Tremors: A Stone Braide Chronicles Story Read Online Free PDF Page A

tarp and hauled it out of the barn. Selah heard it hit the wagon. Father came back inside and retrieved two shovels from the tool rack. She wondered where they were going to bury the body. Would it be feeding the corn or one of the other grain crops?
    Selah rested her head on her hands and crossed her legs. She’d stay up here at least until the wagon left. She’d started out wanting information to help bolster her cause to remain single, and now her brain swam with facts she didn’t understand. And she couldn’t get that dead man’s image from her mind. Sure, she had seen dead people before, but the operative word was they had already been dead, and none of them had been killed by her own father.
    Selah leaned up on one elbow and rubbed her forehead. She had to think.
    Something grabbed at her ankle. Selah muffled a scream and kicked. Was the rat back?
    Cleon burst out laughing. “Hold it! You nearly kicked my eye out.” He sat in the open doorway to the hay chute going down the outside of the barn.
    Selah plopped onto her back. Her heart pounded against her ribs. “You scared the life out of me.” She kicked at him again. “You need to be horsewhipped.”
    Cleon laughed again. “That’s less than you’re going to get if you’re caught spying on Father. You know I heard you sneeze.”
    Selah sat up. “Oh no! Was that why you made that noise?”
    “What else was I supposed to do? Let you be discovered? I never dreamed you’d go to these lengths. Don’t you understand someone is trying to kidnap or kill you?”
    “After listening to their conversation, I don’t believe a single word of that story Father gave us at midday. They never mentioned it. Not once,” Selah said. “You need to help me sort this out.”
    Cleon shook his head. “You need to let this go and just get married.”
    Selah pursed her lips. “Not without a fight. Are you going to help me?”
    “I don’t know, but I do know you need to get out of here before Father gets back. He didn’t look too happy.”
    Selah jumped to her feet. “Did you see the body?”
    “No, I was in the other barn. What body?”
    “That third man!” She balked at relaying the details. “He fell on his knife and died.”
    Cleon grimaced. “Another reason to not get caught in here.” He motioned her out of the barn by way of the chute. They often used it as an amusement. Sliding to the bottom sometimes had a downside with slivers, but it was a fast and easy exit that usually went unnoticed.
    Selah moved to sit on the stone wall separating the house from the fields as she watched Cleon scurry around the other side of the barn and out of sight. He was such a good brother. She knew he didn’t want to be part of Father’s plan, but he had no choice.
    After having spent the better part of her childhood walking the glades back and forth between their homestead and the beach, she resented the two babysitters she’d suddenly acquired. They were going to follow her everywhere. And spying on Father had created many more questions while not supplying a single answer about her upcoming wedding or how to get out of it. She sighed. Actually, it had shown her there was little to no chance she’d get out of being married in the next few months.
    Well, she might as well enjoy her last months of freedom. She felt almost invincible. What could Father do to her for breaking the rules? Ground her by keeping her from getting married? That would never happen. Selah decided to alleviate her frustration by turning it into a game.
    She shivered with a tremor of delight as a plan came instantly to mind. She didn’t see a downside to it, and Father would be none the wiser. She could outsmart both of her brothers and slip away to the beach without getting caught.
    Tomorrow her plan would begin.



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    S elah crouched amid the towering pampas grass. Feathery seed plumes swayed in the breeze, pushing wisps of dark brown hair across her face, tangling her locks in the sticky seed