Read Online The Ruby Brooch (The Celtic Brooch Trilogy) by Katherine Logan - Free Book Online Page B

magician pulling surprises out of the air. “That’s exactly what I meant.” Pretending to be a nineteenth-century widow wasn’t going to be easy with a precocious child posing questions faster than Tabor could skedaddle from a room. “I’m going for a ride this morning, but this afternoon we can read, if you’d like.”
    “Can Elizabeth read too?”
    “Sure.” Kit hoped Frances’s reading was better than her writing.
    With a bubble of excitement, Frances ran off with Tabor pouncing on her heels. The cat needed more attention than Kit had given him. Maybe he would be over his depression by the time they returned home. Maybe she’d feel better too.
    She finished grooming Stormy, slipped on a pair of wool trousers under her dress so she could ride astride, and then helped Sarah prepare picnic baskets with the family’s lunch. When all was ready, Elizabeth and Frances, along with Tate and Tabor, climbed in the back of the buckboard.
    “We’re ready, Ma,” Elizabeth said.
    Sarah glanced at Kit. “You ready?”
    “I’m going to take Stormy and ride ahead. I’ll meet you in a couple of hours.” Sarah wore disapproval in the tight set of her jaw, but before she could voice it, Kit escaped again.
     
     
    NOT FAR FROM town, Kit found a bluff overlooking the trail. A breeze rustled the underbrush along the switchback she followed to the top. A twig snapped. A tree fluttered its budding branches. A bird sang. Nature’s quiet symphony.
    Turn down the volume on the silence.
    If that wasn’t a song, it should be. At least it wasn’t the eerie silence she’d heard the night Scott died in her arms. No other sound in all of creation compared to the last whisper of breath. A shiver rolled up the length of her body. She shifted in the saddle. If she fell into an emotional quagmire on her first full day living in 1852, she might as well quit and go home because she’d be of no use to anyone.
    She stiffened her spine and focused on the scene unfolding below her.
    The wagons' white bonnets shimmered in the morning sun, and the wind, blowing across the long grass, created an illusion of schooners sailing over the ocean. The view made her drawing fingers itch. She grabbed her pencils and journal from the saddlebag and within moments became lost in her work.
    “If a man’s dream could be painted, you’re looking at a masterpiece.” 
    Adrenalin exploded in her body. The journal and pencils flew from her hands. She jerked around to find Cullen reining his horse alongside her. “Damn, you scared me.” 
    His expression changed from surprise to smoky in a single heartbeat. “You shouldn’t be up here by yourself.” He dismounted, slow and easy. “It’s not safe.” He picked up the journal and pencils, then he handed them over.
    “I appreciate your concern, but—”
    “—You can take care of yourself.”
    “Exactly.”
    He withdrew a cheroot from his pocket and put a match to the cigar. “Out here we need each other. Where we’re going, we’ll need each other more.”
    A flock of honking geese, flying in V formation, pulled their gazes toward the sky.
    Cullen puffed, and wisps of smoke formed a halo around his head. “There’re lessons to learn from geese.”
    “What? Fly high enough not to get shot?”
    The corner of his lip twitched. “That’s one.”
    They remained silent for a moment or two, then he said, “The flock works as a team. If a bird falls out of formation, he soon realizes he can’t fly by himself and gets back in line. If one gets sick and drops from the flock, two others fly with him to the ground and wait until he gets better or dies.”
    She cocked her head, giving him a sideways glance. “Is that true?”
    “The birds share a common goal, Mrs. MacKlenna, a common direction. And they’ll get where they’re going quicker than one bird could get there on its own.”
    “I sense you’re not just talking about birds.”
    He returned her gaze. The look in his dark blue eyes