Free Once in a Blue Moon by Diane Darcy Page B

he
realized that wouldn’t mean a thing to her. “No, how much for a
yard of cloth?”
    “Dress fabric? About
seven cents a yard, maybe eight.” He eyed Melissa. “Unless you want
the fancy stuff; then you’ll have to pay as much as twenty cents.
Robbery and foolishness if you ask me.”
    Melissa laughed.
    Granted it seemed a bit
hysterical, but Richard laughed with her. “See?” The pressure eased
in his chest. “It’ll be fine.”
    She looked anything but
convinced, but there was resignation in her expression. “Well, can
we at least leave now?”
    He shook his head,
regretful that he couldn’t grant her request. “It’s getting dark,
and they’re not expecting us until morning. We’ll stay the night,
then walk there tomorrow.”
    Melissa simply turned
and walked toward the cabin, murmuring something about vermin.
    Richard blew out a
breath and moved forward to meet the men. Sully eyed him. “So ya
got the job?”
    Richard grinned. “Yeah.
I just mentioned your name, and it was mine.”
    Sully nodded. “Thought
so. Couldn’t help but overhear. You’re going to be flush with money
soon. You a gambling man?”
    Melissa stopped in the
doorway, and Richard took in her rigid shoulders and could
practically read her thoughts. If he tried to gamble away their
pitiful sum, his life wouldn’t be worth living. He turned back to
Sully with a grin. “Only in love, gentlemen, only in love.”
    The three men roared
with laughter, and he couldn’t be sure, but he got a glimpse of
Melissa’s cheek when she ducked in the door and it looked like she
might be smiling.
    His heart lightened and
he tried to shrug off his sadness. Everything would work out; he’d
make sure of it.
    * * *
    How much farther could
it be? Melissa trudged slowly through a patch of soft, powdery dirt
before the road once again smoothed into hard-packed terra
firma.
    A while back, they’d
passed beneath a wooden structure with a hanging sign proclaiming
them on the MacPherson ranch. But they’d walked on this dirt road
forever, and still, there was no ranch in sight.
    And what was she doing
walking down a road she wouldn’t drive her Lexus on anyway? Her
life was becoming a series of new lows.
    She sighed loudly, and
not for the first time. They needed to reach their destination
soon. Her back hurt. Her feet hurt. The chunky lace-top boots Sully
had given her pinched her toes. For fashion, Melissa could endure
pinched toes, but found it galled her to endure pain while wearing
shoes she wouldn’t put on an ugly mannequin.
    The muscles in her
right arm burned, so she shifted the feed sack full of
hand-me-downs Sully had foisted off on her: another hideous dress,
a ridiculous apron, handkerchiefs, and a cape. They were his dead
wife’s possessions and she felt like a desperate graverobber with
extremely poor taste.
    She staggered as a wave
of dizziness engulfed her. Was she about to pass out from hunger?
Maybe that wouldn’t be such a bad thing. She could escape this
horrible situation for a while.
    At the thought, her
spine stiffened. She hated whiners almost as much as she hated
quitters, and had no intention of letting this untenable situation
turn her into either.
    Richard started to
whistle an upbeat tune, no doubt something they played on that
stupid country music station he listened to.
    She turned to glare at
him. He was also carrying a sack of odds-and-ends Sully had pawned
off. The geezer was probably just trying to dejunk his cabin, and
destitute as they were, they’d been suckered into hauling away his
garbage.
    Richard ditched the
whistling in favor of humming.
    His
happy attitude turned hers even darker. What did he have to be
happy about? She glanced at the kids, walking through a pile of
dirt about ten feet in front of her, laughing and joking. What did any of them have to be happy
about ?
    When Richard started
whistling again, she gave him a sweet smile. “Anxious to earn your
daily dollar?”
    Richard chuckled and
gave her