A Texas Christmas Past by Julia Justiss

Author:Julia Justiss
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tule Publishing
Published: 2017-11-09T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

Through the rest of the dark night, a grim Drew waited for the sky to lighten enough that he could steal out to his workshop and repair the broken spindle without having to illuminate a lantern. His mother’s bedroom windows faced the shop, and he didn’t want to risk having Mama wake early, notice the light and decide to pay him a before-breakfast visit. He wanted to get that bed frame back together without having to come up with some believable explanation for why the repairs were necessary.

The broken spindle in hand, he crept down the stairs and, with the waning moon’s light to guide him, strode to the workshop. Knowing the location and feel of every tool, finding a correctly sized block of wood and the turning tools to shape it were tasks he could easily accomplish in the dim pre-dawn light.

After catching him several times with a haggard face and bloodshot eyes, his mother had suggested he try using a sleeping powder, a recommendation Dr. Lanagan had seconded. He’d always rebuffed them, but after last night, Drew knew he needed to try something else. He’d been lucky not to wake Audra during his latest episode, but with her night nurse’s ear, he couldn’t count on that luck continuing.

Almost as bad as injuring her while she slept beside him would be attacking her if she came in, trying to wake him while he was in the grip of a nightmare.

He hated the idea of having his wits dulled almost as much as the possibility that taking a sleeping powder might intensify, rather than erase, the night visions. But trying to render himself sufficiently unconscious to keep Audra safe for however long she remained at the Harwood Inn was important enough that he was prepared to risk it.

He could throw away the rest of the powder once she was safely gone.

Ignoring the dull ache in his heart the mere thought of her leaving created, he vowed to seek out Dr. Lanagan as soon as possible. Which wouldn’t be for a while. He needed to be at the Bar H for the next three days at least, helping Brady separate the last of the cows from their yearlings and moving the bulls to their winter pasture. But after those tasks were complete, he’d ride into town and see what the doctor could offer him.

In the interim, he’d either sleep at the homestead or out in his shop.

His solution decided, Drew set to crafting a new spindle, intent on having the piece constructed and installed before Hilda started breakfast.

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