Betrayal at Cross Creek

It’s 1775, in the deep forests of North Carolina’s Cape Fear River Valley, where thousands of Scottish immigrants settled in the mid-1700s, hoping to find a peaceful home after decades of political turmoil and poverty in Scotland. One of the immigrants is 12-year-old Elspeth Monro, an orphan who lives with her grandparents, both of whom bear the scars of the long wars in Scotland. Though the dark forest and the English townspeople of nearby Cross Creek feel very foreign to Elspeth, she is slowly beginning to feel at home in North Carolina, with a new friend and a weaving apprenticeship she loves. The brewing Revolution feels very far away to Elspeth and her Scottish neighbors–until someone starts to threaten her own family, trying to force them to join the rebels. (Historically, such actions were common. Throughout the colonies, people suspected of being Loyalists were vandalized, tarred and feathered, evicted from their homes, thrown in jail, and even hanged.) When Elspeth’s grandfather and cousins finally march off to fight on the British side, Elspeth is left alone to protect her grandmother–and to figure out who is putting her family in danger!