Free A Ransomed Heart by Alex Taylor Wolfe Page A

his face with his hands. Wearily his hand found the nearly empty bottle and poured the remainder of the contents in his cup.  The ice had melted and watered down the liquor a bit.  It didn’t burn as badly this time, but it didn’t matter, he gasped and let the warm liquid slip down into his belly.  He closed his eyes and drew a deep breath.  His blond head bobbed a bit and his chin rested against his chest.  All he could see in his mind were blue eyes, those of a beautiful woman, and her blue-eyed little boy.

Chapter 8
     
    Annabelle had quickly moved to helping Mama set the table and get the food on.  It felt good to be doing something productive and it helped to ease her anxiety.  It also made her think about her family and how they needed her at this time.  It was frustrating to be stuck here when she should be helping them.  Pushing those memories away she focused on the next two days.  Tomorrow she would ready herself again to meet Mr. Sevier, and then the day after she would be gone, gone from Mama, gone from Hope, and gone from Logan.
    The thought should have comforted her, but strangely, as she looked around the neat room, she felt sad.  She had left her own home and found herself here, in this warm place with this wonderful woman; she could only hope the home she was going to would be as welcoming.  The floor was cool on her bare feet and it made her feel down to earth and part of the world, making a difference.  She wondered if being a rich man’s wife would give her the same feelings, or if she would feel lonely without the earth and people who needed her.  Shrugging her shoulders she could only wonder.
    From the doorway Logan’s sweet whistling could be heard.  A few moments later Kit and Tyler came tumbling into the room, washing their hands and face in the wash basin.  Next they headed up the ladder and disappeared into the dark cavern in the ceiling. Annabelle looked questioningly at Mama.
    “I make them change their shirts before supper; we should look nice for each other.” She winked her eye at Annabelle and set a plate of hot rolls on the table.
    Annabelle looked down at her own wrinkled outfit and wondered how she appeared.  She excused herself for a moment and went back into the bedroom and looked herself over in the glass.  Her face was red, especially her little nose; she touched it and felt a jab of pain, it was definitely burned.  She would need to apply more aloe to it later.  Next she tried to pull her fingers though her hair.  The wind had wreaked havoc on the braid, along with her nap and it would take some fiddling with before it would look decent.  She could hear the men upstairs and knew she had little time.
    Undoing the knot of fabric she had at the bottom of the braid she ran her hands through it and straightened it out a bit. Next she gathered up the mass in her hand and pulled it back tightly against her head.  With one hand she held it while the other removed the fabric from between her teeth.  Pulling hard she caught it up into a ponytail at the top of her head.  Looping the long tail under, she wrapped the fabric around again and tucked it under making a large but smooth loop of hair.  It would have to do.  She opted out of pinching her cheeks for some color, the burn did that for her and she practiced a smile.  Without a change of clothes she would just need to be happy with the outcome.  She hurried out of the room just as Logan’s boot hit the first wrung of the ladder. 
    The table was a small rectangle and each of the occupants got their own side.  Mama and Kit at the long end of the table, Logan took the head seat which left Annabelle at the foot , across from her captor.  Annabelle found it strange that Logan sat in the head of household position instead of Kit, the only living male of the Kittlinger family. The men let the ladies sit first and then slid their chairs in and clapped their hands in front of them.  Logan gave a brief blessing