Fire Along the Sky by Sara Donati Read Free Book Online Page B

walk the whole way alone, and barefoot.”
    “I take it he gave in?”
    “Not at first,” Jennet said. “We argued for a long while. Then Granny Iona spoke up for me.” Jennet's smile was so quick and overwhelming that Hannah found herself smiling in response.
    “And I ask you, what mortal man can stand up to a runaway nun? Others may stand aside when the mighty Luke Bonner strides down the lane with his men trotting along behind, but not his granny Iona. To all his arguments she only flicked her fingers. I'll tell you this, Hannah. It may be more than fifty years ago that Iona wore the veil, but she still has much of the nun about her when she's in a temper.
    “And so Luke gave in, bit by bit, and we came to an agreement.” She cleared her throat, and color rose on her cheeks as she let out an awkward little laugh. Her hands closed over the deck of cards in her lap thoughtfully.
    Jennet had eyes the same green as Daniel's, rich and startling as new maple leaves, but the expression in them just now was solemn. Hannah was taken with the urge to stop her, but when she opened her mouth no sound came out.
    “He believes—as you may believe, cousin—that the tarot cards are naught but bits of paper that tell me what I want to hear. I wanted to come to Paradise and so they told me I must. In the end we made a wager, Luke and I, witnessed by Granny Iona and Simon Ballentyne.”
    “Luke wants you to go home to Scotland,” Hannah said.
    “Aye. Should my worries prove unfounded, I promised to go home to Carryck without further argument and not to come back until the war is done.”
    “And if you are right? What must he give you?” Hannah leaned forward a little. “Will you have him marry you?”
    Jennet flushed such a deep color that it looked as if she had been struck by a sudden fever. “Do you think I'd have him like that, on a wager?”
    “I think you love him now as you loved him when he left Carryck,” Hannah said. “I think you mean to have him.”
    Jennet did not seem to take offense, though a fine tremor fluttered in the muscles of her cheek.
    “It's true that your brother will not admit he loves me, yet—”
    “Yet,” echoed Hannah with a smile.
    “—but the day will come. Not even Luke Bonner can run from the truth forever, and after so many years I can wait a wee longer,” Jennet said firmly. “I am his fate and he is mine, just as you and Strikes-the-Sky were fated for one another.” She touched a finger to the hollow of her throat in a distracted way.
    “It's all right,” Hannah said. “I like to hear his name spoken.”
    “Oh, I'm glad,” Jennet breathed. “For I'd like to hear your stories, and I will tell ye mine.”
    “First you must tell me what Luke wagered.”
    Jennet shrugged. “Just this: should I have the right of it, he will speak to me no more of going home to Carryck without him.”
    There was a longer silence.
    “Say what's on your mind, cousin,” Jennet said with a faint smile. “We must have honesty between us, you and I.”
    “All right, then. What if I tell you that I am well and that I am recovering from my losses. Will you really go home without an argument?”
    Jennet's gaze was severe and unwavering. “I will say it again: you will have honesty from me in all things, and I ask you for the same. If you do not need me here you have only to say so. I will set off for home tomorrow.”
    “Oh, I need you here,” Hannah said. Her throat was suddenly swollen with unshed tears. “I didn't know I needed you until I saw you, but I do.”
    Jennet's smile was bright and genuine and so welcome that Hannah had to pinch the web of flesh between thumb and finger to keep herself from weeping.
    “You want me to stay?”
    “Yes.” She nodded. “I would like you to stay. But have you thought that Luke will be going back to Montreal without you?”
    “Aye, he'll go,” Jennet said. “And then he'll come back again, because he must. When he comes back to me of his own