The Heroines by Eileen Favorite Read Free Book Online

and cleared his throat. His voice too had a depth that could only be described as regal: both commanding and gentlemanly. He must have sensed my fear, because he lowered his voice when he said, “I’ll be waiting here.”
    “I’ll bring her in the morning.” I struggled not to look him in the eye; lying to him wasn’t easy for me. However much I was drawn to Conor, some instinct told me to beware. He was muscular and smelled great, but I couldn’t let that make me forget that he was a hunter of women. I had to get away from him, out of the woods and back into the thick, weedy sanctuary of the fragrant prairie.
    “Excellent. Till the morning!” he said.
    “Do you need food?”
    “I can manage.” He pouted modestly, shrugging his shoulders and looking around. “I’ve slaughtered many a wild boar.”
    I bowed again, and refrained from telling him he’d have better luck finding a buck. “Okay.”
    I turned and ran, soft wood chips crunching beneath my flip-flops. I didn’t want to enter the prairie from that spot, right in front of Conor, as I worried it would irritate him, so I took a side path. Something darted into the rustling leaves, and I briefly thought Conor was following me, but that was unlikely. Up ahead I saw the outline of a wooden signpost with six arrows, an old guide for wagon trails. I’d passed it a thousand times, knew to follow the arrow pointing to Chicago to reach the prairie. The trees waved above me, darker than the sky. The sound of my footsteps threw me off, and I thought I heard another horse coming down the path at me. Maybe it was Conor’s men, so I ran harder, my eyes wide and dry with fright. I was afraid to look back, afraid not to, and as the trees cleared and opened into the prairie, I dared to look over my shoulder. Conor was gone.
    I burst into the prairie. It seemed like daylight compared to the woods; nothing blocked my view of the stars. Fireflies flickered among the weeds, quiet and golden. The hazy half-moon had dropped behind the power lines. The sweet, peppery scent of wildflowers overwhelmed me like a potion. I ran through the swampy dip beside the natural spring, swatting mosquitoes as I went. My knees were bleeding and blisters webbed the space between my big and second toes, but I didn’t care. The cool prairie was alive with crickets. This was a true taste of freedom. Suddenly I saw our windows, glowing pinkish orange. I was nearly there. The haze of Conor’s charm was clearing quickly, and it dawned on me that this man could have done anything to me, could have killed me. I had been abducted. This night went beyond anything Mother had ever experienced with the Heroines. I had either encountered a Hero or I’d galloped through the dark woods with a genuine Villain.

Chapter 8
My prodigal return An exhausted sleep
The towering Officer Marone Mother’s
betrayal Her First Pelvic Exam
I’m taken for a crazy girl
    I slammed the door behind me and pressed against the oak panels, breathless. Mother came tearing out of the living room, her long auburn hair flying behind her in wavy kinks.
    “Penny! Where on earth have you been?”
    I struggled to catch my breath, blinking at the bright overhead light, not quite believing that I was staring into the opaque pink glass with a scalloped edge. Woozy, I squinted at my blistered feet, toes gripping the rubber flip-flops, stunned to find them planted on the checkerboard ceramic tiles of my home. I had the strange feeling that I was entering a house completely known and completely unfamiliar. The rumpled elegance of the Prairie Homestead, with its faded velvet settees and ragged Persian rugs, seemed like a movie set. Something had transpired in the woods, and I was not the same girl, and this would never, in my mind, be the same house for me again.
    “Look at you!” Mother cried.
    I ran to the hall tree and gazed in the small oval mirror. My hair was wider than the glass, and razor-thin slashes crossed my cheeks and