Read Online Winter Fire by Elizabeth Lowell - Free Book Online

beans.”
    â€œReally? Do you think they grow in dirty pots? Is that why I had to wash out the pot and start today’s supper in the middle of last night?”
    Conner’s mouth flattened.
    Sarah regretted her sharp words the instant they were out of her mouth. Sighing, she wondered how parents managed to keep their tempers at all. One moment Conner acted as responsibly as any fully grown man. The next moment he was worse than a two-year-old.
    Yet she desperately needed to be able to count on him.
    That’s hardly fair to Conner , Sarah reminded herself. He’s only a boy .
    â€œSorry,” she said. “You were up half the night on watch.”
    Saying nothing, he scraped the last of the beans onto a plate. He knew he was in the wrong. He should have started the beans even if he was cross-eyed from lack of sleep. He had just plain forgotten.
    â€œI won’t forget again,” he muttered.
    â€œIt’s all right.”
    â€œNo, it ain’t.”
    â€œIsn’t,” she said automatically.
    â€œ Isn’t . Hell’s fire, what difference does it make? I’m not going to no— any —fancy Eastern school!”
    â€œYes, you are. Just as soon as I find that treasure.”
    â€œWe’ll all be dead as last year’s flowers before that happens. Besides, I don’t want to go.”
    â€œI’ll find the silver,” she said. “You’ll go.”
    Conner heard the stubbornness in his sister’s voice and changed the subject. Every time they talked about his lack of formal schooling, they argued. The older he got, the fiercer the arguments became.
    He didn’t want to hurt his sister, but he had no intention of going back East and leaving her to fend for herself. She would never admit that she needed him, but she did.
    He stalked out into the night to wash the pot in the creek.
    The vague whisper of goat hair being spun into yarn filled the silence. Sarah worked quickly and deftly, and tried not to think about the future.
    It was impossible.
    Conner is growing up too fast .
    Though she would have died sooner than admit it, she was frightened that she wouldn’t find the Spanish silver in time to save her young brother from the rootless life lived by too many Western men.
    And now I have those Culpeppers and Moody’s gang to worry about .
    She bit her bottom lip and kept on spinning without a pause.
    I’ll spend so much time looking over my shoulder that my only chance of finding the silver will be to trip over it on my way to the privy .
    Next time I’m out I’ll try the land north and west of the ranch. The outlaws don’t go there much. No reason to. In most of the canyons there’s no water, no forage, no hunting .
    No silver, either. Not yet .
    But there will be .
    There has to be .
    Despite her bleak thoughts, her fingers never stopped working. Conner’s wrists were hanging out of the last jacket Lola had woven for him. There was no money to buy another.
    Spinning and weaving, spinning and weaving , she thought. Lord, I wish all of life was so simple .
    She knew it wasn’t. On the other hand, spinning and weaving at least accomplished something. All that treasure hunting had done was to wear out her moccasins as fast as Ute could make them.
    Conner came back inside, bringing a gust of cold air with him. Though there was no snow yet, the land itself was icy at night.
    Without a word, he put some beans to soak. Then he curled up on his pallet near the fire. He was asleep between one breath and the next.
    With a small sigh, Sarah stretched her back and ran her fingers through her freshly washed hair. The scent of wild roses drifted up from her fingers. She had taken advantage of her brother’s absence earlier to have a thorough bath, something she did so often that Ute swore she was going to sprout scales and fins.
    Her waist-length hair was cool and still faintly damp to the touch.
    Not dry enough to braid