Sisters by Lynne Cheney Read Free Book Online

camp. In all his long life,
had there been anything he wanted to do he couldn't, any challenge he
had failed? She could think of none... except perhaps one. Herself,
or at least the girl she had been so long ago. It was about her
thirteenth year it had started, her refusal to recognize Joe's or
anyone else's authority. She had begun for the first time to
understand the power that lay in a pleasing face, a pleasing shape,
and she had been fascinated with its effects on the soldiers at Fort
Martin, intoxicated with the adventures it opened up.
    One evening she had been
flirting with two young soldiers. Helen had been with her, but had
run home when Sophie agreed to go with the soldiers to their
quarters. It was a game to Sophie, with her controlling the players,
maneuvering them until they responded in ways she had planned. She
had known they would ask her to their quarters, and she thought she
could determine what would happen when they got there. And if she
couldn't?--she shrugged off the risk, ignoring everything but the
excitement of it. She had gone with the young men, there had been
much laughter, a few playful kisses--and then one of them backed her
into a corner. He kissed her roughly and pressed against her, hard
and insistent. She pushed him away, frightened now, feeling helpless,
out of control. He started back toward her, but at that moment Joe
appeared in the doorway. Helen must have told him where she was, and
he had come to get her.
    "Get away. Get away
from her." Joe didn't shout, but his voice throbbed with rage.
The soldier backed away to stand by his friend, and both of them
watched Joe warily. They had the advantage of youth, but Joe's years
in the mountains had hardened him, toughened him, and they wouldn't
choose to fight.
    Sophie moved toward Joe,
and she could feel his anger threatening to explode. But when she
reached him, touched him, he looked at her, and she saw an awareness
come into his eyes, almost as if he were seeing her for the first
time. His shoulders fell forward; the anger seemed to drain out of
him. "Let's go, Sophie," he said, and turning his back on
the men in the room, he took her away.
    As they walked across the
parade grounds, his expression was troubled. "Fort Martin ain't
a good place for you now," he said finally. "I ain't here
much, and you don't pay your grandma no heed. It'd be better if you
went away for a spell." He told her he'd heard of a school from
another sutler. "He sends his girl there and it sounds real
fine, right near San Francisco and run by the nuns. If we can't find
some family goin' that way, I'll take you there myself."
    Disbelieving, she had
stared at him, and what she saw shocked her and at the same time told
her he was serious. There were tears in his eyes, something she had
never seen before and had never expected to see. She looked at him
now, small and helpless on the bed, and she felt her own tears
rising.
    Forcing herself to sit
upright, she glanced around the room. It was cozy and comfortable,
done in warm colors, a pleasing room except for one mawkish steel
engraving. From the wall opposite the bed, a Landseer stag stared
down with eyes which would have better suited a saint. Noble, gentle,
forgiving, they were not an animal's eyes at all.
    Suddenly she felt the
prickling across the back of her shoulders again, knew with inner
certainty that someone was watching her. She tried to talk herself
out of it, telling herself it was nonsense; the only thing watching
her was that avuncular Landseer stag. But however much she protested,
she still knew someone was looking at her. They were outside the
door, watching her through the crack.
    Gently she laid down Joe's
hand. Then she got up quickly and rushed to the door, pulling it open
in a single motion. An old woman was standing there, dressed all in
black, her eyes glaring and malevolent. Sophie felt confused,
disoriented, as though time and space were shifting and changing,
leaving her unmoored in a buzzing,