Winter Wedding Bells by Mary Connealy

Author:Mary Connealy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Published: 2013-07-19T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

“So now that I know how to ride, what will you be teaching me tomorrow?” She certainly hoped she knew enough to be done, because the riding lessons were terrifying.

David gave her a long look but didn’t answer. Instead, he passed through the kitchen, and she heard him clomping up the steps.

“Supper will be in an hour!” she called after him.

He grunted but didn’t respond. Smiling, Megan felt keen satisfaction at how well she’d done. Why, she was good enough at riding, she doubted another lesson was necessary. She prayed fervently it would be so.

She rolled out the piecrust while the boys played under the kitchen table and contemplated something she had confidence in.

Cooking.

It was a whole hour before David came back down. His eyes were a bit puffy as if he’d been sleeping. He settled into his place at the head of the table, rubbed his chest, and said, “Let’s bow our heads.”

Then her menfolk dug into the meal. David seemed pleased with it and showed a good appetite.

Once they were stuffed, the boys went up to their room to play and David disappeared into the front of the house. She’d barely stepped foot in either front room—the day had been full enough without turning her attention there. He closed the pocket doors on the library and occasionally she heard him coughing.

After the kitchen was tidy and the boys tucked into bed, she turned to what David needed. She’d spent her last pennies in Chicago buying the makings for the concoction that had helped her little brother mend after his pneumonia. She made a strong cup of tea, laced with honey, ginger, willow bark, and cayenne pepper. She let it steep a bit while she prepared a poultice for his chest and a few other little tricks she had learned from an old doctor who was willing to treat the very poor.

When it was all ready, she went into the living room to find David asleep in a comfortable stuffed chair with a book open on his lap.

“Here now, David.” Keeping her voice low, she gently caught his wrist and coaxed him awake.

He didn’t respond at first and fear caught in her throat. What if he was dead? She saw the rise and fall of his chest and knew he wasn’t, but it might happen. If not now, then one of these times. His heart would quietly stop beating. She’d come into a room expecting that he was sleeping, only to find he’d died.

Tears burned at the very thought. Megan knew only too well what a dead body felt like. She’d prepared her mother’s body for burial. She could still feel that hard, cold flesh. David was warm. His pulse beat in his wrists. He shifted a bit as she talked to him, and finally, slowly, his head came up.

To cover her worry she turned to focus on the cup of tea she’d fixed for him. “I want you to drink this. It’s full of things that will make you feel better.

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