Echoes From The Past (Women of Character)

Echoes From The Past (Women of Character) Read Online Free PDF Page A

Book: Echoes From The Past (Women of Character) Read Online Free PDF
Author: Grace Brannigan
apron beat a big heart. Aunt Rose had been tough, but she’d loved
her and her sister Ellen when no one else had cared. Ellen. Christie bit her
lip. Two sisters gone. At least she and Ellen had had Aunt Rose. Judith hadn’t
had anyone.
    "Thank you," Christie
rushed into speech, "I’m just putting ice on this then I’ll go over to the
cabin."
    Ruth turned to her, then glared at
Garrett. "She’s staying in that dusty cabin -- without dinner?"
    Garrett looked at Ruth, but the
older woman had turned her back to him, her shoulders stiff.
    "There’s nothing wrong with
the cabin," he said mildly.
    Ruth turned, brows raised.
"Who stayed in there two nights ago?"
    "The boys."
    "Exactly, and I haven’t had a
chance to get in there to clean it up yet. I had other matters pressing for my
attention. You know what those young men left it looking like last time."
    Christie saw Garrett’s grimace.
Hurriedly, she said, "I don’t mind a little dust and I don’t need anything
special."
    "You can’t stay in the
cabin," Ruth was adamant. "Sink’s over there if you’d like to clean
up."
    Christie hesitated and looked at
Garrett. "I’m sure you’ll appreciate the chance to wash up first,"
she said.
    "Garrett, set an extra place
for Christie."
    Christie thought Garrett might be
angry at the housekeeper’s highhanded ways, but he seemed to give a
philosophical shrug.
    "I must say you look like you
could do with a few square meals," Ruth added. "You’re a bit on the
skinny side." Ruth turned away and began to remove pot covers from pans.
Christie grimaced. Ruth obviously said whatever was on her mind.
    "Don’t take Ruth
seriously." Christie felt the brush of Garrett’s glance. "She likes
fattening everyone up."
    Christie stared at Garrett’s flat
stomach. There was nothing fat about him.
    "I serve nutritious meals,
Garrett McIntyre," Ruth snapped. "A man needs good food after a hard
day’s work."
    "You won’t get an argument
from me. You’re the best cook this side of the Mississippi."
    Christie glimpsed the pleased smile
on Ruth’s face.
    "Ruth, where is Hannah?"
he asked, drying his hands on a towel. He moved aside from the sink so Christie
left the table and joined him.
    "While we were patching up
her finger your brother rang. He’d called earlier saying he might stop in, but
the second call he said he wasn’t making it after all, there was a burglary in
town he had to check out." Ruth lifted her brows. "After I told
Hannah Randy wasn’t coming, she ran out of here like a two-minute twister.
Right now she’s playing one of those video things in her room."
    "I’ll be right back."
Garrett dropped the towel on the counter, his mouth in a straight line.
    Christie chewed her lip, watching
him stride from the kitchen and through the archway. She kept listening as she
washed her hands and face, but she didn’t hear any noise coming from the other
part of the house. Recalling the grim look on his face, she couldn’t help but
wonder how he’d discipline his daughter. Christie stared at the wall in front
of her, thinking of her father’s idea of discipline, and for a moment the old
queasiness hit her. She gripped the steel sink, the mess of her own childhood
rearing up before her.
    "You got any family?"
Ruth asked.
    Surprised by such a personal
question and recalling Garrett’s wish to keep her identity quiet, Christie
said, "My nephew." She thought of the last time she’d seen Eric.
"He’s five. He had a birthday last week." She’d missed it, although
she had put a card in the mail for him. "I, uh, haven’t seen him in a while."
    Ruth nodded. "My Mama always
used to say when you’ve got nothing else, there’s always family."
    Christie hadn’t seen Eric since
her brother-in-law Darrell took him almost a month ago, the day after the court
awarded him custody. Eric had cried, but she’d closed herself off from his
pain, the want and need in his face. She’d promised him that she’d return, but
that he needed to be
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