Tracie Peterson Read Online Free PDF Page B

it had been a sewing room at one time. Hadn’t the freighter said the ranch belonged to a widow before Nicholas bought it?
    The other door opened into the bedroom, and Daughtry became sudden ly aware of Nicholas’s masculine presence. Several articles of clothing lay around the room in disarray. Putting the lamp on the nightstand beside the four poster bed, Daughtry picked up a black suit coat and held it in front of her. The shoulders were broader than she’d even imagined. Nicholas must be quite a large man, Daughtry surmised, by the look of his coat.
    She picked up other items and stared at them, as if hoping they would answer her unspoken questions. Picking up a pair of discarded jeans, Daughtry held them against her, trying to get an idea of how Nicholas’ size might contrast to her own. She’d worn her brothers’ clothes on many occasions, but they’d always been old clothes they had long outgrown. These were the clothes of a man, not a boy, and Daughtry knew there was no comparison.
    Realizing that the sky was getting darker and feeling the need to relieve herself, Daughtry went back down the hall and made her way outside. She instantly spotted the outhouse and started across the yard.
    For a moment, she paused to take in the beauty of the sunset. The sun looked like a ball of molten scarlet against the fading colors of the sky. Lavender, so dusty and dark that it was nearly purple, blended into streaks of blue and amber. Daughtry hugged her arms against her body and thanked God for the wonder of it.
    “Only God can paint the sky like that,” she sighed.
    Back in the house, Daughtry realized she could do little about the house’s untidiness so late in the day. She found a can of peaches and a tin of crackers and made her supper on these. Morning would surely prove to offer her more understanding of her new home.
    When she’d finished with the meager provisions, Daughtry extinguished all the lamps but the one she carried with her. She took her bags and made her way to the bedroom. Her only thought was to get a good night’s sleep, but when she was actually in the room once again, Daughtry grew uncomfortable. Should she sleep in his bed? What if he came home in the night?
    She was about to make a pallet on the floor, when a mouse scurried across the room and out the door. With a shriek of fright, Daughtry’s mind was made up. Nicholas or no Nicholas, she was sleeping in the bed!

Chapter 5
    D aughtry tried to ignore her concern for the absent husband she’d never met. Three days had passed since she’d arrived at the ranch, and Nicholas had still not come back. Trying to soothe her worry, Daughtry set up Nicholas’s picture on the small table in the kitchen and, as she worked, she talked to him as though he were there.
    “I’m going to have to start bringing up wood,” she said absentmindedly. “It’s getting considerably colder and pretty soon it’s bound to snow. I used the last of the coal, or at least what I could find, so I guess I’ll just have to go down to that grove of trees and see what I can find there.”
    Daughtry had worked wonders with the place and, in spite of her nervous state of mind, she was pleased with the way things were shaping up. She’d inventoried the supplies and managed to find a pantry just off the kitchen that she’d not seen in her first day of exploring. Nicholas had laid up quite a store of canned goods and smoked meats, as well as plenty of flour, sugar, soda, and salt. Daughtry nearly cried in joy at the sight of so much food.
    Her first project had been to clean the kitchen. She reasoned that if she could have this one room in perfect order, she could easily work with the others at her leisure. Going around the room, she noted what was worth keeping and what was plain and simple trash. The curtains were still in good shape but needed to be washed, so Daughtry removed them and began heating water in the biggest pot she could find.
    Piece by piece, she emptied