Flame-Colored Taffeta

Once they wade through some rather lengthy sentences, peppered with semi-colons, readers will enjoy this gentle tale of a girl who rescues a mysterious, wounded man. Twelve-year-old Damaris, who lives on a seaside Sussex farm, discovers a young man who has been shot in the leg. She and 13-year-old Peter hide the man, who calls himself Tom Wildgoose, in their secret meeting placea half-ruined cottage in the forest. At first Damaris thinks Tom is a smuggler, but later she learns he is carrying papers from Bonnie Prince Charlie in France to his London supporters. Tom is captured when he rescues Damaris and her pet fox from a pack of foxhounds. But Damaris gets Tom freed by enlisting the aid of village wisewoman Genty. Under the very noses of royal customs officers, Damaris and Peter get Tom off on the road to London. Years later, Damaris knows that Tom is alive and safe when he sends her, as a wedding present, what she has always desiredflame-colored taffeta to wear as a petticoat. It's a fitting and satisfying resolution to this historically based tale of intrigue. (10-14)