Under Starry Skies Read Online Free PDF Page B

“Don’t tell me your brother is a member of the school board ?” She looked up at him, her cheeks taking on a glint of red. “This is embarrassing.” She stood with his help and sat on the trunk.
    Amos interrupted, handing Tye his saddlebags. “We’re obliged for even the slightest bite to take the edge off our hunger.”
    With the incident behind them, the group ate in relatively peaceful silence while Tye and Amos took turns with their poles guiding the boat. Minutes later, into the lull, the old black man looked over to Abigail still eating an apple. His dark eyes narrowed. “Take heed, missy, and remember what I’ve told you about apples.”
    Abigail’s mouth fell away from the MacIntosh, and she turned it round in her hand. “Land sakes, Amos, there’s at least a dozen more bites left, and I plan to devour all of them.”
    Curiosity piqued, Tye waited quietly for an explanation.
    Abigail laughed, tossed the core into the water, and watched it bob a few times, before it slowly sank below the surface, only to pop upward again.
    “Amos is a trifle superstitious,” Maria explained. “He was born and raised in the South, but came north as a young man. He believes if an unmarried woman takes the last bite from an apple, she could end up an old maid for the rest of her life.”
    Tye met her cinnamon-colored eyes with ones as dark as molasses. “You don’t sound like a believer. However, at the rate your sister has been making friends, an apple might not have anything to do with her chance for marriage. No offense.” He grinned.
    Maria smiled. “No offense taken. Abby and I tend to humor Amos and his black magic.”
    They rounded a leafy bend in the river, and Tye stood and walked to the front of the boat. “Pueblo is straight ahead about a half mile.” He pointed to a tiny settlement coming into view. Mismatched structures of all types and sizes, fashioned of wood and stone, lined the steep riverbanks. The sun was beginning to sink on the horizon and color the sky in shades of pink. Behind them, the Rocky Mountains stood tall and proud in varying shades of blues.
    “The landing will be to our left.” Tye poled the boat to a shallow silt-bottomed area just below a huge wooden station standing high up on the bank like a guardhouse. Minutes later, with the help of Amos, he glided the boat into the docks along a hand-hewn pier and tied off, then helped the women alight.
    “Let’s give the Henderson Mining Company the pleasure of unloading their wares themselves and just light out of here,” Tye suggested.
    “No. Please.” Maria turned back toward the flatboat. “My trunk. Can you take my trunk? Inside are all my books for teaching. I can’t afford to get them wet or lose them.”
    Reluctantly, Tye limped back to the boat and retrieved the trunk, carrying it up the grassy bank and setting it beneath the canopy of a poplar, bowing down with heavy foliage.
    “The coffins, too?” Abigail asked.
    “They’re already dead.” Tye heard Amos give an anxious little cough beside him.
    Abigail’s voice was insistent. “I can’t stand by and allow the dead to be so ill-treated.”
    Tye gave her an unfriendly lengthy stare, then abruptly turned, whistled to Swamp, and moved toward the small footpath leading up to the inn. “Then I’d suggest you get them yourself.” He was glad to be alive. The only thing he really wanted was to get away from the nitroglycerin and these fickle females. He wanted a warm supper, a good stiff drink, and a soft bed.
    “They’re worth a bottle of pure well-aged corn whiskey,” Abigail called out after him.
    He spun around. “Another ploy, Miss O’Donnell?”
    He looked over at Maria who shook her head. “No, she’s telling the truth.”
    He walked back down to the flatboat. Behind him, both women followed. Minutes later, with everyone’s help and a lot of muscle, they managed to drag the heavy coffins up the slippery grass, several yards from the landing under the tree