Free Desperation and Decision by Sophronia Belle Lyon Page A

foam stabilizes the temperature and seals the room
from air leaks. It also protects the room from minor vibration. At
that point the people who build the room come in with plumbing,
electrical, temperature control, walls, air quality and pressure.
The next day after they are finished the furniture moves in, and
then the people. So, it's a minimum of a week. It's more if you
leave because there is no one else to operate your sandblaster.
Then we train them how to build more rooms and we go on to
something else."
    "Like what?" asked Anthony.
    "You spend your entire life dreaming up ways
to give other people work," said Joan. "Stick around and do some of
the work yourself. Let me give you a list. We could do more
sandblasting. There are at least a hundred projects that need
enlargement. If that's not to your taste, we could fill with foam
insulation, finish rooms, weld, install furniture, work on making
the roof of the production area open to the surface, enlarge the
life support systems to cover the new area, synthesize more air and
water, transport materials ... "
    "I really like one thing you said,"
interrupted Anthony. "That's the 'we could' part."
    The Baron's Ring by Mary C. Findley
    Prince Tristan tumbles a hundred miles
downriver and a world away from his kingdom. How does cloak
bartering get him a place in impoverished Larcondale? Why does his
best student suddenly disappear from the tiny school?
    Disaster might blot out his last hope for
love and a future. Will he survive his confrontation with a Witch
Queen in the King’s Hole?
    Psalm 33:16
    There is no king saved by the multitude of
an host: a mighty man is not delivered by much strength.
    "Do not continue to oppose me, prince,"
Shneea warned. "This man you have loved since childhood will die
here, and he will only be the first."
    "I have no choice but to oppose you," Tristan
said. "You feed off innocent men's flesh."
    "You will submit," Shneea said. "You and I
shall wed, or I will destroy you without touching your body. Prince
Tristan will cease to exist."
    "How can you do such a thing?" Tristan was
baffled.
    "Do not tempt me to show you," Shneea said.
"Marry me, handsome prince."
    "It's impossible," Tristan gritted. "You have
a husband, and I have a wife."
    "My husband will be dead almost any moment,"
Shneea laughed. "But you have got yourself a wife, have you? The
marriage will be annulled."
    "I have no desire to be rid of my wife, nor
to wed you."
    Benny and the Bank Robber by Mary C. Findley
    Benny Richardson and his widowed mother have
to move to his uncle’s Missouri farm. John Clancy saves them from a
sinking barge and when his mother is injured agrees to get Benny to
Missouri. But a bag of disguises, a long, sharp knife, and too many
secrets to make him anything but a safe traveling companion.
    A fleeing bank robber, a savage black
stallion, and a "cougar evangelist" all play a part in Benny's
journey to accept of God's will when it isn't at all humanly
sensible or safe. Benny faces an implacable bully and finds a
long-lost treasure from his dead father.
    from Chapter Three – "He'll Go Far!"
    "How come you stopped the barge if you
already had a good horse? And why were you hiding that black bag
under your saddle?" Benny kept talking, so fast that Mr. Clancy
couldn't have answered his questions if he had wanted to. And he
certainly didn't seem to want to.
    "It looked just like the bag Mr. Carlisle put
on the train -- and the one that man in the black suit was
carrying. What was in all those bags? Or -- was that you pretending
to be somebody else again? Were you the one that killed that man at
the bank and stole the money?"
    Mr. Clancy had been staring at him all this
time without moving. Suddenly he jumped forward and grabbed Benny.
He covered Benny's mouth with one hand and with the other pulled
out a big, long knife. Holding Benny so tight it hurt, he laid the
knife up against his throat and whispered in his ear.
    "I guess you do get to go along with