Pieces of Dreams by Jennifer Blake Read Free Book Online Page B

misbehave.”
    “Oh, for heaven's sake!” Caleb said, running a hand through his hair. “You can't expect me to take this business lying down.”
    “I expected you to be here. Or I thought you might join us before we finished eating. It even crossed my mind that we might all laugh about the joke. I never dreamed you would come storming up in a rage because I shared a few pieces of chicken with your twin.”
    Caleb was silent for long moments. Then he sighed and shook his head. His voice low, he said, “You're right. I shouldn't have been in such a lather.” He lifted a hand to rub the back of his neck. “It's been a long day and I didn't find any of the things I wanted. Then to come back and see you and Conrad out here—well, anyway, maybe you'll overlook my temper?”
    It was as near an apology as he could come, Melly knew, and a fine reflection of the generous man she had always known, the Caleb she had agreed to marry. Stepping forward, she took his arm, smiling up at him. “I'm sorry too; I know we shouldn't have wandered so far. But I was glad Conrad was here, since otherwise I might have had to eat with Leaman Stotts!”
    Caleb smiled with the easing of facial muscles that indicated a return to his usual even temper. “I suppose you’d have been even more aggravated with me then.”
    “Indeed I would!” she agreed, and went on in that rallying tone. The two men joined in, if somewhat stiffly, and the moment passed away.
    As they were nearing the church and the last of the buggies that were gathered around it, however, she realized an important fact. Caleb had absolved her of blame, but the courtesy had not been extended to his brother. In fact, he had hardly spoken to Conrad other than to condemn him.
    Conrad was well aware of his brother's displeasure, though it was not a matter of grave concern for him. He was fairly sure he would hear more on the subject of his sins once they had seen Melly home.
    He did not wait while Caleb walked her to the boarding house door. With a polite good night on the sidewalk, he jammed his fists into his pockets and continued in the direction of the livery stable and the river. If his brother was going to kiss Melly, he had no desire whatever to stand and watch. Self-torture was not his pleasure.
    He must be mad. What had possessed him to pretend to be Caleb this evening? He should be past such juvenile tricks.
    Yes, but Melly had been so lovely, so lovable, and so apparently accessible, that he had lost his head. And he'd be lucky if that was all. Not that it mattered a sailor's damn.
    She wasn't for him. Soon, she would be his brother's wife, a tired drudge of a farmer's help-mate. Caleb would plant a child in her belly that she must bear in agony, and he would keep on doing it until her glorious body was a memory, until she was exhausted and faded, with lines in her face and gray in her hair.
    She would become exactly like his mother—and Caleb's—had been before she died. His brother might care, but would feel no more blame than their father had before him. If Melly died in her early middle-age, Caleb would miss the clean house, the good food, the convenient female body. But he would never miss the woman because he would never have bothered to know her. Worse, he would think that was the way it was supposed to be, since it was all he had ever known.
    “God,” Conrad whispered, staring up at the night-black sky with its silver dusting of stars. If he had Caleb's chance, he would learn every thought and need and dream that Melly possessed. He would discover everything she had ever done or felt, sorrows as well as joys. He would take endless delight in sparring with her to find out her views on everything under the sun. He would tempt and tease until she had no secrets.
    Nor would her pleasure be hidden from him. Nothing, nothing would stop him from exploring her lovely form inch by careful inch, while using every wile he had ever learned from foreign females, ever heard,