Free Joline's Redemption by Vickie; McDonough Page A

nephew? Or would he despise Jamie if he learned the truth about her sham marriage?
    Baron had kind, concerned eyes, not teasing, flirting ones like Mark. From the first time she met Mark, he’d seemed on a mission to win her heart, although looking back, she didn’t think it was her heart he wanted. Jo sighed. She hadn’t exactly been difficult prey. No, she’d wanted to be caught. She had wanted an excuse to get away from Lara. She’d longed to walk down the street on the arm of a handsome man, and she wanted a pretty house, not one with dirt floors and ceilings. And pretty dresses that drew a man’s eye.
    Her throat tightened. She had gotten all that she wanted, only to learn too late that with those dreams came unimaginable nightmares.

    Saturday evening, Jo laid Jamie in the bed and spread his blanket over him. Dressed in a nightgown that had belonged to Lara, Sarah sat in the bed they shared, looking at the first grade reader Michael no longer used. With her brow furrowed, she squinted at the letters as if staring at them long enough would cause them to make sense.
    Jo had never cared much for school. She’d much rather be fishing with Grandpa and riding one of the many horses he used to own when he still had his ranch. Those days when her grandmother was still alive were good days, once she and her siblings started to get over the loss of their parents. She’d been so young when they died—only five years old. Then Grandma cut her arm on some barbed wire and, not long after, died from a fever. And then Jack left, and she hadn’t seen her brother since then. Though they were never close because of their twelve-year age difference, she had looked up to him. Had Jack gone west and become a cowboy like he had talked of doing? She shook her head, wondering what had caused her to reminisce about those sad days.
    Sarah blew out a loud breath and tossed the book to the end of the bed. “I cannot learn your words.”
    Jo walked over to the bed, smoothed out a wrinkled page, and closed the book. “What you need to learn first is the letters; then you can read the words.”
    Sarah shook her head. “I not smart like white people.”
    Jo suspected that the girl was probably half-white because her coloring wasn’t as dark a reddish brown as most Indians she’d seen. Her hair was lighter, too—dark brown instead of black. “You are smart. You simply need someone to show you how to sound out your letters. Let me show you an easy word.” She thumbed through the pages to the middle of the alphabet. “You see this letter that looks like a fishhook? It’s a
J,
and makes a sound like
Juh
.”
    Sarah repeated the sound and nodded.
    Jo flipped a few more pages. “This circle letter is an O, and many times when you say it in a word, you’ll hear its name. Now, if you put the
J
and the
O
together, they say
Juh-O
.” She repeated it a bit quicker each time until she caught the moment Sarah understood.
    The girl bolted upright, her black eyes brighter than Jo had seen. “
Juh-O.
It is your name.”
    Jo smiled. “That’s right. You only need a
J
and an
O
to spell my name—at least the name most people call me. Tomorrow, we’ll write out those two letters, and I’ll show you how to spell some other words.”
    Sarah smiled and then a yawn broke loose.
    â€œI think it’s time you go to sleep.”
    â€œWhat about you?”
    â€œI need to go talk to Lara about something, and then I’ll be back up.”
    Sarah slid under the covers, and Jo set the primer on the bedside table, turned down the lamp, and stepped into the hall. She liked the warm feeling of seeing Sarah catch on and realize that she could learn to read. Maybe one day Jo would teach Jamie his letters. It might be good practice to help Sarah, even though Lara had also agreed to help her.
    As she walked downstairs, she dreaded the talk that was