Cowboy Heart (Historical Western Romance) (Longren Family series #3, Kitty and Lukes story) Read Online Free PDF Page B

the shoulders.  "I didn't give you much of a welcome."
                  "There was a fire," I said lightly.  I didn't say that as Mr. David Lord had driven closer to the ranch I'd shrunk farther away, convinced arriving without warning and without my mother's approval and blessing would cause unwelcome complications for Sarah.
                  "There was a fire and there was worry.  I thought something had happened to Mother or—well, we went over that.  But I'm glad you're here.  I've missed you."
                  The sharp ache at that moment reminded me that as much as I'd lost Johnny, I'd lost Sarah.  We'd shared everything growing up, as sisters and best friends, and she was part of the reason I didn't have that many girlfriends—we were the closest friends.  So when Johnny came into my life, I thought all the pieces were complete.
                  Then Johnny left and Sarah married and moved.
                  "I've missed you.  More than you know."
                  Sarah widened her eyes.  "You mean the letter a day isn't proof you miss me?"
              She meant it lightly but it stung, somehow.  "And your not writing means?"
                  But she was saved an answer when Mike returned from Redding, bringing back change and proof my message to Mother had been sent, telling her where I was and requesting she send back a trunk with clothing and her blessings for me to stay until October.  Sarah told Mike when to expect supper, and he went off to whatever chores were waiting for him and we went into the garden to pick corn for the supper.
     
                  Over the next couple of days, a routine established itself.  I woke up early every day, not that I could sleep through the clarion call of the rooster, who sounded as if he were perched directly under the window of the room where I slept.  After stumbling through washing, I made my way into Sarah's huge, shining clean kitchen, where I helped her cook breakfast for the six hands still on the ranch.  Adding in the ten on the trail with William, I guessed the ranch usually had some 16 or 20 on it and at least a dozen for breakfast each morning.  They came around for midday meal too and then again for supper, so that most days were spent cooking, cleaning and cooking again.  In between, we worked in the garden, helped feed the animals, made runs into Redding to collect parcels from the train or shop at the grocers.  In the evening, Sarah read her Bible, sewed, or made bread for the next day or did all of those things before she sat with a lantern and read, briefly, from one of the mysteries I had brought her.
                  She seemed nothing like my sister, Sarah, who had moved away to California.  That Sarah preened and dressed and worried about her hair and helped with chores under protest and was interested mostly in which boy would take her to what dance and whether or not someone had asked her to the newest play at the opera house.
                  When I asked her, at one point, if she thought she'd changed much, she said, shortly, that once you'd helped with the calving because the heifers had more problems birthing than the older cows and all the heifers tended to birth at the same time so that there wasn't always a veterinarian to assist, you found yourself changed.
                  Just hearing about it was enough for me.  I was grateful to be with her, enjoying her company and the hard work that kept me from thinking overly about Johnny and Sissy and Mr. Overton and even my mother, but I couldn't imagine staying on at the Big Sky Ranch longer than the weeks we'd argued for in the message to Mother.  I wasn't anxious to leave, and I'd miss her again once I got home, but I couldn't imagine staying.
                  Then the team returned from the trail.
     
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