Lacy Williams by Roping the Wrangler Read Free Book Online

had been taken in. Even from afar, she could see the dilapidated condition of the cabin. Outside, a broken clothesline hung down to the ground and debris littered the yard.
    But someone was singing.
    A rich baritone voice filled the afternoon, lifting in a familiar hymn. It slowly faded and as Sarah approached the cabin, rose again.
    As she neared the place, she saw Cecilia and Susie sitting on the worn plank porch, legs swinging beneath their skirts. She moved to join them, and that’s when she saw him.
    Oscar White, with a bundle of some sort strapped around his broad chest, working a horse and plow. Singing.
    He had a nice voice, soothing and even.
    “What is going on?” she asked the girls as she stepped up onto the porch.
    “The horseman is here,” Susie said in an awed voice.
    Cecilia glared over her shoulder at Sarah. “You sent him.”
    “I did no such thing.” She wouldn’t have even if she’d thought of it. After he’d witnessed her dressing down by Mr. Allen, she’d only wanted to escape him. She didn’t even like the man.
    She never would have imagined he would come here on his own.
    “Where’s your fath—stepfather?”
    Both girls shrugged, faces turned back to watch the horseman wield the plow.
    Sarah took it upon herself to peer inside. The cabin was quiet. “Mr. Caldwell?”
    She moved through the open room, sniffing what smelled like stew. A line had been strung from one side of the kitchen into the open living and it was strung with diapers, sweet-smelling and white.
    Had the horseman really washed baby diapers?
    A glance at the stove did indeed reveal a bubbling pot of stew. The kitchen was clean, though the floor needed to be swept.
    The girls’ stepfather wasn’t indoors, and when Sarah slipped out the back door it was to see Oscar leading the now-unhitched horse to the barn.
    “Is Mr. Caldwell there?” she called out to him.
    He turned and saw her. Then he took off his hat and waved it at her. “I’ll be there in a minute!”
    The girls’ feet pounded inside; Sarah joined them in the kitchen, where they looked with wide eyes at the linens hanging above their heads.
    “I’ve got the horse settled for the evening,” Oscar said as he banged in the back door, backing inside. “Your pa left on the donkey a while ago.”
    Cecilia and Susie looked at each other, acknowledging they knew where he’d gone. Sarah’s heart pinched for them.
    Oscar turned around and Sarah realized that the bundle strapped around his wide chest was the baby. She hadn’t even thought about the tot, and he’d had the baby out with him while he’d plowed. Now he spoke softly to her while he unwrapped the makeshift sling—a bedsheet?
    Cecilia reached out for Velma when he’d gotten her out of the sling and he relinquished her with a final slurping raspberry on her cheek, to which she laughed.
    “Y’all don’t have to stay,” Cecilia said, moving toward the table. “Our pa will be home in a while. We can take care of supper for ourselves.”
    Sarah moved toward the girls, laying a hand on each of their shoulders. “Girls, is there anyone else who could possibly help you? Do you know if your mother’s parents are still alive? Did she have any siblings?” She’d already asked about family connections once, but perhaps the girls had kept something back from her before. Cecilia certainly had not been forthcoming about anything that was going on.
    Cecilia’s face went perfectly blank, but Susie’s features screwed up and she turned her face away.
    “There’s no one who wants us,” Cecilia said quietly.
    “What—” Sarah started to ask more, but Oscar caught her elbow and shook his head slightly.
    “Girls, I sampled the stew earlier and it should be about right. Can you serve yourselves?”
    They nodded. “Thanks, mister,” Cecilia whispered, surprising Sarah with her gratitude toward the man. She’d been nothing but difficult toward Sarah since the baby had appeared in the classroom.
    Oscar