Free Mail Order Cowboy (Love Inspired Historical) by Laurie Kingery Page B

fall.’”
    â€œYou think we should allow the town to build us something we won’t be able to pay for ’til only God knows when?” Milly asked, still with spirit, but Nickheard the tiniest note of doubt creep into her voice. “We’d never live it down—Bill Waters would see to that!”
    â€œOh, what do you care what that feller says?” Josh retorted. “He always seems t’have the ammunition to shoot off his mouth, but when he needed your ma to help him take care a his sick wife, he was glad to let her do that, and your pa lent him his prize bull fer his heifers whenever he asked. Ever’body needs help sometime, Miss Milly. You git back on yer feet, you kin help somebody else.”
    Milly sighed. “I…I suppose you’re right, as always, Josh. Thank you.”
    â€œAnytime,” the old man said. “Is that beans and corn bread cookin’ on the stove, Miss Sarah? It’s ’bout time fer dinner, ain’t it?”
    â€œYes, and the beans are flavored with the last of the ham,” Sarah said. “Milly, would you please go ring the bell to call Bobby in? I think he was out there cleaning out the chicken coop.”

Chapter Eight
    A fter the noon meal, Nick and Bobby went out to repair the fence line where the Matthews ranch bordered with Waters’s land. Milly busied herself with finishing the wash, while Sarah took down the clothes that had dried, then hung up the newly washed shirts, dresses and sheets as Milly finished scrubbing them.
    As they worked, Sarah chattered happily. “I think I’ll make pecan pies for the barn raising, Milly. We still have enough pecans from last year. You know how my pecan pies always go quickly at church suppers. Even Mrs. Detwiler praised them at the last one. It’s a good thing Mama planted those pecans she brought with her from East Texas when she and Papa moved here, isn’t it?” She gestured up at the trees that shaded them now, with their boughs full of ripening pecans.
    â€œYes,” agreed Milly. “We better hope there’s a good crop of them this fall because it may be one of the few things we have to eat. I can’t imagine how we’re going to keep the men fed without slaughtering the remaining cattle and hens—and then how will we build up the herdand the flock again? We can’t serve the men beans and corn bread every single noon and night.”
    Sarah’s expression remained serene. “‘Take no thought of what ye shall eat, and what ye shall drink, for your Heavenly Father knows you have need of these things’—isn’t that what the Bible says?”
    â€œYes, but—”
    â€œWe have a vegetable garden.” Sarah pointed in the direction of the rectangular patch in the back of the house. “It wasn’t too badly trampled during the attack, and I’ve planted some more peas and beans. Bobby and Nick can help bring in meat. Remember how Papa would hunt deer every now and then, and rabbits and doves? I’m sure Bobby would just love an excuse to go tramping around in the hills and fields instead of doing ranch chores, and I reckon your Nick is a crack shot, too, from being in the army.”
    â€œHe’s not ‘my’ Nick,” Milly said automatically, but her sister just laughed. “I think he thinks he is,” Sarah countered. “I just happened to be looking out of the kitchen window when he brought you those flowers. You had your back to me, but I could see his expression. His heart was in his eyes, sister dear.”
    Milly let the chemise she’d been washing sink back into the bucket of rinse water. “Sarah, he and I’ve been acquainted for what, three days? He couldn’t possibly know his heart or mind in that amount of time. Just look at me,” she said, with a despairing gesture at her damp, worn dress and the loose tendrils of hair that had come undone from the