For Mama Chiks, Sister Song, Freener, and Nosk from Bools

And also for Paul, even though it's a miracle

I got this book finished at all since he kept stealing my computer to play DOOM.

con-tu-ber-nal (noun). One who occu­pies the same tent; a tent-fellow, comrade.

The thought of Percy Prewitt as my contubernal causes me to break out in hives.

-From the personal dictionary of

Caroline Trent

Hampshire, England

July 3,1814

Caroline Trent hadn't meant to shoot Percival Prewitt, but she had, and now he was dead. Or at least she thought he was dead. There was certainly enough blood. It was dripping from the walls, it was splattered on the floor, and the bed­clothes were stained quite beyond redemption. Car oline didn't know very much about medicine, but she was fairly certain a body couldn't lose that much blood and still live.

She was in big trouble now.

"Damn," she muttered. Although she was a gen­tlewoman, she hadn't always been raised in particularly gentle circumstances, and her language occasionally left a bit to be desired.

"You stupid man," she said to the body on the floor. "Why did you have to lunge at me like that? Why couldn't you have left well enough alone? I told your father I wasn't going to marry you. I told him I wouldn't marry you if you were the last idiot in Britain."