The Outsider by Rosalyn West Read Free Book Online Page B

own failures, of the way a true marriage was meant to be. Her friends would never say they’d prefer to be alone. It wasn’t necessary.
    Starla kept to herself to give them their privacy, and in her solitude she had ample time to think: about what she’d do, about her argument with her brother, about other fears that had yet to surface beyond uneasy suspicion. Fears that would change everything. The silence and space began to mock her state of indecision, echoing the magnitude of the uncertainties ahead. Finally she knew it waseither escape her perpetual brooding or go quite mad.
    So a trip to Pride seemed a godsend. Its streets were in an exciting flux of growth, new businesses springing up on the ashes of old. Strangers filled the crowded walks and it was easy to blend within that anonymous bustling stream. So many blue uniforms. Though she was used to seeing them after living in an occupied city, they looked glaringly out of place in Pride, where Southern sympathies had always held sway. She had no fondness for the loud, rude Yankees who pushed past her without so much as a glance of apology, but today she held no malice. Today she was enjoying her independence.
    An independence that became an illusion as two burly figures blocked her path.
    “Why, Miz Fairfax. I thought that was you!”
    She stared up at the two workers from her father’s distillery in a moment of abject panic. She recognized them both, not by name but by their reputation as harsh taskmasters eager to do whatever was necessary to earn her father’s favor. And right now, she was afraid to find out what that might be.
    The larger of the two grinned wide, displaying tobacco-stained teeth. “We heard you was back and was wondering why you didn’t come home, instead of staying out there with that turncoat trash. Your daddy was just saying to Benson and me that we should keep an eye out for you, and should we see you, we was to bring you home for a visit.”
    Terror gathered cold and heavy in the pit ofStarla’s belly, but she scrambled to gather her wits. The three of them were standing on a busy walkway; what could happen?
    “Why, how nice to see you boys again.” Her smile was spun sugar, coating the bitter taste of fear. “You can tell my daddy that I’ll be over to see him just as soon as I can. I’ve got myself an appointment with the dressmaker in just a few minutes, and you know how prickly they get if you make them wait.”
    The one called Benson returned her smile. It was more sneer than amicable gesture. “She’ll just have to wait, missy. Our orders was to bring you direct.” And he put one huge hand on her arm, his fingers banding about her elbow like the hoops around a cask of Fairfax’s finest.
    Starla fought to keep any tremor from her voice. “Take your hand off me, sir. I will not be pawed in public.” When he didn’t relent, she made her tone icier. “My father will have you horsewhipped.”
    “Your daddy’11 be givin’ us a right nice bonus for seeing his little girl home again and that’s what me an’ Milton mean to do.”
    The brown-toothed Milton gripped her other arm in a painful clamp. “Don’t go makin’ no trouble for us, missy. We won’t get rough ‘lessen you make us.”
    Trapped between the two behemoths, Starla reeled with panic and indecision. She could either scream for help or be towed back to her father’s house like a truculent mule that had slipped its lead and run away. Four years ago, she’d sworn she’dnever return there. She thought of what waited in those closed-off rooms that reeked of stale mash and forbidden secrets. Her palms dampened. Her lungs expanded, readying to force a shriek for help from the pinch of her vocal cords. She wouldn’t go back, not even if it meant causing an unforgivable scene in the center of town. She’d rather die of shame than suffer under her father’s rule again.
    Abruptly their path was barred by the cross brace of one of Hamilton Dodge’s crutches.