A Groom for Claire by Patricia PacJac Carroll

Author:Patricia PacJac Carroll [Carroll, Patricia PacJac]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: PacJac Publishing
Published: 2020-10-13T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

Claire undressed in the dark of her bedroom. Oh, she knew the men were in the guest room at the other end of the house, but it was a bit unnerving to have men in the house. After putting on her dressing gown, she turned on the lamp and crawled into bed.

She glanced at the dress. It was such a fine gown made of silk. She’d never had anything like it before. Indeed, Ethan Freemont was a city man. Perhaps she could tell him her secret desire and come spring, he’d take them to town.

Unable to take her eyes from the gift, she got out of bed and tiptoed to the beautiful dress. Never had she seen one with such a rich color of blue. It would accent the blue in her eyes.

“Ethan. A strong sophisticated name. So much like the man.” She did like him. Marriage? Well, she’d have to see. But she couldn’t have chosen a better man for her family. He didn’t talk much about farming. That only raised her hopes of escaping the life of a farmer’s wife.

Yes, if they left the farm, the children would be unhappy. But they could adjust. Claire certainly didn’t want Leah to follow in her footsteps and work so hard for so little. Oh, yes, Thomas had plans to make the farm pay off in a few years, but so many never did.

They’d already lost so much because of the drought and now the winter. Such backbreaking work only to make a meager living. Leah hadn’t had a store-bought dress until now. Tom, well, he went without to give his sister new shoes.

Late at night, Claire sewed what clothes her family wore, and it was getting harder to afford the material. Some women sewed the bags their feed came in. Claire had drawn the line with Thomas and told him that her daughter would not wear a feed sack.

Reluctantly, Thomas had allowed her to take her egg money to buy the material to make Leah and Tom's clothes. As for herself, she wore the same worn dresses day in and day out. The one nice one was saved for Sunday.

Excitement rumbled from deep inside her. To wear such a beautiful dress would set her apart from the other women. Not that she wanted to make them feel bad, but she wanted to feel good. To walk into a room and have people stare at her because she was beautiful. To wonder where she got the dress. To envy her.

Oh, she knew that was probably a sin of some sort. Still, after a lifetime of being invisible to the well-off people of town, she relished the idea of being seen by them. She hadn’t counted on Ethan being a man of means.

Tomorrow, she would pull him away from the others, and they would talk. She needed to get to know him. See if she wanted to marry the man. So far, she couldn’t see any reason not to. A troubling thought nagged at her as she wondered if the dress and presents were but a bribe to win her over.

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