Laying Down The Law (#4, Cowboy Way) (The Cowboy Way) Read Online Free PDF Page A

Off-balance and kooky, just like her mother.  
    They were both crazy in Melanie’s opinion. 
    She often wondered where they’d come about all the strange notions and methods they used in their prophesies .  They’d grown up in the Appalachian Mountains—amongst folks with the second sight , according to her mother.  Then she met George Fox, who swept her off her feet and moved her to Sunny Glen.  Aunt June moved here when her husband died fifteen years ago and it really was a good thing she was here for her sister when her husband died.  Here for all of them, because that had been a very rough time.
    “What did Charles say?” Merry asked, her eyes flying to June.
    “He was sad and said a young’un is close to passing over if he isn’t helped.  He had to go before I could ask more.”
    A flashback of the hollow-eyed kid she’d met earlier flashed through Melanie’s mind and a tight band of unease squeezed her chest, but she pushed it away.  This was so much malarkey and she couldn’t believe she was letting herself get sucked into it.  She was a respected medical professional, a scientist who believed in cold, hard facts, not fairy tales and witchcraft. 
    And these two were deflecting the conversation she’d been trying to have with them.
    “I need you both to promise me when I leave you will not go back out into those woods naked, or climb up on the roof of this house.” 
    And Melanie was leaving just as soon as she could get her mother ambulatory.  According to her orthopedic doctor, she was going to be non-weight-bearing for at least four weeks, and then would need three months of therapy. 
    Melanie knew she couldn’t stay here that long.  When she spoke to the administrator at the hospital she’d arranged for six weeks family leave, but was told anything beyond that would have to be approved by the board.  As many times as she’d been before them with employee complaints in the four years she’d been there, she knew how that would end.
    “I told you I was moonbathing and meditating.  I’m half-a-century old, and I’ll do as I damned well please.”  Her mother sat up straighter in her wheelchair and flinched.  “That sheriff and his sidekick are not going to stop me from practicing my religion— that is against the law.  If they’d have just left me alone, I wouldn’t have had to climb on the roof.  But if it makes you happy, I will wear a robe from here on out.”
    “It’s dangerous for you to go out in those woods alone at night, Mother.”  Wild animals lived in those woods, if not wild men.  She’d heard stories of hermits who had shanty shacks in there from her father who also told her they weren’t too keen on visitors.
    “There are five hundred people who live in this town and I know four hundred and fifty of them.  The other fifty are kids who I’ll know before they grow hair on their—”
    “Enough!” Melanie shouted, standing up.  “Just promise me you won’t go alone, then.”  That was the most she could hope for and she knew it.
    “Um—I can’t promise that either.  I enjoy my, ah, my solitude and June has a man now, so she isn’t always available to go with me.”  Her mother cast a warning look at her sister, which made Melanie wonder what they weren’t telling her. “I promise I’ll try—that’s the best I can do.”
    Melanie studied her mother’s creamy, unlined face and the firm set of her mouth that said she wasn’t budging before she met her blue eyes. 
    “I’m buying you a shotgun then.  I’m going to make sure you know how to use it before I leave, and I want you to promise to take it with you when you go into the woods.” 
    Her father taught her how to use a shotgun, but Melanie hadn’t needed that knowledge in med school so it had been years since she’d fired one.  She figured it was like riding a bike, though, and once she had one in her hand again, she’d remember. 
    Having the peace of mind that Merry and June