Read Online Distant Heart by Tracey Bateman - Free Book Online

said firmly.
    â€œEverything okay?” the scout asked.
    â€œNo.” Toni planted her hands on her hips and stood, feet firm as though bracing for a heavy wind. “Everything is not okay.”
    â€œWhat on earth are you doing, Toni Rodden?” Mr. Kane’s wife, Amanda, gave a little stance of her own.
    â€œThis doesn’t concern you, Amanda.”
    The woman drew her shawl about her and stuck her nose in the air. “If it concerns my husband and the likes of you, it concerns me.”
    â€œI ain’t had nothin’ to do with her, Mandy. Don’t believe her.”
    â€œDon’t be a fool.” Toni sniffed her disdain and looked down on Amanda and then Mr. Kane, himself. “Amanda, you’ve known me for months now. Better than most of the women have even bothered to try to get to know me. How can you even suggest I might be cozying up to your husband?”
    Amanda averted her gaze, but not before Toni noted shame filling her eyes.
    â€œToni, can this wait until morning?” Sam said quietly, indicating with his head that they had already drawn a crowd.
    â€œNo. No it can’t, Sam. I plan to have my say.” She panned the crowd. “And you all might as well listen.”
    â€œYou don’t have anything to say we want to hear.” Someone called from the crowd.
    â€œShut up and let her talk,” Ginger hollered, her hand on her Colt. “Or you’ll answer to me.”
    The crowd grew silent. Ginger nodded at Toni. “Go ahead, say your piece.”
    â€œThank you.” Toni’s gaze nailed Mr. Kane, whose face slouched in drunken stupidity. “Now, Mr. Kane. All of you! I work as hard on this wagon train as the rest of you. I pick up buffalo chips, haul water, cook, and do just about anything that is asked of me.”
    â€œWhat’s that got to do with anything?” a woman’s voice called from the crowd. “So do the rest of us.”
    Ginger cleared her throat loudly and fingered her Colt. The woman took the hint and closed her mouth.
    â€œAnd that is my point exactly. Each of us has a different past. Mine was harder to hide. And yes, I was not the sort of woman you want your sons marrying. Fine. I don’t want them anyway. As far as who I was before, that’s all behind me. And any decent Christian man or woman knows that God has forgiven my trespasses. So say what you want behind my back. Call me all the names in your twisted, bitter little hearts. Brush your skirts aside when you see me coming. I don’t care. But I will not! I repeat, I will not stand by and listen to any of you calling me ‘whore’ or inferring that I’m going to resume my former life as soon as we get to Oregon. I have as much right to be treated with dignity as the rest of you. We share an equal load of work and responsibility and I deserve to share in an equal amount of respect. And that’s all I intend to say on the matter. But know this, I will not sit by and allow you to degrade me one more day.”
    So saying, she swung around and faced the man who had begun the entire encounter. “And that means you, too!”
    Without another word, she brushed past Ginger and stomped away. Ginger followed, bursting into laughter. “Thatdrunken idiot looked like he didn’t know what hit him.”
    Toni took little pleasure in the victory. If she truly had just won a victory. All she wanted was to be treated like a person with value. Not a whore. She shoved her hands into the sudsy dishwater.
    Ginger gave a grunt. “There’s ladies comin’.” Her voice was thick with disdain. Toni could guess Ginger hadn’t been treated much better than she had at the hands of proper “ladies.”
    Toni looked up and tensed at the sight of five women, including Mrs. Brady, the Captain’s wife from the fort and Harriet Lamb, the preacher’s wife, coming toward her.
    Mrs. Brady gave her a kind smile.