Hill Country Courtship (Brides of Simpson Creek Book 8) by Laurie Kingery

Author:Laurie Kingery [Kingery, Laurie]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2015-03-01T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

As her son had predicted, Coira MacLaren was not pleased when she learned that a Mexican peasant girl and yet another crying baby had taken up occupancy under the MacLaren roof.

“I don’t recall being consulted about my own household being transformed into bedlam,” she raged, when Hannah and the newborn boy began wailing simultaneously on their arrival back at the ranch. “I won’t have it!”

Quickly, her son filled her in on the circumstances of the baby boy’s birth.

Coira turned to Maude, whom Jonas had just helped to descend from the wagon, Maude’s limbs having turned to jelly from exhaustion. “And ye, ye irresponsible slip of a girl, to go waltzing off into the hills without a thought for the needs of yer own babe,” she said, gesturing toward Hannah, who had ceased crying and was now rubbing her eyes sleepily. “The poor wee thing must have come close to starving while you tended this—this peasant girl! And then there’s my own needs that you were hired to see to, and have woefully neglected today.”

“I agree, I should not have taken Hannah with me,” Maude admitted. “And I apologize for being gone so long. But we were just taking advantage of the nice weather and had not intended to be absent for more than an hour or so. I’m sorry, Mrs. MacLaren,” she said, knowing she was blessed that everything had turned out as well as it had. “It won’t happen again. And Dulcinea and the baby will just be here until I am certain she has recovered from the childbirth. After such a difficult delivery, I couldn’t leave her up there alone,” she said, jerking her head back in the direction of the hillside hut.

“It better not happen again,” the older woman snapped. “Well, I suppose ye’d best be about readying a guest room for yet another noisy guest.”

“They can use the east room, Mrs. MacLaren,” Senora Morales said, still moving gingerly because of the healing burns. “It’s made up and ready. Ah, my grandson, what a darling little one!” she exclaimed, peering over the wagon bed where Dulcinea still rested in a nest of blankets with her newborn. “I’ll have Hector send word to your husband that you’re here, Dulcinea. Then he will be here fast as the wind to see his hijo!” She chuckled as she took charge. “You look about to collapse, Senorita Maude. To bed with you!”

Since Senora Morales was taking charge of her daughter and new grandson, Maude gladly obeyed the command from the housekeeper to seek her bed, knowing Juana would watch over Hannah.

Jonas touched her shoulder lightly as she started to walk toward the house. “We’ll speak when you’ve rested,” Jonas said.

Was that a threat or a promise? Maude wondered, but she was too tired to worry about it. She used what remained of her energy to climb the stairs to the room she shared with Juana.

Exhausted, she slept straight through dinner and supper and didn’t wake until Senora Morales brought a plate of sliced beef and soup to the room.

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