Bells of Avalon by Libbet Bradstreet Read Free Book Online

of impatience. 
                  “Gee, Katie, I said I was sorry. It was a joke.  How was I supposed to know you’d take it serious?” His face stiffened when his apology was met by icy silence.  
    “ Look ,” he sighed, “you have to go with me or I’ll be in dutch with Mom for a week.”
    She looked at him doubtfully.
                  I’ve my orders to fetch her mister.
                  The radio continued to play in the background—now to the clomping baritone rhythm of Ghost Riders in the Sky.
    Danny rose to his feet and flicked off the radio.
    “C’mon, Katie— please ?”
    She sighed but stood up.
                  “I’ll go with you.  But once we get there, we part ways and you don’t say a word to me for the rest of the night. I’m not at your beck and call, Daniel Gallagher.”
                  His eyebrows pitched up—then relaxed to smug indifference.
                  “No you’re not, Katie Webb.”  The words were calm but deep in their distaste. She realized then that maybe he knew all about the price of maturity. Maybe his tumble into manhood hadn’t been as easy as she thought. It had been the same painful pull to a place for which they were both unprepared.
                  “Hurry up and change if you’re going to. I’ll meet you out front,” he said. She watched him leave. Her body jumped, as always, at the squall of the kitchen door’s hinges.

    Katie sighed over the few sad pieces of clothing in her closet. A sloppy-Joe sweater—two sizes too large, a pair of muslin pants of indeterminable color, a few jumpers in atomic prints, and the tattered shirts Mrs. Gallagher had given her to work outdoors.  She gave a half-smile when she spotted the white, pleated dress Mrs. Gallagher had bought her at Desmonds— only a week and three days before. She shuffled-off her shoes and garden clothes, leaving them in a pile on the floor. She pulled the dress from the hanger and stepped into it with bare feet. Before leaving, she paused and looked down at her scuffed, knobby knees and thin calves. She stepped toward the dresser and looked into the small mirror sitting atop. She frowned at her murky blue eyes and reached for a white case of lip pomade, another gift from Mrs. Gallagher.  She smoothed a bit of the coral, waxy sheen over her lips and smoothed them together. She shrugged when it did little to improve the vitality of her face. She met Daniel at the foot of the staircase. They said nothing as he gestured her out the front door, then locked it from behind. 
    “Why, what’ve you got there, Danny boy?” A man, cheerful in his inquiry, asked standing against the parked car in the driveway. The light was fading from dusk to dark but she could still make out the two boys in the back seat. A woman sat in the front, looking into a hand-held mirror and applying lipstick in a frenzied circular motion.
                  “Why, it’s Katie Webb, of course.” Danny gestured as if to showcase her body standing next to his own.  The man squinted over the rim of his glasses.
                  “Why it is Katie Webb isn’t it?  Irene!”  He snapped his head to the side as he called for his wife.
                  “What?”
                  “Irene, get yourself out here—it’s Katie Webb.”
                  “What?” she asked again, but was already pulling herself from the passenger seat.  She didn’t bother to close the car door behind her.  Her blonde hair was piled on her head in the immovable curls of a doll. She clapped her hands and let out a cry of delight. 
                  “Oh it is Katie Webb, well my my. ” The charming twang of her voice put Katie at ease for a moment. The woman’s hands framed her face. Katie tried, unsuccessfully, not to flinch against the touch. Irene gasped then exhaled into a long