I ain’t gonna stop you. But you better listen up: this here is my plan, and my life, and I aim to have things run my way. If you don’t like ’em, then you can just move on.”

“That’s mighty sassy talk from one of my younguns. But go ahead and lay it out for me, and then I’ll decide.”

“First off, you can’t come home drunk.”

“What? Are you trying to say I can’t have no more beer nor whiskey?”

“I didn’t say that. If you can find enough odd jobs to buy it, I don’t care how much you drink. But I hope you’ll be sober enough to remember you can’t come to my place drunk—that is, if and when I get me a place. I ain’t puttin’ up with none of your meanness, and the first time you forget, you’re gone!”

“And who’s going to make me leave?”

 “Don’t you worry. I’ll get that figured out just as soon as I get settled in. I don’t plan on bein’ no hermit. And that’s another thing, Pa. You ain’t to interfere with my business. And if I bring a friend in from time to time, you just make yourself scarce.”

Noah held up his hands to signal defeat. “All right, girlie. For now, you get to call the shots.” He grinned at this new side of his eldest daughter—a side he had never seen before. “Anything else, ma’am?”

“Yes! Now, listen careful, Pa, ’cause I done worked this all out. From this minute on, my name ain’t Eula Bell Scruggs no more. It’s Amber-Jade LeBlanc. You got that?”

“Amba Jane Le-who?”

“Repeat after me: Amber—Jade—LeBlanc.” She accented each syllable slowly. “And you are Mister LeBlanc. Say it for me, Pa.”

“Amber-Jade LeBlanc,” he repeated dutifully and watched her nod her approval. “And I’m—aw, honey, can’t I keep Noah? Noah LeBlanc?”

Noting the pleading tone of his voice, Amber-Jade LeBlanc knew that she had won her battle and gained full control of their destiny, and she knew just how she planned to handle it.

* * * *

And so it was that almost two years later, Noah and Amber-Jade LeBlanc were established residents in a tiny log cabin in the woods that skirted St. Joseph.

True to his word, Noah confined his drinking brawls to the local taverns, financing them by occasional odd jobs and the few dollars Amber-Jade gave him from her well-hidden, growing money jar. And his three-hundred-pound size did prove helpful from time to time, whenever one of the local boys tried to make trouble for his daughter.

Otherwise, whenever Amber-Jade came in with a friend, Noah conveniently disappeared into the woods, sometimes spending the entire night crunched on the logs in their small woodshed.

Noah was terribly proud of Amber-Jade and the life she was carving for herself! He had always known this daughter of his would one day rise to success and make her mark in the world!