A Daring Proposal by Sandra S. Kerns

Author:Sandra S. Kerns [Kerns, Sandra S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Amazon: B00EXWTV4C
Publisher: Sandra S. Kerns, LLC
Published: 2013-09-02T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

Two weeks later, around seven in the morning, Chaney stood in the kitchen and stared out the back window. She watched the men gather outside the barn to receive their orders from Jed. When he finished speaking, they would file toward the house for breakfast. Everyone except Jed, as he had for the past few weeks, he would climb in Dale’s truck and drive back to his uncle’s to work there for four or five hours before returning. After he checked to make sure the men had followed the orders he had given earlier, he would come to the house, close himself in the office and do paper work until dinner. After dinner he would help the men with the evening chores before going back to Dale’s to do the same and then he would finally return to McBride’s Pride and close himself in the office again.

“Is everything all right, baby?” Martha asked from behind her.

Baby. The simple word had tears springing in Chaney’s eyes. She hadn’t told anyone about the baby yet. Not even her lawyer, even though if she had the ranch would be hers free and clear.

“Fine, Martha,” Chaney said pasting a smile on her face before she turned around. Needing something to keep her busy, she had started helping Martha with meals after a few days out of the hospital. “The men look awfully hungry though. We’d better get busy and finish getting breakfast ready.”

“Is Jed coming in this morning?”

Chaney knew the supposedly innocent question was anything but. She also knew the answer before she turned and watched him climb in the cab of the truck. “No, he’s got to go check on the hands at Dale’s.”

“I don’t see how he does it,” Martha said as she pulled biscuits from the oven. “Running two ranches, and working in his shop. I don’t know how you two find any time to be alone.”

“Jed’s been working in the shop, too?”

Martha turned and aimed a curious glance Chaney’s way. “You didn’t know?”

Know? How could she know? She and Jed only spoke when he stopped by her room to ask if she was all right and at dinner. Chaney knew he was really asking if the baby was all right, not her. Dinner was a show they put on for the hands and Martha. At night, he would stay until after Martha went to bed. Then he would make sure Chaney herself was tucked in before going back to sleep at his uncle’s house and then start the whole charade over again the next morning.

The day Chaney had come home from the hospital she had told Jed about the disturbance that had caused Sterling to throw her. Though he had promised to look into it she’d heard nothing more on that topic or anything remotely associated to the running of the ranch other than a perfunctory ‘things are fine’ now and then. Nothing the least bit personal or intimate slipped past their lips anymore.

“Well, I mean, I knew he was spending time there,” she lied.

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