No Shame, No Fear - Softcover

Ann Turnbull has written many books for young readers, including NO FRIEND OF MINE, HOUSE OF GHOSTS, MAROO OF THE WINTER CAVES, and PIGEON SUMMER, which was short-listed for the Smarties Book Prize. NO SHAME, NO FEAR is her first book for young adults. She says, "This is a story I have been wanting to write for a long time, ever since I learned about the early Quakers and was struck by their vitality and their extraordinary courage." Ann Turnbull lives in Shropshire, England.

"Thou'rt afraid to tell thy father!"

"I'm not!" But he wouldnąt meet my eye.

"We will become an illegal people," I said. "It will not be wise for thee to associate with us."

I had not thought much about all this before, but now it became clear to me: the gulf that was opening between us. I felt the inevitability of it, and tears stood in my eyes, ready to fall.

"Susanna." He put his arms around me, kissed my hair and then my face. I swung between delight and terror that someone would come in. The tears ran down my face and he kissed them away and pulled me close.

"Don't cry," he said. "We won't be parted. I promise. Don't cry."

I felt his lips touch mine, feather-soft at first and then firmer,warmer, with an eagerness that made me respond and kiss him back. I wondered, fleetingly, if I should do this. Was it wrong if we were not promised in marriage? But I could not bring myself to stop. . . . Later, when I was alone, I touched my lips with my fingertips and thought about the kiss.

He had said, "We won't be parted." Surely that must mean he loved me?

But he had not dared to tell his father about me, or about meeting with Friends. And I knew his father planned for him to become apprenticed to a silk merchant who would take him away to London. It was his duty to obey his father, and he had all the power.

NO SHAME, NO FEAR by Ann Turnbull. Copyright (c) 2004 by Ann Turnbull. Published by Candlewick Press, Inc., Cambridge, MA.