An Uninvited Bride on his Doorstep by Ava Winters
Chapter Eleven
Winona sat up and wiped sweat from her brow, then returned to scrubbing. In moments, moisture beaded once more on her forehead. She managed to ignore it until the salty droplets fell into her eyes, stinging them. She sat up and wiped away the fresh sweat, angrily shaking it off.
She looked around the floor of the kitchen and saw to her dismay that she’d made little progress. She’d worked all afternoon and fully two-thirds of the floor still lay under a thick crust of dirt.
“How can this place be so dirty?” she blurted out. Her face went white, and she stilled completely, praying no one had heard her. When she heard no voices after several seconds, she sighed with relief and returned to her work.
Her back ached. Her shoulders ached. Her arms ached. Her legs ached, everything ached. She thought wryly that if she’d known she was healing from pain in her ankle only to hurt everywhere else she might have broken it again.
It was over a month now since she felt well enough to start doing chores and nearly two months since her arrival and marriage to Logan. She’d thought to have the house cleaned and repaired and be ready to start on the other buildings by now, but she was soon disillusioned of that pipe dream.
She couldn’t even begin cleaning for the first few days because the brothers didn’t have a single cleaning tool on the ranch. Not even a broom. She’d made Logan a shopping list and he’d sent Darrell into town for supplies—a broom, a feather duster, a washboard and bucket, lye soap, scouring pads and brushes.
He’d grumbled about the cost of the items, but she’d put her foot down and insisted.
It took another week to dust. She couldn’t believe how thick the dust was over everything. In every room. She’d had to go outside to shake the feather duster clean four times the first day.
Then she’d started on the kitchen. The walls and furnishings took another week to clean. She didn’t even bother polishing the wood or plastering the cracks and chips yet. That would have to wait until she could remove the dirt and dust and grime that clung to everything like rind.
She looked down and realized the soap in her wash bucket was now more dirt than soap. The section of floor she scrubbed was a mire of soapy mud that made the floor seem even dirtier than it had before. She huffed and tossed the scouring pad into the bucket. A dollop of grimy soap water splashed onto her face. She gasped and shook her hands in disgust. She wanted to scream, but didn’t want anyone to hear her, so she just collapsed to her knees and tried to keep from sobbing.
After several deep breaths, she managed to compose herself enough to stand. She lifted the wash bucket and headed outside to replace the dirty water with fresh water from the well. It was only twenty yards to the well, but her ankle began to ache by the time she reached it. She lowered the bucket, then laboriously began the process of raising it.
Her body hurt all over. The ache in her ankle strengthened to a steady throb. Her back and shoulders were stiff and sore from days and days consisting of hours and hours spent waging war against the years and years of caked-on dirt and dust that covered everything everywhere in the house.
It was already late afternoon, but the sun beat down mercilessly, sapping what little strength Winona had left. A trickle of sweat ran into her eye, stinging it. She cried out and instinctively brought her hands to her face, letting go of the bucket. It tumbled down the well, crashing into the water below.
That was the last straw. Winona’s exhaustion and frustration finally overcame her. She collapsed against the well and wept, her sweat mingling with her tears and stinging her eyes further. She brought her apron up to her face to wipe her tears. Her apron was covered with the dirt and grime of the day’s chores and did little to dry her eyes. Finally, she sighed and gave up, allowing her tears to flow until they stopped of their own accord.
Her stepmother was right. Winona wasn’t cut out for housework. A month’s worth of work and then some and she still hadn’t finished cleaning the house. She hadn’t even begun to repair the holes in the roof or the cracks in the walls. After the house was the barn, the stables, the vegetable garden – if she could even figure out how to get anything to grow after the brothers left it fallow for so long, and heaven only knew what else. She could work nonstop for a year and never catch up.
“Ma’am?”
The voice startled her. She opened her eyes and was immediately assaulted by bright, hot sunlight. She squinted through the light at the silhouette in front of her.
“Ma’am?” the voice repeated. “Are you all right?”
