Maureen McKade Read Online Free PDF Page A

cupboard door and retrieved six plates. She set them beside the pie tins on the kitchen table.
    “Are you feeling all right, honey? You look a bit peaked,” Lenore commented, slicing a pie into fourths.
    “I’m fine, Lenore.”
    “Maybe choking like you did scared you some. I was eating this steak one time, and next thing you know I couldn’t breathe. My late husband, Willard, God rest his soul, up and squeezes my waist real tight. Now I tell you, that meat just went flying across the room.” She shuddered. “I’ll always remember what it was like not to be able to get any air into my lungs.”
    Libby smiled. “It was a bit scary, but I’m all right now.”
    “Did I tell you Mayor Beidler and his wife are coming by to meet you this evening?”
    Libby’s breath caught in her throat. “No, you didn’t.”
    “Adelaide Beidler will want to check you out. She personally inspects all the new teachers. Fact is, she’ll be wanting to see your papers, too.”
    The dessert plate slipped from Libby’s hand. Shards of china and pieces of apple pie spattered across the kitchen floor.
    What papers?

Chapter 2
    M att burst into the kitchen and glanced between the two women. Libby knelt beside the mess she’d made.
    “Everything all right in here?” he asked.
    “Fine,” Lenore assured him. “Libby just dropped a plate. I don’t think that’s a lawbreaking offense, so you can go back in there with the other menfolk.”
    “I’m sorry, Lenore,” Libby whispered.
    Matt stepped toward Libby. “You’re white as a sheet, Miss O’Hanlon. Are you feeling sickly?”
    Two spots of color appeared in her cheeks. “I’ll be fine, Sheriff.”
    Matt scowled and angled his head to hide the scar from Libby’s view. “I didn’t mean nothing, Miss O’Hanlon. It’s just that you don’t look too good.”
    Her gaze remained averted from his. “Thank you for your concern, Sheriff. Perhaps I am feeling a bit out of sorts. After I get this cleaned up, I think I’ll go lie down.”
    “I’ll take care of this, honey. You just go on up to your room,” Lenore volunteered.
    “I’ll help her,” Matt interjected. “You go and take that pie out afore you got a rebellion on your hands.”
    Lenore glanced between Matt and Libby. She nodded and scuttled out of the kitchen.
    Matt squatted down beside Libby. She inched away, obviously revolted by his disfigurement. He cursed the scar. She was so close he could smell lilacs in her securely bound hair. She wore a plain brown skirt with a dull yellow blouse, but Matt recognized the womanly curves beneath the unflattering clothing.
    As he picked up a piece of broken china, his fingers brushed Libby’s sleeve. Her mouth parted slightly and the tip of her pink tongue brushed her lower lip. Matt concentrated on the morsels of apple pie littered across the floor. He noticed an apple slice stuck to Libby’s stocking-clad ankle, and he reached for it.
    Libby flinched and her hand lashed out, grazing Matt’s arm, but he barely noticed it. He stared at Libby. She hunched her shoulders and scooted away from him like a crayfish darting under a rock. Her freckles stood in stark contrast across her pale cheeks, and her eyes resembled those of a caged animal.
    “I’m sorry, Miss O’Hanlon,” he said gently. She remained immobile. “Miss O’Hanlon. Libby?” Why didn’t she answer him? Was she that sickened by his scar? Or was her reaction caused by something else? During the war, he’d seen empty gazes in men who’d witnessed horrors too terrible for their minds to comprehend. But accidently touching her ankle wasn’t so horrible, was it?
    She blinked and recognition seeped back into her expression. She scrambled to her feet. “How dare you!”
    Matt blinked at the abrupt transformation. He pushed himself up. “I was just helping you clean up this mess.”
    “By touching my—my ankle? I’d hardly call that helping. It was more like taking advantage of a helpless woman.”
    Matt