Read Online A Heart So Wild by Johanna Lindsey - Free Book Online Page A

newspaper and the candle. She ran to Sarah and Harry’s room, around the corner from hers. Her pounding on the door elicited a curse, but she burst inside. Harry groaned when he saw that it was only Courtney. Sarah glowered.
    â€œDo you have any idea what time—”
    â€œSarah!” Courtney cried. “My father is alive .”
    â€œWhat?” the two cried at once.
    Harry gave Sarah a sidelong look. “Does that mean we aren’t married, Sarah?”
    â€œIt means no such thing!” Sarah snapped. “Courtney Harte, how dare you—”
    â€œSarah, look,” Courtney interrupted, sitting on the bed to show her the photograph. “You can’t tell me that’s not my father.”
    Sarah stared at the picture for a good while. Then her features relaxed. “You can go back to sleep, Harry. The girl’s imagination has run away with her. Couldn’t you have waited untila decent hour, Courtney, before you started this nonsense?”
    â€œIt’s not nonsense. That’s my father! And the picture was taken in Waco, which proves—”
    â€œNothing,” Sarah scoffed. “So there is a man in Waco who vaguely resembles Edward—and I said vaguely . The picture isn’t clear, and the man’s features are blurred. Just because there’s some resemblance, that doesn’t make him Edward. Edward is dead, Courtney. Everyone agrees he couldn’t possibly have survived captivity.”
    â€œEveryone but me!” Courtney said angrily. How dared Sarah disregard such evidence? “I never believed he was dead. He could have escaped. He could—”
    â€œFool! Then where has he been for four years? In Waco? Why did he never try to find us?” Sarah gave a sigh. “Edward is dead, Courtney. Nothing has changed. Now go to bed.”
    â€œI’m going to Waco.”
    â€œYou’re what?” It took a moment, but Sarah began to laugh. “Of course you are. If you want to get yourself killed wandering off by yourself, by all means do so.” And then, abrasively, “Get out of here and let me sleep!”
    Courtney started to say more, then changed her mind. She left the room quietly.
    She didn’t go back to her room. She wasn’t imagining things. No one was going to tell her that wasn’t her father in the picture. He was alive. She felt it instinctively, had always felt it. He had gone on to Waco—why, she did not know. Why he hadn’t tried to find her she couldn’t say, either. But she was going to find him.
    To hell with Sarah. She scoffed for the simple reason that she didn’t want Edward to be alive. She had found herself a husband who was going to make her rich and who suited her better than Edward had.
    Courtney left the living quarters at the back of the hotel and entered the lobby. A candle burned at the desk, but there was no sign of young Tom who worked at the desk through the night in case some drifter came in. Without a desk clerk, a man might wake everyone to get a room. It had been known to happen.
    Courtney gave little thought to Tom or to being seen in her robe and nightgown. With her candle in her hand and the precious newspaper tucked under her arm, she mounted the stairs to the guests’ chambers.
    She knew exactly what she was going to do. It was the boldest thing she had ever done in her life. If she thought about it, she wouldn’t do it, so she didn’t think about it. She didn’t hesitate even for a second before knocking on the door, though she had sense enough to knock quietly. What time was it? She didn’t know, but she didn’t want to wake anyone else, just Chandos.
    She was knocking for the third time when the door flew open and she was jerked roughly inside. Her mouth was covered by a tight hand, and her back was pressed against the rocklike chest. Her candle fell, and with the closing of the door, the room was pitched into total