Free Adela's Prairie Suitor (The Annex Mail-Order Brides Book 1) by Elaine Manders

Byron should have gone with them, but he volunteered to help Ma with the dishes.
    “Did you go by the bank?” Ma asked, handing him a cleaned plate to dry off.
    “No need. I know how much is in there.”
    Ma grunted like she often did when she disagreed. “You may have to sell those two heifers.”
    “They’re both pregnant. I’d like to wait until they drop.” Selling the heifers wouldn’t help much anyway. He’d have to sell some land, looked like.
    “I’ve put by a little pin money, but with winter coming, that won’t last. If we don’t come up with that bank note, you won’t have a house to put a bride in—no place for us either.”
    He gave her shoulder a pat. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll figure out something. We should have a good crop next year. I might be able to extend the loan.”
    She smiled and handed him another plate. “I know you will.”
    “Ma, will you do me a favor?”
    “Sure, what?”
    “Be a little more welcoming to Adela. She wants to help out, and you’re giving her the cold shoulder.”
    Ma huffed. “I thought she’d want to take her leisure. Thought a lady like her would like to sit around and read.”
    “Well, I don’t think she’s like that. You saw how excited she was to have a dress to sew up. She wants to learn how to be a farmer’s wife, and there’s no one better to teach her than you.”
    Flattery usually worked on Ma, but not tonight. “Don’t know that I can, when I think you’re making a mistake.”
    He clenched his jaw and had a ready retort, but she caught him off guard. “All right. I’m not going to fight it. I’ll be canning tomorrow, so she can help with that.”
    It was a small victory, but he’d take it. “Thanks, Ma. It’s still light out. Why don’t you join us in the parlor for a spell? You need to get to know Adela better.”
    They found Adela sitting on the sofa by the window with her needle and thread flying. Byron sat beside her and Ma went to her rocker.
    “Sure is bright today.” Byron craned his neck to look out the window. Something was different. He got up and walked past Adela to inspect the window more carefully. “Ma, did you wash the windows?”
    Adela looked up from her sewing. “I did that this morning. I washed them inside and out. Don’t they sparkle?”
    “I’ll say.” He dropped the curtains and jerked around. Curtains? What curtains? “Where’d the curtains come from?”
    Adela sent a fugitive glance to Ma before answering. “I bought them in town this afternoon. I hope you don’t mind.”
    “I don’t mind,” Byron said, trying to put as much approval in his voice as possible. “You washed the windows outside, too? How did you get up there?”
    “I borrowed the ladder—oh, I put it back against the barn wall.”
    “That’s all right. Windows look like new, don’t they Ma?”
    Ma didn’t even take her gaze away from her embroidery. “I noticed earlier. Yes, they look very good. Thank you, Miss Mason, but it wasn’t called for. Hilda Jane and I have been making velvet drapes for winter. That’s why I took the old curtains down, so’s I’d have the pattern.” She raised up in her chair and looked, not at the windows, but around the room. “Where is my sewing basket? Have you seen it, Byron?”
    “No, ma’am.”
    Adela sprang to her feet. “I put it over here.” She went to the bureau and bent down beside it, coming back up with the lattice basket. “Is this it?”
    Ma shoved herself to a standing position. “That’s it. Where is my Ladies Journal ? Where is the Bible?”
    “I put them inside here.” Adela opened the door to the cabinet and retrieved the magazine and Bible.
    Ma strode to the bureau, her eyes wide. “What happened to my bureau, the one my grandma gave me on my wedding?” As if there could be another bureau in the room.
    Byron ran his fingers over the surface. “It looks the same to me.”
    “Well, not to me it doesn’t,” Ma said. “It’s dull, like it’s aged