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.The worst thing in the world would be for Miss Lucille to reveal anything.”“What’s there to reveal?” Ruth asked.Jonah hesitated, Ruth was stubborn and could nurse a grudge to the grave, but he believed her love for Marlena was greater than her hatred of Lucille.“Miss Lucille thinks Marlena was meeting a man in the woods.She was trying to find out if Dotty knows anything about it.Rumors are bound to start now, and if Dotty Strickland sees a way to turn one to her advantage, she’ll spread it all over town.”Ruth stilled against his chest.He could almost feel her thinking.“Miss Marlena wouldn’t fool around on her husband.Mr.Lucas would kill her.”Jonah didn’t say anything.Ruth had to know the stakes were high.“Did Lucas know about this picnic?” Ruth asked.“I don’t know.” Jonah felt his wife step away from him.“Was she meeting someone?”He couldn’t see her in the darkness of the shed, and he unexplainably felt as if he’d stepped into danger.“I don’t know,” he said.“No one knows for sure, but if this rumor gets started, there won’t be any stopping it.”“True or not, Lucas won’t have her back.He won’t have no use for soiled goods.” It was a simple statement of fact.“I’m worried about what Miss Dotty’s gonna say.” Jonah hadn’t confessed his fears to Ruth in many years.Now it felt natural, the right thing to do.“You should be.” Ruth flipped on the overhead light.She stood beneath it, her face cast in harsh shadows.“She and your precious Miss Lucille are just alike.You’d best stay clear of it, Jonah, or you’ll pay the biggest price of all.”18Jade sat beside the hospital bed as the afternoon sunlight streamed in the open window, heating the back of her neck.Tiny drops of perspiration trickled between her breasts, and she tried not to think about the work she’d left undone.Before coming to the hospital, she’d gone home and changed into a calico shirtwaist to replace the dress that Frank had torn.The memory of Frank’s hands and lips made her even hotter, but the heat of passion was mingled with a cold dread.To continue would bring trouble for both of them.Mostly for her.But she couldn’t stop.It was impossible to imagine not meeting him for dinner.Such strength was beyond her grasp.Frank had hovered on the fringes of her mind for the past two years, since he’d come home.She’d seen him, watched him, listened to her clients talk about him, and all along she’d never allowed herself to go beyond a mere ripple of sexual pleasure when his name was mentioned.To pursue fantasies of Frank would make her life unbearable.He was too real to toy with in such ways.Dreaming of a house on the water in Jamaica was harmless, because it was out of reach.Frank was both too real and too unattainable.When they passed each other and their gazes met, heat arced between them.She became instantly aware of her body, of the rush of blood to her groin.She was drawn to him, but up until this point she’d been able to stay away.A sense of doom settled over Jade, and she picked up Marlena’s hand.She held it, warming it between her own hands.Marlena’s was cold, a white so pale the veins were exposed.Death had touched her, maybe stolen her life, or at least marked it for a future collection.The dark angel would be back, and Jade had come to do battle for her half-sister.Marlena was too young to die, innocent in so many ways.Jade knew how Death could slip into a crib, or a bed, or a room, and steal away with the essence of life.She felt Death’s presence in Marlena’s cold flesh, and she held on more tightly, determined not to let Marlena slip away.Jade closed her eyes and imagined Marlena laughing in the rose garden of Lucas’s home.She held large scissors in one hand and several freshly cut stems of First Blush roses in the other.First Blush was Marlena’s favorite flower, a creamy white with a hint of pink at the center.The flowers were the only element of her wedding that Marlena had been allowed to have her way.Jade concentrated on this image, on Marlena, bathed in white light, holding the roses and laughing.The hospital room door opened, bringing Jade back from her vision.A different doctor, younger, stepped into the room, his face controlled, emotionless.He walked to the bed and took Marlena’s other hand, checking her pulse at her wrist.The gaze he leveled on Jade was calculating.“Her heart is strong,” he said as he released Marlena’s hand.“If she wants to come out of this, she will.There’s some disagreement with Dr.McMillan, but I believe the coma is self-induced, an escape.”“Her brain …” Jade didn’t finish the sentence.Marlena had been struck ruthlessly in the face so many times that there had been fear of her brain swelling, of blood clots, of damage to the frontal lobes or percussive bruising of the brain stem.Her swollen face had begun to go down, but there was no telling how the beating had affected her brain.“When she regained consciousness, she was coherent.That indicates there’s no brain damage,” the doctor said.“Had she never awakened, I would’ve been concerned.” He started to leave.“You believe she can wake up when she wants to?” Jade asked.The doctor’s gaze shifted to Marlena’s still form in the bed.“Yes,” he said at last.“I believe that she can live, if she chooses to do so.Or she can die, if that’s her choice.The wounds inflicted on Mrs.Bramlett’s body are severe, but not fatal.”Jade released Marlena’s hand and slowly stood up.“What can I do?” she asked.“Help her remember the reasons to live.Talk to her,” he said.He started out the door and then turned back.“Where is her husband?”“Waiting for a ransom call on his daughter.” Jade didn’t believe that, but it was the easiest explanation for Lucas’s continued absence [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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