Read Online Fallen-Angels by Ashlynn Monroe - Free Book Online Page B

carried
unquantifiable amounts of love.   Everything
would be all right.   She wanted to tell
her sister that she loved her, and ask her to find her motorcycle a good loving
home.   It was worth a pretty penny, and
it was Purity’s to sell or learn to ride, whatever she wanted to do with
it.  
                Hours crept
by and Justice watched the crowd assemble in their Sunday best, carrying
blankets and picnic baskets.   Hanging was
good old-fashioned family entertainment.   It made her a little ill to see the children there.   She hoped that her death wouldn’t scare or
traumatize any of them.   Life was hard in
Texas
, but a
hanging was always good to break up the monotony.   Justice noticed a horseless carriage steam up
the road.   Those were scarce in
Texas
and this one was a
beauty.   She regretted that she would
never have the opportunity to drive one.   As it neared, she squinted at the driver and passenger.  
                She felt
ill.   It was Grace.   Her sister had come to see her hanged.   She couldn’t look at the scene outside any
longer.   Emotion finally had its way and
she sat down on the cot and began to cry.   She would never be a wife.   She
would never be a mother.   She would never
have her own home to tend, or a little garden to grow vegetables and flowers.   She would never have the chance to go straight
and live honestly.   Her life was over and
it would end as a public spectacle, entertaining strangers and long lost
family.   She wiped the tears from her
face with the rough blanket, provided courtesy of the good taxpayers of the
state of
Texas
.
                As hurt and
angry as she was, she only had one last request, to kiss Jeremiah Wallace one
last passionate time.  
                Just before
noon, the jailer came to her cell.   He
looked a little green, she was probably the first woman he’d had a part in
hanging.   He opened the door and cuffed her
hands.   She noticed he didn’t cuff her
legs, and was grateful he had either forgotten or didn’t have the balls for
it.   She could at least walk with her
back straight and proud, unhindered by a ball and chain.          
                The cuffs
on her hands were loose and she noticed that she could probably slip her hands
out if she wanted to.   As tempting as an
escape attempt was, she felt it would be shameful to be brought to her
execution kicking and screaming.   Besides,
if she ran they would certainly catch her, and she would just be prolonging her
terrible end.  
                She held
her chin high as she walked, sorry that no one had come to say his or her
goodbyes.   Justice would die as she had
been living—alone and unconventionally.   She was finally getting her punishment from God for the only
cold-blooded murder she had ever committed, the one in the rectory, Chastity’s
vengeance.   Every other man she had
killed had been killed in self-defense.  
                As she
walked, she thought of her sisters, and the nuns, and Heath, and even Jeremiah.   She wished she could have thanked Heath again,
and she wondered if he would ever find out how she died and why.   For a moment, she spotted a man in the crowd
and thought it was him.   When she looked again
the phantom was gone.   Sighing, she knew
her mind was trying to bring her comfort so near the end of her life.  
                Her feet
felt like lead as she stumbled, shaking, up the stairs.   The noose hung, swaying in the breeze.   Soon she would be what caused it to sway.   She began to shake so hard her teeth
rattled.   The jailer put his hand on her
arm, giving her a small smile.   She saw
the pity and understanding in his eyes and it made her want to burst into
tears.   Not wanting to give the good
townspeople of
Austin
even more of a show, she suppressed the urge and stood, tall and proud, ready
to face her eternal punishment after the