Read Online Moonlight Dancer by Mona Ingram - Free Book Online Page A

looked at the spot where the teapot had been. She hadn’t imagined it, she was certain of that. Her thoughts raced. There was nothing to be gained from arguing with her aunt. Besides, she wanted to learn more. She shrugged. “That must be it. It’s really pretty. Is the lid around somewhere?”
    Janelle sat back, tapping her fingernails on the side of her coffee cup. “There’s never been one. Not in my lifetime, anyway.” She fingered her braid. “There’s a story about that little teapot. Mom told me when I was about your age. At the time I thought it was terribly romantic. Now that I’m older, I’m not so sure.”
    Charlie leaned forward eagerly.
    “It belonged to your namesake.” Janelle’s gaze wandered around the kitchen, as though viewing it from a great distance. “Her name was Charlotte Freeman. She would be your great, great aunt. Your great-grandmother’s sister.”
    Charlie’s pulse started to race. “Did she live here?”
    “Yes. According to family history, she fell in love with a cowboy from Montana.” She brightened. “As a matter of fact, they met at the dance hall. Anyway, he arrived the summer of her eighteenth birthday and worked at a couple of the big ranches in the valley. Then he went off to earn money in the rodeos. He was thrown from a horse and killed.”
    Charlie gasped aloud, but Janelle didn’t seem to hear.
    “The story goes that when they told her about the accident, she was holding the teapot. She didn’t say a word, but started to tremble all over and dropped the lid. She went up to the attic and they couldn’t get her to come down for days.”
    Charlie was beginning to understand. “It’s romantic and sad at the same time.”
    “That’s not all.” Janelle shook her head. “She and the cowboy had wanted to get married, but her mother and father refused. On the very day she got the news about his death, they had planned to meet at the dance hall and elope. And get this: there was a full moon; they’d planned it that way so they could travel at night and get as far away as possible.” Janelle’s eyes filled with tears. “She went back to the dance hall every time there was a full moon. That is, until she finally died of a broken heart.”
    “And she never married.”
    “No.” Janelle was silent for a moment, her gaze fixed on Charlie’s face. “You know, you look quite a bit like her.”
    “I do?” Charlie’s heart started to beat faster.
    “Quite a lot, actually. That’s her picture in the upstairs hallway.”
    “That young woman? She’s beautiful.”
    Janelle cocked her head to one side and studied Charlie as though she were a chunk of granite she was about to sculpt. “If you pulled back your hair, you’d resemble her even more.” She jumped up and rummaged in a drawer. “I have a hairbrush in here somewhere. Oh, here it is.” She stopped, brush in hand. “Do you mind?”
    Charlie was uneasy, but curiosity won. “Okay.”
    With a few quick strokes Janelle pulled back Charlie’s hair and gathered it into a twist at the nape of her neck. “It’s a bit on the curly side but here, have a look and you’ll get the idea.” Janelle handed her a mirror.
    Charlie examined the image in the mirror. The hairstyle changed her looks completely. Her face appeared longer, more elegant, and the upswept hair emphasized her long neck.
    “I guess I do look a bit like her.” She eventually tore her eyes away from the mirror. “Those are her trunks in the attic, aren’t they?”
    Janelle nodded slowly. “I’d almost forgotten about those. I’ll admit that when I first heard the story I thought it must have been exaggerated over time, but seeing those trunks all packed and ready go to, I believe it. She really must have loved him.”
    “How in the world would she have got out of here with those big things?”
    “The story goes that after they met at the dance hall, they planned to come here, collect her trunks and head for Montana.”
    “But what