Scarecrow Read Online Free

lamely and Franny wriggled in her chair and laughed out loud.
    “Are they rich? Oh, but I bet I know why you never get out—you probably have servants to do things for you, right? I bet you have everything you could ever want!”
    “I don’t,” I said, more sharply than I intended, but before I could go on, Rachel called and Franny hurried from the room. Girlie stayed beside the vacated chair, studying me, and I glanced at Seth, mumbling more to myself than to him. “I don’t, you know. It’s nothing like that—you shouldn’t think that it is.”
    He fixed me with a dark stare that made me even more uncomfortable.
    My eyes fell to the wedding ring on my finger. “I don’t have anything,” I said quietly. “Nothing.”
    Silence stretched between us. When I finally looked up again, Seth was still staring at my left hand.
    “You don’t believe Girlie saved you,” he said at last. “Or that she has the Knowing. You don’t believe any of that.”
    I pressed one palm to my forehead where a fine sheen of sweat was beginning to break out. “I know I’m alive…other than that,” my voice sank, “I don’t know what to believe.” Had he nodded? Pulled back as he was again into the shadows, it was so hard to tell. “I guess I owe you a personal debt of gratitude,” I murmured, “since you’re the one who—”
    “You don’t owe me anything.” His tone was cold as he straightened and moved across the room. “You shouldn’t be here, and I shouldn’t have brought you.” As he reached the hall, he collided with Rachel and stalked out the front door. Rachel looked from the door back to me, her face softly troubled, and then she set a plate of food down on the table.
    “Eat this,” she coaxed. “He’ll be all right. He’s just not used to people.”
    “I’m so sorry.” My eyes burned from unshed tears, and I stared down miserably at the food. “I know I wasn’t making much sense earlier upstairs. I…I haven’t been well and…now I’ve upset everyone and—”
    “You haven’t done anything to upset anyone. That’s just Seth’s way. Don’t pay him any mind.”
    “If my car’s not too bad, I’m sure I could leave in the morning.”
    Rachel paused, giving me a sympathetic look. “It caught fire, Seth said. It was a miracle you got out—”
    “Got out?” I stared at her. “But I don’t remember getting out. I remember…the tree coming down across the hood of the car…but then…”
    “Eat,” Rachel urged me again, and she pushed my hand gently toward a fork. “What matters is that you’re all right. That’s all that matters now.”
    “Is there an airport very near here?” I nibbled reluctantly on some boiled chicken.
    Rachel’s glance was surprised. “Airport? Why, no.” She poured some tea, nodding at me to drink it. “See, Seth, he doesn’t take much to people. He wouldn’t be happy living close to anything, I expect.” She thought a moment, the teapot poised over the cup. “I reckon the closest neighbor is twenty…twenty-five miles from here. That’d be Dewey.”
    “Twenty miles?”
    Rachel nodded. “Dewey’s a cousin on my mama’s side. He gets over about once a month to bring supplies and buy eggs and maybe a chicken now and then. I wish I saw him more, but it’s so hard to get way out here to the farm—we’re that far back. I expect the next closest thing after Dewey would be Cranston. That’s a town. But not much of one—more like a spot in the road.”
    I could scarcely swallow over the lump in my throat. “And where’s that?”
    “Well, it’s a day’s trip there and back, that’s why we hardly ever go. I reckon it’s hard for folks like you to realize, but we’re so far from everything back in these hills. We don’t get visitors much—folks just can’t find us way up here.”
    “Then…how did you find me?”
    “I told you,” Rachel smiled. “Girlie. Girlie knew. She just knows things.” She crossed to the mantel and brushed softly