Ten Thousand Charms Read Online Free PDF

I confessed them already. To God. You know that, you were there. And He wiped ‘em clean.”
    “I know, I know—”
    “So you got no reason to call ‘em up again. God has forgiven me. And while I never did any real harm to you, I thought you had, too.”
    He dropped his hands, stood, and brought himself up to sit beside her. His hip touched hers, but they sat as if a wedge kept them from turning toward each other.
    “I did forgive you—do forgive you—but it's just so hard when you have to meet them face to face.”
    “Them? What them?”
    “Those women.”
    “It's just like that one said, Katherine. They're just women. Just like you.”
    “They're nothing like me.”
    “You know what I mean.”
    “And that one, the pregnant one. Spilling her condition out for everyone to see. It's positively indecent.”
    “You've got no right—”
    “I have every right.” Katherine stood up and wheeled to face him. The abruptness of her motion caused her to reel a bit. John William reached out to her, but she stepped away from his steadying hand. “Every right in the world,” she said, her voice weaker. “This place is just so wild. So uncivilized. So, so…”
    “We can leave, Katherine. You know that. We can leave any time you want.”
    “And go where?”
    “Anywhere. You got no roots here. No family.”
    “Just you,” she said with a weak smile.
    John William waited for her to include the babe she was carrying, and when she didn't, he spoke again.
    “What kind of life did you think we were gonna have?”
    “More than this,” she said. “More than a one-room shack on a mountain. In South Pass, it seemed the men could hardly walk for all the money in their pockets.”
    “You know I couldn't stay in South Pass.” John William stood and walked close to her, but she took a step away He didn't follow. “Not after the trial, anyway. Things seemed promisin’ here at the time.”
    “Well, there's no promise now, is there?”
    John William stared at his wife. She had always been reserved, even cold at times, but he had never seen her this bitter. Her face was set like flint, her pursed lips so hard he wouldn't have been surprised if they produced sparks when she spoke.
    Then, slowly, her expression began to soften. There was just the hint of a pleasing smile. Katherine took back the step she'd taken away and reached out to him. Her hand was thin and redraw, and she ran it up and down the length of his arm; the chapped flakes of her fingers snagged the material.
    Her touch caused him to tense every muscle in his body. Instinctively, his hand clenched. She saw this and smiled again, bringing her hand to rest on his, her fingers curled over his fist.
    “Maybe,” she said, “you could go back—”
    “No.”
    “Not forever. Just once. Maybe twice. There's a lot of people who'd like to see—”
    “Katherine, I made promises. You know that.” He drew his hand away from her, then took her into his arms. He felt the funny little bump of their child pressed against him and knew he would do whatever he had to in order to make this woman happy He leaned back and hooked his finger under Katherine's chin. She offered no resistance as he lifted her face to his.
    “We'll leave in the spring,” he said, “after the baby's here. I'll keep workin’ right from when production starts up again until you and the baby are ready to travel. Then we'll go.”
    He kissed the end of her nose.
    “You haven't said where.”
    “I haven't decided. Right now, all I want to do is get back to the cabin.”
    With that, he bent his knees, scooped his pregnant wife into his arms, and began walking toward their home.
    “John," Katherine said with a giggling lilt to her voice, “what about the—?”
    “I'll come back for everythin’ later.”
    “But that's our food’ What if a bear gets it?”
    “Well, then,” he said, nuzzling into her neck, Til get the bear, get us a rug.”
    Katherine laughed at that, and he tucked her a little