Free Linda Ford by The Cowboy's Surprise Bride Page A

if he would return. When it appeared he wouldn’t, they waited for the feeling of his presence to depart.
    Grady slowly unraveled himself from Linette’s skirts and edged toward the pieces of wood and rocks Eddie had given him. He sat down and sorted them. Soon he played happily, talking to himself. Perhaps before long, Linette thought, the time would come when Grady would again be a happy little boy.
    Cassie grunted. Discontent seemed her constant companion.
    Linette strove to keep it from affecting her own thoughts, which had been caught in a maelstrom since she practically set the place on fire. Eddie had saved them from a disaster, but the incident had done little to further her quest to prove he needed her.
    “I can’t imagine how we are going to survive a winter crammed together like this,” Cassie said.
    Linette shook off her worries and looked about. “It’s really quite comfortable.” She could point out that Eddie had the most reason to feel displaced, but Cassie was still too buried in her own grief to see past it. “Let’s fix it up a little.” Hopefully Eddie wouldn’t mind.
    “About the only thing that could improve this place is a fire.”
    “Don’t even say that.” Linette shuddered. “We came too close to knowing what it would be like.” Thankfully, Eddie had reacted calmly when the pan caught fire. She pressed the back of her burned hand. He had taken care of her in a gentle way that brought a strange tightening in her throat. Even now there was a little jump in her heart rate at the memory. She dismissed her errant thoughts and emotions. She wanted only one thing: a businesslike marriage. No emotional involvement that would rob her of her ability to make choices and decisions on her own. “Where would we live? Out in the cold?”
    “There’s the big house.”
    Yes, there was the big house. Somehow she doubted Eddie would invite them to share it with him.
    “Seems strange to me that he doesn’t suggest we all live there.”
    “It’s obviously not finished.” She looked out the window toward the big structure. Snow obscured it, but she remembered the stark bareness of the windows. He’d built it for a special woman. He still hoped Margaret would change her mind and grace his big house with her refined presence. She wouldn’t tell him Margaret had been relieved to let Linette take her place. It had been her idea, not Linette’s as he seemed to think. She shrugged. God had given her a few months in which to prove her worth to Eddie and she meant to make the most of every minute. “I’m happy for a warm place out of the elements. Come help me.” She led the way to the bedroom and knelt before one trunk. “I brought some belongings from home.”
    Cassie sank to the edge of the bed. “I expected things to be different.”
    Linette had, too. “We’ll make the best of it.” She pulled out two pictures and a quilt Tilly and the maids had made for her. “These will brighten the place.”
    Cassie trailed after her as they returned to the main room. Eddie had left the hammer and nails behind and she used those to hang the pictures. She draped the quilt over one chair. “Isn’t that better?”
    Cassie shrugged.
    Linette refused to let the woman’s indifference dampen her resolve. Brightening up the place was step number one in her plan to make Eddie see her as a beneficial addition to his life. “Cassie, you must know how to prepare meals.”
    “You just take the food and cook it.”
    “Cassie, I don’t know whether to fry it, bake it or boil it. I didn’t even know what to do with the bacon besides burn it to charcoal.”
    The other woman shrugged. “You do now.”
    Linette wanted to shake her. “Cassie, if I don’t prove myself capable, Eddie will have no reason to ask me to stay.” She fought the tightness in her jaw that made it difficult to speak. “I simply cannot return to London and marry Lyle Williamson. Will you help me or not?”
    Cassie again shrugged. “I