The Gunman's Bride by Catherine Palmer

Author:Catherine Palmer
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Steeple Hill
Published: 2011-10-27T20:00:00+00:00

Rosie slept with sweet dreams…beautiful memories of Bart’s love. It might be possible, she thought, to make a good life with Bart on his homestead. Yet even as she drifted in the contentment of a future as Bart’s wife, she remembered that she would never be a mother. The doctors in Kansas City had declared her barren.

Nor would there be children singing songs and learning to count. No anthems. No recitations. She had lost the teaching job to another woman.

Even Bart was gone from their bed. Rosie slipped from beneath the blankets and went to one of the two windows. Although it was daytime, she could see almost nothing through the waxed paper that covered the openings. He had told her he would build steps into the pantry. But she could hear no hammer or saw.

Ashes in the fireplace, a dusty floor, chipped crockery were her lot. Life could not be filled with dreamy passion forever. Heavyhearted, Rosie dressed in a simple blue calico she had never liked—preferring her swishy silks instead. She had never enjoyed a silent room either. Rosie liked people, laughter, chatter.

Even as she mourned the past, she realized this tiny sod house now belonged to her to do with as she pleased. The land outside belonged to her, too. Was this what she had been after all along?

Every night on her knees, she had begged God for her freedom. Was this the way He had answered her prayers?

Bart’s voice drifted into the house as he sang a hymn out in the yard. Rosie went to the door and peeked outside. Just beyond the house, he was chopping wood. She had to smile. Bart might be a terror at robbing banks and holding up trains. He might be the handsomest man this side of the Mississippi, and he made Rosie feel wonderful when he loved her. But Bart Kingsley couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket.

Rosie shut the door and leaned against it. Bart hadn’t gone away, as she’d feared. For this moment, at least, he was acting the reliable husband. In the weeks Rosie had known him again, he hadn’t robbed a train or a bank, he hadn’t murdered anyone, he’d worked at a decent job and started his own homestead.

If Bart could accomplish so much, couldn’t she?

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.