Read Marrying Stone for Free Online Page A

and she held herself with the prideful carriage of a society belle. But her long, brown feet were just as bare as they had been that morning.
    "You'll be back to your old self in no time a'tal." Jesse's father remarked, taking the empty chair at the head of the table. "Meggie, your brother and I are ready to give your cooking another chance. We cain't live forever on bear broth."
    Roe smiled at his host. He remembered that rugged face leaning over him, the long gray beard untrimmed, cooling his brow with a damp rag, and holding his head over a chipped metal basin. He was not used to people taking care of him. It had always been necessary for him to take care of himself.
     
    "Mr. Best, I cannot thank you enough for coming to my aid this afternoon."
    "Don't think a thing about it, boy. Why I couldn't let Meggie's cooking kill ye dead."
    The old man chuckled at his daughter's expense and all three men glanced in her direction.
    "Although I did hear that you tried stealing a kiss, so maybe you paid your due."
    Roe flushed slightly and cleared his throat.
    "And don't give that another thought neither. If more fellers had tried kissing my Meggie, maybe she'd be cooking for some other man today and her brother and I would be spared the misery."
    Jesse laughed heartily at his father's joke. Roe managed a wan smile. Meggie, however, was not amused. She set the now heavily smoking black kettle on the hearth with a loud and disgusted bang and then turned her back on them.
    The old man winked playfully at Roe.
    "And don't you be callin' me Mr. Best like I'm some shoe peddler from St. Louis," he continued. "Just call me Onery like everyone else what knows me."
    "Onery?" Roe had never heard such a name.
    The old man chuckled again. "Yep, that's what they calls me. My name's Henry. Henry Best. But my mama was kindy Frenchy-fied and the way she said Henry sounded kindy like Onery. And since I
was
o'nery from the day I's borned, folks just took to calling me that."
    "Onery," Roe said, smiling with genuine good humor. "Please just call me Roe, like Jesse does. It is truly a pleasure to make your acquaintance, sir." He offered his hand in a gesture of polished politeness.
    A disapproving huff could be heard coming from the far side of the room.
    Best took his hand. "Even if you had to be nearly poisoned to do it?"
    Meggie's huff turned to a cry of fury as she turned to face the men at the table, the long wooden serving spoon held in front of her threateningly like a weapon.
    "Now Meggie-gal," Onery said, smiling. "Don't you be a-getting riled now. It's not good to show off your temper to your new beau."
    "My new beau! I wouldn't have that mangy, two-toed varmint a-calling on me!" she snapped.
    Roe was more amused than insulted by Meggie's words, but didn't like the inference that he might be calling upon her. He quickly sought to change the subject.
    "I would like to apologize, Onery, for my dreadful manners," he said to the old man.
    "What dreadful manners is that?" her father asked.
    "Why, why upsetting your daughter and becoming ill in your house when I've hardly made your acquaintance."
    Onery just chuckled.
    "It weren't your fault, Roe," Jesse piped in eagerly. "It was Meggie. She gets upset with me a lot, too. And she ain't much for cooking. Her piccalilli would give an ox a bellyache."
    "Jesse!" The word was spoken shrilly. Jesse held up his hands as if fearing his sister was going to use that spoon on him.
    Roe didn't say another word. He just kept his eyes on his broth and hoped for a change of subject. Inexplicably, he allowed his gaze to drop to the floor beneath Meggie to spy the long bare feet that he remembered. Despite everything he'd been through Roe found the sight strangely alluring.
    Mr. Best chuckled loudly. "Now, children, don't you get in a spat over this." He smiled at Roe. "Got to have a sense of fun-about ye, boy, if ye live in the Ozarks. Mother Nature is having a joke on us folks near about all the time. And don't