She still couldn’t pick out any features, but she finally recognized the voice as belonging to Darrell, Logan’s ranch foreman. “Yes, hello, Darrell. I’m all right, thank you. Just resting a spell.”
Her vision was clearing, and she could see Darrell’s face now. He wore a dubious expression as he replied, “Might be more comfortable if you rest inside.” He extended his hand.
She allowed Darrell to help her to her feet but declined the arm offered to escort her back to the house. “Thank you, Darrell. I’m all right.”
“All right,” Darrell said, his tone making it clear he didn’t believe her. “Do you need anything?”
She smiled gratefully at him. “Thank you, but no. I’m just going to rest in my room for a while.”
He nodded. “Okay. You ever want help with anything, just let me know.”
“I will. Thank you, again.”
“Happy to help.” He tipped his hat and headed off to the stables.
Winona walked back to the house. She was touched by Darrell’s concern. It was the first time in a while anyone had bothered to think about her. Logan still visited with her at least once a day but since the fight over the cattle last month, their interactions were cool.
That spark of romance she’d felt when they’d had breakfast together the day she received her crutches seemed like a distant memory, set aside in a corner of her mind the way her crutches now sat in the corner of her closet, close by but no longer a part of her daily routine.
She no longer felt a part of Logan’s routine either. Of any of the brothers’ routine for that matter. Logan and Jay were preoccupied with their differences over how to run the ranch. The closest she came to interacting with Jay was overhearing his daily shouting matches with Logan when they thought she was asleep in her room.
She got precious little more from Logan. Gregory seemed nice enough. He alone of the brothers would spare her time for an engaging conversation but even then, his behavior seemed motivated by a duty of politeness rather than genuine interest in her company. She felt less a part of the ranch now than she had when she was bedridden.
When she reached her room, she collapsed into bed, lacking the strength even to undress. She stared up at the tester over the bed, a thin blue cotton panel with a pink, flower-print pattern. The fabric appeared to have been beautiful once but was now drab and faded.
When she first arrived at the ranch, she felt out of place. She’d thought when she was well enough to do chores, she would feel more connected but a month and more of backbreaking labor hadn’t made her feel like she belonged. Everyone just lived in their own separate worlds, sharing a house but not a home.
Then she had an idea. She sat upright, infused with a renewed energy.
She hadn’t yet cooked a meal for the brothers. She’d intended to make dinner for them after she recovered but between the brothers fighting and the mountain of chores she had to complete, she’d never gotten around to it. Perhaps it was time she did.
Not tonight, though. She was exhausted from her chores and anyway she still had no idea how to cook. She had a plan for that, however. She would send Darrell into town tomorrow with a letter for Cordelia asking for her famous brisket recipe. She would finish cleaning the kitchen and the next day she would make dinner for everyone. If everyone gathered together for a good meal, it would give them a chance to spend meaningful time together and act like a family for once.
A smile spread across her face. She left the bed and sat at the table where her paper and pencils sat. She began to draw an image of a sunrise breaking over distant mountains and illuminating a pristine valley below. If she had any luck, the sun would rise on her family, too.
***
“Okay, boys. I made this brisket special to celebrate two months since I joined our family. Dig in!”
Winona smiled brightly at the brothers, eagerly awaiting their reaction to the food. They each took a bite of the brisket and she leaned forward in anticipation.
Logan said nothing and his face showed no reaction. His silence stung her more than she thought it would. Marriage of convenience or not, he was her husband and she thought she could at least count on a little support from him. Certainly, she deserved better than for him to act as though she wasn’t even there! He took another bite of the brisket and she sighed. He was eating the brisket. She supposed she should be grateful for that at least.
She looked at Jay. The youngest Foley stared at his plate wordlessly, his face expressionless. He hadn’t even lifted his fork. Her smile began to fade. This was not having the effect she hoped.
She turned to Gregory. The middle brother ate as absentmindedly as Logan. After a few seconds, he noticed Winona staring at her and smiled. “This is delicious, Winona, thank you.”
