Read Online Drowning in Deception by Willa Jemhart - Free Book Online

people.”
    Without looking at him, she nodded and
made her way to the bed. She only hoped that he was right, that she couldn’t
contract this illness.
    Abilee eased herself over to make room
for Clover to sit.
    She looked down at her closely. Her eyes
were just like Rye's; ebony brown with gold flecks, and something else -
something she just couldn't place; something that felt dangerous. But that
couldn’t be right. This was a sweet, helpless child.
    She swallowed, opened the book, and began
reading the first story. “The Talking Tree.” She held the book still so that
Abilee could examine the picture she had drawn of the tree. The little girl
smiled in appreciation - a small, weak smile.
    “Once upon a time...”
    She stopped when Arma and Rye gasped at
the sound of the front door closing. Their eyes shot to each other’s in panic.
    A woman Clover guessed to be in her mid-forties
wandered into the room saying, “I forgot to tell you...” She was dressed just
as Arma was, with her hair pulled back into one long braid that trailed all the
way down to her lower back. She stopped when she saw Abilee’s story-teller on
the bed. Her eyes narrowed as she surveyed the scene. “What is going on here?”
    Clover looked to the two of them, hoping
they would explain. But it was Abilee who spoke up in her breathless little
voice. “Grandmama, this is Clove. She's my new friend. She’s come to read me
some stories.”
    The woman leered at the speechless Arma
and Rye before walking up to Clover and giving her an uncomfortable once over.
She pulled Clover’s long, loose hair aside, tugged on the back collar of the
dress she had put over her own clothes, and peeked down inside.
    She immediately dropped to her knees in
front of Clover and bowed her head.
    Clover looked to Arma and Rye, confusion
knotting her face.
    “Mama,” said Arma. “You can get up. We
brought her here. She came willingly because we asked. She came for Abilee.”
    The woman shot Rye and Arma a nasty look
again before rising to her feet. She turned to her granddaughter with a gentle
smile. “I'm sorry, Abilee. There will be no more stories. You need your rest,
and this young lady must get back to where she came from.”
    “Okay, Grandmama.” She didn't sound
happy with the news.
    The woman then gestured for all of them
to leave the little bedroom, and clicked the door closed behind them once they
were all in the main room.
    She immediately addressed Arma and Rye,
who now had their hands clenched together in one big, tight fist. Theirs were
the faces of children caught being naughty. “What is wrong with the two of you?
What have you done?”
    “Mama, we just...” started Arma.
    “How could you bring her here?
You've done it now. The gods will be furious with us. We will all be punished because
of your stupidity.”
    “She won't tell anyone, Mama,” said Rye,
his eyes flicking to Clover’s with a harsh warning in them. She noted that they
both had called the woman Mama, and wondered whose mother she really was.
    Clover nodded in agreement. “I won't
tell anyone. I was just trying to… We were just trying to…”
    But the woman did not want to hear from
her. “Get her out of here. Take her back. Now!”
    Rye wasted no time grabbing Clover’s
hand and pulling her out the door. They rounded to the back of the house and
walked faster than her legs could go, back the way they had come.
    “Wait,” someone called from behind.
Thankfully this caused Rye to slow from a run to a fast walk so that he could
turn around and look. It was Arma, sprinting to catch up with them with one
hand lifting either side of her skirt.
    Clover pulled her hand free of Rye's
vice-like grip and stopped to catch her breath.
    “I'm sorry,” Arma said when she caught
up. She reached around Clover and pulled the shawl back onto her head. “And
thank you for trying.”
    “I told you it was a bad idea,” her
husband, or boyfriend, or whatever he was, said gruffly. Clover