The Devil You Know Read Free Page B

don’t draw the ladle from the bottom of the pot.”
    Willa said nothing.
    Happy grimaced in response to her silence. “I swear no one speaks as loudly as you do when you hold your tongue. Wouldn’t hurt at all for you to let it out. Might even feel good uncorking that bottle of mad dog temper once in a while.”
    â€œI doubt it,” she said, and her words were carried away on the wind. She called to Cutter before he disappeared into the barn. “Take your time. Supper’s going to be—”
    She stopped as a movement a hundred yards distant caught her eye. She tipped her hat forward to shade the winking sunlight and squinted at the tree line as a figure burst into the opening and continued racing toward them. “Now what is she up to? And where is John Henry?”
    Happy scratched his head. “Damned if I know.”
    â€œI wasn’t talking to you.”
    â€œWell, there’s no one else around, is there?” Happy was forced to move when Willa swung her legs back over the fence and jumped down. He was perhaps all of two inches taller than his daughter, and when they were eye to eye, she looked right through him. He shivered. “I swear that cold shoulder you like to give me is a damn sight frostier than any wind coming off the mountains. I got ice splinters prickling my skin.”
    â€œAnother reason you should have worn a hat.”
    â€œMaybe so. But I got this.” He patted his vest to indicate his flask.
    Without comment, Willa turned smartly on her heels and started off toward Annalea. Cutter, she noted, had also observed Annalea coming at them at a flat-out run, and she motioned to him to secure Miss Dolly and follow her. Her father stayed where he was, which to Willa’s way of thinking was a point in his favor.
    In spite of Willa’s head start, Cutter’s long legs carried him farther and faster, and he reached Annalea a few strides before she did. Willa wondered if he regretted it whenAnnalea launched herself at him. He staggered backward but managed to stay upright, sweeping Annalea into his arms before she caused his second spill of the day.
    â€œWhoa! Whoa there, Annalea.” Cutter set her down, unwound her arms from around his neck, and looked her over. Her cheeks were deeply flushed, and she was breathing hard. Her pigtails had mostly come undone. She inhaled loose, flyaway strands of dark hair and her fingers scrabbled at them to keep them out of her mouth. He simply shook his head. “Ain’t no one called you for supper that I recollect, so what’s chasing you?”
    Willa caught up to the pair in time to hear Cutter’s question. “Answer him,” she said, her eyes focused once again on the tree line.
    â€œShe can’t talk yet,” said Cutter. “Near as I can tell, she’s not hurt, but she’s run a ways.”
    Willa gave her full attention to Annalea when she observed no disturbance in trees. Nothing was chasing Annalea except perhaps her own imagination. “Is he right? You’re unhurt? Just nod your head.”
    Annalea sucked in a deep breath and nodded hard so there could be no mistaking the matter.
    â€œWhere’s John Henry?”
    Annalea pointed behind her.
    â€œSo he’s following you?”
    â€œNo,” Annalea said on a thread of sound. “Told him to stay.”
    One of Willa’s expressive, arching eyebrows lifted a fraction. John Henry was devoted to Annalea. That the dog would stay anywhere without her was extraordinary, if it were true. “And he listened to you? That seems . . .” She paused, looking Annalea over again. “Where’s your coat?”
    â€œLeft it with John Henry.”
    â€œThat’s no kind of answer.”
    â€œNo kind of good answer,” said Cutter.
    Annalea shot him a withering look. “There’s a man,” she told Willa, using her thumb to point over her shoulder. “I found him a