To Know Her by Name Read Online Free PDF Page A

hide the gold. Mud would find it and spend it all on liquor. But then he’d buy Percy a new book to placate him. Pup didn’t know how they survived.
    â€œI’d better go.”
    Pup didn’t bother to tell Mud that she’d already suggested this.
    â€œI’ll see you later.”
    â€œAll right.”
    â€œTell Percy I might be up to borrow a book.”
    â€œHe won’t let you have any of his new ones.”
    â€œThat’s all right. Anything will do.”
    Without bothering to say goodbye, the prospector, who looked old beyond his years, turned and moved away. Pup turned back inside.
    In the few minutes of exchange, the sky had lightened even more, and the mess Govern had left behind became clear to the eye. Pup would have her work cut out for her. Even before she made coffee, she began to put her home and yard to rights.

    McKay woke to a burning in his shoulder that no movement could ease. He was cold, colder than he’d ever been, but couldn’t tell if he was in water. Something was wrong—something was very wrong—but he couldn’t put his finger on the problem.
    Hackett! His eyes opened as the name exploded in his mind, and as if he’d actually conjured him up, Govern Hackett approached and stood above him.
    â€œHackett,” he tried to say, but nothing came out.
    â€œIt’s all right,” Govern assured him in an odd voice.
    McKay told himself to get up and fight, but there was nothing—no energy, no strength—to fall back on. He felt as weak as a child.
    â€œWhere am I?” he managed, wondering what bizarre twist had put him at the mercy of his prey.
    â€œYou’re in bed. You’ve been shot.”
    â€œWhat drug,” he began, trying to ask the question he dreaded, the one his mind couldn’t quite form. He’d been given something; he was certain of it. He’d been shot before, and it hadn’t felt like this. Govern Hackett had drugged him. He had to stay awake. He had to fight.
    A long-fingered hand was placed on his forehead, and the desire to fight went out of him. The hand was cool. It felt like his mother’s hand on him when he was sick as a child. He told himself to open his eyes and make certain it was Govern, but he couldn’t manage it. The sea was rolling back in again, and this time he didn’t even have the strength to swim.
    Pup stood above McKay’s bed and looked down into his flushed face. She’d been working on some breakfast when he’d cried out. His head was so hot, but he calmed down the moment she placed her hand on him. She went for a cloth then, soaked it in cool water and laid it across his forehead. The chair was still at the side of the bed so she sat down.
    He had clearly thought that she was Govern. What would McKay say when he found out he was dead? Had they wanted Govern for questioning? Or was there a reward? Pup admitted to some ignorance on this matter, and also admitted that she hadn’t wanted to know everything her brothers were up to. She didn’t like to go into town, but when she did, she had learned to turn a deaf ear to rumors about the Hackett brothers. It was odd. Here she had a half-dead man in her spare bedroom, and he was the first one to think she looked like her brother. No one else had ever connected them. What would McKay say when he woke up?
    Pup shook her head and stood up. She was tired of asking questions that had no answers. And besides, she still had a cabin to clean.

    â€œYou in there, Pup?”
    Pup’s brows rose as she left her tub of dirty dishes. Mud’s calling on her twice in one day was unprecedented.
    â€œI’m here,” she spoke as she opened the door and stepped onto the porch. He was cleaned up now, face shaven and hair in place. It was funny to her that he didn’t care how he looked for town, but to pan gold he cleaned up. Then again it probably wasn’t Mud’s idea. Percy insisted on