The Brides of Chance Collection by Cathy Marie Hake, Kelly Eileen Hake, Tracey V. Bateman Read Free Book Online

feel clammy. He hoped she wouldn’t catch a chill from wearing it. Overall, the dress didn’t exactly cling to her, but a man would have to be dead and buried not to notice the way every last inch of the cloth accentuated a very feminine shape. Miriam seemingly ignored her uncomfortable clothing and diligently worked over a few pots.
    She lifted a lid on something, and Gideon’s mouth watered. One of his brothers didn’t even bother to muffle his groan. When she started to dish servings onto a plate, Gideon stated, “Don’t make so much work for yourself, Miss Miriam. Just stick the pots on the table. We’ll serve ourselves.”
    She set aside that plate. Without a word, she did as he bade. His other brothers filed in and sniffed the air apprecitively. “Whatever you whipped up, it sure does make a feller’s nose take notice,” Bryce said.
    Miriam shot him a wobbly smile. Gideon sat and swept Polly into his lap. “Bet you’re a hungry little bear today.”
    “Uh-huh. She maded ’tatoes.”
    Logan chuckled. “Now you’ve done it, Miss Miriam. You made a friend for life. Polly loves taters.”
    All of the men sat and started to fill their plates. Miriam stayed at the stove and cut the food on the plate she’d already dished up. One place at the table remained conspicuously vacant. Titus said in a slightly too jovial tone, “Come sit here with us, Miss Miriam.”
    Gideon’s fork was halfway to Polly’s mouth when Miriam shook her head. Polly grabbed for the bite. Miriam poured a bit of gravy on her plate, then set the gravy boat in the center of the table. She gently swept Virginia Mae from Bryce’s hold and claimed the plate from the stove.
    “Aw, I can feed her. We’re all pretty fair hands at that kind of stuff,” Bryce said.
    “I’m sure you are.” Miriam’s gaze swept across the already decimated pots, bowls, and half-cleared plates. Her features went taut. A soundless sigh heaved her bosom, and she left. Gideon scowled. “Hey. Come back here.”
    Her voice drifted over her shoulder: “Ginny Mae’s wet.”
    In no time at all, the brothers finished off every last speck of food. Daniel hadn’t gotten to eat, but if he didn’t bother to show up, he had no call to bellyache. Food this good deserved to be appreciated down to the last bite. They’d eaten real loaf bread for the first time in ages. Normally they ate either sticky or rock-hard biscuits. She must have kneaded the loaves before she came out to the garden.
    “She set beans to soak,” Bryce reported. “Think she’ll sweeten them and add in ham or bacon?”
    “I reckon whatever she does,” Titus said as he sopped up the gravy with the last crust of his bread, “it’ll be better than anything we’ve had in a coon’s age.”
    Logan sighed appreciatively. “She sure can cook.”
    “Yeah, well, quit mooning over the vittles and get back to work. Logan, you take the buckboard to town and fetch Miss Miriam’s trunks. If I so much as catch a whiff of beer or whiskey on you when you get home, I’ll tan your hide so you can’t sit ’til Christmas.”
    Titus pumped a bucket of water and dumped the plates into it. He took Polly and said, “I reckon it’s best we keep the girls to their naps. I’ll go tuck this little one in and bring back Miss Miriam’s plate.”
    By the time Titus returned, Paul, Logan, and Bryce were long gone. Gideon moved the bucket with the trout onto the table and hoped Miriam would pan-fry them for supper. He had a hankering for a nicely turned hunk of trout. Titus interrupted his longings. “She fed Ginny and was singing her off to sleep.”
    “How did Polly do?”
    “Much as she don’t cotton to strangers, she truly does head straight to Miss Miriam for a pat or a smile. I told her they both nap a good while this time of the day.”
    “I hope she naps, too.”
    “I don’t much think so. She asked me where Hannah’s grave was.”
    Gideon grimaced.
    “I think you’d best leave her alone. She