THE TRAITOR’S GAME
The winner of the ARC for LINES OF COURAGE is Abby B. Congratulations!
Today’s post features THE TRAITOR’S GAME. This is the story of Kestra Dallisor, the daughter of the King’s chief enforcer, who is captured by the rebellion and will be forced to betray her family. She wants none of that, so she decides instead to bring down the rebellion.
The story was inspired by a theme in history that has always fascinated me, which is the question of who in history was a hero, and who was a traitor, and how we decide who belongs in each category.
Consider the story of Robert Ford. In his early years, he became a great admirer of the outlaw Jesse James. In 1880, at age 18, he met Jesse James and joined his gang. Yet over the next two years, the Jesse James gang was weakening, with many members killed or in jail. Jesse James was considering giving up crime, but he also knew the law was still searching for him. So there were only a small group of people he truly trusted. Robert Ford and his brother, Charles, were two of them.
James wanted to do one last bank robbery before retiring, but Robert and Charles Ford had already decided not to participate. Instead, they wanted to collect the $10,000 bounty placed on Jesse James’ head by the Governor of Missouri, and the full pardon the Governor offered to anyone who would kill Jesse James.
The Ford brothers were living with Jesse James and his family, and waiting for their opportunity. That came on April 3, 1882. The men had finished eating breakfast and were supposed to leave from there to conduct the robbery. James noticed a picture hanging crookedly over the door and stood on a chair to straighten it.
That was when Robert Ford took his chance and shot Jesse James in the back. He did so, believing that his fellow citizens would judge him to be a hero. However, the people largely turned on him, branding him a coward and a traitor. Eventually, Robert Ford was reduced to earning money where he could by performing re-creations of that day, which only served to deepen his cowardly reputation.
By 1892, Robert Ford was running a saloon in Colorado. A man walked in and waited until Ford’s back was turned, then said, “Hello, Bob.” As soon as Ford turned, the man fired both barrels of his guns. Robert Ford was killed instantly.
Robert Ford rid the world of a dangerous bank robber and criminal, and acted at the request of the state governor, and yet history has not treated him well.
This is when I realized that it is not about what someone does in history, it’s about who ends up telling the story, and Robert Ford’s story was told by the people who judged him to be a traitor.
THE TRAITOR’S GAME was built on that premise, that whether Kestra Dallisor is a hero or a traitor will entirely depend on who wins in the end to tell her story.
This contest will run for the next three days. To enter this contest, please ask someone who has never been on this blog to leave a comment below with your first name (only your first name please!). If they are chosen, you will both win a book! For this contest, you can enter as many times as you wish.
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Elisa 😀
ELISA😄This is like her favorite book ever
