In Time for Christmas -- A Novella: (A Romance in the Rockies Postquel/Sequel) by Blanton Heather

Author:Blanton, Heather [Blanton, Heather]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Rivulet Publishing
Published: 2014-01-13T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 6

In the two days that Billy was gone, Charlene learned more about living without modern conveniences than she could have ever imagined. Every little want or need required a humbling amount of work to achieve. From heating the house to eating, no task was simple or quick.

She started her days by pumping water from the well into buckets and lugging them into the house while Miss Kate and Randy stoked the fires in the kitchen stove and living room. She then put a large pot of water on to boil for various needs, like washing her hands after dumping the chamber pots at the privy. She sliced bacon from a slab of meat the size of a table top, collected a few eggs from the coop (Miss Kate was not pleased with the number and commented on the supply petering out for the winter), mixed, rolled, and cut biscuits again, grabbed a crock of butter from the spring house, and stirred a pot of oatmeal for what felt like an eternity.

Sighing, Charlene blew a stray blond hair out of her face, stared into the oatmeal and wondered when these people rested. But it felt good to be this busy, this productive. Dale had stopped her from working as a paramedic, going to the gym, even taking walks through the neighborhood. Maybe life here was about as exciting as waiting on tables at a Waffle House, but it was … relevant. Every chore, every task, mattered.

The tromp of boots interrupted her musings as the ranch hands stormed the kitchen. Amidst the good-natured joshing of men who were hungry to eat and hungry to work, she and Miss Kate set to serving food, pouring coffee, passing the butter, and frying up some more bacon. Barely taking their eyes off Charlene, the boys shoveled it all back pretty fast, nodded their thanks, and then left as fast as they’d come. Charlene blinked, astonished at the mess the hands had made. Dirty plates, cups and utensils littered the table, mud trailed across the floor, chairs sat askew. “Wow, this place looks like the mall on Christmas Eve.”

A puzzled groove in her brow, Miss Kate wiped her hands on her apron. “Whatever that means.” But she let an easy smile come back. “Next, it’s your turn. We’ll grab a bite to eat, clean up this mess, and then see if we can get started on a dress for you.”

Charlene didn’t really feel the need to watch what she said. Miss Kate seemed to blow off the odd slips and unfamiliar phrases. Strangely, Charlene felt more comfortable here than she did in her own time. As the two women washed dishes, she worked up the courage to ask a question that had been riding her since waking up here. “Miss Kate, what year is it?”

To her credit, the older women barely paused. She toweled off a tin plate and set it in the dish rack. “It is 1903. November 25, 1903, to be exact.”

Charlene frowned as she soaped her rag and commenced to scrubbing an iron frying pan.

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.