Read Online Emily's Fortune by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor - Free Book Online

Uncle Victor hit the ground first. Marigold and Petunia fell on top of them, the elderly man found himself on top of Petunia, and when Jackson and Emily came tumbling out, Emily rolled off the heap of arms and legs and right over the edge of the cliff.
    â€œEli!” Jackson yelled.
    The driver muttered as he picked himself up, more concerned about his wheel than his passengers, it seemed. The two sisters rubbed their bruised arms; Oscar and Angus and Jock massaged their twistednecks, and old Mr. Muffit seemed for a moment to have his beard on backward. But Jackson was peering over the edge of the cliff, looking for Emily, who had disappeared.
    Emily herself hardly knew what was happening. Over and over she rolled, desperately trying to grab on to something. Small rocks were dislodged from the dry ground as she fell, and they rolled down on top of her.
    Whop
. A clump of earth hit her leg.
Ping
. A stone stung her cheek.
    Finally she managed to clutch the root of a scraggly bush, and her feet found a resting place on a rock. Her arms were scratched and her leg was bleeding. Emily thought if she could only find her heart and get it back in her chest where it belonged, she might live. She could hear it beating in her head, her ears, her throat. And then she thought of Rufus.
    Rufus! She had been holding the little box with her turtle in it, waiting for the next way station so she could sneak off and let him have some air and a walk. Where was the box? Frantically she looked about her.The lid was at her feet, the box itself upside down on a ledge below. But where was Rufus?
    How horrible to have come this far only to lose her little friend. Her eyes were so full of tears she could not see, and she leaned down and wiped them on her shoulder. “Rufus!” she whispered, holding tight to the bush as she looked all around. Something moved on the ledge below, and she recognized her pet.
    â€œEli!” came a hoarse call as Jackson appeared, dangling above her, holding on to a tree root. “Give me your hand!”
    Emily only shook her head, and inch by inch she lowered herself down the side of the cliff.
    A little farther, farther still…If she could climb down a maple tree, Emily told herself, she could do this. At last she reached Rufus. And as soon as she had the box and the turtle both, she thrust them into one of the deep pockets of her britches and grabbed hold of Jackson’s outstretched hand as she made her way up again. The two of them climbed back to the top, where Oscar, Angus, and Jock helped pull them to safety.
    Jackson was still pale from his fever, but he was more worried about Emily than himself. Uncle Victor, however, showed no interest in the rescue. While the two sisters fussed over the children and brushed off their clothes, Uncle Victor swore at the driver who had driven so recklessly and stood over him as he worked to repair the wheel.
    â€œYou’re wasting my time,” he growled. “I need to get to Redbud in a hurry.”
    â€œWell, breathin’ down my neck ain’t going to help you, mister,” the driver said. “If I drive too slow, folks complain and want to get there sooner. If I drive too fast, they complain and want to get there safer. You can help the most by gettin’ out of my way.”
    The man with the weasel eyes and the tiger tattoo swore again, but he went to stand in the shade of a large boulder, where he paced restlessly back and forth.
    After she and Jackson had drunk some water, Emily began to feel a little better, and so did Jackson.
    â€œFor a minute there, I thought you were a goner!” he told Emily when Marigold and Petunia wandered off.“I looked over the edge and it was a long way down to the bottom.”
    â€œI was scared too,” Emily whispered. “But more scared of losing Rufus than anything.”
    The other passengers found what shade they could. The elderly man was resting. Oscar, Angus, and Jock were smoking