The Moon and the Stars Read Online Free Page A

you’ll take to San Sebastian.” He glanced at the driver. “It’ll be all right with you if she boards now, won’t it?”
    â€œYeah. I don’t mind if she does,” the man said, paying little attention to her.
    Words failed her. The stranger’s generosity was still on her mind when the stage pulled out an hour later.
    Two other passengers had boarded in Galveston, so she pulled the hood of her cloak low across her forehead and pretended to be asleep.
    She knew nothing about San Sebastian, Texas, but that was where she was headed. Each mile the stage traveled was taking her farther and farther away from her enemy—and that was all she cared about at the moment.
    It was Caroline Duncan who began the long journey into the unknown. But by the time she arrived at San Sebastian, she would be Caroline Richmond.

Chapter Two
    Texas—1871
    Caroline Richmond, as she was known to the people of San Sebastian, sat near the window so she could catch the last bit of light from the setting sun. Reaching into her sewing basket, she untangled a strand of green thread and threaded her needle. She still had to hem both sleeves before the gown would be finished.
    She paused for a moment and allowed her gaze to linger on the sunset that was so brilliant it made the cloud bank to the east look like it was on fire. She was swamped by feelings of melancholy and homesickness that cut deep into her soul. She had tried not to dwell on the past, but in truth it was always with her, lurking just at the edge of her mind.
    She tried to concentrate on the view from the window. This part of Texas was mostly flat, so twilight lingered long past the gentle sunsets that she remembered in Charleston. In South Carolina, twilight fellsoftly across the land. In Texas, when the sun finally did set, it struck against the land like a hammer on an anvil.
    She shook her head to dispel her memories, because she could never go home again. She thought of how her father had never fully recovered from her mother’s death. He had become a shadow of the man he’d once been. She feared he might have become worse after she’d disappeared from his life. How could she know, since she had not seen or contacted him in almost three years?
    Without a doubt, Brace would have someone watching her father’s mail; he would expect her to write. In that way she had outsmarted him.
    She was resigned to the fact that San Sebastian would probably be her home for the rest of her life.
    If she was going to be honest with herself, she owed her very existence to the kind people of this town. When she had first arrived as a stranger, the local families had taken her into their hearts and homes. But sometimes, like now, when she was alone in the still of the evening, when families were gathered about their table together, she longed for a family of her own. Her heart and mind were still attached to the past, and she could never have children of her own as long as Brace was looking for her.
    The Gray family lived behind her, and they had seven energetic children whose laughter often floated in her direction, touching the loneliness deep inside her. Even now she could hear the constant slamming of the door as Wanda Gray called her offspring to supper.
    Last night the old nightmare had returned, and she had awakened in a cold sweat. She had been too afraidto go back to sleep and had paced the floor until dawn. It had been a long day, and now she was so weary she could hardly hold her head straight.
    She did not want to remember holding Michael in her arms, her gown soaked with his blood. She did not want to remember how it felt when he had taken his last breath and there had been nothing she could do to help him. She missed him, she always would.
    She reached into the bottom of her sewing basket, pushing thread aside until she found what she was searching for. She carefully unfolded the clipping from
The Union Daily News
of Union, South