“So you’d like to get out of here, too?”
“More than anything.”
“But you haven’t found a man among all of them who must come and go here?” Cay asked.
“I’ve been asked, yes, but, no, I haven’t found a man I want to keep. If you know what I mean.”
Cay started to say that she knew exactly what Thankfull meant, but she thought better of it. If she was going to have to spend weeks in her company as a male, she’d better start putting on the act now.
When Thankfull said, “I have a letter for you,” the news so startled Cay that she nearly choked.
“From whom?”
Thankfull smiled at the “whom” and glanced at the doorway to make sure no eyes were prying. “It’s from Mr. Connor.”
The way she said the name made Cay look at her sharply. It was almost as though Thankfull had a soft spot for the man. Or, as Alex would probably put it, “a blazing hot lust.” But then, he seemed to see romance in everything.
“Do you?” Cay said at last. “And you’re sure it’s for me?”
Thankfull pulled a folded piece of paper out of her pocket and for a moment she held it, as though she were reluctant to let it go. “It just says ‘to Cay’ and it’s addressed in care of me. It was delivered yesterday by a man on horseback. I think he must have traveled night and day to get here before your brother left.”
“He must have,” Cay murmured as she took the letter. She wanted to break the wax seal immediately and see what Uncle T.C. had written, but one look at Thankfull and she knew she couldn’t. It was obvious that the woman would want to hear the contents of the letter, but Cay would be able to tell her nothing.
“Have you finished eating?” one of the twins said from the doorway.
Thankfull sighed. “He has,” she said as she took Cay’s empty plate and bowl away. “But maybe he wants to rest now.”
“But I have things I want to show him,” one girl said.
“And so do I,” the other twin said. “Please come outside with us. We have lots of things we’d like for you to see.”
Cay was torn between wanting to run from the girls and wanting to keep her disguise of being a boy who’d probably like two young girls fussing over him. “Will you show me some of the oddities of this country?” she asked as she got up.
“We’ll show you anything you want to see,” one of the girls said, giggling.
Cay gave them a smile and thought that when she saw her mother she was going to beg her forgiveness. Many times Cay had thought her mother was too strict, too old-fashioned, but now she could see what happened to girls who didn’t have a mother to correct them every second of the day. This is what they became.
“You don’t have to go,” Thankfull said, giving her sisters a stern look.
“No, it’s all right,” Cay said as she allowed the girls to take her hands and pull her out of the room. “I’m interested in this land.”
Fourteen
“They tried to kiss me!” Cay said in horror to Alex. It was dark out, they were in the barn, and he was rubbing down both of their horses.
“Did they, now?”
>
“Don’t you dare start laughing at me. If you do, I’ll—” She gave him a half smile. “I’ll not let you see Uncle T.C.’s letter.”
That stopped him from smiling. Turning, he looked at her. “What did he say?”
“Actually, I haven’t opened it yet.”
“You haven’t read it?”
“For your information, I’ve been very busy since you dumped me in the middle of those female sharks. Do you know what those two girls wanted from me? Their hands were all over me. And every time I took a step, they were trying to kiss me. One of them tripped me so I’d land on the other one. They—”