Hiram's Girls: For Want of a Home

November 1864, Kansas

When their mother died nine years ago, the Pierce sisters, Jennie and Ella, went to live with aunts. They became homeless when Jennie's forebodings brought down her preacher uncle's wrath. Claiming Jennie, now 12, is demon-possessed, he tosses the girls out. At Jennie's insistence, all five Pierce siblings join her in a search for their father, Hiram Pierce, who was taken prisoner of war by Confederate General Price during the Battle of Westport. They find him near death, and after they save his life, he promises his daughters a home even though he knows his current wife, Ava, will object.

However, while Hiram was off fighting against Price and his men, Ava ran off with a man from her past, deserting the couple's three daughters, ages three months to two-and-a-half years. Now, Ella, 14, has what she wants most: a home where she is in charge and not the servant of others. Jennie is respected, not punished, for her ability to foretell future events, and she is thrilled to be a big sister and enthusiastically takes on the care of the little ones. All is well until their father's wife returns. Ava manages to worm her way back into the home with a bizarre story of being kidnapped.

Jennie and Ella know Ava is lying. They have spoken to a detective who is investigating their stepmother for theft and attempted murder, but without proof of her deeds, they don't dare tell their father for fear he will disown them just as he previously did their brother when Ava made false claims against him. Is there any way to prove to their father his wife is lying, or must Ella resort to an early marriage to escape the demands of a ruthless stepmother?