Open Country by Kaki Warner

Author:Kaki Warner
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin USA, Inc.
Published: 2010-04-29T16:00:00+00:00

Foourteen

DON’T CRY, DON’T CRY, SHE CHANTED IN SILENT TEMPO WITH each step she took up the stairs. It was an effort not to run. Not to give in to the anguish burning in her chest. She felt Hank looming behind her, a dark, furious mass, his rage so intense it pressed against her back like a shoving hand.

Oddly, she wasn’t afraid. At least, not of Hank. The worst had happened. What more could he do to her?

It was over, her idyllic dream life, her sham of a marriage, her hope of something more than endless years of tending other women’s husbands, other women’s children, other lives less barren than her own.

The bleak injustice of it rocked her, sent a blast of anger through her mind. She wanted to whip around and strike the man behind her, shake him until his eyes bounced from their sockets, force him to understand.

Yes, she had done a terrible thing.

Yes, she had lied.

But she’d also saved his life. Didn’t that account for something?

Loud voices drifted up from the entry. Fearing Brady and Jessica might come to intervene and cause an even greater scene, Molly increased her speed. Flinging open the door into the bedroom with enough force to bounce it against the logs, she whirled to face her husband as he slammed the door shut behind him.

“You weren’t supposed to survive the night,” she blurted out before he could speak. “The railroad was offering widows’ portions to the wives of men killed in the derailment. I was desperate for money, so I married you to get it.”

He stopped before her, his chest heaving, his clenched teeth a white slash against his flushed skin. “How disappointing for you that I didn’t die.”

She slapped him. Tried to slap him again, but he grabbed her wrist to stop her. “Don’t ever say that!” she cried, wrenching from his grip. “Don’t even think it! I saved your life! Your arm! I did everything I could to—”

The door crashed open. Brady stood on the threshold, his face stark and white.

“We have to go. There’s been a cave-in at the mine.”

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