Read Charlotte Boyett-Compo- WayWard Wind for Free Online

toilet in the woods beyond the cabin.
    "Boy likes his little conveniences," Snake commented as she came through the door and plopped down in one of the rockers. "Guess spending five years without 'em took its toll on him."
    "I imagine prison does that to a man," Peyton replied.
    "Told you 'bout that, did he?" Snake inquired. She was filling a corncob pipe with tobacco as she rocked.
    "Can you make rabbit stew?" Harper inquired.
    "Yes," she replied.
    "I'll fetch you one," he said, heading for the front door.
    "Best clean it for her, boy," Snake suggested. "She don't look the type to do her own skinning."
    Harper made no reply as he left.
    Peyton went through the cupboards and bins in the kitchen, continually surprised at how well-stocked and neat everything was. She took out jars of canned tomatoes, spices, found potatoes, onions, and some carrots and began peeling and quartering the vegetables.
    "Where'd you learn to cook, girl?" Snake asked as she puffed away on her odorous pipe.
    "From watching Lucinda, the woman who has cooked for my family since before I was born," Peyton answered. "I loved helping her and my mother didn't discourage it."
    Snake snorted. "I wouldn't think your old man would have approved of such."
    Peyton glanced at the old woman. "Do you know my father?"
    A mean look appeared in Snake's rheumy eyes. "All too well."
    "May I ask how?" she asked as she washed the vegetables and dropped them into a blue enameled pot.
    "Was there when he murdered the boy's parents and his brother then stole the Harper land," Snake replied and there was a hard edge to her voice.
    Peyton's hand stilled while she was adding salt to the pot. She slowly turned to stare at Snake. For a long moment she held the old woman's steady gaze and knew Snake was telling the truth. She came to sit down in the rocker beside Snake. "When was this?" she asked quietly.
    "Nigh on to seven years ago," Snake replied. She clenched the pipe between her teeth, speaking around the obstruction. "Don't hear you denying your old man would do such."
    Peyton was sitting on the edge of the rocker, her back ramrod straight, hands clenched in her laps. "Nothing my father does surprises me, but I've never heard anyone accuse him of murder before."
    "Well, he didn't do the deed himself," Snake said. "Wouldn't dirty his hands with the like, but he ordered it done. He was sitting right there on that fancy roan of his when the boy's home was torched with his parents and little brother still inside."
    "They died in the fire?" Peyton asked, her face pale.
    "Died when they come running out and was shot down like dogs on the roadway," Snake snapped. A noxious cloud of smoke circled the woman's white head. "The boy and me would have died, too, had we been there."
    Peyton blinked. "Are you a relative of his?"
    Snake's slow smile held no humor or pleasantry. "I'm his ma's ma," she said. "His nanna."
    Absorbing that information, Peyton sat back in the rocker with her hands curled around the arms. "Where were the two of you when the rest of his family died?" she asked.
    "The boy and me had gone into town for supplies," Snake said, her eyes taking on a deadly sheen. "We came back to the cabin in flames and the bodies of our kin lying in their own blood. We knew who'd done it. Knew Jacob Dalton had come calling whilst we was gone. After Sloannie done the burying, he went looking for Dalton."
    "You say my father took the Harper land. How did he do that?"
    Snake took a long pull on her pipe then blew the smoke out. "They was waiting for the boy," she answered. "Set him up, they did. Dalton knew Sloannie would call him out and so he sent one of his untried hands to go up against the boy, knowing full well Sloannie would outdraw that little peckerwood. Even back then, Sloannie was a dead shot, as quick as greased lightning." She guffawed. "'Course, he's even faster now."
    "There was a gunfight," Peyton said, "and Sloan won."
    "Hell, yes, he did!" Snake hissed. "That little