The Surrogate Wife. Barbara Leigh

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СКАЧАТЬ style="font-size:15px;">      He wondered how long she would stay with him before bolting into the wilderness. Personally, he knew he would take his chances with the Indians before he’d work as another man’s slave. He glanced down in time to see Meagan toss her bundle into the back of the wagon. She was about to follow when his voice stopped her.

      “Get up here on the seat beside me,” he ordered brusquely. “I don’t want to get home and find you gone.”

      He clucked to the horses as she scrambled into the seat. The wagon hit every rut as they followed the road out of town.

      Meagan was perched on the very edge of the seat, putting every available inch of room between herself and Josh Daniels. With each jolt of the wagon he expected to see her disappear over the side and fall beneath the wheels, or run for open country. He pulled the wagon to a halt.

      “Look, Miss Reilly, I don’t want to be responsible for your death either through an accident if you fall off the seat and under the wagon wheels, or through your foolishness should you decide to try to run away. Now get enough of your body on the seat so that I can be sure you’re not going to kill yourself on this bumpy road, or I’ll be forced to tie you in the back of the wagon.”

      Meagan shot him a venomous look but she did allow herself a bit more of the seat. They rode through the afternoon, stopping only to rest the horses and allow them to drink at the plentiful streams.

      Meagan’s eyes scanned the horizon. How she longed for the sight of her brother. But Reilly had gone to join his mother’s people and it was doubtful that he would have heard of her plight. Still shocked and confused by the situation that had ended in her conviction, Meagan tried to focus on anything other than the unbelievable circumstances in which she found herself.

      Josh reached into his haversack and brought out some bread and cheese, which he thrust toward her. “Chew it slowly,” he cautioned, “and make it last. There will be little else until after we get home.”

      “Home,” Meagan repeated as though the word were new.

      “What did you say?” Josh asked.

      “I said home. I don’t remember ever going home before.”

      Josh raised his eyebrows. “Surely you must have had a home somewhere.”

      “Father was a schoolteacher. When I was small we often lived on the school grounds, or in the school itself. Perhaps if my mother had lived we would have had a real home, but after her death Father decided he had a calling to educate the Indians. We lived in a tepee with an Indian woman for a while. She was the mother of my half brother.”

      “Is that why you killed Lily?” he asked without taking his eyes from the road. “Because you were jealous of her home?”

      His words hit her like a face full of cold water. “I didn’t kill your wife, Mr. Daniels, and I’ve never seen your home. You will remember that it was at the house of your neighbor, Ruth Somers, that your wife went to her reward.”

      Josh jerked the reins so abruptly that the team shied in confusion. “Death was never meant to be a reward to my wife. She was filled with life and vivacity.”

      “Apparently everyone didn’t see her in quite the same light,” Meagan commented, positive that her words would be lost in Josh’s efforts to control the panicked horses.

      Josh managed to quiet the animals. Then he turned to Meagan. “If we are to keep from leaping at each other’s throats, Miss Reilly, I suggest we keep our opinions regarding my wife’s death to ourselves. I believe you are responsible for her death, either deliberately or by accident.”

      “And I believe you are a bigger fool than you look to be,” Meagan fired back.

      “If I turn you back to the judge you will hang,” he threatened, though he knew the words to be beneath him.

      “You need someone to work your land and tend your house and care for your daughter,” Meagan reminded him. “There are no single women within a hundred miles of here, and a man would want a full share for the work you’ll get from me for nothing. I don’t think you can afford to send me away.”

      Josh’s jaw hardened, along with his heart. The girl was too damned smart for her own good. He did need help, and the presence of a woman who could cook and clean, as well as tend the livestock, would be a tremendous asset. “Very well, then,” he grumbled. “You will stay as long as you put in a fair day’s work. I don’t expect you to do any more than I do.”

      “That sounds just,” she agreed.

      “I am up an hour before dawn. You will be ready to help with the morning chores.”

      Josh Daniels continued talking, but Meagan didn’t respond to his words. Her mind had traveled back in time to the days of her childhood. Life in the Indian village had been relaxed and carefree. As the only white child, she was looked upon as somewhat of a curiosity. The Indian children enjoyed teaching her their games and skills. Her father, a teacher, was a respected man in the tribe and his choice of taking one of their women as his wife was accepted with favour.

      Then smallpox had all but wiped the tribe from the face of the earth. Even Meagan’s stepmother had died, but Meagan, her father and half brother were not touched by the sickness. The Indians—what few there were left—began to look upon them askance. Why had the white man and his children been spared?

      The day the old chief died, James Reilly took his children and left the village. His wife and his credibility had gone before him, and it was prudent to move on. But while the Indians had been willing to accept and share their lives with the little white child, the white people were not willing to share their lives, or, for that matter, their towns, with a half-breed Indian boy and his family. And they certainly did not want the boy’s father teaching their children.

      When Meagan was old enough she hired out, taking care of children and helping the women with their spring and fall housecleaning. After her father’s death Meagan’s brother decided to leave the world of the white man and return to his mother’s tribe. Having been educated by her father, Meagan was qualified to supply an education to the children of a household as well as carry her share of the work.

      She had come to Banebridge hoping to obtain a permanent position teaching children. Her search had taken her into the wilderness where Ruth Somers had offered employment. During Meagan’s first week, Lily Daniels had pitched down the Somerses’ stairs. Meagan had run from the kitchen to help and was bending over the unfortunate woman when Ruth began screaming for her husband and accused Meagan of murder.

      And now Meagan was going to a place that would be her home and her prison.

      Meagan had always thought that someday she would have a man and a home of her own. Now that dream would never come to pass. Slaves didn’t have homes. Indentured servants weren’t allowed the freedom of choosing a husband. Her life was over before it had a chance to begin.

      She closed her eyes and tried to squeeze out one more prayer for salvation, aware that the prayers with which she had barraged heaven over the past weeks had apparently fallen on deaf ears. Surely the Lord hadn’t received her messages, for he hadn’t taken the time to answer.

      The horses, tired at the end of the day, slowed to little more than a walk as they pulled the heavily laden wagon up a steep hill.

      Meagan wouldn’t СКАЧАТЬ