Read Online Sunflower by Jill Marie Landis - Free Book Online

robbed me, left me to die ... but you didn’t.”
    She opened her mouth to protest, but Caleb ignored her. “I’d like to stay for a while and help around here, to pay you back for your kindness. There’s plenty of repair work to be done, chores that your grandfather can’t handle. I’d like to leave knowing I’ve been able to help you in some way.”
    “Mr. Storm, I really don’t think—”
    “I’ll be on my best behavior, Miss Van Meeteren. I promise to keep my clothes on, too.” A slow smile spread across his face, erasing the concern she had seen shadowing his eyes. Clean-shaven, with his thick hair still damp and swept back away from his face at forehead and temples, Caleb Storm’s rugged handsomeness was suddenly all too apparent to Analisa. She realized as she stood gauging the depth of his sincerity, that she had not thought of him as handsome, at least not in the way she judged other men. Caleb Storm’s dark hair and the cinnamon cast of his skin only enhanced his strong features. His deep blue eyes added mystery to the man. People would always wonder what manner of a man he was, where he was from. He was so very unlike the other handsome men Analisa had known—the blond, ruddy-skinned Dutchmen of her family, and the other immigrants who had traveled with them on the journey west. Although Caleb Storm was the opposite of those men, she was drawn to him, to this shadowy stranger who’d ridden into her life as storm clouds gathered.
    Hypnotized by his steady blue stare, Analisa relaxed her guard slightly, shining her weight as she placed one hand on the organ.
    “I don’t often apologize.” He smiled again and waited for her response.
    “I can tell that you don’t, Mr. Storm. It seems a very hard thing for you to do.” She took a deep breath and continued, “So it seems to me that I must apologize also. I did not mean to accuse you unjustly about ... about undressing in front of my son.” She felt her face flame and fought the urge to cover her cheeks with her palms. “But he is so innocent, so trusting. I’m afraid life will not be easy for Kase.”
    “You can’t protect him forever, Analisa. You may do him more harm than good.”
    “I will try to protect him for as long as I can.” When she looked away, lost in thought, Caleb moved toward the door.
    “I’ll change into my clothes in the cow shed. I assume you’ve accepted my apology and my offer to help out?”
    “Ja —yes,” she said, immediately correcting herself. “The next two weeks will be busy for me, with Mevrou Heusinkveld’s dress to complete. Your help and your apology are accepted, Mr. Storm.”
    “I’d like it if you would call me Caleb.”
    She nodded, watching as Caleb Storm stepped out into the yard. As she went across the room to fill the stove with buffalo chips and scraps of wood, Analisa hoped she was not making a mistake.
    Stars peppered the sky from horizon to horizon, some clustered together, others hanging alone, all sending their fiery light from distances Caleb knew he could never fathom. His mother’s people told stories about the stars, stories as old as time, as old perhaps as the stars themselves. Someday he would write the stories down, translate them from the language of the Sioux into English so as to save them for the day when the Sioux were no more. If he had the time.
    He shook his head, chiding himself as he lay on the ground, his head resting on the smooth, worn leather of his saddle. He was two weeks behind schedule already, and still he stayed at the Van Meeteren home, mending fences, rebuilding the henhouse, repairing the small wagon that was little more than a cart. With each task he completed, he told himself it was time to leave, but when he tried to say good-bye to Analisa, her cornflower-blue eyes stopped him. Instead of leaving, he would hear himself telling her what project he intended to take on next.
    At first Caleb had told himself he was only biding his time until he