A Pirate's Wife for Me (49 page)

“Earthquake,” he said hoarsely. “Earthquake!”

She jumped up, scrambled away from him, gave him room to stand.

He vaulted to his feet, too, his mouth tight with tension, his hands held at ready for battle. But what would he battle here and now? If the walls of the canyon came down, he could do nothing about it.

The walls did fail: plumes of dirt rose up and down the river as landslides bore witness to the instability of the region.

The shaking increased.

Her feet slipped in the mud.

He pulled her close, watching, prepared to move on a moment’s notice.

Two great boulders ripped off the canyon rim and plummeted down the slope. One boulder missed them by twenty feet. The other, smaller boulder bounced into a nearby massive pile of brush. Dust rose. Twigs and branches clattered and broke. The boulder hung there like a bird’s egg in the middle of a nest, then subsided, sliding out of sight and all the way to the ground.

The shaking became trembling, then ceased altogether.

She clung to him anyway, and she remembered the other thing she had so loved about him — when he held her in his arms, she felt safe and cherished.

Then he pushed her back, and looked down at her accusingly, no doubt remembering her assurances about the aftershocks and how she was safe here.

She glanced around, prepared to defend herself … when she saw it. Sprawled on the pile of brush, revealed by the broken branches.

She freed herself, and walked closer, hypnotized by the sight of … bones.

Bones … shattered secrets revealed by this day’s disaster. Bits of flesh clung to these bones, and clothing … a flowered dress, marked by mud and a dark, ominous stain.

Elizabeth knelt by the outstretched, skeletal hand.

The ring was gone from the finger, but she recognized the material of the dress. She recognized the body.

In a calm voice that seemed to come from a great distance, she said, “This is my mother.”

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Who is Christina Dodd?

Readers become writers, and Christina has always been a reader. Ultimately she discovered she liked to read romance best because the relationship between a man and a woman is always humorous. A woman wants world peace, a clean house, and a deep and meaningful relationship based on mutual understanding and love. A man wants a Craftsman router, undisputed control of the TV remote, and a red Corvette which will make his bald spot disappear.

So when Christina’s first daughter was born, she told her husband she was going to write a book. It was a good time to start a new career, because how much trouble could one little infant be?

Quite a lot, it seemed. It took ten years, two children and three completed manuscripts before she was published. Now her
fifty New York Times and USA Today bestselling novels — paranormals, historicals, romantic suspense and suspense — have been translated into twenty-five languages, recorded on Books on Tape for the Blind, won Romance Writers of America’s prestigious Golden Heart and RITA Awards and been called the year’s best by Library Journal. Dodd herself has been a featured author at the Texas Book Festival
and
a clue in the Los Angeles Times crossword puzzle (11/18/05, # 13 Down: Romance Novelist named Christina.) Publishers Weekly praises her style that “showcases Dodd’s easy, addictive charm and steamy storytelling.”

Christina is married to a man with all his hair and no Corvette, but many Craftsman tools.

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