Heart of Stone Read Online Free

little girl in a ragged homespunjumper that sagged off her thin shoulders. Beneath it she wore a soiled white blouse. She was standing in front of an open candy jar full of lemon drops. The child’s hand was curled into a fist, no doubt closed around a piece of candy she’d sneaked from the jar.
    Laura understood the scene in one glance. The sight reminded her all too much of herself at that same age. It was an image that conjured up memories of Megan too. She turned away, but not before she felt a desperate squeeze in her chest where her heart had once been.
    She tried to concentrate on the list of things she needed and was about to move on when she heard the crack of flesh against flesh.
    “Drop those sweets ‘fore I tan your hide!”
    The harshly uttered threat stopped her in her tracks.
    She whirled and caught the man towering over the child, his hand still raised. A lone lemon drop lay on the floor beside the little girl’s dirty bare feet. She stood silent, but her dark eyes were wide as saucers. Beneath her small fingers, pressed against her cheek, a large, red handprint told the tale.
    Without thought, Laura hurried over to the counter and barged in to the small space between the man and the child.
    “If you lay another hand on her you’ll regret it until the day you die,” she said.
    The man looked as stunned as his daughter, but he recovered in a heartbeat.
    “She’s mine and I’ll not have her stealing.”
    The child peeked out from behind Laura’s skirt. “I wasn’t stealing, Pa. I was gonna ask the man if I could have one.” Her tremulous voice broke on the words as she fought back tears.
    “We’re not thieves
or
beggars. Now get over here.” He pointed to a spot on the floor beside him. The little girl slipped around Laura to stand beside her pa. She dropped her hand but the palm print on her face flared red and angry.
    The man ignored the child as he tried to stare Laura down. She stared right back, determined to let him know he’d met his match.
    “Do you have brothers and sisters at home?” Laura turned her attention to the little girl.
    The child glanced up at her father before she nodded yes.
    “I’m sending you home with a half pound of lemon drops. Share them, will you?”
    “I don’t take charity,” the man growled.
    “It’s not for you. It’s for your children.” Laura knew there was probably very little light in his children’s lives. If the girl was any indication, the joy had been beaten out of them a long time ago.
    “How I raise my young’uns is my own business.”
    “You don’t have any business hitting a child, mister.”
    She watched his jaw bunch, knew instinctively that his hand had tightened into a fist.
    Just you try, mister.
    As she met his hard stare, she felt someone move to stand beside her. Then she heard a voice she recognized. A voice filled with confidence.
    “Think twice before you do something you’ll regret.”
    Laura turned and found herself staring into the eyes of Reverend Brand McCormick, the minister of Glory’s only church. He was standing as close as he could get. A united front, they stood shoulder to shoulder facing down the cowhand.
    “I suggest you graciously accept this lady’s kind offer to purchase a bit of candy for your children and in the future you hold your temper,” the reverend said.
    Used to listening to this man deliver his Sunday sermons, she had no idea that beneath McCormick’s confident, smiling exterior lay such courage and strength. Relief swept through her when she realized she was no longer alone. She had reacted to the homesteader’s assault on the child without thinking.
    She had no desire to even contemplate what might have happened if the good reverend hadn’t stepped in.
    The man stared back and forth between the two of them, opened his mouth, thought better of what it was he might have said, and closed it.
    Harrison hurried across the room and quickly began tallying up the homesteader’s small order