A Chance In Time Read Online Free PDF Page B

usually stood, then she’d find it and dig it up. She’d
assumed she discovered it and all would be well. Yes, that’s what
he’d do.
    When he returned to the house, she was
stirring the pot. He took a moment to study her. She had her back
turned to him. The blue dress she wore had faded flowers on it and
was frayed at the edges. He sighed. Not only did she need a better
house and barn, the poor woman needed clothes that could sustain
the elements of life out here, in the middle of nowhere. Her
mattress was thin, and despite the discomfort, she didn’t voice a
single complaint. He actually preferred his blanket on the floor.
She needed a good quality bed. It didn’t have to be fancy. Then his
eyes took in the single pot. What woman wouldn’t want more cooking
supplies? He examined the whole cabin and shook his head. There
seemed to be no end to the things she needed. But with enough gold,
her problems would be solved.
    She peered over her shoulder and
frowned. “Are you feeling ill?”
    “ No. I feel fine.” But, in
a way, that was a lie. He did get sick to his stomach when he
thought of how she’d been living over the past year. He lumbered to
the chair at the table and sat down. “Penelope, can I ask you
something?”
    “ Yes.”
    “ When your husband died,
didn’t any men come by to see you?” It seemed to him that as soon
as the bachelors discovered her availability, they would have been
beating down the door to marry her.
    She shrugged and kept her eyes on the
stew. “Men wish to have children to carry on their name. I had an
accident when I was a girl. I can’t have children.”
    He noted the sadness in her voice and
the slumping of her shoulders. “Even so, I’m sure you had some who
were interested,” he softly said.
    She shook her head.
    “ Then why did your husband
marry you?”
    She didn’t respond. Instead, she
continued to stir the pot.
    “ Penelope?”
    Sighing, she touched her cheeks with
her free hand, and he wondered if she was crying. She took a deep
breath. “I didn’t tell him.” She spoke so low that he could barely
hear her.
    “ But you told the other
men?”
    “ I hated myself for lying.
I couldn’t do it again.”
    “ And when none of them came
to see you, did you wish you hadn’t told the truth?”
    She softly laughed. “No. I felt better
having been honest. It was hard keeping it from Randy.”
    So that was her husband’s name. Not
that he cared. He rather preferred to think of Randy as the unnamed
man who’d long since been removed from her life. He chastised
himself for such thinking. Shifting in his chair, he cleared his
throat. “You never know. One of the men might come to see you
someday. Not all men value a woman based on whether or not she can
give him children.”
    She looked at him, and he quickly
lowered his eyes. A moment of tense silence passed before she
spoke. “I can’t open the jar. Will you do it?” She motioned to the
sealed jar of pickles on the table in front of him.
    More than happy to do anything for
her, he nodded and did as she asked.

Chapter Eight

    Penelope had some time alone in the
cabin while Cole worked on the fence, so she closed the door to the
cabin and took a bath. Stepping out of the tub, she wrapped the
towel around her body and walked over to the dresser. She noted the
trembling of her hands as she pulled the drawer open and pulled out
her brush, mirror and barrette. It’d been over a year since she
gave any care to her appearance.
    Cole’s words gave her hope. She
confessed that she couldn’t have children, and he didn’t seem to
mind. Other men had. But he hadn’t. Maybe he wanted to stay with
her after all. The thought made her heart skip a beat. She could
think of nothing better than to have him stay.
    After she towel dried her long blond
hair, she ran the brush through it. It fell softly past her
shoulders and down to the middle of her back. When it completely
dried, it would be wavy. She recalled how Randy liked