Shadow of Shame: Book 1 of the Shadow series by Barbara Goss Page A

Boyd!”
    Boyd held his hands up in the air, as if to say, 'no harm, no foul.' “All right, all right. Don’t get excited. I’m just in a great mood tonight, that's all.” He laughed. “Just call me Mr. E. All the ladies do.” He belched loudly and the smell of whiskey permeated the air.
    “You’ve been drinking! You’re drunk!” she said.
    “I've had one or two today.”
    Ivy shook her head. “I’m sorry, Boyd. I can’t be with you. I don’t approve of drinking. I’ll have Quinn take me home.” She started walking toward the barn when he grabbed her by the arm again.
    “C’mon, loosen up. We’ll have fun. I know all about ministers’ daughters. I was seeing one when I lived in Salina. She was one hot number.” He rolled his eyes.
    Ivy began to panic. It was dark on their side of the barn, and she was alone with him. He had her by the arm and wouldn’t let her go. She didn’t know what to do. She thought she’d try to be nice about it, and try to throw him off his guard.
    “Boyd, l don’t think you really want to do this. My father will be very upset with you if I go home and tell him—”
    “Okay, okay. Just give me one little kiss, and then I’ll let you go, I promise.” Boyd pulled her closer. “I told you to call me Mr. E,” he laughed, then puckered up and leaned close to her face. The whiskey on his breath gagged her.
    Ivy tried to kick him, but he held his lower body too far away, and stretched his upper body closer.
    “ Let. Me. Go!” she said firmly, and when he didn’t, she screamed as loud as she could. She became frightened, alone in the dark with a drunken man, and she screamed a second time.
    Boyd put his hand over her mouth, and with the other, grabbed her tighter. “C’mon, just one little—” mid-sentence, Boyd flew into the air, and was thrown, hard, against someone’s carriage. “What the—”
    Jonas began to punch him in the face and upper body.
    Quinn appeared then, and yelled to Jonas, “Take it easy, Jonas! You’ll kill him!” Quinn struggled to pull Jonas off of Boyd. “Easy…let him go. I have him.”
    Jonas slowly released his grip on Boyd. Quinn held Boyd by his shoulders in order to keep him from swinging back at Jonas.
    Boyd swore at Jonas, and said, “Why should you of all people care what I do with a woman? You never did.”
    “Enough, Boyd,” Quinn said. He tried to direct Boyd toward his buggy, but Boyd broke free.
    “All I wanted was a little kiss.” Boyd waved his arms as if to keep himself from losing his balance. “That’s a lot less than you took from Minnie Kreider. You need to mind your own business, Jonas Armstrong.”
    “Shut up, Boyd. You need to go home. Right now you’re in no shape to be around a lady,” Quinn said. “You’re making a fool of yourself.”
    “At least I didn’t get a girl with child, and then treat her so badly she died,” Boyd shouted.
    “Take your hands off me,” Boyd yelled at Quinn. He shrugged himself free. “I’m going.” He staggered over to his buggy, and drove around to the other side of the barn, and sped off down the road.
    Ivy stood there in shock. What had just transpired? Was Boyd telling the truth about Jonas? Peggy did say he was married, and that his wife had died, and she’d mentioned a baby.
    Jonas and Quinn turned their attention to Ivy. “Are you all right, Ivy?” Quinn said.
    When Ivy nodded, Jonas asked, “Are you sure?”
    “Yes,” Ivy replied in a shaky voice. “I just want to go home.”
    “I’ll take you,” Jonas offered.
    “No!” she cried, quickly backing away from him. “I’m sorry. Quinn will take me.” She saw the hurt on Jonas’s face, but after what Boyd had said, she didn’t feel safe with anyone except Quinn.
    “All right,” Quinn soothed. “Jonas, will you tell Peggy, and Mary Beth where I’ve gone, and that I’ll be right back?”
    Jonas nodded.
     
    Quinn led Ivy to his buggy. She was shaking, and Quinn wasn’t sure if she was scared or