Relentless Read Free Page A

each other.
    When they finally left the Randolphs’ house some time later, Dusty took her father to visit her mother’s grave in the small cemetery behind the church. The sight of the simple white headstone and freshly turned earth brought new tears. It was a long time before they returned home.
    Much later, Dusty lay alone in her bedroom unable to sleep. She wondered what was going to happen next. Her father was due to leave town again on his next run in just two days. She wanted to stay with him. She loved him. He was all she had left. Sleep was a long time coming for her that night.
    Charley sat alone in the kitchen in the wee hours of the morning, staring down at the half-empty bottle of whiskey sitting before him on the table. He couldn’t go upstairs and sleep in the bedroom where his beloved wife had died. He would rather pass out there at the table. He’d been trying to drown his sorrow in the potent liquor, but had found little release in his drunkenness. If anything, the liquor made him feel even worse. Disgusted, he pushed the bottle across the table away from him.
    Charley frowned, wondering what the future was going to bring. His daughter was an innocent. She was too young to be left there at the house all alone while he made his runs, and they had no other family nearby. Slowly, he came to realize the only way he could keep Dusty safe was to take her with him. He didn’t know how she’d take to the idea, but there was nothing else he could do.
    His decision made, he pushed away from the table and got up to stagger into the parlor, to try to get some sleep on the sofa. In the morning, he would tell Dusty what he had decided. He only hoped she would be content with his decision. From now on, she would be riding shotgun with him on the stage.
    Dusty got up early the next morning and went downstairs to find her father asleep on the sofa. She was quiet as she went out into the kitchen. She found the whiskey bottle on the table and quickly put it away before starting to cook breakfast for him. She was busy frying the bacon and eggs andmaking biscuits when her father appeared in the doorway. He had been and always would be her hero, and she went to give him a kiss on the cheek.
    “Good morning. I thought you might like some breakfast,” she offered, going back to her cooking.
    “I appreciate it,” he said in a gruff voice as he went to sit at the table. His head was pounding, and he knew he wouldn’t be drinking again anytime soon. “We need to talk.”
    Dusty looked over at him from where she was standing by the stove. “I know. What are we going to do?” The uncertainty of life without her mother was frightening to her. It had all happened so fast. There were still moments when she expected to see her mother walking into the room or to find her sitting in her favorite chair in the parlor doing her needlework.
    “Well, from what I can figure, there’s only one thing we can do—” Charley looked up at her.
    She waited in silence for him to continue.
    “I know this may be hard for you—”
    An unexpected sense of agony filled her as she feared he might be planning to send her away somewhere—to a boarding school or possibly some unfamiliar relative back East.
    “But I want you to start going with me on my stage runs.”
    “What?” She was shocked and relieved at the same time to know they would be staying together.
    “I can’t leave you here by yourself, so the only thing we can do is have you ride with me.” His gaze met hers across the room. “I thought we couldget you some other clothes. If we cut your hair and you dress like a boy, none of the passengers would suspect you’re a girl, especially with a name like Dusty You could ride shotgun. I know you’ll be giving up a lot, but I have to know you’re safe, and that’s the only way.”
    Charley was unsure how she was going to react. He was watching her carefully now, trying to judge her reaction.
    Dusty was shocked—
    Cut her