Read without ads and support Scribd by becoming a Scribd Premium Reader.
See Premium Plans
 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Color-- -1- -2- -3- -4- -5- -6- -7- -8- -9---------------------------------------------------------------------------------Text Size-- 10-- 11-- 12-- 13-- 14-- 15-- 16-- 17-- 18-- 19-- 20-- 21-- 22-- 23-- 24----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------WillowByNorah Hess--------------------------------------------------------------------------------ContentsChapter OneChapter TwoChapter ThreeChapter Four Chapter FiveChapter SixChapter SevenChapter EightChapter NineChapter TenChapter ElevenChapter TwelveChapter ThirteenChapter FourteenChapter FifteenChapter SixteenChapter SeventeenChapter EighteenChapter NineteenChapter TwentyChapter Twenty-OneChapter Twenty-TwoChapter Twenty-ThreeChapter Twenty-Four Chapter Twenty-FiveChapter Twenty-SixChapter Twenty-SevenChapter Twenty-EightChapter Twenty-NineChapter ThirtyEpilogue
 
 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------Chapter One The door slammed shut behind the young woman who burst through it. Her eyes wild with anger and fear, she clutched her torn bodice together."Willow, what's wrong?" her mother cried anxiously as she rose from her seat before thefireplace. When the only answer she received was footsteps running down the hall to thebedrooms, Ruth Ames followed them."Have you argued with your father again? Has he struck you?" She grabbed the arms of theslender figure and turned her around. Her gaze fastened immediately on the torn dress, themissing buttons, and then traveled up to the flushed, tear-stained face. "Please tell me that your father didn't do this.""No, Ma, he didn't, but he knew that Buck was trying to force himself on me and he didn't say aword."Willow pulled the ruined garment over her head and wadded it into a ball. "I don't know which oneof them I hate worse," she said through gritted teeth. "Willow!" Ruth gave a shocked exclamationwhen she saw the long scratches on her daughter's throat and breasts. "Did that brute do that toyou?""Yes, Ma." Willow walked across the floor and picked up a pitcher of water from the smallwashstand. As she filled a matching basin with water she said bitterly, "And Pa wants me tomarry him." She pulled the white camisole over her head, and after giving a short, humorlesslaugh, she added, "Not only wants me to, demands that I marry Buck Axel."Willow soaped a washcloth and moved it carefully over her scratched breasts. "I can't marry him,Ma," she cried despairingly. "My life would be a hell on earth living with that monster."The misery in her daughter's voice made Ruth's thin hands clench into fists. Her lovely Willowhad fought off the attentions of their neighbor for three years. It hadn't been easy, what with her father badgering her at every turn to marry the man whose ranch abutted theirs.Ruth knew why her husband was so insistent that his twenty-two-year-old daughter marry theforty-year-old man. Buck Axel had a creek that ran with water the year round. She had overheardhim threaten Otto with the loss of water for his cattle if he didn't make his strong-willed daughter marry him.That was all her husband needed to daily prod his daughter to marry the man who had bought theneighboring ranch three years before. A sadness came into Ruth's eyes. She knew that Willowwould have left home long ago if it wasn't for her. Her only child had stayed on, taking her father'sabuse to make things easier on her mother.Otto Ames had a quick, furious temper that found its outlet in physical violence, and Ruth was therecipient most times. But usually Willow was there, jumping to her defense and often sufferingblows herself in the process.
 
But now that Willow was being forced into a marriage that made the girl's blood run cold, Ruthwould stiffen her spine and do something about it. When Willow had changed into a nightgown,Ruth patted the space on the bed beside her. "Sit down, honey. I have something to tell you.""What, Ma?" Willow looked anxiously at the small woman. "Nothing bad, is it?""I hope not. I pray that it will be all good." Ruth took a deep breath and, taking Willow's hand inhers, asked, "Do you remember my telling you once about the man I should have married insteadof your father?""Yes, I do. His name was Bob Asher, wasn't it?"Ruth nodded, sadness coming into her eyes. "Bob's been dead now near to ten years. He left thearea and went to Texas shortly after I married Otto. Over the years I kept track of him through afriend who lived in the vicinity of the big ranch where Bob found employment. Before a year wasout, he married the rancher's daughter, the man's only child. Before another year passed, his wifebore Bob a son."They had no other children. According to my friend, Bob's wife was on the frail side and shepassed away when their boy was ten years old, just three years after her own parents died frompneumonia one winter.""What has all this got to do with me, Ma?" Willow gave her mother a confused look.Ruth took a deep breath and said slowly, "Two weeks ago I wrote a letter to Bob's son—his nameis Jules—asking him if he would please give you a job on his ranch. I wrote that you're a fine cookand a very good housekeeper.""Oh, Ma," Willow said, breaking in on her mother. "I wish you hadn't done that. You can't ask astranger to take me in.""I didn't ask him to take you in. I asked him to give you a job.""But won't he wonder why I couldn't get a job in my own community here in New Mexico? He'llthink there's something wrong with me. That I'm simpleminded or that I have a bad reputation andno one will hire me to work for them.""He won't think that, honey. I wrote that your intended decided that he didn't want to get marriedand that in your embarrassment you wanted to start a new life somewhere else."Willow shook her head. "Couldn't you have come up with something better than that?""I think it's a real good idea. Jules Asher is a bachelor, and if he thinks you're pining for another man, he won't bother you."When Willow got over the shock of what her mother had done, she laughed and said, "I don'tknow why I'm fretting about it. He probably won't even answer your letter. When did you say yousent it?""Two weeks ago. I expect an answer any day.""If it does come, aren't you afraid Pa might get it and read it?" Ruth shook her head. "I told Jules Asher to address it to Smitty."Smitty Black cooked for the cowhands at the ranch and was a longtime friend of the Ames
Search
Search History:
Searching...
Result 00 of 00
00 results for result for
  • p.
    • Notes
    Load more