Seduced Read Online Free Page A

barn?” Annie asked, pulling Melody from her grim thoughts.
    “We could put him on the blanket,” Melody said, grateful that there was always work to keep them moving. “Remember how we got that dead Yankee out of the stream at home?”
    Annie nodded, but looked down at her foot as if doubting its ability to do the work. It was odd to see her sister so hesitant. Ever since the war had required them to shed their ball gowns and get their hands dirty, Annie had thrived. The shy wallflower with a stammer had been trampled by a woman who seemed unaware of her limits.
    “Are you well?” Melody asked.
    “The ride has made me sore.”
    “Why didn’t you say so?”
    Annie laughed. “We've had our hands full.”
    “We can do this.”
    “There isn’t any other choice, is there?”
    “No.”
    They rolled Mr. Baywood onto a blanket and then began the torturous effort of
    dragging him to the cave. His wound opened. Annie fell, her bent leg twisting underneath her. Melody felt muscles along her back straining and pulling.
    “A little bit further,” she groaned, helping her sister to her feet.
    Inside the barn, Annie wiped sweaty hair off her forehead and cried with utterly out-of-place delight, “Chickens!”
    Out of breath, Melody smiled and sagged against the wall.
    At the spring they checked his wound, which was seeping but not bleeding too heavily, and wrapped him with blankets to keep away the chill. Faint sunlight would come in through the entrance if they kept the barn door open; otherwise the room was dark as a tomb.
    “He’s probably still going to die,” Annie whispered, saying aloud what she probably didn't want to think.
    “But we’ve done our best,” Melody said, stroking her sister's back. “Father would be proud.”
    “Mama would be mortified.”
    “And my husband will be murderous.” The words spilled from her lips without thought.
    Melody felt her sister’s eyes upon her cheek.
    “If I could take the pain—” her sister whispered.
    Melody squeezed her sister’s hand because there was no point in regrets. Her sister had done a kind and noble thing; Melody would pay the bloody price of it. “Come, there’s still much work to be done.”
     
    ON THE NINTH day of Jimmy’s absence Melody milked the goat and Annie boiled the milk with some of the precious vinegar they had left, and they ate the delicious curds with their fingers, sitting on the porch, watching the bobbing flowers in the cool, sweet breeze.
    But Melody was blind to it, her body sick with dread.
    “Perhaps Jacks threw Jimmy off the mountain?” Annie asked, but Melody could not joke. Her stomach was acid and bile. Her head hurt, her body felt heavier than she could carry. Every minute of every day that passed she thought of Jimmy. Every rustle in the forest sounded like his return and the end of her reprieve. The endless work required of them barely distracted her, but as the days wore on she wanted him to return just to end the agony of waiting. She felt like a prisoner awaiting her trip to the noose.
    “I cannot allow myself to pretend he won’t be back,” she whispered. She could not enjoy these days without him, free from the threat of violence or the soul-crushing work of managing his temper.
    Look at what he has made me
, she thought, near tears.
    Annie gave her the last curd.
    The next morning Melody woke up alone in the cabin.
    Today
, she thought, half prayer, half curse,
today he will come
.
    She pulled on a shawl and slipped her feet into her boots before grabbing the last of their dried fruit and a piece of turkey breast to take out to her sister.
    When Melody walked into the cave, Annie was digging through Father’s medical
    bag. Mr. Baywood lay silent, still unconscious though no longer feverish, beside her.
    “Did you sleep out here again?” she asked Annie.
    “No. I came out a while ago.” The two of them were working in shifts, only able to leave him alone for an hour before one of them felt compelled to