Brides of Prairie Gold by Maggie Osborne

Author:Maggie Osborne [Osborne, Maggie]
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781581166507
Publisher: Books In Motion
Published: 2010-10-29T07:00:00+00:00

Smokey Joe's rise-and-shine gong ratcheted through Perrin's head like a series of clanging explosions. She awoke to find herself on the floor of the wagon, aching in every joint. Hilda's knee was in her face. Slowly, they sat up, Clasping their heads and whimpering.

Squinting, Perrin peered at Hilda, who was in greater disarray than Perrin had ever seen her. One braid had come unraveled and tangled blond waves dropped to Hilda's waist.

Her skirt reeked and had stiffened with dried vomit. Bits of prairie grass clung to her gown and her loose hair.

"Ach! I am disgusting!" Hilda moaned, staring down at herself. She inhaled, then looked as if she might be ill again.

When she inventoried her own state, Perrin groaned. Dirt and grime caked her face; her stockings had twisted around her legs. A rip opened along her skirt seam, and she'd lost a shoe. Her eyes felt gritty and her mouth tasted so horrible that she gagged. She would have sold a portion of her soul for a hot bath.

Without speaking, their faces grim, she and Hilda changed clothing, then slowly emerged into a chilly overcast morning. Hilda sniffed the scent of frying bacon drifting from Smokey Joe's fire and her face turned green. She dashed for a clump of plum bushes, holding her stomach.

Leaning over the water barrel, Perrin scrubbed her cheeks until they burned, tried to comb the dirt and grass out of her hair, then kindled their fire and hung a pot of coffee over the flames. She didn't bother stirring up a batch of johnnycakes; Hilda wouldn't eat anything and neither could she.

Thirty minutes later, partially fortified by two cups of strong coffee, she tottered to her feet, drew a deep breath of courage, and went in search of Cody Snow. Two by two, the brides fell into step behind her. They were all shamefaced and bleary-eyed except Augusta and Ona, who refused to look at the others except with self-righteous disgust.

When Perrin spotted Cody, saddling the buckskin, she veered toward him, struggling to hold her head up. Each step on the uneven ground jarred her brain and made her wince. The only thing that offered the slightest pleasure was seeing Cody's soaring eyebrows when he noticed all the brides advancing on him. To give him credit, he recovered quickly and strode forward to meet them. Halting, he folded his arms over his chest.

"Well?" he asked coolly, studying Perrin's white face and shaking hands. Anger flickered in the depths of his eyes.

His attitude made it easy. How dare he use that tone of voice, as if they needed to explain themselves. "You deceived us!" she snapped angrily. Murmurs of assent lifted from the women behind her.

The fury that trembled on her lips was personal. She had wanted Cody to be different. She had begun to believe that he was. But he was like the other men she had known. Deceivers, all of them. Instead of the truth, a man said what a woman wanted to hear. And when he was caught, he insisted that the woman was in the wrong, never him.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.