Getting Lucky by Carolyn Brown Read Free Book Online Page A

and tiptoed so she could see in the mirror. Looking back at her was Annie, or so she pretended.
       "She's mean when Daddy isn't looking. You are my friend. What would you do?" Lizzy giggled at what came to her mind, which she was sure came from Annie in the mirror.
       The three of them sat down at the big table in the dining room for supper.
       "So what did you do today?" Rachel asked.
       Lizzy shrugged.
       "You rode your pony, didn't you?" Griffin asked.
       Lizzy nodded.
       "Cat got your tongue?" Rachel asked.
       Lizzy shrugged.
       The phone rang and Griffin excused himself to answer it, stepping out of the dining room into the foyer. His voice was low and his tone serious.
       "What's the matter with you?" Rachel asked Lizzy.
       "Nothing," she answered.
       "You could talk to me. I intend to live here before very long, and you're going to be my stepdaughter. You'll have to talk to me then so you might as well start now." Rachel's tone was syrupy sweet.
       Lizzy decided to give her a chance. "Do you like cats?"
       "No, I hate them and you aren't going to bring any of those horrible barn cats in this house when I move in here. That will be understood from the first day." The tone was suddenly snappy and sour.
       "You aren't very pretty when you do that with your eyes and make your mouth all puckered up," Lizzy said.
       "You are a horrible little girl," Rachel said.
       "Hey, you two, go ahead and eat. I'll be back in fifteen minutes. There's a cow down and I've got to help Carl pull the calf," Griffin yelled from the other room.
       Lizzy jumped up from the table. "I'll go with you, Daddy."
       "No, you stay here and talk to Rachel."
       Lizzy kept walking. "But I want to go with you."
       He frowned. "I said you will stay here with Rachel."
       She sat back down and hunched her thin shoulders, dropping her chin to her chest in a pout.
       Rachel waited until she heard the door shut before she turned to Lizzy.
       "Little girl, you better understand something right now. I will marry your father. Now straighten up you r back and eat your carrots."
       "I don't like carrots." Lizzy glared at Rachel. If she moved to the Lucky Clover, then Lizzy was going to ride her pony to Annie's house and live there. Even that Lassyturn witch wasn't as mean as Rachel.
       "Eat them anyway or else."
       "I told you I don't like carrots. Daddy never puts them on my plate and he won't make me eat them," Lizzy said.
       "Do you like a spanking? I can turn you over my knee so fast that it'll make you dizzy. I said eat those carrots." Rachel's eyes narrowed into slits. She was almost as tall as Griffin at five feet eleven inches. Her black hair came straight from a bottle and her eyes were dark brown. No little girl was about to refuse to do something she told her to do.
       Lizzy shook her head.
       Rachel jerked her up by the arm, bent her over her lap, and swatted her twice. She plopped her back down on the chair hard enough to make a thud.
        So that's what a spanking feels like, Lizzy thought , but she didn't cry. She'd heard about spankings but she'd never had one. She'd asked Nana Rita about them but Nana Rita said spankings were for really bad things. Little girls who just did something a little bad had to stay in their room all afternoon or sometimes they didn't get to ride their pony or play with their kittens. Lizzy couldn't wait to tell Annie all about it tomorrow at school.
       "I still hate carrots," she said.
       "It doesn't matter. If I tell you to eat them, then you will eat them," Rachel said.
       "I'm going to my room and I'm not eating them carrots. You can tell my daddy that you whipped me."
       Rachel pointed her finger at Lizzy. "I'm not telling him anything and neither are you or you'll get twice as many swats next time. I'm coming back next Saturday to spend the whole day because Marita and Carl need to be