Frontier Cinderella by Regina Scott

Author:Regina Scott
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: matchmaking, frontier romance, plain jane, prince charming, wedding romance, cinderella romance
Publisher: Regina Scott

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Katie Jo had thought Harry might poke his head in the door when the dining room opened at five, but she didn’t catch sight of him until they’d fed the first ravenous round. Then he, Jesse, and Zeke showed up, begging plates. Ciara filled one for Jesse and Katie Jo’s brother, but she tilted her head toward Harry.

“Why don’t you serve him, Katie Jo?”

Ciara didn’t fool her. She managed multiple plates all the time. She was matchmaking, plain and simple. Very likely that was why she’d brought Alice and Nora over that afternoon to talk about dresses.

Now Katie Jo pulled down one of the clean plates and slid in behind the big stove next to her friend. Ciara had told her that one of the reasons she’d known she might succeed in opening a restaurant in the settlement was this stove. Most folks in the area, like Katie Jo, cooked over the fire. Only a handful had any kind of stove, and nothing to match this black iron six-burner wonder with its two ovens, warming drawer, and silver trim. Now Katie Jo batted away the steam from the big kettle of soup with one hand and looked at Harry. “We have bean and bacon soup and beef stew tonight. Which would you prefer?”

He leaned against the door jamb. “Surprise me.”

That steam was warmer than she’d expected, for her skin was heating. She slopped some stew on his plate and added two of Ciara’s biscuits. No one quite matched those of Levi Wallin, but hers were the closest Katie Jo had ever tried.

“Much obliged,” Harry said as he accepted the plate from her. “I’ll be back for dessert.”

He didn’t even look at the blackcap pies on the sideboard.

She swallowed, watching out the door as he loped for the porch.

“You seen Miss Dennison?” Jesse asked, accepting his plate from Ciara.

“Not since this afternoon,” she admitted. “And it’s a full house at the moment, so I’m not sure where I’d put her if she did come looking.”

He nodded. “Fill me another plate. I’ll take it to her.”

“That’s real nice of you, Jesse,” Katie Jo told him, grabbing up several of the biscuits to add to the plate Ciara was putting together.

“Just being neighborly,” he said. He accepted the plate with a nod of thanks to them both and followed Harry out the door.

“Thanks,” Zeke said, taking his plate from Ciara. “Don’t suppose you have any of that lemon pound cake left from last night.”

Ciara smiled at him. “I saved a slice just for you. It’s down in the root cellar. If I left it up here, someone was bound to eat it.”

He grinned, set his plate on the sideboard out of the way, then propped open the hatch that would let him down into the root cellar. Kit had recently installed the door, so Ciara didn’t have to go outside every time she wanted access to the storage room.

Katie Jo glanced out the doorway in time to see more men enter the restaurant. “Two came in,” she reported.

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