Reluctant Lovers by Elizabeth Chadwick

Author:Elizabeth Chadwick [Chadwick, Elizabeth]
Format: epub
Published: 2010-02-13T06:58:43+00:00

Chapter Seventeen

With a house half destroyed and a mine shutdown that he'd not yet found time to investigate, Connor was in no mood to talk to Otto Diederick the morning after the fire.

"Start the repairs," he ordered abruptly when the young carpenter with his odd, pale eyes appeared on the doorstep.

"How ist Missus?" Diederick asked.

"Listen for yourself," snapped Connor, his face drawn with worry. "The doctor's ordered both of them to stay in bed." Coughing could be heard from Kat's room.

"Both?"

"I told you Jeannie was caught in the fire too. They're sharing Kat's room. Eyeless and I are in the children's room, Jamie on the floor in the parlor, and Noleen's sleeping and cooking in the old kitchen. So get busy repairing the other half of the house. We can't go on like this very long."

"Better I tear it down," said Diederick. "Missus' house still gut. You shoult move avay. Shoult send Noleen avay. Fire started in der kitchen."

"How do you know that?" Connor asked suspiciously. Diederick's eyes darted from side to side. "Vere else?"

"You never said where you were that afternoon."

"Other vere," he replied evasively, shrugging as if it were a matter of no importance.

"Well, get to work."

"I got Missus' tower to built. Better I tear down your place."

277

Reluctant Lovers

by Elizabeth Chadwick

"The hell you—"

"Take only two days," Diederick promised. The sound of coughing cut into their argument. When they turned, it was to find Kat leaning weakly against the door frame.

"Kat, the doctor said for you to stay in bed." Connor started toward her, alarmed, but she waved him away.

"If you can't make the other side livable by week's end, Diederick," said Kat, "I'll hire someone else."

"He shoult move out," said carpenter, his mouth turned down like a sulky boy's.

"He'll do no such thing." Her voice rasped painfully, and Connor winced. "I'd be dead if it weren't for Connor," she finished, giving the carpenter a fierce look. She remembered bitterly that Diederick had urged her to go riding and then left the house, obviously thinking she'd never know she was paying him for work he hadn't done. Because of him, she'd had to overcome her childhood fear of fire in order to rescue Jeannie. Coughing racked Kat's body, and she wondered miserably if it would ever stop. She hated being sick, having to stay in bed. "Get to work, Diederick," she ordered in a hoarse voice as she allowed Connor to lead her away. Diederick, shoulders slumped, headed toward the damaged section of the house.

"Don't talk," Connor murmured and helped her into bed.

"Noleen," he shouted, "bring Kat some more broth."

"I don't want more broth," Kat muttered.

"I'll have some, Daddy," Jeannie whispered from her side of the room.

278

Reluctant Lovers

by Elizabeth Chadwick

"Connor, the mine—" Kat began to cough again.

"Don't talk, darlin'."

"You have to get out there."

Connor thought the fire had been set. Somehow Fleming had managed it, perhaps thinking to keep Connor away from his most profitable mine, and the scheme had succeeded admirably in that respect. The Ingrid's Ring was closed, and Connor afraid to leave his womenfolk.

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.