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Cast Two Shadows




  Author Arnold Rinaldi
  Country United States
  Language English
  Series Great Episodes
  Genre Historical Novel
  Publisher Harcourt Books
  Release Date 1998
  Media Type Print ( Paperback )
  Pages 304 pp
  Isbn ISBN 0-15-200881-0
  Preceded By An Acquaintance With Darkness
  Followed By The Coffin Quilt


''Cast Two Shadows'' is a historical novel by Ann Rinaldi , a part of the Great Episodes serie, it is told in First-person .


PLOT SUMMARY


It is 1780 , in the midst of the American Revolution , in Camden, South Carolina , and fourteen-year-old Caroline Whitaker, her mother Sarah, and her prissy older sister Georgia Ann are confined to one small room of their spacious Southern plantation home, as their house is forcefully being occupied by British soldiers, led by Colonel Rawdon . Caroline had been a Loyalist until she witnessed the British hanging her best friend, leaving his body there for weeks with orders not to take it down. Her mother, sister, and brother are Loyalists while her father has been imprisoned for being a Patriot .

Caroline is actually light skinned, one-quarter black. Her mother was impregnated by the Master, making Caroline only half-sister to Georgia Anne and Johnny, the brother. Caroline's grandmother, Miz Melindy, continues to live on the plantation while her mother was shipped to a plantation in the West Indies . Miz Melindy accompanies Caroline to find Johnny, who has been beaten and abandoned by the British soldiers for refusing to hand over his horse, and then deserting.

On Caroline and Miz Melindy's perilous journey through the North Carolina wilderness, they encounter a frightened Patriot family, runaway slaves, gun-happy British soldiers, and the dazed, disease-infected mistress of General Cornwallis , named Just Agnes. On the way, through all the difficulty, Caroline and Miz Melindy develop granddaughter-grandmother relationship that would've been impossible to have on a plantation. They find Johnny and his manservent, and they return to Camden.

To get into Rawdon's good graces, Johnny offers to spy on the Rebels. The Colonel sends Georgia Anne to wait for him in Charleston until the end of the war. Caroline and her mother remain on the plantation. When Johnny fails to return from his spy mission, Rawdon threatens to burn the house down. Caroline and her mother escape from the house and set the plantation on fire themselves. Caroline and Sarah find safety with the McClures, the Patriot family Caroline and Miz Melindy met along the way to reach Johnny. The father is released from jail, Johnny comes home, and Georgia Ann is never heard from again.