River Lady by Deveraux Jude

Author:Deveraux, Jude [Deveraux, Jude]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Tags: Historical Romance
Publisher: Pocket Books
Published: 1991-05-31T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

« ^ »

Leah looked down at Wesley's sleeping form. His wound was clean

now and she realized it wasn't as bad as she'd thought, although he'd

lost a lot of blood. He lay on a fairly clean bed in an old cabin that was

hidden on the side of a mountain.

Slowly she moved from her seat on the side of the bed and took the

pan of dirty water outside to empty it. Standing outside the door,

silhouetted in the early dawn light like mountain guardians, were the

young men, Bud and Cal. She'd been too upset about Wesley to know

exactly when the brother had made his appearance, but now there were

two of them, both massive, both silent, almost indistinguishable from

each other. The brothers had carried the unconscious Wesley to the

cabin, and without speaking a word they'd helped her wash and

bandage him.

"He's sleeping," she said tiredly to the silent men, one on either side

of the door. "In time I think he'll be all right."

"Told you he would be," Abe said loudly, making her jump as he

slipped around the side of the cabin.

"Do you always have to sneak up on people?" She seethed at him,

her eyes blazing.

"You've got to be the unfriendliest sister a man ever had. You gonna

listen to me or we gonna fight over that rich man of yours?"

Everything in her hated having to cooperate with him. She'd do

what he wanted in order to save Wes, but as soon as he was well, she'd

get away from Abe. "What is it you want from me?" she asked

belligerently.

Abe grunted but otherwise ignored her tone. "You don't have to do

much to help out a member of your very own family. All I need you for

is to do a little brain work. And maybe a little cookin'," he said under

his breath.

Her head came up sharply. "So that's it, is it? You don't need me to

River Lady - Jude Deveraux

Page 125 of 236

help plan your robberies, all you want is someone to fetch and tote

for you."

"Now Leah," he began, then stopped and gave her his rotten-toothed

grin. "Sure, that's all we want. You come along and cook for us, do a

little cleanin' and them other things women do. Ain't nothin' wrong in

that, is there? There ain't nearly as many of us as all them kids Pa had."

Leah felt almost relieved. She'd hated the idea of having to plan

robberies and although the running of the camp would be hard work,

she'd rather do that than something directly bad.

Abe was watching her. "That makes you feel better, don't it?" he said

as if talking to a kitten. "You just have to do a little cleanin', a little

cookin', although these here boys eat a powerful lot."

"And what do I get in return?"

"You get to look after your rich husband." He looked down at his

shoe. "Although maybe you better not tell Revis about him. Maybe it

oughta be our secret," he said, ignoring the presence of the two young

giants.

Leah glanced from Bud to Cal, but their faces were impassive. She

wondered how intelligent the men were and wondered too if they

realized how degrading Abe's treatment of them was.

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.