Her smile returned. “Thank you, Gregory, that’s very nice of you to say.” She spoke loudly, wanting to get the attention of the other two.
They both ignored her and after nodding to her in acknowledgment, Gregory did the same, returning to his food and his absentminded stare. Her heart sank. She’d put so much thought into this meal, desperate to find some way to bring them together, some way to feel like she belonged here. Now she was watching all of her effort come to naught.
She felt anger rising in her chest. She wasn’t going to sit still and let the brothers waste another chance at mending fences and she wasn’t going to allow herself to be a wallflower anymore. She made this dinner to give everyone a chance to talk, and everyone was going to talk, blast it.
She turned to Logan and smiled brightly. “So, Logan, how are those repairs coming?”
“Fine.”
“Have you mended the corral fence yet?”
“Not yet.”
“Oh,” she took a breath, forcing down her irritation. She would not allow his surliness to ruin the evening. “Well, is there anything I can help with?”
Logan sighed irritably. “No. Thank you.”
“Well, there must be something I—”
“We need supplies, Winona,” Logan interrupted. “That’s what we need. We need more wood, and rawhide, and pitch, and turpentine. Those things cost money—money we won’t have until we sell some more of those blasted cattle.”
Jay frowned at Logan’s veiled jibe but didn’t respond.
Winona tried to change the subject. “Jay, I heard one of the cows is nearly ready to give birth.”
Jay sighed and said, “Yes, we’re expecting to deliver tomorrow morning.”
“Well, that’s exciting! The first calf born on Foley Ranch. You must feel so proud!”
He shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. We’re just a horse ranch after all.” Logan’s jaw tightened as Jay continued. “Who cares about a lousy calf?”
This was getting nowhere. Winona grew more and more frustrated with Jay and Logan with each passing minute. She wanted nothing more than to scold them for their childishness, but now wasn’t the time. She needed this to be a happy meal. She needed to have a good memory as part of this family.
She turned to Gregory. Maybe she would get lucky, and he would consider her worth more than a token few seconds of his time. “Gregory, I saw you reading in the study the other day. What are you reading?”
“Poetry.”
“Oh! I love poetry. Who were you reading?”
“Tennyson.”
“I love Lord Tennyson!” she exclaimed. “I must have read ‘Ulysses’ a hundred times as a girl. How are you enjoying it?”
He shrugged. “It’s all right.”
She stared at him—her smile entirely forced by that point. She’d never known anyone so intent on avoiding human connection as these three brothers were. How foolish she was to think she could grow closer to this family over a dinner. They were barely a family to begin with.
She was pulled from her thoughts by the sound of Jay’s chair scraping on the floor. He stood and headed for the door. “Where are you going?” she asked. “You haven’t touched your brisket.”
“I can’t eat that,” he said. “I’m going to town for a proper meal.”
Winona felt as though a knife were driven into her gut. She leaned back in her chair, stunned speechless. Logan and Gregory stared at Jay in shock. “Get back here!” Logan shouted after Jay. “Apologize to Winona!” Nice of Logan to think of her now that thinking of her gave him an excuse to fight with Jay. Jay ignored Logan and a moment later, she heard the front door slam behind him.
Gregory laughed nervously. “Don’t take it to heart, Winona,” he said. “Jay’s still got his milk teeth. He can’t quite manage to chew meat yet, so he gets frustrated and um … storms off.” Gregory’s voice trailed off as he realized his joke wasn’t remotely funny or remotely helpful. He stared at his plate and swallowed anxiously.
“Don’t worry, Winona,” Logan said. “When he gets back, I’ll tan his hide for this. He’s got no call to talk to you that way. I’ll—”
“Leave it, Logan,” Winona snapped. “Dinner’s ruined anyway.” She stood so quickly her chair fell to the floor behind her. She left it where it fell and stormed off to her room. When she arrived, she fell face-first onto the bed and sobbed bitterly.