The Unplowed Sky Read Online Free PDF Page A

motor of the Pierce-Arrow roared as the long sleek vehicle crossed the bridge with a groaning of planks. Dust billowed back. “Why, that—” the engineer began, glanced at Hallie, and chuckled. “God bless him, I was going to say, miss. Is it a ride to town you’re needing, you and the laddie?”
    â€œWhat I really need is a job. Is that a cookshack behind the separator?”
    â€œWe’ve got a cook.” MacLeod jumped down from the separator and began to unfasten some long planks about three inches thick and a foot wide from the machine. “Lend a hand, Rory. If a bridge ever needed planking, this is it.”
    The men in the Fords piled out and helped lay the planks across the bridge. Most wore overalls and blue chambray shirts but a few, including the engineer, had on khakis. Scratching the mite of a kitten behind its ears, the bearded man on the water wagon kept his seat as if the task were beneath his dignity. The boy, too, stayed in his place.
    The bearded man watched Hallie with deep-set dark eyes that seemed benevolent. His mouth was too surrounded by mustache and beard for her to judge its appearance but the way he held the kitten made her think he was kind. “Are you a good hand with pies, lady?”
    â€œI think so.”
    â€œDon’t you know?”
    The hope his question had roused in Hallie fused with determination. She threw back her head and looked him in the eye. “I make delicious pies. No one ever leaves a bit of the crust.”
    â€œBread?”
    â€œI’ve been baking since I was nine.”
    He grinned. “From the look of you, that wasn’t all so long ago.”
    â€œI’m nineteen.”
    The man raised an eyebrow as he looked at Jackie. Hallie felt blood heating her face. Was everyone going to think what Raford did? “Jackie’s my brother,” she said curtly and left off the “half.” With their father dead and his mother gone, Jackie didn’t need a half-sister. He needed a whole one.
    The men had laid the planks. As MacLeod started to climb back on the separator, the bearded man shouted at him, “Garth, this young lady says she can bake pies.”
    The eight men paused beside the Model Ts. “Pies!” they cried in unison, every face lighting up.
    â€œBesides,” called the engineer, “she’s a whole lot prettier than Shaft!”
    MacLeod scowled at the older man. “I want my men to keep their mind on their work. That’s why I hired you.”
    â€œAnd you said you’d hire me another helper after the last one quit to get married.”
    â€œI will. But—” Garth MacLeod looked above, below, and on both sides of Hallie, but not at her. His gaze lit on Jackie. “Listen, Shaft, how will you cook with the laddie underfoot?”
    â€œThat’s not your worry. But you’ll have war in camp if you don’t get me a helper who can bake pies.”
    All the men nodded agreement. The stocky one with a patched and peeling sunburn and kinky hair bleached almost white glanced apologetically at Shaft. “Shaft makes the best sourdough this side of heaven, his biscuits are great, and his gravy’s smooth. But a starved mule wouldn’t eat his pies—and you know, Garth, we got to have pie!”
    Garth MacLeod looked at Hallie then. She almost flinched at the pain and anger in his gray eyes. What in the world was the matter with him? “Are you sure you want the job?” he said, almost daring her.
    â€œI want it.”
    â€œThere’s lots of ways for anyone, much less a child, to get hurt around a threshing outfit. The men must be tending their work, not the lad. You’ll have to keep him out of the way.”
    Why was Garth MacLeod so hateful? Had she been alone, she would have told him to stick his job in one of his big ears. But she had Jackie, she believed she had an ally in Shaft, and she wasn’t going to let Garth MacLeod