Lorraine Heath Read Online Free PDF

providing the materials—” “I’m providing the labor.”
    She crossed her arms beneath her breasts, her foot packing the recently loosened dirt back into the earth. “What’s your condition?”
    “The base will be a block with four sides. Three sides will carry the names of those who fell in battle—seven names on each side, eight on the front. On the fourth side, I’ll carve whatever I want.”
    “No, that’s impossible, completely out of the question. You might put something entirely unsuitable.”
    “Then I won’t do it. It was a pleasure visiting with you, Mrs. Warner, but now if you’ll excuse me, I need to get back to my field.”
    Meg watched in dismay as he dropped his hat onto his head, spun, and began walking toward his plow. “Wait! You can’t refuse!”
    “Last I heard this was a free country!” he yelled, not bothering to glance back at her.
    She rushed after him, unable to catch up to his long strides. “Stop!”
    He quickened his pace.
    “Stop! Please!” she called out.
    Halting abruptly, he turned slowly to face her. Short of breath, she was angry by the time she reached him, but he had skills possessed by no other man in this area. “What did you want to put on the fourth side?”
    “I don’t know yet.”
    “Can I at least have a say in what you put there?”
    “No, ma’am.”
    She stomped the ground. “Damn you! You owe—”
    “I don’t owe anyone anything. They made their choice, and I made mine. They paid their price, but I’m still paying mine and getting mighty damn tired of it. If you want the memorial, I’ll make it, but I’m not going to pour my sweat, my heart, and my soul into it and not claim a corner of it as mine.” A deep sadness filled his eyes. “I give you my word that when I’m done, nothing engraved on the memorial will detract from its meaning.”
    “And what do you perceive as its meaning?” “To honor those who fought and died for their convictions.”
    She met his gaze, studying him, surprised by his words. How could he understand what he’d never experienced? She fought the tears glistening within her eyes. “This is important to me,” she whispered hoarsely.
    “I realize that.”
    She turned away, working to regain her emotions. She needed something more than wooden markers casting shadows over empty graves to keep the memory of those she loved from fading. She wanted Clay to make the memorial so he would be constantly reminded of his own cowardice. Before dawn, it had seemed the perfect punishment for him, more lasting than any beating her brother could give him.
    Yet nothing had gone as she’d expected since she’d dismounted. Every sentence she’d practiced had been altered by his response. She spun around—balling her hands at her sides, thrusting her chin upward—and met his gaze. “All right. You can have your side of the base to do with as you wish, but I have two conditions of my own.”
    “And they are?”
    “You’re to tell no one what you’re working on. It’s to remain a secret until it’s displayed.” “And the other condition?”
    “Under no circumstances are you to ever think that this forced partnership makes us friends. If our paths cross in town, I will ignore your presence, and I would appreciate it greatly if you would ignore mine.”
    “In other words, you don’t want anyone to know you have any association with the likes of me.”
    “Precisely. Are we agreed?”
    “Agreed.” He gave her a sad crooked grin. “I don’t guess you want to shake on it.”
    She gazed at his hands, dirty from toiling in the fields, but it wasn’t the soil beneath his fingernails that caused her to wrinkle her nose. “No, I have no desire to shake your hand.”
    He shoved his hands into his pockets. “When do you want to see those sketches?”
    “I’ll come by late tomorrow afternoon. The sooner we get started, the sooner we’ll finish.”
    He nodded as silence wove around them. She wouldn’t thank him for doing