Kentucky Rich Read Online Free Page A

aspirin that she’d found packed among her things and broke off a quarter of one of the horse pills Pyne had given her.
    Two hours later Nealy crossed the state line into Kentucky. She drove for another two hours before she left the main highway and headed down a secondary road with a sign pointing to Blue Diamond Farms. Maybe she could find work there, though why anyone would hire a sick teenager with a sick toddler was beyond her. On second thought, maybe she would be better off to find a cheap motel and stay there until they were both better.
    Emmie tugged at her arm just as the truck bucked, sputtered, and died. Nealy steered it to the side of the road. She lifted the little girl into her arms and hugged her. The aspirin hadn’t helped at all. Emmie was so hot she was listless. Fear, unlike anything she’d experienced in her short life, overcame Nealy. Emmie needed help—a doctor—a people doctor, not a horse doctor. She stared out the window and debated whether to take Emmie and walk down the road or cut across the field. If she cut across the field and couldn’t make it, it might be days before anyone found them. With Emmie in her arms, she started down the road, only to turn around to get her bucket of dirt out of the truck bed. She could always come back for the rest of her belongings.
    Twice she stumbled and almost fell but managed to right herself both times. She trudged on, the whimpering child clinging to her neck. “I can do this,” she told herself. “I know I can do this.” Like a litany, she said the words over and over.
    The third time she fell she couldn’t get up. Holding Emmie close to her she curled into the fetal position and cried. Then she prayed. And when she opened her eyes, she saw denim-clad legs and muddy boots. Through fevered eyes she looked up and saw the biggest, ugliest man she’d ever seen in her life. “Please, can you help me and my little girl?”
    Nealy felt herself and Emmie being lifted, and somehow knew they were in good hands. “My bucket. Please, I can’t go without my bucket,” she said, when the giant took his first step. “I can’t leave it. It’s all I’ve got left.” She felt him bend down, heard the click-clack of the handle, and closed her eyes.
    Nealy went in and out of consciousness. She knew people were helping her, knew the hands were gentle. She could hear them talking about her and her daughter. Someone named Maud and someone else named Jess. She felt them take Emmie from her arms and didn’t protest because the hands were good hands, gentle hands. “Please God,” she prayed aloud, her voice scratchy. “Let this be a good place.”
    â€œThis is a good place, child,” the woman, Maud, said. Her voice had a lilting Southern drawl. “Jess and I are gonna take care of you and your li’l girl. Is there anyone you want us to call? Do you have a family, child?”
    Until now Nealy hadn’t considered what she would tell people who questioned where she’d come from. She couldn’t think about it now because she was in too much misery to concentrate. “No, ma’am. It’s just me and my little girl,” she said for lack of a better explanation. Later she would give them their names and tell them something about herself, something that was close to the truth. Later, when she could think more clearly.
    â€œAll right then. Don’t you worry about a thing. Jess and me will take care of everything. You just close your eyes and go to sleep. The doctor is on his way.”
    â€œI need my . . .” Nealy’s voice gave out.
    â€œJess is on his way now to tow your truck into the barn. As soon as he’s through, he’ll bring your things inside.”
    Nealy had to make the woman understand that it wasn’t her belongings that were important to her. It was the bucket of SunStar soil. “No!” She struggled to rise up,