Into the Light by Ellen O'Connell Read Free Book Online Page A

I escape makes it sound as if someone forces me to go places I don’t want to, and that’s not true.” She paused then decided to tell the whole truth. “My aunt and my sisters lure me and bribe me and try to convince me I’ll have a good time. By the time I was ten, I realized it’s easier to go along with them and then slip away than to hold out for peace and quiet to start with.”
    “Clever lady.”
    “Have you ever been in the park for the fireworks?” Deborah asked. She didn’t wait for him to admit he hadn’t. “Every square foot of the park has a person sitting on it, and last year boys lit firecrackers and threw them right in the crowd.” Uncle Eli’s boys, but she wasn’t mentioning that. “There was screaming and shouting, and some of them exploded right next to me and frightened me out of my wits.”
    “Were you hurt?” He sounded upset at the thought.
    “No, but the sparks burned holes in my skirt and ruined my dress. Everyone fussed over it the rest of the night and most of the next day. It spoiled the evening and the whole trip to town.”
    “They fussed too much, and it embarrassed you.”
    How could a stranger understand what her family never did? “Yes, exactly. I wasn’t hurt, but you’d think I had an arm blown right off. I really do love them dearly, but they’re — overwhelming.”
    “Aah. Overwhelming. That’s a good word for family sometimes.” His voice was as she remembered, wrapping the two of them in a private, intimate world.
    For the past two months, in her imagination, in her dreams , he was a friend, a real friend who knew her secrets and didn’t care. Before she could stop them, words spilled out as if that were true.
    “They treat me as if I’m simple minded and delicate to boot. Any woman who would rather read a book than pore over fashion pictures in Godey’s or Harper’s Bazaar has something wrong with her. A woman’s whole life is supposed to center on finding a husband, and since mine doesn’t, it’s lacking, and I need to be guarded or guided — I’m never sure which — but all they do is make me want them to leave me alone that much more.”
    Hearing the passion in her own voice and realizing what she had just revealed to a stranger, Deborah felt heat race across her cheeks and blessed the darkness of the night. “I’m sorry. I should never.... I can’t believe I just....”
    “Don’t be sorry. I understand all about how family can make you want to run away and never come back. I even tried it once. At least your people have good intentions.”
    “The road to hell is paved with good intentions,” Deborah said tartly.
    “It often is.”
    A soft whistle sounded in the distance. Deborah forgot he wouldn’t see her and pointed to the south as a fountain of golden fire shot across the sky.
    “Oh, look. Isn’t it beautiful!”
    Before the last sparks faded, more rose.
    “Do you ever wonder if men like Washington, Adams, and Jefferson expected that people would be celebrating what they did with the Twentieth Century right around the corner?” she said.
    “I don’t know if they expected it, but I know they hoped it. They knew how great an experiment they started, and they wanted it to last.”
    Deborah settled back against the bench, enjoying a discussion of the country’s history with him more than the displays overhead. She spent as much time searching the shadows for any glimpse of his outline as watching the fireworks.
    When the last sparks dissolved in the sky and quiet returned to the night, she said, “I know I should introduce myself, but....”
    “But talking to a shadowy stranger has an allure that plain Mr. Smith would not.”
    “Yes.” No one had ever understood any of her feelings before. He seemed to understand them all.
    “I feel the same way, but I’ve wasted far too much time trying to decide if you’re blonde, brunette, or even a redhead. Settle that much for me.”
    “Brunette.”
    “Are you? Me too.”
    He might