Free The Shepherd's Daughter (Dry Bayou Brides Book 1) by Lynn Winchester Page B

up with the plan to try and be a refined, genteel lady.
    It was her fiery MacAdams spirit.
    “You’re right. I won’t need to go to Boston.” Ray found that she could smile for the first time in days. “When is this party?”
    *
    Ray sat at the table and winced as she arched her back to loosen the muscles that had bunched there. After her conversation with Tilly the day before, she had determined to spend today getting back into a normal routine and not think about Billy.
    So far, she’d done everything she’d planned. Woken up before sunrise, ate a quick breakfast with Ma, made sure the ewes were safe for the lambing, and rode out to all four pastures, even though she didn’t have to, to speak with the caporales to get the numbers for the upcoming count. She wasn’t in any hurry to finish her work. She had nowhere to be, at least not for another five days.
    Rebecca’s welcome party was at the end of the week. By then, she’d have a new dress to wear and would have worked up the nerve to do what needed to be done.
    She’d tell Billy she loved him, whether he felt the same or not. He needed to know and she needed to tell him. Because if he went through with his parents’ plan to get engaged to Rebecca, she already had her ticket to San Antonio on top of her bureau. From there, she would buy a train ticket to Boston, where she’d live with Tilly’s Aunt Mildred.
    Ray knew she was probably acting the coward by planning to run away. But she wanted to make sure if her heart was completely shattered, she could make a clean break by starting fresh in Boston.
    She snorted.
    Rebecca had come here to start fresh by marrying Billy and now Ray was moving back east to start fresh because Rebecca was marrying Billy. How ironic.
    “Hard day, eh?” Her ma came into the kitchen and headed straight for the pot of boiling water on the stove. “Supper will be done soon, why don’t ye go clean up? I don’t want sheep mess at my table.”
    Ray peered down at her boots and the hem of her skirt. “Sorry, Ma.”
    It took her longer than usual to clean up because every muscle in her body screamed in protest, but once she was seated back at the table, there was a plate piled with meat, potatoes, and crusty bread waiting for her.
    Her mom sat down across from her and Ray couldn’t help but notice that the usual third setting was missing. She’d have to ask her mom about that later, when she wasn’t already turned inside out by her broken heart.
    “I saw the ticket on yer bureau.” Her ma rarely minced words, so Ray knew this was coming. “Were ye gonna tell me ye were leavin’ or was I to find out the day after when ye didn’t come home from town?” Ray knew she deserved her mother’s disappointment.
    “I didn’t tell you because I don’t know if I’ll be usin’ it. It was a plan Tilly and I made. If Billy gets engaged to Rebecca, I’ll leave. Start a new life in Boston. You don’t need me here, not with Cousin Seamus coming in a few weeks. If Billy doesn’t get engaged to Rebecca, I’ll stick around, see if I can’t get him to fall in love with me.” She offered her ma a small smile, one filled with a smidgen of hope. “There’s a chance, you know. Who else besides me really knows him ? Knows what makes him happy, what makes him tick, what he loves to eat, where he loves to spend time—well, I know just about everythin’ there is to know about Willem Ducharme.”
    “Except whether he loves ye,” her ma pointed out, unnecessarily.
    Ray sat back and dropped her fork, suddenly not hungry. “Yeah, except that.”

Chapter Twelve

    “T onight’s the night I’m going to tell her,” Billy declared to no one as he stared at his reflection in the mirror hanging beside the front door of the ranch house.
    He was checking his appearance in preparation for the party his parents were throwing to welcome Rebecca to Dry Bayou. He wasn’t a fool, though. He knew their real purpose. He hated the idea of marrying her