Read Online Her Bodyguard by Geralyn Dawson - Free Book Online Page B

I have an idea. You keep a sharp eye out for your daddy, now.”
    Mari threaded her way through the panicked crowd toward the park. She was halfway there when, with a loud crackle and roar, the dome of the Texas Spring Palace collapsed. Little Billy Waddle began to cry. “I want my daddy.”
    “I know just how you feel.”
    Anxiously, she scanned the park area. Of the seven other members of her family in attendance at the Texas Spring Palace tonight, surely someone recalled Papa’s instructions. Surely, someone would be there. Someone would be…
    “Mama!”
    Jenny McBride whirled around at the sound of her daughter’s voice. Joy lit her face as she spread her arms wide. “Mari! Thank God.”
    Tears spilled from both women’s eyes as they embraced. “What about the others, Mama? Where are the others?”
    “Isn’t Billy with you?”
    “No.”
    “Oh.” Jenny drew back, a wobble in both her voice and her forced smile. “Emma took Tom and Bobby home. Your papa is looking for you and Billy and Kat. I’m sure he’ll arrive with them in tow any moment. And who is this handsome fellow?”
    Kat and Billy. Mari’s troubled focus shifted toward the burning building. She swallowed hard, then summoned a casual tone to say, “This is Billy Waddell. He got separated from his father in the crowd, and he’s going to wait with us until his papa finds him.” To the boy, she said, “Once when my brothers were younger they stole a lady’s petticoat off the clothesline and ran it up the flagpole outside the county courthouse. Everyone in town saw it. I’ll bet if we send your jacket up this one, your papa will find you real quick.”
    “That’s a wonderful idea,” Jenny agreed as a shifting wind brought a cloud of gray smoke billowing over them. They coughed, and their eyes stung. They shifted position as little Billy said, “That stinks like the dump.”
    The smell was bitter and acrid and awful—the aroma of destruction. Mari thought she’d remember this stench all her life.
    The pulley on the flagpole squeaked as Jenny lowered the Lone Star banner while Mari helped the boy take off his jacket. Jenny produced a pair of safety pins from the hem of her skirt, frowned and said, “I think we’ll need another. Hand me one of yours.”
    A seamstress, Jenny had taught her girls always to be prepared. Mari turned up the hem of her dress and removed one of her extra pins.
    They secured the distinctive jacket through the grommets in the Lone Star flag and ran both objects up the pole. To give him a better view of the crowd, they lifted Billy to sit at one corner of the pole’s square granite base. While he watched for his father, Jenny and Mari leaned against the base and continued their own vigil. “What happened, Mama?” Mari asked. “What started the fire?”
    “I don’t know. Your father and I were dancing when the band director abruptly halted the music and announced the building was being evacuated due to a fire in the southeast wing.
    The southeast wing? Mari’s heart climbed to her throat. Oh, God.
    “There was a stir,” Jenny continued, “a few panicky people, but for the most part, the crowd moved in an orderly manner. I was in a terror over you children, of course. The boys were supposed to be in the next room, the Texas History exhibit, but I knew better than to believe they’d actually be where they said they’d be. We had headed that way when Emma found us and told us she’d seen the two younger boys run outside. That’s when the boiler exploded and knocked us all to the ground. What about you, Mari? Where were you?”
    “I’d left,” Mari replied. “I was at the store making a batch of cookies when I heard the explosion.”
    “Cookies? You left a dress ball early to go make cookies? Oh, dear.” Jenny touched her daughter’s arm. “What happened, honey? Did that rat-bounder Alexander Simpson say something to you? I saw him here tonight. You know, I do believe his hairline is beginning to