Read Online Angel Sister by Ann H. Gabhart - Free Book Online Page B

destitute even though some people thought he was because of the way he lived. Kate’s father said Graham always had cash money to plop down when he bought something at the store. That was more than a lot of the people in Rosey Corner could do right now. The Barclays—Graham’s mother’s family—had money. His grandfather was a state senator, an influential man in Frankfort before he died of grief after Graham’s mother passed on. At least that was what Graham claimed killed him. Kate’s mother said it was a heart attack, that she remembered reading in the newspapers about how Senator Barclay had dropped dead right in the middle of a session of the legislature.
    Kate had no idea how old Graham was. Age didn’t seem to matter all that much to him, as if he’d always been old and didn’t worry about it. The skin on his face was stretched so tight over his cheekbones that it showed tiny red blood vessels tracing a pattern across his cheeks. His shirts hung loose off his shoulders the way they might on a scarecrow in somebody’s garden, and Kate had never seen him when his ankles and some leg weren’t showing below his pants. That was because he wore his daddy’s old clothes, and his daddy had been shorter than him.
    Every other week or so he shaved whenever he decided he should show up at one of the churches, and he just whacked off his hair with his pocketknife when it got down in his eyes.
    “I gave up on having a wife a long time ago,” Kate had overheard him tell her mother once. “No woman I ever met would take on a sister-in-law like Fern. But I pledged to my mother on her deathbed that I’d see to Fern as long as she needed seeing to. I guess Mother must have had a premonition that Fern was going to be damaged by the fever. She laid down sick one woman and got up a whole different one. But that didn’t change her being my sister.”
    Now Graham touched Poe on the head and told him he could stay with Tori. The old dog sank happily back down on the pond bank and dropped his head on his paws as he blew a burst of contented air out of the sides of his mouth. “We were out late last night chasing coons,” Graham explained.
    “Did you catch any?” Kate asked as she followed him around the pond toward some vines growing at the edge of the woods.
    “Naw, not the way you’re talking. Me and Poe, we like to get them up a tree, but then we just exchange pleasantries and all of us go on home. It’s the chase we’re after, not the raccoon.”
    “You can sell raccoon skins,” Kate said.
    “I couldn’t do that. Me and Poe, we’re way too familiar with our coons to want to skin them.” Graham stopped and pointed toward the raspberry vines. “Looks like the birds haven’t gotten all the ripe ones yet. Or me. I ate some for my breakfast this morning before we started fishing.”
    “Now that sounds like a good breakfast.” Kate stepped into the vines to reach for some of the bigger berries.
    “Careful. You’ll get all scratched up. Not to mention those snakes.”
    “Raspberries are worth it.” Kate pulled off a berry and put it in her mouth. “Nothing better.”
    Graham waded into the vines beside her and picked a handful of berries to drop into her bucket. They picked awhile without saying anything. In a tree nearby, a mockingbird was running through his repertoire, and behind them Tori’s hook splashed in the water. Above their heads a red-tailed hawk floated across the opening over the pond and let out a shrill whistle.
    “Life is good,” Graham said as he stared up at the hawk.
    “But not for everybody,” Kate said.
    “Well, no, I guess not everybody can be fishing or picking raspberries on a pond bank, but that doesn’t mean we can’t be happy we are.” Graham dropped another handful of berries into Kate’s bucket.
    Kate didn’t say anything for a minute as she stepped deeper into the berry bushes, carefully mashing down some of the vines with her foot. Then she said, “You and Daddy,