Read Online House on Diablo Road: Resurrection Day (The McCann Family Saga Book 3) by Jeanie Freeman- Harper - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Jeanie Freeman- Harper
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her close to him and tilted her chin to search for any doubt that may have hidden in her eyes. “It’s all going to be different very soon,” he told her. “I imagine you sitting on the veranda, bouncing a baby who just happens to have your gray eyes and upturned nose and wild curls.”
“ Now Nate, don’t you talk about bouncing babies just yet,” she laughed. “Right now I need to check on the boys for Mama. They were playing horseshoes last I saw them. Will you come to me to the clearing? ”
“ To the clearing...to the ends of the earth...if you will only stay here in this orchard with me one minute longer.”
Before she could object, he tilted her face up to his and silenced her with a kiss. “Don’t be afraid. I will be the best husband you could ever ask for. I’ll love you, protect you, and I'll never let you go.”
A small voice in her head told her it was not she who would need convincing.
***
Oblivious to the goings-on at the fairgrounds and their sister’s engagement, Tobias and Calvin had thrown horseshoes until they had become bored—until a cotton tail rabbit popped out of its hole. Cal set out after it.
“ Leave it alone!” Tobi shouted. “Mama doesn’t want us hunting rabbits.”
“ I ain't aiming to kill it. I’m aiming to tame it.”
“ Ain't ain't no word neither.”
It seemed as if that rabbit was meant to cross the boys path that day, because that one innocent game of chase would be the next step in a discovery that would turn the town on its head.
The boys ran happily through the woods, unaware of how far they had gone. When the cotton tail ran into the deepest part of the thicket, the boys struggled through underbrush and trees and jumped logs in an effort to keep up. Both were laughing breathlessly at what had become a game. As time passed, they lost sight of the rabbit when it scurried into a hole and disappeared. The game had ended, and they found themselves lost in a densely wooded wilderness. “Which way do we go to get back?” a big-eyed Tobi asked.
“ I don’t know. I guess we got turned around somehow. Everything looks the same. We didn't come in a straight line. Now I don’t know which way we started from.”
They wandered first one way and then another, until Cal decided to go straight in one direction, in hopes of coming to a house or a road. Nearly an hour later, they came upon an old shack. The bushes had grown up over its windows and the porch was falling, and the rotting boards looked as if they had never been painted. Nevertheless, there was a water well out front, and they needed to quench their thirst. As they lifted the gourd filled with cold water, the screen door creaked opened, and an elderly woman appeared.
“ Help yourselves to all the water you want, and come on in and sit a spell,” she said. “Nobody's happened upon this old place for several years. Come in the kitchen. I got me some peach fried pies coming out of the skillet. Canned the fruit last summer. Beat the possums to ‘em.”
The woman opened the screen door, and the aroma of spiced fruit and fried pastry wafted out to fill their nostrils. Reacting to the gnawing hunger in their bellies, the boys hesitated only for a moment.
Inside was very little furniture, except for cane bottom chairs and an old fashioned settee whose springs had long since given up any pretense of support. There were no pictures on the wall, except for an old framed photograph of a group of plantation workers in front of a house Tobi immediately recognized. In the foreground, dozens of field hands posed with solemn faces in the style of early photography. In the back row was a young man who looked vaguely familiar. On the front row sat a dark skinned pretty girl in her late teens, holding a baby boy with curly black hair. In contrast to the others, his eyes seemed unusually pale. Seeing the boys’ curious expressions, the woman pointed at the mother and baby. “That’s me when I still had my
“ Now Nate, don’t you talk about bouncing babies just yet,” she laughed. “Right now I need to check on the boys for Mama. They were playing horseshoes last I saw them. Will you come to me to the clearing? ”
“ To the clearing...to the ends of the earth...if you will only stay here in this orchard with me one minute longer.”
Before she could object, he tilted her face up to his and silenced her with a kiss. “Don’t be afraid. I will be the best husband you could ever ask for. I’ll love you, protect you, and I'll never let you go.”
A small voice in her head told her it was not she who would need convincing.
***
Oblivious to the goings-on at the fairgrounds and their sister’s engagement, Tobias and Calvin had thrown horseshoes until they had become bored—until a cotton tail rabbit popped out of its hole. Cal set out after it.
“ Leave it alone!” Tobi shouted. “Mama doesn’t want us hunting rabbits.”
“ I ain't aiming to kill it. I’m aiming to tame it.”
“ Ain't ain't no word neither.”
It seemed as if that rabbit was meant to cross the boys path that day, because that one innocent game of chase would be the next step in a discovery that would turn the town on its head.
The boys ran happily through the woods, unaware of how far they had gone. When the cotton tail ran into the deepest part of the thicket, the boys struggled through underbrush and trees and jumped logs in an effort to keep up. Both were laughing breathlessly at what had become a game. As time passed, they lost sight of the rabbit when it scurried into a hole and disappeared. The game had ended, and they found themselves lost in a densely wooded wilderness. “Which way do we go to get back?” a big-eyed Tobi asked.
“ I don’t know. I guess we got turned around somehow. Everything looks the same. We didn't come in a straight line. Now I don’t know which way we started from.”
They wandered first one way and then another, until Cal decided to go straight in one direction, in hopes of coming to a house or a road. Nearly an hour later, they came upon an old shack. The bushes had grown up over its windows and the porch was falling, and the rotting boards looked as if they had never been painted. Nevertheless, there was a water well out front, and they needed to quench their thirst. As they lifted the gourd filled with cold water, the screen door creaked opened, and an elderly woman appeared.
“ Help yourselves to all the water you want, and come on in and sit a spell,” she said. “Nobody's happened upon this old place for several years. Come in the kitchen. I got me some peach fried pies coming out of the skillet. Canned the fruit last summer. Beat the possums to ‘em.”
The woman opened the screen door, and the aroma of spiced fruit and fried pastry wafted out to fill their nostrils. Reacting to the gnawing hunger in their bellies, the boys hesitated only for a moment.
Inside was very little furniture, except for cane bottom chairs and an old fashioned settee whose springs had long since given up any pretense of support. There were no pictures on the wall, except for an old framed photograph of a group of plantation workers in front of a house Tobi immediately recognized. In the foreground, dozens of field hands posed with solemn faces in the style of early photography. In the back row was a young man who looked vaguely familiar. On the front row sat a dark skinned pretty girl in her late teens, holding a baby boy with curly black hair. In contrast to the others, his eyes seemed unusually pale. Seeing the boys’ curious expressions, the woman pointed at the mother and baby. “That’s me when I still had my
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