Ryder (Prairie Grooms, Book Two) by Kit Morgan Read Free Book Online

Too bad she coughed all night and he didn’t get a chance to taste her. But the kiss they’d shared was beyond what even he had imagined, and he couldn’t wait to kiss her again. As soon as she was over her cold that is, he couldn’t afford to get sick.
    He’d held her all night upon his rickety cot, and realizing there was barely room for the two of them, decided he’d better see about building a proper bed.  He began to make a mental list of all the things that needed tending to.  Obtain a wagon, build a bed, put in windows, finish the roof, and he supposed he’d better get his hands on some pots and pans.  He only had a frying pan and a coffee pot.  They’d served him well this last year, but would never do for Constance.
    There was just one problem.  He didn’t have any money. None that he wanted to part with anyway. Othello needed to be kept in prime condition if he was going to use him as a stud horse.  In fact, Mr. White might be coming by today to take a look at him. Good Lord! How could he have forgotten?
    He studied the horse as he munched hay in his stall. “You sure are causing me trouble. I hope my new wife understands.” He shook his head and tossed hay into Banjo’s stall. He’d gotten up early to tend to the morning chores, careful not to waken his wife, especially after the rough night she had.  She’d slept in her clothes, which was fine. He wasn’t about to consummate their marriage while she was sick and hoped the incredible kiss they shared didn’t make him that way. But she’d caught a chill, and not anything contagious. He hoped.
    “Have a nice night?”
    Ryder jumped. He’d forgotten all about Cutty. “I slept if that’s what ya mean.”
    “That ain’t what I mean and you know it.”
    “A real man doesn’t discuss those things. That’s private.”
    “I meant no disrespect, boy. You’re married, you do what you want with your wife.  But you ain’t exactly prepared to have babies.”
    Ryder turned to him. Cutty was leaning against a pitchfork with a sloppy grin on his face. “What do you mean by that?”
    “Look around you, boy. Ya ain’t got a decent house for a woman the likes of her let alone a passel of youngins’.”
    Ryder blew out a long breath. Cutty was right. If Constance were to become pregnant, how was he going to provide? It could take a year before he had enough money to build a house like August’s, and that’s what she wanted. A quaint, charming little farmhouse to raise their children in. He looked Cutty in the eye. “I will have. I’ll just have to … er …”
    “Be careful,” Cutty finished for him with a smirk. He set the pitchfork against a post. “What sort of work you need done?”
    “More than I can pay ya for my friend.”
    Cutty ran a hand through his hair then stroked his long beard. “Tell ya what, I’ll work for half price today.”
    “I have lots of work that needs to be done, but don’t have the materials to do it. I’ll have to go to town.”
    “Oh, I don’t fancy a ride into town. Why don’t I stay here and you can go?”
    Ryder’s gut twisted for some reason, and he glanced to the barn doors. “You do that, Constance and I will go to town.”
    “Now don’t make the lady ride into town when she’s feelin’ so poorly. Wouldn’t be right. I can look after her while you’re gone.”
    “No, best she go with me, I can have Doc Drake or Doc Waller take a look at her, maybe give her something.”
    “Pah, doctors. What do they know?”
    Ryder chuckled. “More than you or I. Now if ya want to work today, ya can clean up the barnyard, feed the chickens and gather the eggs. I’m gonna go fix some breakfast.”
    “Ain’t that your wife’s job?”
    “She’s not feelin’ well,” he said. Not to mention she couldn’t fry an egg if her life depended on it.  At least he assumed as much from what he’d heard August say about Penelope. But if August could teach his wife how to cook, then Ryder could surely teach