Midnight Rescue / The Proposal / Christy's Choice by Catherine Marshall Read Free Book Online Page B

his velvet side. Ruby Mae sat next to him, a horse blanket over her legs. Her diary was nearby.
    â€œMiz Christy!” she exclaimed. “You nearly scared me to death!”
    â€œI’m sorry.” Christy joined her in the stall. The hay was prickly and warm. Prince gazed at her sleepily, clearly wondering why he was getting so many late-night visitors. “I couldn’t sleep, and then I saw you were gone and got worried.”
    â€œWell, I’m glad it’s just you. I thought I was hearin’ noises before,” Ruby Mae said.
    â€œProbably just the hogs. Or the wind,” Christy said.
    She stroked Prince’s soft muzzle. “Do you sneak out here often?”
    â€œSome,” Ruby Mae said guardedly.
    â€œYou love Prince a lot, don’t you?”
    â€œMore’n anything in the whole wide world, I reckon.” Ruby Mae pulled a piece of straw out of her curly hair. “More’n my ma and step-pa, even, I sometimes think. Is that wrong, Miz Christy, to feel like that?”
    â€œYou’re just going through a rough time with your parents right now, Ruby Mae. It’ll pass.”
    Ruby Mae sighed. “I hope you’re right. But my step-pa looked right mad at me today, after that sermon by the preacher. After church he told me I was getting carried away, living here at the mission. Said he might even make me come back home to live.” She sighed. “My step-pa thinks people like you and the preacher are pokin’ in where you don’t belong. He said there’d be trouble, if’n you didn’t tend to your own business.”
    â€œDo you think a lot of people feel that way?” Christy asked.
    â€œReckon so. It’s just the way folks is, Miz Christy. They get set in their ways, and they don’t like gettin’ un-set, if you follow my meanin’. Preacher, he’s maybe goin’ too fast . . . not that I got any right to say.”
    Christy leaned back against the rough, cool wood of the wall. She pointed to Ruby Mae’s diary and smiled. “I was writing in my diary, too.”
    â€œWhat did you say?” Ruby Mae asked. Her hand flew to her mouth. “Oops. I forgot how they’re private-like. You don’t have to tell me. But I’ll tell you mine. I was writin’ how when I’m here with Prince, it seems like the whole rest of the world can just float away, for all I care. I was writin’ about this place we go to, over past Blackberry Creek. There’s a spot—a cave, like—where we just sit and watch the world a-spinnin’, and I think actual thoughts sometimes.”
    Christy smiled. “Actual thoughts? I’m very impressed.”
    â€œI mean, I know I ain’t no John Spencer or Rob Allen or nothin’.” She laughed. “My step-pa says I have chicken feathers for brains. But still, I think sometimes.” She hesitated. “You think someone as all-fired smart as Rob could ever hanker after someone with feathers for brains?”
    â€œOf course he could. But don’t you ever say that about yourself, Ruby Mae. I’ve probably learned as much about the Cove from you as I have from Miss Alice.”
    â€œTruly?”
    â€œTruly. Of course, I wouldn’t mind if you paid a little more attention to your studies and chores and a little less attention to Prince.”
    â€œBut can’t you see why?” Ruby Mae asked. She hugged Prince’s neck. “Isn’t bein’ here just the plumb best place in the whole world? Christy nodded. “You’re right. It just may be.”
    Using Prince’s broad back for a pillow, Ruby Mae stretched out in the hay. Christy joined her, and together they covered themselves with the scratchy, horse-smelling blanket. The little window on the far wall gave them a tiny square of sky to look at.
    â€œPeaceful-like, ain’t it?” Ruby Mae whispered. Staring up at the little patch of