Texas Bride by Leigh Greenwood

Author:Leigh Greenwood
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 0843950676
Published: 2002-12-16T08:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seventeen

Hetta had never made a secret of the fact that she intended to rebuild her ranch as soon as she was able or that she intended to work it herself. But she and William had never talked about it. Now that she thought about it, she realized they'd hardly talked about anything. Until Owen came along and upset everything, she'd been too insecure, too afraid something might cause William to change his mind, to talk about the future.

Looking back on it now, she was ashamed of herself. She'd always thought she was independent, so strong-willed that she could go it alone if she must. All the while she was just as terrified as her mother of being deserted by a man.

"I told you I wasn't going to sell my ranch," she said to William.

"I thought you said it just so you could feel independent. I was sure you'd stay with Ida. You had a perfectly good home."

"I had a job, William. Ida's house was never my home. This is."

"But you can't ride back and forth every day."

"Of course she can't," Owen said. "She'll soon have babies to take care of."

"Why don't you stay out of this?" William said to Owen.

"I'm hungry. You two aren't close to settling this, so let me see if I can help. You expect Hetta to move into town, live in your mother's house, work with you in the store. Is that right?"

Having Owen draw the picture with such stark clarity was a shock to Hetta. She had no more intention of living in the same house with Mrs. Tidwell than, she was certain, Mrs. Tidwell had of allowing her to move in.

"It doesn't make sense to buy a second house," William said. "There's plenty of room for us and children."

"But Hetta wants to live on the ranch and rebuild her herd. She expects you to ride into town each day while she stays here."

"I can't live this far from the store," William said, apparently surprised anyone would make the suggestion.

"I'll see about rounding up some firewood," Owen said to Hetta. "Shouldn't take me more than a few minutes."

Hetta knew Owen was leaving to give her an opportunity to send William away.

"You can't really mean to live out here," William said.

"Your mother would never allow me to set foot in her house."

"Of course she would."

"Well, it's not something we have to settle now. We both have a lot to do before we start making plans for the future."

"But I thought--"

"Apparently we were both wrong. Now you'd better get back to the store. I know you don't like to leave it for long."

"You refuse to go back with me?"

"It has nothing to do with refusing to go back with you. I want to live in my own house."

"It sounds like a refusal to me." He looked sullen, stubborn. "What am I going to tell Ida?"

"Why should you tell her anything?"

"I promised I'd bring you back with me."

Hetta felt anger fly all over her. What made 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.