The Lady's Arrangement (Help Wanted) by Colleen L. Donnelly

Author:Colleen L. Donnelly [Donnelly, Colleen L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: romance, western, historical, marriage of convenience
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press, Inc
Published: 2017-05-30T18:00:00+00:00

Chapter 31

They say three’s a crowd. No matter how many there are, I’m always number three. ~Rex

I snatched the towel off her shovel and left Regina behind in the dark. Fuming, I’d suspect. No, not just fuming—something else, too. Something I saw in her eyes the moment she closed them. I kicked at the ugly brown dirt of her barnyard as I headed back to the house.

I’d never been a widow, and certainly never a mother, so how was I to know what was wrong or right? I’d been a man all my life, and I’d known plenty of hurt. A long ride in the open spaces took care of most of it, and Courage took care of the rest. I paused and looked back at the black hole of a doorway on her barn. Our barn. I slapped my palm with her towel. It stung. Maybe she and I both needed a little Courage.

I stepped into the kitchen and stared at what I’d made. Picked up one of her too thin, too tiny, too delicate china plates and heaped it with biscuits, chipped beef gravy, and potato fried in lard.

Jess’s eyes grew bigger than the plate when I stepped through the bedroom door. “Sit up. Time to eat.”

“Ma said I can’t…”

“She ain’t the only one wearing pants around here.” I stood above him. His gaze went to the heaping plate in my hands. “Had to pile it high since there ain’t much room on these dinky dishes.”

He kept his eyes on the food as he squirmed his shoulders, trying to snake upward on the pillow behind him.

“Looks like you need a hearty meal. Come on, get yourself a little higher up.” Run harder. Run faster. Don’t let the smoke get you. I held the dish just out of Jess’s reach, watched his white face as he struggled to sit up. He coughed when he finally righted himself, dropping back against the pillow.

“Good man.” I settled the plate on his lap. “Gonna get you up and out of that bed in short order, too.” I saw his eyes swell, then narrow. I was the enemy in their family. But before I gave his mother the parting she wanted, I’d make sure this boy was ready to stand up and be a man.

Regina was there as I stepped back into the kitchen. She’d slipped in quiet, looked worn, inside and out, tiny in the soiled wedding outfit I’d given her.

“Fix a plate and go eat with him.” I kept to myself what I’d rather say, and how I wanted to say it, as I nodded toward her bedroom door I’d left open.

She gazed at the food.

“You gotta be starved after building fence and airing all that ground in the barn.” I reined in my tone. She looked so small. But still terrifying.

“It’s part of my…” She stopped. “Never mind.”

“Ted out there? He eat with you much?” I hoped not, to both questions.

She shook her head as she went to the washpan and scrubbed her hands.

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