Dangerous Dreams: A Novel by Mike Rhynard Read Free Book Online

smile, dabbed her eyes with her sleeve. “Holding it always makes me sad and teary, but it’s a
happy
sad because touching it makes Mother feel closer.”
    “I understand very well. I feel the same way when I hold
my
mother’s things.”
    Both smiled a knowing, wordless, lingering smile that reflected a tight, inseverable bond of shared experience. But soon Emily assumed a pensive look. “You know, George, talking about why the Howes and the Colmans are here makes me wonder why all these other people came . . . why they gave up whatever they gave up to come here.”
    George thought for a moment. “I suppose ’twas no different than for us. Everyone has reasons for what they do . . . but this is such a challenging and dangerous venture . . . I think their reasons, like ours, would have to be quite serious and important or else they’d not take the risk.”
    “That certainly makes sense; for according to Father, we have a goldsmith, a sheriff, a lawyer, a Cambridge professor, and, oh yes, two former convicts. We can guess why they’re here. But then there’s Governor White—a successful artist—and gentry such as Master Tayler, and a mason . . .”
    “He likes you doesn’t he?”
    “Who?”
    “Master Tayler. I’ve seen him look at you. He’s always looking at you.”
    “Looking isn’t a sin, George. Actually, I don’t know him very well at all. Never even had a real conversation with him, but he seems like a nice man, what you’d expect for a gentleman, I suppose. Father certainly likes what he’s seen of him.” Emily had also liked what she’d seen, wondered when she’d have a chance to talk to him without her father or someone else around. “So, George, why would those people abandon such secure, prosperous lives for
this
?” She extended her arms out to her sides. “What could justify the risks they’re taking, with so much more to leave behind than we?” She smiled. “I’ve often wondered if rather than running
to
something, many aren’t actually running
from
something, something in the present or past they disliked or feared, some unpleasant reality, something in the mind that torments them. And yes, I think most of us probably
are
following a dream, perhaps without even knowing what it is but sensing that it will better us or improve our lot in life.” They’d fallen behind the line of colonists, and Emily saw one of the soldiers look back tocheck on them. She bumped George’s shoulder, pointed ahead, quickened her pace.
    “Emily, you’re a deeper thinker than I. I could never conjure such thoughts on my own.” He stopped, gently took her hands, looked into her eyes, searched them. “Haunting they are . . . haunting and beautiful . . . and irresistible . . . and . . . Emily, I know there are two years between us, and that you’re a woman not a girl . . . but I can’t help . . .”
    A crimson glow spread up Emily’s neck to her cheeks. “George, the soldiers are waiting for us . . . come, I’ll race you to the shore. I get a head start.” She giggled, shoved him backward, then lifted her skirt to her knees and sprinted for the shore. She was halfway to the water before George took his first step.

    A crew of thirty men, over half of them soldiers, felled trees around the perimeter. Cutting close to the village served two purposes: it gave the Savages less cover to sneak up on the village, and it gave the men who transported the logs a shorter distance to the palisades. However, since the last expedition had taken most of the close, properly sized trees for the old palisades, now seventy percent destroyed, the cutters were beginning to cut into virgin forest outside the perimeter.
    An ideal palisade post was about fifteen feet tall and eight to twelve inches thick, so another challenge the cutters faced was that a tree long enough to make two posts would usually exceed the desired thickness and be too heavy for one man to maneuver and carry by hand. As a result, they would have