Huckleberry Hearts (35 page)

Please turn the page
for an exciting sneak peek of
Jennifer Beckstrand's

SWEET AS HONEY
,

the first book in her Honeybee Sisters trilogy,
coming in July 2016!

Dan Kanagy stopped his open-air buggy in the middle of the deserted road and turned on his flashlight. Shining it along the roadside, he squinted into the darkness.

There it was. The sign that marked the turn-off to the lane he was looking for, a big, white board decorated with flowers in every variety of paint color imaginable. In big, bold, black letters it read: BEWARE THE HONEYBEES.

Dan had never been able to figure out if that warning referred to the large number of hives that dotted the Christners' farm or if it referred to the Christners themselves. The community had nicknamed them the Honeybee Sisters a dozen years ago. The three Honeybee Sisters were pretty enough and smart enough to be intimidating, and they lived with their aunt, who was said to be slightly odd. At least that's what Dan had been told. He'd never met the aunt, but he knew the Honeybee Sisters well. He'd gone to primary school with all three of them.

The youngest, Rose, had seemed so delicate that Dan had feared she'd break if he looked at her the wrong way. Poppy Christner had punched him in the nose on more than one occasion. And the eldest, Lily, was too wonderful for words, and entirely too wonderful for a plain, ordinary boy like Dan Kanagy.

Beware the Honeybees indeed.

Holding the reins with one hand and the flashlight in the other, Dan turned his horse Clyde down the long lane. It was a good thing he had his flashlight. At two o'clock in the morning under a new moon in late May, the darkness was profound. Clyde's hooves clip-clopped over a small wooden bridge just wide enough for a buggy or a car to pass over. The light of his flashlight reflected off a pond of still water that meandered under the bridge. Maybe pond was too generous. It looked more the size of a puddle.

Across the bridge, the lane curved to the right. It had to be almost a hundred yards long. A variety of tall and short bushes lined the lane, some thick with leaves, others abloom with flowers. To his left, he passed at least a dozen beehives, an outbuilding, and a substantial red barn.

The line of bushes came to an abrupt stop as he got to the end of the lane. A house stood to his right fronted by a lawn full of dandelions and a huge rectangular flower bed bursting with blooms. Even by the light of his flashlight, they looked wonderful
gute
. Dan grinned to himself. The bees probably thought they were wonderful gute too.

Dan jumped out of his buggy and tiptoed up the path of flagstones that led to the house, not sure why he tried to be quiet. He was about to awaken the whole house. It couldn't be helped, but he felt bad about interrupting their sleep like this.

He walked up the porch steps, tapped lightly on the door, and listened. Nothing.

If he wanted anyone to wake up, he'd have to give up trying to be subtle. He rapped his knuckles five times against the sturdy wooden door. Holding his breath, he listened for signs of movement from within. After a few seconds, he saw a faint light behind the curtains in the front window. The door slowly creaked open, and Dan found himself nose to nose with the barrel of a shotgun.

He should have paid more heed to that sign.

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Copyright © 2015 by Jennifer Beckstrand

 

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ISBN-13: 978-1-4201-3653-1
ISBN-10: 1-4201-3653-4

ISBN: 978-1-4201-3653-1