Dorothy Garlock - [Annie Lash 01] Read Online Free PDF

you! I hated him for it.”
    “Where would I have gone? Who would want Asa Warfield’s leavings? Besides, I had you. You’re the only person I ever loved and who loved me.” Rachel looked down at her fingers pleating the material of her nightdress. “I wish this babe wasn’t his. It could take on his meanness.”
    “It won’t if we start it off right,” Berry promised. “I didn’t take on his meanness. My ma was sweet and gentle like you and she taught me book learning and she said, ‘If you think of yourself as somebody, other folks will too.’ I’ve thought about that a lot.” Berry blew out the small light and lay down. “It isn’t fair, is it, Rachel?” she said in the darkness. “It isn’t fair that ’cause we’re women we got to go along and do as a man says. I wish we could strike out on our own. We could clear us a place to live, or go downriver to a town and do some kind of work to earn our keep. It just isn’t fair,” she said again. “A woman has to have a man to stand between her’n the mangy polecats what only wants her for fornication!”
    “I remember way back being with a man and a woman who loved each other. They touched and kissed and laughed. I remember she’d run and he’d grab her and kiss her, and she’d laugh. It’s so far back I can’t remember who they were. I used to dream I’d find a man who touched me gentlelike and laughed a lot.” Rachel’s voice trailed away sadly. “Asa ruint me for that.”
    “You’re not ruint!” Berry reached over and squeezed her hand. “I’ve got me a feelin’ that somethin’ good is waitin’ for us across the river in that wild, sweet wilderness.” Berry’s laugh was a little shaky. She squeezed Rachel’s hand again to reassure her as well as herself, then lay quietly, as her thoughts returned to the man in the brimmed hat.
     
    *    *    *
     
    “Where’s Asa this morning?” The leader of the wagon train sat on his buckskin horse and spoke curtly.
    “I dunno, Mr. Benson. But we’re ready to go. We won’t hold you up. Pa’ll show up before we load on the ferry.” Berry stood beside the ox and Rachel sat on the wagon seat.
    “Well, I dunno if I’ll let ya cross if’n he don’t show up.”
    “He was drunk. He’s sleepin’ it off down by the river,” Berry said carelessly.
    Mr. Benson scowled and put his heels to his horse. Berry swatted the ox on the rump with a switch and it followed.
    It was daylight when they moved out. Berry and the ox took the lead, and Israel, driving the stubborn mules hitched to the heavy wagon, brought up the rear. Berry was glad to be leaving the campsite. She and Rachel had worried constantly that Linc and his partner would come back to the camp with Asa. It was an unusually warm morning for the end of May. The mist rose from the river as the air was stirred by a light breeze. The sun, coming up over the horizon, glowed on the white canvas tops of the wagons that lined the slope to the river. Berry’s eyes searched for her father among the group of straggling immigrants, but she didn’t see him or the trappers he’d been drinking with. She took off her bonnet and fanned her face. If Asa didn’t show up, she didn’t know what they’d use to pay the ferryman when it came their turn to cross.
    The sun had reached a quarter of its way across the sky when Mr. Benson rode up to the wagon. “You’re next. Move right on down and onto the boat.” He didn’t look at her and wheeled his horse to leave.
    “Mr. Benson!” Berry had an uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach. “Pa hasn’t showed up and we don’t have money to pay. We’d best stay here and wait for him.”
    “Your fare’s paid. C’mon,” he said curtly. He rode away, and Berry had no choice but to follow.
    There were more wagons and horses on the flatland beside the river. Mr. Benson waved her on, urged her to hurry, and she had no time to look for Asa. The bargemen had tied the flatboat to the landing. Two