The Home Guard had been searching for her father for weeks, yet (despite his obvious enthusiasm) he'd searched no further than the nearby village and surrounding swamp. With a Lumbee wife and a daughter of mixed blood, society expected Earl Radcliffe to be hidden with the deserters of the Confederate Army.

However, what society expected and what Earl Radcliffe delivered were usually two entirely different things.

They could dredge the entire swamp, but they'd not find a trace of him.

Two months earlier - when the Radcliffe family had received news of Nova's uncle's untimely death and consequently of her father's inheritance - neither hell nor high water could keep Earl Radcliffe from clutching that wealth in his greedy hands. Waiting out the war was unthinkable... he longed to arrive in Little River and stake his claim on one of the well worn stools in the corner of the local tavern, to begin the overwhelming challenge of drinking himself into obliteration.

And so he'd left, in the middle of a moonless night, leaving his wife and daughter behind him.

Nova could still remember his breath, thick with the smell of the Moonshine, promising he'd send for them when it was safe to travel.

The two had waited. Days had passed, then weeks... which stretched into months.

They heard nothing.

Not knowing her father's whereabouts was something common to Nova, as Earl had spent long periods of time too drunk to find his way home. But her memory of him swaying drunkly on his horse's back, as he left, she couldn't believe that he would make it down the road without breaking his neck... let alone across the country!

They never would have known what had become of him if it wasn't for the two innocent horses which had been tied to the fence in front of their cottage.

Nova had seen them there, as she'd come in from the yard, and she'd felt her innards turn abruptly to lead. She wondered if she imagined it. Had her Father's disappearance become so well known that an opportunistic neighbor had taken that moment to strike?

She'd cleared the doubt from her mind with a quick shake of the head. Nova had struggled to think badly of people, as a child. Those were the days of blissful innocence; free from the cynical and bleak view that (with time) she'd become the proud owner of.

When she'd heard the heavy knock on the door, sometime later, she'd thought it to be the Home Guard, arriving back quickly in the hopes of catching Earl in from the swamp.

Swinging the door open, with an annoyed smile playing on her lips, she'd found a smartly dressed man waiting. His two beady eyes darted over her shoulder to her mother's frame.

Nova was overwhelmed by an ominous feeling. The sound of that indescribable emotion deafened her to the words being spat from her caller's mouth. Her gaze watching those chapped lips shaping accusatory words.

His intention was obvious. "No!" She'd cried. "We did no such thing!"

Her mother had rushed forward, catching Nova back from scratching at his smug and mottled face.

"And who'd believe two Indian women over me?"

No reply was necessary. They all knew that if an upstanding white gentleman had decided to place charges on Nova and Helaku then the entire County Law would come crashing down upon them.

This kind of corruption was the custom in the South. A quiet way for a rich entitled gentleman to acquire more property without having to spend a dime. It was a simple transaction. Livestock left - tied to the fence; an accusation of theft, followed by the threat of court; and then the well shod gentleman would leave with a nice parcel of uncultivated land to convert to pasture.

The women hadn't been in a position to give him anything. Helaku was determined that their land was to be left to her family, to cover the debts that her husband owed them. And as for money... They didn't have two dimes to rub together.

The beady eyed man had left. His eyes devoured the land surrounding the house. Nova imagined that he was already making a list of things he needed to do about the property, just as soon as he'd contacted the Sheriff to remove the pesky inhabitants.

Helaku and Nova had both been savvy enough to know that the authorities would soon be on their way. After directing her daughter to sit on the porch and not move a muscle, Helaku raced to the village for help.

Help had arrived in the shape of a tall and ungainly boy, whose eyes had the strange ability to stare straight into her soul.

"Jose Caulder," he'd introduced himself, one tanned arm extended.

She knew who he was. Nova had spent the preceding years trying to avoid any kind of contact with him - in a futile attempt to protect herself from stumbling over in front of him, or stammering stupidly... or spitting on him accidentally... the list of fears had been very long and very real.

Nova took his hand to shake, and wasn't surprised to feel her skin burn under his grasp. "Hello."

Her mother had hurried in at this moment and directed her to pack. "Jose is flying us to Wyoming, tonight."

"Flying?" She stared at him in confusion.

Jose's eyes sparkled with pride. "My uncle will be flying, but it is a specific airship that I've been working on. A prototype... it is a ship that flies."

Nova stared at the boy as if he had suddenly grown two heads.

"I intend to sell the plans... after I've made a few more tweaks."

"Shouldn't we just travel by cart?" She asked her mother.

"Don't be rude," her mother said, with an apologetic smile to their visitor. "We're lucky that Jose is choosing to help us."

"Lucky? That won't be the word they use to describe us when they scrape our bodies from the earth." Like some well pummelled mosquitos, she decided.

"Nova!"

She knew that she wasn't being polite, but she'd had a hard day. Heck... her father had made it his responsibility that she'd had a hard life. And now she had to put her faith in a male to get her through the air in one piece? She wasn't mad.

"Thank you for your offer," she told Jose. "But I think you ought to find someone else to use as your test dummies."

Jose's eyes flashed again. Angrily this time. "If you don't need my help then I won't waste anymore time." He doffed his hat in adieu, turning on his heel he strode out the door.

"Jose! Jose! Wait!" Her mother rushed after him. Nova could only hear fragments of the conversation wafting through the wall. Her mother's murmurs of 'only a child' and 'complicated' followed by a final: "Please, Jose. We need you."