Midnight Rider

Suffering from smallpox fever, 14-year-old Hannah Andrews awakens in her bedroom at her family’s house in Salem, Massachusetts, calling out deliriously for her mother. Aunt Phoebe, her mother’s sister, reminds Hannah that her mother has died from smallpox, and as Hannah recovers her wits, she recalls that her father also died two years ago. Phoebe informs Hannah that although she will survive, she will have a permanent facial scar.

When Hannah notices that her beloved horse, Promise (a gift from her late father), is now missing from the pasture, she questions Aunt Phoebe, who callously state that she sold Promise because he was too expensive to keep. Devastated, Hannah pleads for Promise’s return, but Phoebe refuses. Complaining of all her efforts to care for Hannah and her mother, she chides Hannah for ingratitude. Hannah prays for strength and for Promise’s return as she grapples with her grief over her parents’ deaths and the loss of her beloved horse.

It is now July of 1774. After recovering from smallpox, Hannah visits her mother’s grave each day, and on one occasion, she spots a boy riding a horse that looks exactly like