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Page 158
Jersey farmer who'd bought her bond off the boat was a fair chap; he'd smiled at her so exceedingly at the auction, his big teeth slicking out of his face.
Her belief had come true as soon as she'd thought it; Mr. Rice had agreed right off to buy Mack's bond, too, so she had not been separated from her brother for the seven years of her indenture. He had even paid them a small wage, which they'd saved, so they'd been ready to start a new life together on the frontier, where laud was free for the taking but other goods were dear.
There'd been other times she'd known about people just by looking at them. Mr. Rice's neighbor, Hank Burrows, had wanted to pay off her bond and marry her, but she'd refused. There was something not quite right about his eyes.
Sure enough, he'd married Dora, another bond servant, and the poor woman had lost more than one baby thanks to the beatings Burrows had given her.
And she'd known right away when Mack and she and the group of other freed indentured servants had run into the band of Indians. The chief marauder had stared at her so evilly. . . .
No need to think about that now. Or about what had happened to Mack.
She was with Mariah Walker now, and her instincts told her that, though dark secrets swirled around this quiet lady, she was someone who could he trusted.
Lifting her sopping rag from the final corner she'd been cleaning, she put her dry hand at the small of her back and straightened, though she remained on her knees in her borrowed gray dress. Slowly, stiff from bending over, she stood, and found Mariah doing the same. They looked at each other and laughed.
Ah, yes, her instincts had not misled her this time.
"I haven't shown you upstairs yet," Mariah said. "Would you like to see?"
"Only if we can leave cleaning the floors there till another day."
Again Mariah shared with her a most gratifying laugh. But Holly wasn't fooled. Not she. From the look of Mariah ear-

 
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