Read Online Messenger by Moonlight by Stephanie Grace Whitson - Free Book Online Page B

mind, we’ll ride together.”
    “I don’t mind—but I don’t trust that black devil, either.”
    Ira stepped up and put a hand on Shadow’s neck as he looked up at Annie. “Soon as you’re back in St. Jo., Fern will put in a good word for you at the Patee House. If you still want it, that is.”
    “I will,” Annie said. “Please thank her for me. Tell her not to forget me.”
    “That’s not likely to happen.”
    “And thank you for your part in these.” She took one foot out of the stirrup and wiggled her new boot.
    “Glad to do it. Those mules have perked up a bit since they had a chance to rest.” He smiled up at her. “If you was of a mind to brighten an old man’s day now and again, I wouldn’t mind hearing how you’re getting on.”
    Annie promised to write. Bidding Ira good-bye, Frank nudged Outlaw forward. Annie followed his lead. As she reined Shadow to turn west at the corner, she took one last look back up the hill toward the Patee House.
    Frank noticed. His voice was gentle as he said, “We’ll be back before you know it. Blue trim and window boxes. Fruit trees and a blackberry bramble. And lots of flowers. I promise.”
    Annie nodded. She reached up to touch the place where two keys hung on a velvet ribbon. One key to preserve her past. The other to guard the future.
Two good things.

    When the steam-powered ferry transporting the Pony Express train across the Missouri had banged and whistled its way to the middle of the muddy river, Annie turned her back on St. Jo. and faced the opposite side, all the while murmuring comfort to Shadow. She wasn’t sure whom the constant stream of conversation helped more, herself or the horse.
    Shadow followed her off the ferry and onto dry land willingly, whickering and touching noses with Outlaw the minute the two were reunited. Frank helped Annie back into the saddle and mounted up himself. Luther would ride the taller of a pair of gray roans named Big Boy and Andy. The horses were the designated “wheelers,” meaning they were positioned nearest the fully loaded freight wagon. Four mules would provide the power needed to haul the massive freight wagon along the trail.
    As the sun burned away the last remnants of the early morning fog lingering in the dips and valleys, the Pony Express train wound its way through several miles of bottomland thick with trees, many of them festooned with the dried remnants of last season’s wild vines and creepers. Annie and Shadow loped alongside Frank and Outlaw, with Emmet and Jake and their respective strings of ponies moving more slowly alongside the freight wagon. Several lighter immigrant wagons, each one pulled by only two teams of oxen, had made the river crossing just behind them. When Annie glanced back and saw the string of white wagon covers gleaming in the morning sun, she felt reassured.
    Luther noticed the backward glance. “You already thinking about making a run for it?”
    “Nope.” Annie nodded toward the wagons. “I didn’t realize we’d have company.”
    Luther looked behind them. “They won’t keep up. But we still won’t be alone. We’ll catch up to another train before long, and if we pass them, there’ll be another. You’ll see.”
    By noon, they’d outstripped the wagon train behind them. In keeping with Luther’s prediction, it wasn’t long before more covered wagons appeared in the distance. He called Annie’s attention to them. “Looks like sailboats gliding over a sea of grass, don’t it?”
    “You’ve seen the ocean?”
    Luther winked. “Yes, Ma’am, I have. Seen it and sailed on it for a while. Grew up on a little finger of land that sticks out into a lake so big some folks thought it was another ocean when they first saw it. Of course it ain’t nothin’ compared to the Atlantic.”
    “And you came here,” Annie said. “To this.” She motioned toward the empty horizon.
    “Yes, Ma’am, I did. Got sick and tired of fish and salty air. Decided to get as far