Sweetwood Bride by Pamela Morsi

Author:Pamela Morsi [Morsi, Pamela]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Romance, General, Love Stories, Historical, Large Type Books, Large Print Books, Tennessee, Married Women
ISBN: 9780061013652
Google: QfV-QlY_X2wC
Amazon: 006101365X
Publisher: HarperTorch
Published: 1999-06-03T04:00:00+00:00

The day had been a long one for Eulie. The laundry had been a heavy, tiresome chore, made easier by the help of her sister. And although company for the noon meal had been welcome, the afternoon spent inventorying the herb box and planning the summer stores with Miz Patch had been busy. The brightest spot in the day had been the laughter and companionship she'd shared with the husband-man.

He and his uncle had spent most of the afternoon splitting cedar shakes for the shed roof. Uncle Jeptha held the ax at the edge of the bolt while Moss swung the big hardwood mallet. Consistently he hit the ax squarely upon the head, slicing off a perfectly grain-cut shingle.

Rans tried to help, even offering to spell Uncle Jeptha who was forced to hold his arms straight out in front of him for long periods of time. But the husbandman didn't let her brother do much. Fetching and stacking were his tasks, but beyond that he clearly thought the job too arduous for a child.

Predictably, Rans had bristled at not being treated equal to a man and ran off to sulk for an hour or so, leaving the twins to help with the shingle-making. Her brother was back by supper, however and complained bitterly about eating cattails, which according to him was a "beggarman's supper" and far inferior to sweet corn.

When Eulie finally got the dishes cleaned up and the fire banked, she gratefully removed her apron and headed up to the cabin porch, where everyone seemed to have gathered. She looked forward to a nice, peaceful evening with her family. All of them together at long last, to catch up with each other and laugh together once more. She didn't mind having the husbandman or Uncle Jeptha with them. Somehow, amazingly, they fit well with the Tobys. It was all working out perfectly. Eulie secretly congratulated herself. Forcing Moss Collier to marry her was the smartest thing she'd ever done.

Eulie's euphoria was to be short-lived, however. What she had not anticipated in her plan for a happy family evening was the arrival of a gentleman caller. It would have been impossible to forget that the husband-man had given permission to Mr. Leight to pay court to Clara. Eulie had assumed that he meant only sitting Sunday, not calling on her in the middle of the week.

But there he was, big-eyed and bug-ugly, sitting on the porch at Clara's side just like he belonged there.

Rans was talking to him a mile a minute. And the other children as well seemed to think of him as their company as much as Clara's.

Politely he rose to his feet when he saw Eulie. He was awkward and obviously ill at ease as he bowed to her like some stilted lowlander and bid her greeting.

"Mrs. Collier, it is surely a pleasure to see you," he said.

Eulie could hardly return that greeting. It was all she could do just to be civil. It wasn't as if she had ever truly disliked the man.

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