Allie's Moon by Alexis Harrington

Author:Alexis Harrington
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Romance, Fiction, General, Historical, Love Stories
ISBN: 9780312973070
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2000-03-30T04:00:00+00:00

Olivia remained in bed all night and part of the following day. Althea slept occasionally, sitting up in a chair next to her. The rest of the time, she read to her sister, spooned soup into her mouth, and brushed her hair. She left Olivia’s side only to cook, and Jeff found his trays on the back porch once again. She gave him plain fare—lukewarm oatmeal for breakfast and sandwiches for lunch and dinner, made from the roast beef he hadn’t gotten to taste the night before.

Though he looked toward the house for Allie so many times he’d lost count, he never saw her, and the day seemed lonely somehow. He spent it sweating in the sun and cursing a seed drill he was trying to resurrect from near-death. It had been left out in the weather for several years.

A month ago he couldn’t have cared less about Althea Ford. In fact, he would have been hard pressed to recognize her name or remember anything about her. He’d been lost in a haze of whiskey and reliving the past, and that was where he’d wanted to stay. Now, though, he more often found himself thinking about the here and now, and looking forward to tomorrow. And he realized that whenever he did so, Allie was part of both.

Allie, with her sister bound to her as surely as a ball and chain bound a prisoner.

Finally Jeff wrenched open the screeching barn door to look for an oil can. The damned seeder was rusted solid. He’d had to hack a path through the brambles and tall weeds just to reach it. If he couldn’t make the thing work, he had a big job ahead of him, seeding the field by hand.

He rummaged through the items on the shelves, squinting in the cool, semi-gloom to make out the contents of various dusty cans and bottles. His finger, the one Olivia had bitten, ached a little. She hadn’t broken the skin but she’d left her teeth marks on him. He still couldn’t get the scene at dinner out of his mind—those blood-freezing shrieks, the plates and bowls flying off the table, Allie, gravy dripping from her hair and blackberry jam smeared on her dress, trying to comfort her sister. But by far, his most disturbing recollection of last night was Olivia’s lucid, calculating hazel eyes glaring up at him when he’d tried to restrain her.

He’d seen manipulation in his time, but Olivia Ford took the prize. The reasons for her behavior and how she’d gotten to be that way were mysteries to him. Her intentions were pretty clear, though.

Allie didn’t seem to have a clue that her sister was anything but a helpless, childlike invalid. In her face he’d seen only worry, empathy and tenderness as she’d clutched Olivia to her shoulder. The “helpless invalid” was controlling her strong, good-hearted nursemaid with a tyranny that Jeff knew would eventually break Allie’s spirit like a dry twig.

He put down a dusty bottle of old liniment with a thud.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.