Blue Moon (The Runaways) by Landis Jill Marie

Author:Landis, Jill Marie [Landis, Jill Marie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 051512527X
Published: 2012-10-04T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

Sandy Shoals, Kentucky

The Prince of the Ohio walked into Hunter Boone’s tavern and trading post on the Mississippi, pausing just inside the door to watch his old friend serve up beer in heavy wooden mugs to a boatload of men standing shoulder to shoulder along the bar. To the naked eye, Hunter had not changed in three years. Still a commanding figure, he stood head and shoulders above the other men, taking coin, filling mugs, and wiping down the bar while keeping up a stream of conversation.

It was early in the day, so the long trestle tables set up around the cavernous room in the log structure were mostly empty, but the aroma of baking bread filled the air. Noah’s stomach rumbled at the pleasurable thought of digging into a noon meal. Hunter’s sister-in-law, Hannah, and his wife, Jemma, knew how to fill a man’s stomach.

He knew what would happen as soon as the men at the bar saw him, but there was nothing to be done for it, so with rifle in hand and his pack slung over his shoulder, Noah walked across the room. It didn’t take long for Hunter to look up and recognize him. When he did, the big man in buckskins left the bar and strode across the room, grabbed Noah in a bear hug, and pounded him heartily on the back.

“Where in the hell have you been? I already know all about some of the Prince of the Ohio’s latest exploits. Heard you not only launched in the worst current in years, but delivered the boat safely to Natchez.”

Noah nodded. “That’s about the size of it.”

“Along the way, did you warn another pilot what was beneath the surface a half a mile up ahead, and save him from capsizing?”

The men at the bar had stopped talking and were listening intently to the exchange. Noah shifted, uncomfortable with the attention.

“Don’t believe everything you hear,” Noah said, careful to keep his voice low.

“You’re gonna be a bigger legend than you were before. How did you do it?” Hunter clapped him on the back again, took his arm and led him over to a table near the bar and motioned for him to sit down. “Here, let me take your rifle and your pack. You’ll stay the night, of course. Hell, stay a week or two. It’ll be great for business Wait until Jemma sees you.” Hunter glanced over at the patrons at the bar, then back at Noah. “You look good. Real good, Noah. Better than I expected.”

Noah nodded. “Thanks.” He hoped Hunter would eventually let him get a word in. There was so much he wanted to say to the man who had brought him back from the brink of death and then talked him into living.

At a sign of movement in the door to the cabin addition where the women did the cooking, Noah turned his head and saw Jemma Boone drying her hands on an apron tied around her burgeoning waistline. With

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