Signs in the Blood by Vicki Lane Read Free Book Online Page A

can cook them up quick for a sallet.
    I done what she said and got some taters out of the root cellar too. They was beginnin to swivel up a little and was sproutin some, but I pulled off the sprouts and set in to peelin. I could hear the sound of boots on the front porch and the creak of the hickory bark–bottomed chairs as Daddy and the stranger man set down. Daddy hollered out, You girls best step lively; we got company to dinner.
    Hit'll be ready soon, Daddy, I called back. I could hear them talkin and laughin and Daddy said, They's three to choose from, all of them good hands to cook and ever one of em raised to work hard. I could tell he'd been drinkin for his voice was louder than usual and he was a-laughin.
    Afore long we had it all ready and set it on the table. Clytie like to break a leg tryin to be the one to go to the door and call them in. I just let her go and busied myself fillin the drinkin mugs with cold buttermilk I'd fetched from the springhouse.
    Daddy and the stranger man come in and Daddy cut his eyes all round the room. Where's Romarie at? he asked real sharp-like. When we told him she was over to Phelpses, he just snorted and said that maybe that was just as well. We all set down to the table and Daddy says, Girls, this here's Mister Tomlin. Him and me has struck a little deal. He's needin lodging whilst he's in this country and I done told him we had plenty of room and plenty of gals to do the cookin and washin. Then he asked Mister Tomlin would he return thanks and Mister Tomlin begun to pray like one thing. I had my head bowed and my eyes most shut but I was a-lookin at him while he prayed.
    His eyes was squinched tight but his head was rared back like he was sendin his words straight up to Heaven and you could tell from the way he talked that he was right certain Jesus was a-listenin. Mister Tomlin had black whiskers with some gray coming into them, but they was trimmed close and neat and the black hair on his head was sleek and shiny. His clothes looked to be all store-bought and near bout new, though dusty with travelin. They was a gold watch-chain stretched against his vest front and on the little finger of his left hand he had a golden finger-ring with a bright red stone in it that I thought was the prettiest thing I ever seen. Hit put me in mind of the sun just a-glancin off a redbird's wing. I peeped around to where Clytie was settin there next to me and seen that she was a-watchin him and lookin at that finger-ring too.
    All the while we was eatin, Daddy was a-braggin on our cookin and promisin Mister Tomlin that another day we'd really show him what we could do. I got me a taste for some fried chicken, girls, he said, and I believe you could find a mess of early peas. We just said yessir, for Daddy don't hold with us talkin too much at table, especially when they's company, but I could see Clytie smilin and figgered she was thinkin about makin one of her ginger and dried apple stack cakes too.
    So Mister Tomlin came to stay with us as a boarder. Like Daddy said, we had a plenty of room for our house was a big log house with a box stair and rooms above. Downstairs was the big room with the fireplace where we done all our cookin and a pie safe and the table and benches and chairs. Daddy's big old bed with the feather tick was over to one corner. Us girls all slept upstairs where there was two big rooms. Daddy had fixed hit thataway back when him and Mommy thought that they'd have a big family. But now there was just me and Clytie in the one room and Romarie in t'other. There was one more room in the house, a little small room downstairs, built right next to the chimbly. It was meant to be a bornin room or a place if someone was sick and needed to keep extry warm, but since Mommy had died in there, it hadn't been used none.
    Daddy set us to cleanin that room and Mister Tomlin took the saddlebags off his fine horse and brung them in. He also brung in a fine long double-barreled shotgun and stood