[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

 Jesus, woman, I thought you were sleeping.
 I was, but I sleep light. Had to learn to. She was right, of course; women traveling alone could not
afford to sleep heavy or risk their safety and perhaps their lives for it.  Tell me about where you came
from.
He felt peevish enough to be difficult.  You first.
A small fist landed on his shoulder.  You re a hard man, Gideon Blackwood.
This time his chuckle was a strangled grunt.  You have no idea.
Devils on Horseback: Gideon
After a moment, she started speaking.  I grew up in the middle of Virginia, not too far from West
Virginia. My parents had a tobacco farm, and we scraped by on what we had. Granny is my daddy s ma.
She lived with us after Mama died. I must ve been about two, so I don t remember much before she was
there. Her voice was soft and melodic, amazingly calming Gideon s over-stimulated body.  I have, I mean
had a brother. He was two years older than me, and we were best friends growing up. We climbed trees,
caught frogs, went swimming in the pond out back. Heck, I was eight before I realized I wasn t a boy like
him.
 That explains a lot.
The fist thumped his shoulder again.  Hush up or I won t keep talking.
He swallowed back the words that threatened to pop out of his mouth. After all, if she wasn t talking,
he d be kissing her. He d already vowed not to bed her again, but it was a damn hard vow to keep.
 Adam was a good brother, I think. He would tease me like big brothers do, but he let me tag along
with our cousin Tobias when they went fishing. Then they enlisted together, and I ain t seen them since
they left. My daddy died a year later, leaving me and Granny behind. We held on to the farm, but the world
around us fell to pieces. She sighed long and hard.  We decided to head to Texas to live with Granny s
sister. Right before we headed out, I found the girls hiding in a broken-down barn on their farm. Their
mama had died at least a week before. Poor things.
She didn t describe what she d found, and he didn t want to hear it. There was no need to explain
since he could picture what the little moppets had endured. The war had destroyed the childhood of every
American youth.
 What happened to your brother?
 I don t know what happened to him, and like I told you before, he wasn t on the death notices. I
looked every damn day for two years. I like to think he died a hero in battle, that way I don t have to think
about him and Tobias dying alone in a ditch.
Gideon turned over. Her face was a pale oval in the meager light.  If you loved them, they couldn t
have died alone. You were in their hearts.
Her eyes widened, and he was shocked to see they were suspiciously wet.  Thank you for that.
His own throat grew tight at the raw emotion in her voice. He knew that kind of pain well, lived with
it for five years, denied it every day too. Chloe was all kinds of trouble for him.
 Now it s your turn.
He grimaced and took her hand, which was soft and small in his. She rubbed the back of his hand with
her thumb. It helped him start talking.
 I was born in Georgia, the only child of a cotton plantation owner and a Southern belle from one of
the oldest society families in the state. My father was always disappointed in the fact I didn t want to run
the plantation or follow in his footsteps. He tried charming me to take over for him, and when that didn t
www.samhainpublishing.com 67
Beth Williamson
work, he tried force. Gideon had to pause and swallow back the old bitterness before it spilled out over
Chloe.  I had everything money could buy, including tutors, clothes, horses and cigars. The one thing I
didn t buy was friends. My cousins Zeke and Lee were there, along with Jake. I know he s actually my half
brother, but Pa never admitted it. He was a tough son of a bitch who fathered bastards on the help and
denied them. But I knew from the moment I met him that Jake was his we have the same eyes. Then
there s Nate. He s not related by blood, but he grew up with us, son of the town drunk. The one thing we
had in common was being failures in the eyes of our fathers. No matter how much we tried, we could never
please them.
 It don t matter what your daddy thinks. It s what you think that s important. Chloe was a tiny
philosopher.
 I can say that out loud as many times as I want, but that doesn t mean I can accept it. He blew out a
breath and chased away the ghosts riding his back.  My friends were my family, both by blood and by
bonds stronger than it. We enlisted together too, and somehow we were all alive when the war was over.
Gideon thought back to the day they left to fight and how confident they all were. Naïve, stupid boys.
 Alive, but not?
He closed his eyes and forced back the dam of emotion she threatened to smash to bits again. It took
him a minute to be able to speak, and his voice had grown huskier.
 We left Georgia for Texas. We had nothing left at home but death and destruction. Tales of a new
life, a new start, tempted us. It took a hard year of traveling, working, breaking our backs for nothing,
starving until we thought we d made the biggest mistake of our lives. Then we found Tanger, a town in
worse shape than us, if you can believe it. He chuckled at the thought, true as it was.  It was like the town
was waiting for us to get there, and we just kind of fit together like puzzle pieces. We ve been there two
years now, and I don t think I d want to live anywhere else. It s home.
 Then why did you leave? You had someplace else better to get to? [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

zanotowane.pl

doc.pisz.pl

pdf.pisz.pl

glaz.keep.pl