Sunset Embrace Read Online Free Page A

sparrow who has just sighted a worm.
    "Come on, Lydia. You're coming with me."
    "Where?" Lydia gasped as Ma pulled the covers off her and hauled her up. Her motions weren't rough, just efficient. "I don't have any clothes."
    "It don't matter," Ma said, breathing laboriously as she gripped Lydia under the arms and helped her rise to a crouching position. "You got mothers milk and no babe, and there's a babe that's barely clingin' to life. He needs motherin'."
    Ma planned to take her to that baby who had been crying almost ceaselessly for two days. The pitiable mewling sounds could even now be heard throughout the sleeping camp. Ma was taking her to that man with the frantic voice. She didn't want to go. She didn't want anyone gaping at her curiously and wondering why she had birthed her baby In the woods all alone. After knowing the cozy security of the Langstons' wagon, she was afraid to leave it.
    But it seemed she had no choice in the matter. Ma slung a shawl over her shoulders and pushed her gently down the steps of the tailgate. "Those shoes of yours aren't much better than bare feet, so you'll just go without for the time being. Careful not to step on a rock."
    The jolt when her feet hit the ground for the first time in days caused her to reel. The jostling hurt her breasts, which hung free beneath the nightgown that was her only garment save the crocheted shawl. Her hair hadn't been brushed. She knew it was a tangled, matted mess. Ma had bathed the blood and birth fluid from the insides of her thighs, but Lydia hadn't washed in days. She was so dirty.
    Her heels dug into the soft, damp earth in protest. "Please, Ma, I don't want anyone to see me."
    "Nonsense," Ma said resolutely, virtually dragging her by the arm toward the only wagon in the camp with a light burning inside it. "You might can save this babe's life. No one's gonna care how you look."
    But they would. Lydia knew they would. She had been called white trash before. She knew just how mean people could be.
    "Mr. Grayson," Ma called softly when they reached the lighted wagon. She flipped back the canvas hanging over the opening. "Give me some help here." She gave Lydia's backside a forward and upward push and the girl had no choice but to step up into the wagon. the tight skin between her thighs was stretched painfully and she winced. A pair of strong arms in blue shirt-sleeves reached out to help her inside. Ma was right behind her.
    There was a moment of confusion as three strangers met face-to-face. The gray-haired man stared in wonder at the girl before him. The thin woman beside him gasped in surprise. Lydia dropped her eyes to avoid their startled stares.
    "This here's Mr. Grayson, our wagonmaster," Ma said for Lydias benefit.
    Lydia kept her head bowed to stare at her dirty bare feet against the plank floor of the wagon and only nodded in acknowledgment of the introduction. "And that is Mrs. Leona Watkins." Ma was speaking in whispers out of respect for the man who was seated on a low stool, his dark head buried in his hands with his elbows propped on his knees.
    It was the woman who spoke first. "Who in the world . . . and why is she gallivanting around virtually naked like that? Oh, this is the girl your boys found and brought in. I must say, I'm surprised you'd bring such a ... a person . . . into this wagon, especially at a time like this. This is a death vigil and—"
    "Maybe not," Ma snapped, her obvious dislike for the other woman evident in her voice. "Mr. Grayson, this girl had a babe day before yesterday. She's got milk. I thought that if Mr. Colemans baby could suck—"
    "Oh, my Lord," Mrs. Watkins exclaimed, distressed. From beneath her lashes, Lydia saw the woman raising a scrawny hand to a meager chest and clasping the front of her dress as though warding off an evil spirit.
    Ma was undaunted by Leona Watkins's disapproval and went on addressing the wagonmaster. "The poor little babe might pull through yet if Lydia here could suckle him."