Leave Me Where I Lie

There is no way you can read this
book and not feel the pain and joys of Mattie Posey as she lives in the
aftermath of the Civil War on a farm in Mississippi. The times are hard and she has to do the work
of a man on the family farm, as she has no brothers to help with the farm
work. When her religiously prejudiced
parents interfere with her love for a catholic boy, Matties pain devastates
her soul and threatens to break her spirit.

Matties manic/depressive mother,
Annie, vacillates between extreme emotional lows and highs, which cause her to
be very strict, and a harsh disciplinarian.
Matties father, Wade, is a gentle, kind man. However, he does not take a stand against his
wifes extreme discipline of the children.
Mattie must assume her mothers duties and care for her when she is
incapacitated by her depression.

A rogue panther is lured to the
Posey house by the smell of fresh, butchered pork which hangs in the
smokehouse. The familys life is
endangered when the dogs corner the panther under the kitchen but Annies quick
thinking and action saves her family.

Matties love for her horse,
Prince and her confidence in his speed entice her to enter the horse race at
the Neshoba County Fair. Her
determination to prove Prince as the fastest horse in the community causes her
to break rules in order to win the race.


The Posey family and the black
family, who shares their surname, have been bound in a close relationship since
Wade and Joshua were small children. The
trials of rugged farm life and the illnesses and deaths due to a lack of
medical care bind them even closer.

When Mattie falls in love with
Frank Haney, a boy of the Catholic faith, her prejudiced parents take drastic
measures to prevent their marriage, so they decide to elope.

The Ku Klux Klan interferes with
Wades efforts to reward his faithful, black friend with a deed to part of his
farm. When a cross is burned in his
front yard he visits each of the Klan members and gives them a piece of the
charred cross.

Years later, Mattie meets John
Mayo, who is twenty years her senior and when he proposes marriage to her she
has difficulty accepting because of her love for Frank.