Savage Land Read Online Free PDF Page A

any remark from Danny. ‘I'll be talking to you two tomorrow.’ Then he had turned his wheelchair and left them with his unvoiced threat hanging over them like Damocles’ sword.
    A silvery white head peeped around Coley's bedroom door.
    'Are you awake now, dear? You looked so exhausted last night that I said to myself, “Now you let that dear child sleep as late as she wants in the morning."'
    'Oh, Aunt Willy, is it very late?’ Coley asked with a note of alarm as she hopped out of bed. ‘I don't want Uncle Ben to think that I sleep late all the time.'
    Coley and Danny had been given very positive instructions by Aunt Willy that even though there was no blood relation they were to refer to Mr. Savage as Uncle Ben. Coley couldn't think of anyone less like an uncle.
    'Oh, fiddle what Ben thinks,’ Wilhelmina stated as she set a stack of clothes down on Coley's dresser. Coley marvelled again at the tall woman's erect posture. ‘Maggie washed up some of your clothes.’ She opened and closed drawers with little wasted motion. ‘Colleen, I'm terribly sorry to tell you this, dear, but that terrible river water just about ruined everything. Just look at this skirt—or worse, this blouse!’ With a horrified expression she held up a faded navy skirt and a very worn white blouse before placing them in drawers. ‘We'll just have to go on a shopping expedition,’ she went on cheerfully. ‘I haven't been on one in ages.'
    Coley walked over to the mirror, picked up a brush and began pulling it through her hair. She was too embarrassed to correct her aunt about the state of her clothes. Wilhelmina Granger walked over to stand behind Coley, her taller frame enabling her to see over Coley's head into the mirror. She took the brush from Coley, her bracelets jingling, and began expertly brushing here and fluffing there.
    'Your hair needs a good styling, too,’ she remarked to Coley's red-faced reflection in the mirror. ‘Now, don't you go getting all upset about it. If your dear mother, Rosalie, were here you know she would have seen that your hair was properly cut.'
    Coley nodded silently, hanging her head so that her aunt couldn't see the moistening eyes. How could she tell her that she'd never had her hair done by a professional?
    'Colleen, listen to me, dear,’ Wilhelmina Granger turned the girl towards her and lifted her chin gently with the tip of a red-varnished fingernail. Coley looked up at the generous red mouth, the rouged cheeks, the bright, jewelled glasses that winged over her aunt's blue eyes. ‘I know sometimes I'm a silly old lady who's a little absent-minded at times. The Good Lord didn't see fit to give George and me any children, but now he's given me you and Daniel. Forgive me if I get too interfering or sentimental, because, you see, you mean very much to me.'
    'Oh, Aunt Willy!’ Coley smiled gratefully through her tears.
    'Well,’ Aunt Wilhelmina inelegantly sniffed back her tears. ‘We'd better stop this or we'll both be crying. You'd better hurry up and get dressed. Maggie's got breakfast ready downstairs. Hurry up, now.'
    She smiled as she pushed Coley towards the bed before walking out the door in tune with the jangling of her bracelets. Coley clasped her arms about her excitedly. It was a glorious feeling to be wanted, absolutely glorious! Hurriedly she slipped off her night clothes and began dressing.
    Coley trailed her hand down the banister of the open staircase. Her eyes roved contentedly through the hallway below her as she slowly made her way down the steps. Her sandalled foot was on the last step when one of the doors in the hall opened and a slender, dark-haired man emerged.
    'And you tell Jase I want a full accounting of his absence,’ came the gravelly voice of Ben Savage from inside the room. ‘It's about time he learned that nobody disappears from this ranch for three days without me knowing about it and knowing where they are and what they're doing.'
    'Yes, sir,’ the man replied