Read Online Pieces of Dreams by Jennifer Blake - Free Book Online Page B

off.”
    “Good idea,” Biddy returned with alacrity. “Let's stroll along the levee a way.” She waited expectantly for volunteers.
    Esther rolled her eyes at her. “Don't be daft.”
    “Melly will come,” the smaller woman said as she turned in her direction. “Won't you?”
    Reaching up to smother a yawn, Melly said, “Maybe, in a little while.”
    Biddy glanced around at the others lounging here and there on the quilts, her gaze hopeful. “Doesn’t anybody want to walk?”
    Aunt Dora groaned as if even the suggestion were excruciatingly painful. No one else answered.
    They were eleven in number. Besides Melly, her aunt, Caleb and Conrad, there were the four bridesmaids, Biddy, Esther, Lydia and Sarah. Aunt Dora's boarder, Mr. Prine had somehow attached himself to the party. Esther had invited Reverend Milken as well, since he was at loose ends and always looked in need of a home-cooked meal. Sheriff Telford rounded out the group; he had happened by as Sarah was leaving the house, and she had asked him to come along.
    The extra men had been more than welcome, since Aunt Dora never skimped on food. The only problem, or so the older woman claimed with mock seriousness, was that the few poor souls remaining in town were left with no one to keep the peace or pray for them—supposing of course that anybody found the energy to get up to mischief. But that was unlikely, Aunt Dora pointed out, since they had the worst mischief-maker with them.
    She was referring to Conrad, though he appeared unlikely to cause trouble of any kind. He was stretched full length on the edge of the quilt near Melly. His eyes were closed, his gold-tipped lashes meshed, his head turned slightly toward her so his cheek rested on the hem of her skirt. He looked for all the world as if he were fast asleep.
    Caleb, on the other hand, was talking quietly with the preacher. Melly wondered if the discussion had to do with the wedding ceremony. The impulse to join them nudged her, but she couldn't quite make herself move. Besides, she didn't want to wake Conrad.
    A faint, far-off booming, different from the rocking of the old raft, caught at her attention. Glancing toward the southwest, she asked of no one in particular, “Was that thunder?”
    “Too far away to do any good, even if it was,” her aunt allowed with a sigh.
    Caleb glanced over at her and smiled a little, as if in agreement. As his gaze fell on the long form of his brother, however, a muscle tightened in his jaw. A moment later, he turned back to listen to something Reverend Milken was saying.
    Sarah appeared to notice the by-play from where she sat idly braiding a long silvery-blonde tress that had fallen forward onto her breast. Her gaze lingered on Caleb and her face softened in a way that startled Melly for an instant. Then the fleeting impression was gone as her cousin glanced at her and shook her head with a look of comical sympathy.
    The tall, blonde girl flung the strand of hair she was toying with back over her shoulder as she asked, “Did you get the binding sewn on the quilt?”
    “Yesterday afternoon,” Melly answered. Covering the edges with bias binding made from strips of blue material was the final step. “I brought it, of course, since the picnic is in its honor.”
    Aunt Dora waved in the general direction of the pile of cushions behind Melly. “It’s in the pillowcase there, I think.”
    Moving cautiously so as not to disturb the man sleeping so near, Melly reached for the stuffed pillowcase, then pulled the quilt from it and spread its silken folds. “Didn't it turn out well? I'm so proud of it.”
    “Lovely,” Biddy said. There was real feeling in her voice, and it was echoed by the others in turn, each in their own way.
    “It’s the most beautiful thing I've ever laid eyes on, is what it is,” Aunt Dora said in downright tribute. “And I've seen a plenty, believe you me.”
    Melly flushed at the praise. Still, the quilt really was glorious as it lay