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Show Page 106 It seemed a long while ere Harwood finished conducting prayers and reading his sermon, but at last we were free to join into small groups and visit with those we had not seen for a time. Some I had never seen at all, for they had not come to the settlement since my arrival-Thomas and Matilda Jones, Robert Adams, Augustine and Winnifred Leak, Henry Eliott and others. My tongue was near waggled off when at last I looked up to see Rose disappearing into the trees lining the gully behind the church. Dragging behind her, his thin arm clutched in Rose's viselike grip, his face drained of color, was Twig. Nameless fear gripped me and I excused myself and hurried after, It took me a while to find them in the thick bushes. I came upon the pair just in time to see Rose draw back her arm and give Twig such a clout across the face he went sprawling backward into the undergrowth. "Stop that!" I shouted, hurrying forward as Rose once again advanced on the fallen boy. Rose spun about, her face twisted with anger. "Keep your prying nose out of this, missy," she snarled. I stopped, for something in her eye, in her voice, turned me cold. My stomach clenched into a hard knot. "Come here, Twig," I ordered softly, not taking my eyes from Rose. |