Mail Order Bride: The Master: A Historical Mail Order Bride Story (Mail Order Brides) Read Online Free PDF Page B

hotel
    He didn’t have long to wait. After he disappeared, she passed the other way, around the corner toward the hotel’s front door. Matthew heard the creak of the hinges and the thump of the door closing behind her. Then he came out of his hiding place and resumed his watch at her window.
    Something still disturbed him, though. What was it? He couldn’t settle into his role as sentry, not with the secret of Noah Bartlett’s latest assault on Polly hanging over his head. The specter of the Master loomed in front of his eyes. He would never be able to look the Master in the face if he kept this secret.
    Polly would probably hide in her room for the rest of the day. Matthew couldn’t blame her if she never went out alone again. And now he, too, had made enemies of the Bartletts. He would never be able to set foot in the schoolyard without the dread of meeting Felix. He would never have any peace again as long as he lived.
    At least he shared that with the Master and his new wife—them and dozens of other people around this town. No one could live here without eventually making crossing paths with the Bartletts. Even those people who tried to stay out of their way only made themselves known as cowards and easy targets for the Bartletts’ wrath.
    Matthew fidgeted, trying to make up his mind. Should he stay here on guard, or should he go to the Master’s house and tell him what happened? He couldn’t win, either way. Polly’s curtain swayed with some movement inside the room. She was safe in there. She wouldn’t catch him sneaking off.
    He made up his mind to go, to pour out his guts to the Master and throw himself on the mercy of the Master’s good nature. He turned around to walk away and ran bodily into the Master standing behind him.
    The Master caught him by the shoulders of his shirt and prevented him from toppling over into the dust. “What are you doing?”
    “I was just going to find you,” Matthew admitted.
    “What for?” the Master demanded. “Is everything all right?”
    Matthew’s resolve flew away from him, leaving him once more floundering in a quandary of indecision. “Everything’s fine. She’s up in her room.”
    The Master looked up toward the window. “I’m just going inside to have dinner with her. You don’t need to stay here. You can go home now, if you want to.”
    Matthew stuttered a lame reply. “I don’t want to go home.”
    The Master smiled at him. “You’ve done a good job for me. I’m grateful to you.”
    But the incantation failed to produce the same effect that it had yesterday. “It was nothing.”
    “What are you going to do now?” the Master asked.
    Matthew shifted from one foot to the other. “I don’t know. I’ll think of something.”
    “You’ve got your fractions to work on,” the Master teased. “Are you sure you don’t want to spend your Saturday catching up on schoolwork.”
    Matthew hung his head and shook it. “No.”
    The Master frowned at his strange behavior. “Well, I’m going in now. I’ll see you at the church tomorrow.”
    Matthew didn’t look up or reply. He didn’t have the heart to tell the Master about tomorrow. Maybe he wouldn’t go to the church after all, if it meant watching Noah Bartlett gun down the Master and Polly. The whole town would be there to see them get married. No one but Matthew and Polly knew it would end with blood and mayhem.
    The Master studied him another minute. Then he left Matthew standing there with his heart in his shoes.
    The confusion he felt before paled compared to this. Should he go home, the way the Master told him to? Should he go to the sheriff? Should he wait there for the Master to leave the hotel again? Should he keep guard over Polly until tomorrow?
    Matthew walked to the end of the row of elm trees. Then he came back. Then he walked around the side of the hotel toward the door. Then he went back to his place under Polly’s window.
    He turned one way, then the other, trying to organize