In Darkest Depths Read Online Free PDF

what?”
    â€œDo you remember that time we went back East? All the churches we saw with bell towers on top? Those are called steeples.”
    â€œYou are turning our cabin into a church?”
    Shakespeare did his strangled goose impression. “Honestly, woman. The silly notions you come upwith. Have I taken out our table and chairs and replaced them with pews? Have I torn down the fireplace and put in an altar?”
    â€œDo not give yourself ideas.”
    â€œAll I am building is a steeple. Then Nate and I will take turns keeping watch through his spyglass. Our big handicap has been that we can’t see much of the lake from the ground, but the steeple will remedy that.”
    â€œYou couldn’t climb a tree?”
    Shakespeare made a sweeping motion with his arm. “Show me a single tree anywhere near the water and we will use it instead.”
    Blue Water Woman couldn’t. To the west and north the woods only came to within a hundred yards of the water. To the south grew grass. To the east the forest was slightly closer, but the closest trees were short and thin.
    â€œI thought not,” Shakespeare said triumphantly. “Now will you go pester a chipmunk and leave us be?”
    â€œNot so fast,” Blue Water Woman said. “How high will this steeple of yours be?”
    â€œAs high as it needs to be for us to see out to the middle of the lake. But I would say no more than thirty feet.”
    Blue Water Woman stared at the chicken coop, which was eight feet high, then at the roof of their cabin. “Do you have a brain?”
    â€œI beg your pardon?”
    â€œYou are not building a thirty-foot steeple on my roof.”
    â€œI keep telling you. It is our roof, and I will do as I please.”
    â€œNot if you want to share my bed, you will not.”
    Shakespeare stiffened, then said to Nate, “Did you hear her, Horatio? Blackmail. She thinks she can threaten me with the loss of a few cuddles.” Of Blue Water Woman he demanded, “Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t.”
    â€œI will give you more than one. That lumber you are using was for the storage shed you have been promising to build. The roof might not be strong enough to bear the weight of the steeple. We have bad lightning storms from time to time, and lighting likes to strike things that are up high. We have strong winds, too, and a Chinook might bring your steeple crashing down.” Blue Water Woman paused in her litany. “Shall I go on?”
    â€œScoffs and scorns and contumelious taunts,” Shakespeare quoted. “I should be angry with you if the time were convenient.”
    â€œWell?”
    â€œWell what? Yes, we have storms, and yes, we have high winds. And soon we will have our very own steeple.”
    Blue Water Woman refused to let him have the final say. “If you were any more pigheaded, you would have a snout and a curly tail.”
    Shakespeare went to push to his feet and nearly pitched over the edge. Squatting back down, he responded, “Dwell I but in the suburbs of your good pleasure? Why must you dam the flow of my stream?”
    â€œOh my,” Blue Water Woman said, and giggled.
    At that, Nate laughed.
    â€œEnough of this tomfoolery,” Shakespeare snapped. “Go away, wench. We have a steeple and stairs to build and the day is wasting.”
    Blue Water Woman’s grin evaporated. “What was that? No one said anything about stairs.”
    â€œHow do you expect us to get up to the steeple? We can’t use a ladder all the time,” Shakespeare said, as he clambered higher to resume work.
    â€œWill these stairs be inside the cabin or outside the cabin?”
    â€œWhat difference does it make?”
    â€œIf they are inside, that would mean you intend to put a hole in my roof. And I will shoot you before I let that happen.”
    â€œYe gods, woman. You could nitpick a man to death, even beyond the grave. But rest easy.