Read Online The Northwoods Chronicles by Elizabeth Engstrom - Free Book Online Page A

The shadow from the brim of his ball cap
took the power from his eyes.
    “I can go away. Say the word and I will never
darken your threshold again. But before you do, please give me the
courtesy of thinking about it overnight.”
    Sadie Katherine brought in her lure, hooked it
to an eye on the pole and reached for the small motor. Kenneth went
back to his rig, slowly reeled in the line, and, just as the bait
was at the side of the boat, a small crappie grabbed it.
    “Hey, look at this,” he said as he held it up,
dangling and wiggling on the end of his line.
    Sadie Katherine smiled at him, but there was no
joy for either of them in a harmless, previously happy creature
falling for a temptation. Not today. She knew it and he knew it. He
unhooked it and threw it back, then sat down.
    She started the motor and headed back for
shore.
    ~~~
    Doc had the barbecue fired up and steaks on when
she pulled in to the driveway. Aluminum foiled potatoes were in a
three-roll pyramid on a plate and a tossed salad with butchered
tomatoes were in her favorite salad bowl on the picnic table.
“Hey!” he said, barbecue fork in his hand.
    “Hey,” she said, and went in to wash her hands.
He knew. Doc knew Kenneth was in town, and he was afraid. That she
had the power to make Doc afraid made her mad, or sad, or
something, but she had nothing to say to him that would put his
mind at ease. She had to think about it overnight. And the more she
thought about it, the more she didn’t like what she was
thinking.
    She looked at her face in the mirror. Her eyes
were too big, her lips and mouth were too big, her narrow face had
too many spots and scars and wrinkles. She had no idea what Kenneth
saw in her. She looked like an old fish. She looked like she
belonged with Doc, an old fisherman, a rustic soul who knew water
and knew himself and just wanted to live a clean, clear life with
his tackle shop and his woman.
    But now he lived with fear, and she couldn’t
help him. She wished she could. She wished she could walk out there
and put her arms around him and say, “Don’t worry, Doc. I’m yours
and you’re mine and that’s all there is to that.” But she
couldn’t.
    “Damn you,” she said to her reflection, then
went out, with a fist twisting her gut, to pretend to eat the meal
he had prepared.
    “Have a good day?” he said, then speared a nice,
perfectly seared porterhouse and put it on a plate.
    “Sunspots coming on the eighteenth,” she said,
and shook the bottle of A.1. A gust of wind came up and blew leaves
across the yard. She shivered.
    “Let’s go inside,” he said. “I thought we could
get a meal in out here before the wind came up, but I guess it was
just wishful thinking.”
    They each grabbed plates and dishes, and
recreated the table setting in the little dining room that looked
out through sliding glass doors to the picnic table, the smoking
grill and the Leppens’ backyard. Doc went back out for his steak
while Sadie Katherine poured them both ice water and put on the
coffeepot. When he came back in, she ripped a couple of paper
towels from the roll, handed him one, and they sat down to eat.
“How was your day?”
    “Good. Lots of fishermen in town. Heard tell of
a forty-four-inch muskie caught on Dupont.”
    Sadie Katherine nodded and sliced open her baked
potato. She had no appetite. She wanted to leave the table and go
for a walk or something, but she knew that would scare Doc even
more, so she stayed put and tried to eat.
    “Do some guiding today?” he asked.
    She nodded, chewing salad, then salted her
potato.
    “I was thinking come Thanksgiving, if the lake’s
froze up, we could go somewhere warm this year. Florida maybe, or
the Bahamas.”
    “That’d be nice,” she said, and felt tears
pushing against her eyes and a hot ball of emotion stuck in the
back of her throat that wouldn’t let her swallow the food in her
mouth. She gulped it down with some water, then cut out the bone
from her steak. “I’m