Lonestar Sanctuary Read Online Free PDF

sure Betsy had enough food and hadn't eaten herself since breakfast, part of an omelet in a greasy spoon at nine this morning.
Even then, she hadn't eaten until Betsy was full.

    Rick slipped the knapsack off his shoulder and unzipped it. "Turkey
sandwiches," he said, handing her the sandwich wrapped in plastic.
"There's fruit in here too." He handed her an apple.
    Maybe he had some compassion to spare for adults after all. Allie
smiled at him, but he still hadn't looked her in the eye.
    "Let me see if Betsy wants some first."
    "There's plenty for you both," Rick said. "And more where that
came from. Let her sleep."
    He was right, but Allie felt wrong to eat when her daughter might
be hungry. A peek in the knapsack reassured her. There were two more
sandwiches in it, and four apples. She took a cautious bite. Relishing
the hot sting of horseradish on her tongue, she devoured the sandwich.
    Food had never tasted so good.
    She swallowed the last sweet bite of apple and looked up to find
both men watching her. "Thanks," she said, clamping her lips against
the explanation that pressed against her teeth.
    Without a word, Rick held out another apple. She took it and
squirreled it away in her backpack. Betsy might need it later. She did
the same with the rest of the food. If Rick and Elijah turned down her
plea for help, she and Betsy would be in desperate straits.
    She settled on the hay to wait for the foal's arrival. With a full
tummy, her lids drooped and her breathing eased. Maybe she'd close
her eyes for just a minute.

     

4
    "GOOD LINES," RICK SAID, EXAMINING THE WET ARRIVAL. CUPCAKE
nudged the colt. The small, black foal stood on wobbly legs. He moved
a few feet along her flank and nosed her belly before beginning to
nurse.
    Elijah grabbed a pitchfork and began to clean the wet, soiled straw
out of the stall. Where did the old man get his energy? "I'll do that,"
Rick said. "Why don't you go on into bed? It's after two."
    "Many hands make light work," Elijah said.
    Rick shoveled with him. When they were done, he hung the pitchforks on a nail. "What about those two?" he asked, nodding toward the
sleeping woman and girl.
    The girl looked like a miniature of her mother. Fine, dark hair, blue eyes, dimples that flashed. At least the mother's dimples had
flashed. Betsy hadn't smiled yet.

    "You don't like Allie," Elijah observed.
    "It's hard to like stupidity," Rick said. "She doesn't have an ounce
of sense." He told Elijah how he'd found them fighting off bees in the
bluebonnets. "And she didn't even have any water for the kid. I'll bet
she did something to make the girl quit talking. Now she wants you
to fix it."
    "A snap judgment, Rick? You should get to know them before you
point fingers."
    A slow anger burned his belly. "You're going to let them stay? It's
because she resembles Maria, isn't it?"
    "I realize she is not my daughter, Rick. I would not be taken in so
easily. And wasn't it you who just told me you weren't going to do the
cooking anymore?" Elijah was smiling. "You have lost weight since
Rosa left us. A woman's cooking might fatten us both up."
    "For the slaughter," Rick said. "She'll steal you blind in the night."
    The woman raised his hackles for some reason. For one thing, she
was too pretty. He'd never seen eyes such an electric blue. In his
experience, beautiful women expected pretty things handed to
them. She just showed up here and expected Elijah to take her in.
That whole wolfing down of the sandwich was probably an act to get
Elijah's sympathy.
    And it worked. Rick could see the softness in the old man's eyes.
Elijah was a sucker for a sob story.
    "Someone once told me the same thing about you," Elijah observed.
"Trust my judgment, hijo."
    Rick gave a grudging nod. "You made up your mind to help her
when she ate her food like a starving street person."

    "No, it was when she put the food away for the nina. You can't tell
me that you were untouched by that,