Rachel's Eyes, a Short Story (Eyes of Silver Revisited #1)
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Story Summary:
Rachel Miles Ross has shunned her former best friend, Anne Wells Bennett, since the day of Anne's marriage to half-breed Cord Bennett. Yet when Rachel's life crumbles around her, Anne is the one Rachel turns to for help. Anne can give sympathy, but Cord is the one whose help Rachel really needs. Will he help a woman he considers an unworthy friend and first-class snob? Short story: 6,000 words, approximately 20 pages.
Excerpt:
Anne slid into bed beside her husband with a contented sigh. At the beginning of her marriage she had decided this was the best part, and nothing had ever changed her mind. She curled her fingers around Cord’s arm and nestled her cheek against his shoulder.
No matter how tired either of them felt by the end of the day, this was always the time for quiet talk about the things that made their life together. After Rachel had left this afternoon, they’d avoided the subject, and now Anne wanted to know what he was thinking.
“You don’t feel very sympathetic about Rachel’s situation, do you?” she asked.
She could hear the surprise in his voice at the question. “Yeah, I do, but I feel something else too. In her shoes, you’d buy a gun and shoot the bastard between the eyes.”
Anne smiled into the darkness at that, but she had to disagree. “Maybe that’s what I’d do these days, but before we married.... The first time I was in this house, I asked you for help, and I was running from trouble myself.”
“You didn’t stare at me like you expected to be scalped any minute while you were asking.”
“Is that what you thought she was doing?” Anne kissed his shoulder. “When you left to take care of the horse and we started setting lunch out, she told me that the one time we talked at the doctor’s office and I told her how happy I am with you, how lucky I feel, she heard the words but didn’t believe me. And she never believed what Mother had to say about you either. Of course no one believes Mother about you. They think she’s gone batty, and they’re right. If she weren’t my mother, I’d be jealous.”
Cord said nothing, and Anne lifted her head off his shoulder, wishing she had left the lamp burning and could see him. “You’re looking smug right now, aren’t you?”
“Wouldn’t know how.”
“Well, then you’re feeling smug, and maybe you should, or maybe I should. Because Rachel saw you with Tyler and saw the truth. Staring like that was rude, but she was—oh, I don’t know—fascinated, I suppose. She told me how much she envied me, how Randal never had anything to do with the children except yelling and disciplining. He wants them quiet and out of sight when he’s home.”
Cord still said nothing but the sound he made deep in his throat brought Anne up off her comfortable place against his shoulder. She propped herself up on one elbow. “You’re going to help her, aren’t you? Whatever you think about Rachel, I saw the look in your eyes when I told you about Randy’s arm. Promise me you won’t do anything that puts you at risk of getting hurt or landing yourself on the wrong side of the law.”
“Now, Annie, would I do anything like that?”
“Yes, I think you would, and that’s not a promise.”
She lowered her upper body on top of him, the yielding flesh of her breasts flattening against the unyielding muscle of his, then wiggled the rest of her body into place too. Her breath quickened in time with his. The movement of his chest rocked her.“ Promise me,” she whispered against his lips.
“Promise made under duress doesn’t count.”
“Is this duress?”
“Mm.”
