The Rebel Bride by Shannon McNear

Author:Shannon McNear [McNear, Shannon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781643522395
Publisher: Barbour Publishing, Inc.
Published: 2019-12-16T16:00:00+00:00

September had long since whiled away into October. Pearl settled into a routine of cooking, washing, tending wounds, and, with Portius and Lydia assisting, overseeing the general well-being of their house- and barn-fulls of guests, as Pa still was wont to call them.

Pa himself was little better, but he was at least no worse. The constant activity about the house apparently thoroughly engaged his attention, because there had been no repeat of the day Pearl had found him out wandering over the ridge. And for that at least, she was most grateful.

The longing to do the same, however, tugged at her, almost unceasingly. That same constant activity—when she finally allowed herself to stop and count, she found there were thirteen men populating their downstairs, not including Pa, and easily twice that in the barn—caring for those men, keeping them fed, their wounds washed and dressed, only half attempting to keeping them clean, comforting the suffering and even the dying where needed, was nigh on overwhelming. Jem and Sally, Lydia’s two little ones, were both a counterpoint for the gravity of the situation, and wearing on her nerves and Lydia’s by turns. Pa did enjoy their presence, which was also something. Sally spent as much time in his lap as with her mama.

More than two weeks of rain left it nearly impossible to do proper washing or provide the men with baths. Firewood they at least had in abundance, with Portius and Clem working together to bring some in. Few of their charges were recovered enough to help with any great regularity, but Mr. Wheeler remained determined to be of as much use as possible. More than once Pearl looked up from cooking or other tasks in the kitchen to see him standing out by the woodpile, chopping or splitting. The first time she’d seen him struggling to swing the ax, one-armed, her heart had nearly stopped. Surely he’d cause himself the loss of a foot as well as the hand, doing that.

But somehow he hadn’t. He did, after a few attempts, toss the ax aside and switch to a hatchet instead, with which he made surprisingly quick work of the job. Pearl found herself shaking her head at the spectacle.

And now—on a morning where the rain had miraculously stopped, though the clouds still hung heavy and low, obscuring the ridge beyond the house—instead of working, she stood at the window, transfixed by his intensity and determination. And not a little admiring of his growing dexterity with just that hatchet.

“You spend an awful lot of time watching him,” came Lydia’s murmur at her shoulder.

Pearl slapped a hand over her heart, her pulse and breath both chugging. “Gracious, woman. Shouldn’t you be cooking?”

Lydia’s full lips tweaked in a smile, golden eyes gleaming, and she pursed her lips and leaned toward the window as well. At least half a minute went by. “Can’t say as I blame you much, though.”

That drew another gasp from Pearl’s throat. “Lydia!”

“Well? You gonna try to deny that he’s easy on the eyes?”

“Lydia.

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