Each Time We Love Read Online Free PDF Page A

he did, missy, and it was right
wonderful of you to have given us our papers! Fine thing you did
setting us free!"
    Bodene looked impatient. "Yes, it was a fine thing she did,
fine, too, that she used what money there was to make the house livable
and insisted Elizabeth live there, but it is not fine that she persists
in living in this godforsaken hellhole or that you're abetting her pure
bloody cussedness!" Bodene was fairly shouting by the time he came to
the end of his words, his hold on his temper extremely light. The look
of amused tolerance that passed between Savanna and Sam was his
undoing, and smashing his fist against the table, he snarled, "Jesus
Christ! You're
both
crazy! Don't you realize that
one of these days Micajah, or someone like him, is going to catch you
by surprise, and if you survive—which isn't damn likely, knowing
him
—you'll
have been raped and abused, possibly left pregnant with his child—or
won't even know the father if his whole gang takes their pleasures,
too!"
    Savanna's face went white at his harsh words and Bodene was
satisfied to see a flicker of unease in her beautiful eyes. Good! At
least she hadn't totally lost all sense of self-preservation. His rage
dissipating at the strained expression on her face, he said in a softer
tone, "I love you—it would damn near kill me if something happened to
you. Won't you let me help you?" When she didn't respond, he took heart
and added, "I know you've worked hard to reestablish yourself since
Stack Island sank in the earthquake four years ago, and I know you're
proud that what you've accomplished you've done on your own. But this
is no life for you. You're young! You're beautiful! You shouldn't be
wasting away here in a damned swamp!" He took a deep breath. "Pride is
a fine thing, just don't let it kill you."
    Bodene's words bit deep and Savanna was painfully aware of the
truth in everything that he had said. She had always understood the
risks she ran, and while Bodene might think to the contrary, she wasn't
a fool! It was just that she felt more comfortable living in the
familiar surroundings and circumstances she had known from earliest
childhood. New Orleans with all its exciting pleasures fascinated her,
but it also made her uneasy and vaguely frightened. Campo de Verde was
certainly not a grand plantation—too few acres remained of the
once-vast Davalos estate—but with Bodene's help and money, the house
and outbuildings had been repaired and refurbished and the levees
rebuilt. With Sam's children, Isaac and Moses, and their families to
work the remaining land, her mother had a life of reasonable comfort
and semi-gentility. Savanna had felt constricted and smothered during
the five years that she had lived there with her mother, and at
eighteen she had stunned both Elizabeth and Bodene when, taking only
Sam with her, she had struck out on her own, returning to the small
tavern that Elizabeth had run on Crow's Nest while Davalos had been
alive.
    Elizabeth had been devastated by the news of Davalos's death,
but to this day Savanna was still confused about her feelings for her
father. She didn't think that she had ever
truly
loved the dark stranger whom she had seen so seldom over the years, but
she had never forgotten those early days when he had been a source of
laughter and delight to both herself and her mother. It had been to
please him that she had learned to speak Spanish, hoping it would make
him proud of her—and it had. Even now, knowing what she did about him,
she remembered the pleased glow that had suffused her features when,
the last time she had ever seen him, she had shyly welcomed him in
Spanish and he had praised her accomplishment. But if she remembered
the good times, and there had been a few, she also remembered her
mother's tears and desolation when Davalos would once again desert them…
    Pushing aside her unpleasant thoughts with an effort, she
smiled at Bodene and replied with forced lightness to his earlier
comment.