Read Online Sunflower by Jill Marie Landis - Free Book Online Page B

much she kept locked inside herself, he found the quiet mystery surrounding her only made her more appealing to him.
    The smooth leather creaked as he shifted his head on the hard surface of the saddle. The fire had died to a low mound of glowing embers. Dawn would come early and with it another chance to talk with Analisa, to watch that quick smile light her eyes, to hear her soft laughter as she watched Kase at play.
    You’d better get riding, Storm, he mentally warned himself, knowing he would have to leave soon or he might not leave at all.
    The kerosene lamp flared and sputtered, smoke trailing up the glass chimney. Analisa folded the material she’d been stitching and extinguished the lamp. She moved through the darkened room to the window and glanced out at the quiet yard. Nothing moved in the darkness beyond the glass panes. In one corner of the room, Opa snored softly. Analisa rolled her head from side to side, kneading the tight muscles at the base of her neck.
    Since Caleb had begun helping with the outdoor work, she was able to devote more time to the sewing orders she received, happy to relegate the farming tasks to his capable hands. It would be difficult to adjust when he left and she was forced to resume the chores. Analisa was surprised at how much the man had accomplished in so little time. He’d set Kase and Opa working at jobs Analisa had always done herself for fear that the boy and the old man would find them too taxing. She quickly learned that Kase was more than capable of gathering eggs and weeding the garden. Kase’s attention often drifted from the task at hand, but Caleb praised him for the work he accomplished and taught him how to do a fairly good job. Although Edvard could not understand much of what Caleb said, the two men were able to work side by side, making their wishes known to each other.
    Analisa moved closer to her bed and reached across Kase, who was sound asleep on his pallet on the floor. She changed into her nightgown, then stepped carefully over the sleeping boy and climbed into bed.
    Stars burned in the heavens outside her window. Analisa lay awake, watching them hanging against the midnight sky. She felt too exhausted to sleep. It was strange, she thought, how quickly she fell asleep after working outside, while sewing all day only led to cramped shoulders and restlessness. Closing her weary eyes, she shut out the sight of the star-spattered sky and tried to relax, but sleep did not come. Instead, somewhere between sleep and full consciousness, the nightmares began to appear in her mind, scenes from the past that Analisa could not forget. Her memory would not let go of them. She often managed to live for weeks at peace, but then suddenly the memories would return to tear apart all of her well-constructed defenses.
    Suddenly she saw them all again: Jan, his body twisted in death, his blood soaking the ground; Papa, staring with unseeing eyes into the blue prairie sky; Meika, screaming for Analisa’s help before dark hands reached into the wagon bed to carry the girl away; and little Pieter, only eight years old, eyes wide with fear as he sat on a racing pony, held in the grip of his captor.
    Her heart began to pound as the scenes flashed rapidly behind her shuttered eyes. The sight of the dark man standing over her in the wagon bed, the feel of his rough hands as they tore at her clothes, the sound of her own cries, harsh and shrill, reverberated through her mind until finally she could almost feel the white-hot searing pain of the knife that slid into her flesh when he was through with her body. Her struggling had saved her life, but the blade had grazed her ribs, leaving the crescent-shaped slash that curled down from her right breast almost to her waist.
    Analisa forced her eyes open. She was breathing heavily, as if she’d been running for her life; her mouth was dry. She sat up, listening for a sound from Kase or Opa, afraid she might have cried out. They were still