Moonlight on Water Read Free Page A

Elders as soon as three weeks have passed. All right?”
    Kitty Cat stared at her, then nodded reluctantly.
    â€œWould you like to sleep in here with me tonight? I will tell you a story, and then you can tell me one.” She smiled, hoping Kitty Cat would eagerly agree as she always did. Rachel loved the times when, cuddled together under the quilt, they laughed and pretended to be frightened as they took turns telling each other silly and scary stories.
    Kitty Cat shook her head as she wiped another pair of tears from her dark eyes.
    Rachel smoothed the child’s red curls back and kissed Kitty Cat on the forehead. She would find a way to make this up to the little girl, even if she had to petition the Assembly of Elders every month for the rest of the year. She hoped that would be enough to satisfy the little girl.
    The next day, when Kitty Cat did not come home from playing with the other children, Rachel knew it had not been.

Two
    Wyatt Colton set two cases of supplies on the counter in Haven’s general store. The blond woman behind the nicked counter quickly calculated his order. Beside her was the list of parts he had asked her to get from Louisville.
    A long list … and a long shot at getting The Ohio Star back to work. The side-wheeler had barely made it to the pier in the Ohio River below the bluffs where this village sat. He and his partner, Horace Appleby, were the only ones left aboard. The rest of the crew had hitched a ride on another steamboat to Cincinnati.
    Captain Hancock had wanted to scuttle The Ohio Star in a cove nearly a mile up the river. Instead, he had agreed to give Wyatt and Horace the chance Wyatt had not guessed he would get for another decade. His crewmates had called him every kind of a fool. He had told them that they would be sorry they missed out on this opportunity.
    The opportunity to own his own side-wheeler. He could make his living on the river—if he and Horace could get the boat running again. In the meantime, he was stuck on the shore here in Haven. Maybe he should have put in on the other side of the river. Then the parts could have come overland from Louisville. It was too late now. The Ohio Star was not going anywhere until the boiler and one of the side-wheels could be repaired. The boards along the prow had to be replaced, for they had been shattered when The Ohio Star hit that sandbar. As long as the river stayed quiet, the boat should not sink before they could fix it. But he knew how fickle the river could be, for any strong storm could have it frothing like eggs being beaten into a meringue.
    Once those basic repairs were completed, they could get back out onto the river and return to Louisville where the rest of the work on the boat would be done. The first thing he needed to get when they arrived in Louisville was a real gangplank, because the boat’s was now sunk somewhere in the river. One narrow board connected the boat to the pier. Another led to the shore, but he did not trust the boards to stay in place, even though he had nailed one end of each plank to the deck.
    His lips tightened beneath his mustache. If the captain had not been drunk, the boat would never have ended up on that sandbar, tearing up the wheel and straining the boiler so much that a crack burst along one side. It was good that the crack had appeared. Otherwise, the whole boiler might have blown, and he would have been on his way to the Pearly Gates instead of this small town.
    Pearly Gates? More likely, if the boiler had exploded, he would have been face-to-face with Beelzebub while negotiating his way through the underworld.
    He must have chuckled aloud, because the woman behind the counter looked up and smiled.
    â€œDon’t mind me, ma’am,” he said. “Just a silly thought wandering through my head.”
    â€œI hope you can keep that good humor when you see how much these provisions and parts are going to cost you.” She handed him both