Read The Mirror for Free Online Page B

and Corbin to choke on dust.
    Corbin slapped his hat against his leg, removed his coat and handed it to her. They started after the stage.
    "Do you live in the mountains?" With the present level of conveniences, that sounded bleak.
    "I live in Nederland, as you well know."
    "Nederland . . ." She'd been there with Marek just last Sunday. They'd picnicked by the reservoir, talked of the wedding, planned their honeymoon in Aspen. Marek seemed a million years away.
    A railroad across the creek that hadn't been there last Sunday. Boulder Creek, twice as big and ferocious as she'd ever seen it. A narrow dusty trail that couldn't possibly accommodate two horses and a wagon.
    "Put your skirts down, Brandy!" His voice was husky with shock.
    "It's hot in here," she pleaded, but slid the skirt back till it reached her shoes. It was like a tent, under the sun, trapping the hot air against her legs. How had women survived these little cruelties? If I stay here, I will be crazy.
Occasional spray from the creek was cool at least. The horses moved so slowly. How
    different from Marek's sleek Porsche, which propelled them to Nederland on smooth
    wide pavement in less than an hour. "It must take all day to get there at this rate."
    "It'll likely be dusk."
    Heaps of rock piled to forever. Giant boulders that the road merely skirted. Boulder Canyon simply did not resemble itself. And rough log bridges, the road crossing and recrossing the creek to avoid the least obstacle.
    Shay held onto the seat with both hands, closed her eyes in tortuous places, grew stiff and hot and hungry. The openness of the wagon and the narrow insignificance of the road made looming canyon walls appear more gigantic than she'd known them.
    The railroad veered off up another canyon and the road to Nederland worsened, whole stretches of it supported by rocks piled against the bank below, a series of logs laid across mud in damp places. No springs in the buckboard. The horses sweated and strained in their harnesses, carrying Shay farther from the Gingerbread House . . . and the wedding mirror.
    The man beside her seemed unconcerned with the tedium and discomfort of the trip. I really rattled his cage by waving at old wise-eyed Marie, but he seems to have recovered. Perhaps he was more easygoing than she'd judged him. Shay knew she'd misjudged the others, probably because of their strangeness. In their ways, all three members of Brandy's family loved her. She saw again the desolate trio in front of the Gingerbread House.
Any man the size and age of Corbin Strock who could blush had to have feelings, had to be reachable. The problem was how to go about it.
    Shay took as deep a breath as the sticky corset would allow. "Corbin, I have something to tell you. I've got to tell someone, to straighten this thing out."
    His body went rigid, his hands drew in on the reins and his foot jammed the primitive brake on the side of the wagon. "God, woman, you're not with child?"
    "With chi. . . oh, you mean pregnant. No, it's not... I mean, I don't think so."
    His face turned white, then red.
    "Now, don't get all torqued up. For all I know, Brandy's as virginal as they come. What I want to tell you is . . . and this will sound freaky, but . . . I'm not crazy, Corbin, and I'm not Brandy." His interruption had flustered her. She had a drowning feeling but went on quickly before she lost her nerve. "I think I'm her granddaughter or rather she's my ... let me start again. And you must listen because this is true and I need help."
    "I will listen." The wagon moved forward.
    "Until last night, I was Shay Garrett . . ." She tried hard to be convincing, but the further into her story, the more she realized that if anyone'd tried to tell her such things, she'd have inched away from that person until she could run. Corbin Strock merely nodded, looked into her face often and kept his own expressionless.
    "I don't know how it could've been, but I think it was the mirror."
    "The mirror.
    "Yes, the one