Total pages in book: 114
Estimated words: 114820 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 574(@200wpm)___ 459(@250wpm)___ 383(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 114820 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 574(@200wpm)___ 459(@250wpm)___ 383(@300wpm)
“I hope so.”
“It was incredibly attractive, you doing that.”
He smiled. “It’s good you think that.”
“Right, now that I’ve buttered you up, Britt’s funeral is set for Wednesday and Tuesday night, they’re calling a town council meeting.”
Fabulous.
“This happens, Lucinda,” he told her. “People get freaked about murder. It’s a natural response.”
“You can call me Cin, you know.”
That felt better than her telling him she found his being a decent human being attractive.
Even so.
“Baby,” he said softly, “everyone else gets Cin. I like that it’s me who gets Lucinda.”
“Mm,” she purred, and he felt that noise in his cock.
“The cunning queen,” he murmured.
“Sorry?”
“You remind me of the queen that’s a lot more interesting than the fairy princess.”
And that bought him the gift of her bursting into laughter.
He was unsurprised it was as beautiful as the rest of her.
When she stopped, he said, “Now, before I take us into a zone that’s too soon when I haven’t even bought you dinner, tell me about some of the bones at the bottom of the lake.”
“Ah, so he’s heard the lore,” she murmured.
“People have mentioned it.”
“That’s because it’s fascinating,” she declared. “I can start with the fact that the man my many-greats grandmother shot is down there. Sadly, her and all the girls dragging him to the lake after she shot him was witnessed by everyone in town. Alas, her shooting him was too. She apparently wasn’t in the mood to put too much effort in covering up her crime.”
That made Rus laugh.
“What do you want to hear next?” she asked. “The story of philandering Cornelius Ruck, who, shades of things to come, was killed, along with his mistress, by his wife. Or at least, that’s what people think since she was seen rowing into the mist in the middle of the night, and he and his mistress were never seen again? Both of them still haunt it, as the story goes.”
“This is entirely unsurprising.”
“Then there’s the lore of the Bohannans, and warning, you fit right in. Prosper Bohannan was the big muckety-muck who made his mark on this town, including running the competition for my granny’s whorehouse. But there’s both an Obadiah Bohannan and Lazarus Bohannan in that mix. Spoilers, the big daddy was all about making his fortune any way he could, including illegally. But Obadiah and Lazarus were both lawmen. So, apparently that’s more foreshadowing for Misted Pines.”
Rus chuckled.
“But my favorite is Pearl Buckle.”
The change in her tone made him get as serious as she sounded.
“What’s the story of Pearl Buckle?” he asked, his tone changing to match hers.
“Pearl trundled into town with a baby at her breast, two horses in front of her, a covered wagon at her back, a mule attached to it, and a husband who didn’t survive the journey. She staked her claim, pupped her tent, cleared her land, set her own foundation and built her one-room log cabin on top of it. It wasn’t big, but it had a fireplace and a roof, and she did all of it with her son strapped to her back.”
Jesus.
“She sounds like she was really something.”
“Yes,” she agreed. “But the story says she was even more, because not only did she do all that, the tale tells she was also very beautiful. Every man in town wanted her, and most of them tried to woo her. But she loved her husband. She grieved him fiercely. And she’d vowed to herself she’d raise his son right and be faithful to her dead husband until the day she died.”
Rus wasn’t feeling this new bent to the story.
“Since we’re talking about bones at the bottom of the lake, I’m not sure I like where this is going,” he noted.
“Oh, honey, this is Misted Pines. Pearl built her own house out of logs with the help of only two horses and a mule. At first, she was this feminine beauty, this marvel of female strength, this prize to be won. And then men started avoiding her, because there were those who would get drunk in one of the saloons in town and talk big. Talk about how they were going to win Pearl, and if they didn’t, they’d just take her. They’d head out to Pearl’s log cabin. And they’d never head back to town, or anywhere, ever again. I might have forgotten to mention, Pearl had a shotgun, and she wasn’t afraid to use it.”
“I’m liking this story again now.”
He heard the smile in her voice when she said, “The story goes, even though Pearl was a good Christian woman, regardless of her proclivities with a shotgun, Granny and her were the best of friends.”
Rus was smiling too when he replied, “I don’t find that hard to believe.”
Lucinda finished the story with, “Pearl built her house close to the lake. I have a feeling she added a few things to it in her time.”