The Unexpected Champion by Mary Connealy

Author:Mary Connealy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Historical Fiction;Christian Fiction;Love Stories;FIC042030;FIC042040;FIC027100
ISBN: 9781493417209
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2019-01-18T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER

17

It was a fine hair she was splitting.

A baby hair.

A baby hair from a nearly bald baby.

But split it she did. Penny was a woman who believed in the Bible, and “Thou shalt not steal” couldn’t be any clearer. And bear false witness? Well, what if someone caught them and asked what in the Sam Hill they were up to?

Of course, if someone caught them, what was the point of talking? Knowing all of that . . . she went right ahead and grasped that hair . . . or rather split it. She was bound and determined not to be left behind while John was out sneaking around.

After all the socializing at supper, it was already pretty late in the evening when they got back to their room. John wasted no time telling her to change into the split skirt she’d brought to help her be less noticeable. Penny figured she could run for it faster in the split skirt, too.

John stood outside for the outfit change, and when it was her turn and he took off his fancy suit, she turned her back. He didn’t want her out in the hall alone even though there was no fight going on at the moment. Then he’d made them wait for a couple of hours. When they finally left the boardinghouse, the saloons were still going strong in the seedy neighborhood.

Walking swiftly through the streets, Penny saw lights and heard tinny music from the saloons, accompanied by loud voices, outbreaks of laughter, and occasional shouting. They’d waited until it was so late that no one left in those establishments would have any interest in sobriety or work in the morning.

The neighborhood improved as they went along. The streets were silent, and the stores were all closed. John clasped her hand and pulled her along, intent on his goal. Suddenly, without her hearing anything, he stopped. She was being dragged just a bit, so she stumbled into him and noted his alert gaze well enough to keep quiet.

His gaze darted around, and she heard the scrape of a shoe on the paved streets. John’s eyes landed on a spot behind them. Penny tried to look at what he was studying, but she had no time. He plucked her right off the ground and carried her with complete silence past two closed businesses and up three stairsteps and dragged her into a corner of a barely recessed entrance.

She needed to check his shoes. Whatever he was wearing—they looked like regular boots—made no sound.

He pushed her into a shadowy corner of the entry and pressed his body up against hers. What was he thinking? She shoved at him to get out of the too-close quarters.

He hissed, “Shhh. Be still.”

The footsteps sounded closer now. Whoever it was had to see them there. The recess wasn’t that deep. The shadows not that dark. John’s eyes, mostly hidden by the night, were wide, and she could make out the whites.

And if they were noticed, there’d be no excuse for two people to be huddling here.

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