Christy by Linda Lael Miller

Author:Linda Lael Miller
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pocket Books
Published: 2001-12-08T16:00:00+00:00

The morning sunshine was like a spill of silvery fire on the waters of the creek, and Caney, crouched on the bank and busily scrubbing a pair of worn-out muslin bloomers, fairly pinned Christy to the trunk of a giant ponderosa pine, so intense was the look in her brown eyes. “That’s just plain whorin’,” she said, in her forthright way. “I’ll have no part of it, Christy McQuarry. Mind you remember that. You go ahead with this lame-brained scheme of yours, and I’ll move on without lookin’ back. Leave you to simmer in your own brew. Don’t you think I won’t, neither.”

Christy, equally busy with a set of much-mended linen sheets, was tired of defending her decision. “You wouldn’t leave Primrose Creek,” she said, a little peevishly. “You’ve set your heart on marrying up with Mr. Hicks, and it appears that he means to stay right where he is.”

“I can be married to Mr. Malcolm Hicks and still pick who I wants to socialize with, Miss Snippetybritches. And don’t you go thinkin’ you can sweettalk me into keepin’ house for you. I ain’t about to do that. No, sir. I’ll go on across the creek there and do for Trace and Miss Bridget and them babies, show you what’s what.”

Christy had secretly hoped to persuade Caney to come to work for her once she was Mrs. Jake Vigil, and she hadn’t given up on the idea. Still, the idea of Caney abandoning her and Megan for Bridget brought stinging color to her cheeks and a flash of temper to her eyes. “Why don’t you just go right on over there now,” she replied, bluffing shamelessly, “if that’s how you feel?”

A short, vibrant silence descended, and Caney relented first, if grudgingly. “Miss Megan needs me ’round here, since her own flesh and blood—you— don’t have a lick of sense!”

Christy swished a soapy pillowcase in the water with perhaps more industry than was strictly necessary. After her marriage to Jake, she and Megan and Caney would live in a lovely, spacious house, where they belonged, where they were wanted and cared for and, most of all, safe. They would never want for anything again. Why couldn’t Caney see that? Why couldn’t Megan?

It galled Christy that Caney, whose opinion she valued above ’most every other, did not approve. “You’re a free woman,” she said tautly. “You may certainly do whatever you want.”

Now, Caney looked more despondent than angry. “You ain’t gonna change your mind, neither, are you? I swear I’ve seen bulls with thinner skulls than you got.”

Christy merely shook her head. No, she wasn’t going to change her mind. She sought her younger sister out with her eyes, found her carrying buckets of water uphill to the lodge for cooking and washing up. Megan had already fed the mules and worked several hours in the garden, and although she did not seem unhappy, Christy could imagine only too well how years of such drudgery would steal the hope from Megan’s heart, the spark from her green eyes, making her old and frail long before her time.

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.