Read Online Little Vampire Women by Lynn Messina - Free Book Online Page A

and cap.
    Jo heard Amy stamping her feet and blowing on her fingers as she tried to put her skates on, but Jo never turned and went slowly zigzagging down the river, taking a bitter, unhappy sort of satisfaction in her sister’s troubles. She had cherished her anger till it grew strong and took possession of her, as evil thoughts and feelings always do unless cast out at once. As Laurie turned the bend, he shouted back…
    “Keep near the shore. It isn’t safe in the middle.” Jo heard, but Amy was struggling to her feet and did not catch a word. Jo glanced over her shoulder, and the little demon she was harboring said in her ear…
    “No matter whether she heard or not, let her take care of herself. Besides, a little cold water won’t hurt her.”
    Laurie had vanished round the bend, Jo was just at the turn, and Amy, far behind, striking out toward the smoother ice in the middle of the river. For a minute Jo stood still with a strange feeling in her heart, then she resolved to go on, but something held and turned her round, just in time to see Amy throw up her hands and go down, with a sudden crash of rotten ice, into the river, whose current was suddenly swift and strong and carrying Amy toward a large sharp branch hanging just above the water. Jo’s heart stood still with fear. Shetried to call Laurie, but her voice was gone. She tried to rush forward, but her feet seemed to have no strength in them, and for a second, she could only stand motionless, staring with a terror-stricken face at the little blue hood careening toward the branch. Something rushed swiftly by her, and Laurie’s voice cried out…
    “Get her. Quick, quick!”
    How she did it, she never knew, but for the next few seconds, she worked possessed, blindly obeying Laurie, who was quite self-possessed, and diving into the river and dragging Amy under the branch that would have staked them both, barely missing it by half an inch, then pulling her safely to shore, where Laurie grabbed the child, more frightened than hurt.
    “Now then, we must walk you home as fast as we can. Pile our things on, while I get off these confounded skates,” cried Laurie, wrapping his coat round Amy, and tugging away at the straps which never seemed so intricate before, aware but unable to fully comprehend in the moment that the girls were immune from cold.
    Dripping, and crying, bloody tears mixing with streaming water, they got Amy home, and after an exciting time of it, she fell asleep. During the bustle Jo had scarcely spoken but flown about, looking wild, with her things half off, her dress torn, and her hands blue from immersion in ice. When Amy was comfortably asleep, the house quiet, and Mrs. March sitting by the coffin, she called Jo to her and rubbed her daughter’s frozen hands.
    “Are you sure she is safe?” whispered Jo, lookingremorsefully at the golden head, which might have been swept away from her sight forever by the treacherous branch.
    “Quite safe, dear. She is not hurt, thanks to your swift action,” replied her mother cheerfully.
    “Laurie did it all. I only let her go, then froze in shock. Mother, if she had died, it would have been my fault.” And Jo dropped down beside the coffin in a passion of penitent tears, telling all that had happened, bitterly condemning her hardness of heart, and sobbing out her gratitude for being spared the heavy punishment which might have come upon her.
    “It’s my dreadful temper! I try to cure it, I think I have, and then it breaks out worse than ever. Oh, Mother, what shall I do? What shall I do?” cried poor Jo, in despair.
    “Watch and pray, dear, never get tired of trying, and never think it is impossible to conquer your fault,” said Mrs. March, drawing the blowzy head to her shoulder and kissing the wet cheek so tenderly that Jo cried even harder.
    “You don’t know, you can’t guess how bad it is! It seems as if I could do anything when I’m in a passion. I get so savage, I could hurt anyone