The place was like a fortress with iron railings surrounding the property."This is it, huh?" he asked."This is it!" Nice and beautiful on the outside ...ut inside is terribly filled with tension, backstabbing, fraud, lies and crap like that. This was my home until I moved out on my own. I never regretted it. I usually come home for Thanksgiving and stay to Christmas. Not this year though. I want to proudly introduce you to my family then get out as quick as I can." Warm homecoming, right?". I end up looking at fashion web sites. This does not help much,as I don't think I am going to be walking the red carpet of the Oscars.The next morning at breakfast, Teresa informs Patrick that we are goingto be doing girl stuff all day. He decides to spend the day cyclingwith some friends. He will probably end up at a bar all afternoon withhis drinking buds. I remember when I used to do boy stuff like that.I miss it too.Once he leaves, Teresa takes me for a "training session". But. There was barely enough room for one person to work, but they had decided early on that both of them would do the cooking, partially because they both wanted to learn but also because they wanted their marriage equal. It was cramped, but fun, and they were learning to stay out of each other's way and in any case there were far less pleasant people to be tripping over. Caitlyn had observed long ago that adding Jon to just about any task made it fun; she supposed there wasn't any reason cooking. "I want you to understand this, if'n you try to run away or tell someone about me and why I'm here, I might just have to shoot you or whap you upside the head agin." The trooper waved his carbine at the boy. "Y're pretty smart, so I'm told. If you do like I say, I'll not only send you home in one piece but twenty dollars richer." What good's twenty dollars Confederate?" Seth asked, looking out over the dry countryside.Wainder flicked open the hinged plate in the rifle's butt and held up a gold.