Read Online Orphan Maker by D Jordan Redhawk - Free Book Online Page A

afterthought, she put her hand out to stop the closing of the door. “Thank you.”
    Heather nodded. “Of course. Welcome to the family.” She softly shut the door.
    Gwen looked around in curiosity. A comfortable looking queen bed stood in the far corner from the door, a wooden nightstand keeping it company. At the foot of the bed was a polished chest that picked up the candlelight and gleamed back at her. To her left hulked a floor-to-ceiling piece of furniture with two small drawers underneath and cabinet doors above. To her right were a chest of drawers, and a vanity with a mirror. A large porcelain pitcher and bowl stood on the vanity, as well as a brush and comb. Hanging above the dresser were two shotguns, and a combination bow with a quiver of arrows.
    She ignored the archaic weapons for something more important—the inviting bed. Gwen hoped Loomis wouldn’t be so uptight as to make her sleep on the floor. She moved across the room, stumbling as her toes met a braided rug that lay in the middle of the floor. A hurricane lamp stood on the nightstand. She lifted the glass chimney and used the candle to light it, the glow from the wick considerably brightening the room. Also on the nightstand were a book and a framed photograph.
    She picked up the frame to get a better look. It was a picture of a large family, taken in front of the cabin. There was no greenhouse in evidence and she wondered if that was something added after the plague. Peering at the photo, she saw a crowd of redheads of all ages. The older man and woman had to be their ’rents; she saw their resemblance in almost all the children. There were four boys and one girl. Loomis looked to be about thirteen years old, just on the verge of maturity, all gawky and gangly. Her grin was mischievous as she held the little boy, Rick, in a headlock. The three other boys were older than she, ranging in age from sixteen to twenty, and all had the trademark auburn hair of their mother. Gwen felt tears sting her eyes. She didn’t have any pictures of her ’rents. When she had left home to hang with her surviving school friends, she’d been too angry with her parents for leaving her, wanting nothing to do with them.
    The door opened, and she hastily set the frame down, forcing her tears back. “Nice looking family.”
    Loomis nodded and closed the door behind her. She stood at the door for a moment, and Gwen wondered if she were going to be sleeping on the couch instead.
    “Which side do you want?”
    The bed was against the wall. Gwen breathed a sigh of relief. No floor and no couch; things were looking up. “I don’t care.”
    Loomis frowned. “I like to read before sleep.”
    “Then I’ll take the inside so you can have the lamp.”
    “Okay.”
    This was the first time they had been alone since Gwen had jumped Loomis’s shit in the summer kitchen. Loomis hadn’t exactly been avoiding her, but Gwen could tell she wanted to be somewhere else. Maybe she thought Gwen was a renegade, somebody who didn’t give a damn about anyone or anything. Gwen decided it was good that Loomis was wary of her. For now she had gotten her point across that she was someone to be reckoned with, not a nobody to order around. She would work to get Loomis to trust her next, show her that she could be a productive member of the family, an equal. After that, she could work on the seduction.
    She folded the blanket she carried, laying it on the chest at the foot of the bed. Since she had no pajamas and she knew Loomis’s sense of modesty would be sorely tested, Gwen left her clothes on and climbed under the blankets on the bed. Her body shivered with pleasure at the sensation of clean sheets, and she inhaled the smell of soap from the cloth. The mattress was firm, yet it cradled her worn body like a lover. How long had it been since she had slept in a bed with no odor of mildew?
    Loomis still stood by the door, uncertainty in every line of her body. Gwen grinned to herself and