Read Online The Bridal Veil by Alexis Harrington - Free Book Online

something I did, but I
don’t know what.”
    He took her slender elbow and steered
her toward a rough, weather-bleached bench that leaned against the
barn wall. “Here, sit down.” He put the basket at her feet and
stood in front of her, ready to bawl her out for straying into
danger. God, he’d known her less than twenty-four hours, and she’d
already caused more trouble than he usually had in a week. “Cora is
the only one who knows how to handle that mean old biddy. She
should have stopped you from coming out here.” He put one foot next
to her on the bench and leaned his arm on his knee.
    Emily gazed at the backs of her
scratched hands, which shook mightily. “I asked her to let me help
with breakfast and she gave me the basket. She said not to break
the eggs, and I dropped them—”
    “ You mean she sent you?” A
hazy suspicion began to take shape in Luke’s mind but he backed
away from it, as he often did when he thought of Cora’s
machinations. If he pondered it too long, he’d end up having to
talk to her about this stunt she’d pulled on Emily. And that would
turn into another disagreement.
    She reached into her pocket and dabbed
at her hands and face with a black-edged handkerchief. He could see
that she struggled for dignity, but damn, it was a pretty long
reach when a person was bleeding and spotted with chicken shit.
Then she looked up at him, her spring-green eyes vivid with a fear
that he could almost feel himself. “Yes, I wanted to be useful. I’m
capable, I can help. After last night and everything that went
wrong . . . ”
    And kept going wrong, as far as Luke
could tell. He rubbed the back of his tense neck. “Look, you go
inside and get cleaned up. Don’t worry about helping.” He started
to walk away.
    “ Mr. Becker,
wait.”
    He turned and waited.
    “ I-I was hoping to talk to
you about Rose’s education. I know she needs guidance, but I’d like
to know if you have something specific in mind. I’ve formulated a
basic plan.”
    He glanced at the harrow, idle in the
yard, the rock still jammed in its workings. Daylight didn’t wait
for anyone, and he had another five acres to plow. “We can worry
about that later, too. For the time being, just stay out of
trouble. Can you make it back to the house? ”
    She gave him a chilly look, plucked up
the gooey egg basket, and rose from the bench, her movements still
shaky. “Yes, thank you, Mr. Becker. I shall manage well
enough.”
    With her back straight and her chin
lifted, she glided regally across the yard and toward the back
porch as if she were the lady of the manor.
    ~~*~*~*~~
    “ Well, Mrs. Becker, where
are those eggs?” Cora stood at the table, stirring what looked like
pancake batter. Her gaze took in Emily’s dishevelment, and Emily
knew by the twitch of her mouth the woman was trying not to laugh.
She also realized that this was exactly the result Cora had been
expecting. Rose sat at the table, dressed in boys’s overalls, her
hair barely brushed, eating a bowl of mush. She stared at Emily
with her jaw agape, as if she’d never seen her before.
    “ I’m very sorry, Mrs.
Hayward, there will be no eggs today.” Emily left the slime-covered
basket on the kitchen table and walked toward the stairs, bent on
reaching the privacy of her room to survey the damage done by the
hen. In the stairwell, she heard muffled snorts that gave way to
braying laughter coming from the kitchen. Oh, Cora had enjoyed a
fine joke at her expense, hadn’t she? Though Emily had been the
butt of people’s thoughtlessness and sniggering during her life,
their cruelty never ceased to amaze her. Did they believe the
victims of their pranks and comments had no feelings? Or did they
simply not care?
    In her own room, Emily sat on the
brocade-covered bench at the dressing table and looked into the
foot-square mirror mounted over it. Oh, God, it was worse than
she’d realized outside, and Luke had seen her like this. Her hair
could be neatened