To find a man who is brave yet loves books. I’d like to know what’s it like for a body to rest easy, to look in shop windows and partake of a meal they didn’t have to cook in an ordinary or sit in what’s called a pew in a church with a big bell that rings you right in. Where folks don’t have to watch their backs or fear for their very lives.

I’ve heard tell of overmountain places like Philadelphia. Actually, it’s the only river I’ve ever seen. The Buckhannon is one of the most beautiful rivers I’ve ever seen. What do you like most about where you live?Īside from it being uncommon dangerous, you mean? I liken western Virginia to the Garden of Eden after the fall, breathtakingly beautiful but spoiled by the serpent, by so many hardships and trials.

In a territory of so many Janes and Marthas and Anns I’ll keep it, thank you. The French and Indian War hero, Clayton Tygart, remarked on it, too, when we first met. Our family Bible penned it Teresa but somehow it got shortened to Tessa. Tessa? It sounds right pretty, some say, with Swan attached. Is there anything special about your name? I say all this without rancor as I do love her, ornery as she is. She fancies herself the spinster queen of Fort Tygart, if for no other reason than she’s likely the oldest woman in the territory. I heard tell of one Swan who’s been called a fearsome wrinkle of a woman in homespun. Only Pa was felled by Indians awhile back. Of all my brothers, Ross keeps his face to the sun. I’m most partial to Ross given I helped raise him. Then there’s Lemuel, Zadock, Cyrus… And Ross, the baby, only he’s bigger than me now. Let’s see, there’s Jasper, the eldest and the most hog-headed. Squirrely! Especially when you’re fifth in the family and the only girl. Tell us something about your family? What’s it like living with five brothers? My flyaway hair and untied bonnet strings shall stay. Pardon me as I trade my soiled apron for a clean cambric one.

An Uncommon Woman by Laura Frantz