Read Online Dark Crossings by Marta Perry - Free Book Online Page A

She threw herself into his
arms.
    Though she slammed into him, at first he didn’t budge. Then he
dropped the piece of wood. As she pressed herself against him, her cheek to his
chest, he closed his arms hard around her. He pulled her inside and slammed the
door, leaning back against it. She heard only her ragged breathing and his heart
beating hard.
    “What happened?” he whispered, his chin atop her head as he
clamped her full length to him, her hips pressed to his, her breasts flattened
against his chest.
    “A man draped in a hemp sack with a hemp mask—gloves—chasing
me. Swinging my spade like he wanted to cut me down.”
    Ben’s body tensed. “Did he follow you across the bridge?”
    “No. Chased me down the road beyond the bridge and through the
forest. I hid in a hollow log. When I ran home, I saw he’d left me a note in the
garden that said get out. In Deutsch and
English!”
    Ben squeezed her tighter, then tipped her back to look down
into her eyes. She realized she was smudged with dirt from the hollow log, but
that hardly mattered. His intense gaze made her light-headed. Her knees nearly
buckled, but his legs were strong and firm against her quaking ones as he
propped her up.
    “You stay here,” he said. “I’ll go over and look around. Is
your house locked?”
    “ Ja, but who knows what he’s done?
Ben, I will not just leave my house and garden at harvest time and run like a
rabbit, though I guess that’s just what I did. I know I can’t stay here,
but—”
    “We’re going to lock you in right now. I’ll just look around
over there and bring the threatening note back for evidence. You’ve got to get
help from the sheriff. He said he’d be away the rest of the day, but back
tomorrow. First thing in the morning, I’ll follow you into town. I have a
meeting with Bishop Esh and the church elders set up then.”
    “That’s great. But what about tonight?”
    “When I get back from checking your place, we’ll talk, decide
whether this is aimed at you—or at me.”
    “At you? You think it might be Burt Commons? He threatened both
of us. Maybe he’s picking on me to get to you? Or it could be Elam Garber.”
    “So he was the one you turned down? If it’s Elam, the bishop
can deal with him better than the sheriff, though I don’t want to see anyone put
under the bann .”
    “But taking that diamond from my bedroom doesn’t seem like
something either Burt or Elam would or could do. Commons wasn’t even around
then. It has to be someone else.”
    “Would you just listen?” Ben demanded, suddenly sounding angry,
almost desperate. “That’s what we need to talk about. I’ll be back in a couple
of minutes.”
    But still he seemed to be clinging to her. She hugged him
again, her arms around his back, his clasping her waist.
    “Now you listen to me,” she told him. “If there’s someone over
there, don’t get into a fight—not for me.”
    He lifted one hand to tip her chin up so she was looking
straight into his eyes. “I’m in a fight for you already, a fight with myself,”
he whispered. “Stay put now, make yourself at home, and I’ll be right back.”
    She nodded, making the hand clasping her chin bounce. But he
didn’t pull away, didn’t leave. Then it happened, just as she’d dreamed of so
many times.
    He lowered his lips to hers, slowly, as if to give her time to
turn her head or back away. It was as if they were merely taking a taste of each
other, but things turned crazy wild as he took her mouth, again and again. She
tilted her head so their noses didn’t bump. Their mouths fit perfectly, slanted
sideways, open and so needy and natural. Nothing mattered but his touch and
kiss. She clung to him to stop the swaying of the world.
    He pulled back before she wanted him to, setting her away at
arm’s length as if she had burned him. “My fault,” he said, breathless. “I
wanted that—and you. Lock yourself in and watch out the windows….”
    He glanced through the