Free Distant Heart by Tracey Bateman Page B

companion? She didn’t like to seem ungrateful, but for goodness sakes, she was very close to losing her breakfast. Not to mention the nonstop conversation. At least Fannie knew the value of silence. Ginger seemed as nervous as a bride on her wedding night.
    â€œThat Sam, he prays a lot, don’t he?”
    Toni followed Ginger’s gaze and smiled. Sam sat on his horse, facing the horizon, his head bowed. “Yes, he does.”
    â€œI never had much use for it, myself. Prayer, that is.” She stopped struggling with the oxen a second, long enough to yank a long piece of straw from her teeth and toss it to the ground. “Near as I can tell, the Almighty never did nothin’ for me and my family.”
    â€œHow can you tell?”
    Ginger’s eyes narrowed at the question and she stared past the beasts she drove. “I figure if He did, He did a pretty poor job of it. And if that’s the case, who needs a God like that tellin’ me what to do?”
    Something tripped in Toni’s heart and she placed a hand on the girl’s filthy buckskin shirt. “I can’t pretend to know everything about God. Or even much for that matter. But I do know that a few months ago I was a worthless whore in a worthless town with no hope. And now I’m free and lookingforward to a future without being forced to do things I don’t want to do.”
    Ginger gave a pointed look toward Toni’s scars. “What happened to you?”
    The blunt question was like a slap in the face. “Let’s just say I have outward scars now instead of heart scars.”
    â€œHeart scars?”
    â€œI can’t imagine anyone living the way I have without enduring wounds on the inside. I was beautiful on the outside and bleeding on the inside. Now I’m scarred on the outside, but God sees me as beautiful on the inside.”
    â€œWho said you ain’t beautiful on the outside? Did that half-breed tell you something like that? Or that wagon master. Don’t pay no attention to him. He only has eyes for that little red-head.”
    Toni wasn’t used to being championed. And to be championed by this rough girl was disconcerting to say the least. The hot-headed, gun-toting young woman would as quickly plug someone as look at them and Toni certainly didn’t want to be responsible for bloodshed. Thankfully, Blake had taken her gun from her. Still…the girl had confided that he’d missed an enormous knife she had tucked beneath her shirt—one reason she wouldn’t unbutton the jacket and give her body a little air over the cotton shirt beneath.
    â€œSam has been nothing but a gentleman. As a matter of fact, if he hadn’t come after me when the man I ran away from kidnapped me, I’d be dead right now. He helped tend to me and nursed me until I was better.”
    â€œOh.” Ginger fell silent. And remained so. The silence was a mercy as far as Toni was concerned, but she had a feeling the girl had gone to a place deep in her memory where her own scars were bleeding.
    â€œTell me about your family.”
    Ginger’s eyes blazed as she whipped around to face Toni, and for an instant, Toni shrank back.
    â€œI ain’t got no family left and there ain’t no sense discussing it. So let’s just leave it there.”
    â€œI understand not wanting to talk. But if you ever change your mind, I’m a good listener. And I don’t gossip so your secrets are safe with me.”
    The girl’s doe-like eyes softened for just a minute, then hardened again. “The only safe secrets are the ones no one knows. And I plan to keep all mine right here.” She tapped her temple. “So don’t try to get me talkin’.”
    Toni nodded. She truly understood. “I’ll just get down and walk for awhile, if you don’t mind. When I come back we can trade places.”
    â€œYou’re going to drive these animals?” Toni