Page 68 of Mail-Order Brides Wishes
He caught her hand and chuckled softly.
In front of them, Jayce and Addie grinned at each other, and he reached for her hand.
Flint thought often of that day. It seemed something special had happened although he couldn’t say what. Was it that she’d been open in public about how she felt about him? That she cared and didn’t mind who knew it? It was a good feeling.
He and Jayce had been busy. They cut hay and piled it in stacks for winter use. The oats they grew to feed the horses weren’t ready yet, so they brought in firewood, cutting it and stacking it in the shed Mr. Roe had built. Not for the first time, he thanked the man for the work he’d done on the place. As they unloaded logs, Flint’s gaze went to the little graveyard on the hill. The man had been broken after his family died. He had nothing but sympathy for the man. But he was grateful he and Jayce had been the ones to benefit from Mr. Roe’s hard work. His gaze shifted to his own house. He couldn’t imagine life without Bryn and Susie.
“Storm coming.” Jayce’s worried tone jerked Flint’s attention to his surroundings. The wind carried an icy touch. Thunderheads built up over the mountains. “Hope we don’t get hail. Wouldn’t want to see our oats flattened.”
They considered the black clouds for a second then returned to their work, unloading the logs in record time, then they took the horses to the barn and unhitched them. Already, thunder rolled down the hills, distant as drumbeats several miles away.
He hurried to the house. “Rain coming.” A cold wind followed him inside.
Susie held Kitty. Bryn stared out the west window. Her arms were wrapped around her. Her hands fisted into the material at her sides.
“I thought you liked rain.” She’d been happy to see the rains that brought plants through the soil in her garden.
“I do.” Her shoulders rose and fell as if she sighed. She turned. “Would you like coffee?” The darkness in her eyes was deeper than their natural color.
Maybe having something to do would calm her. “Coffee sounds good. You got any cookies?”
A laugh drove away the darkness from her eyes. “Don’t I always?”
“Seems so.” Ever since she’d learned he liked to dunk cookies in his coffee.
When she brought him a cup of hot brew, he caught her hand and held her at his side. “Thanks. You’re good to me.”
She patted his shoulder. At the same time, distant thunder rolled down the hills and she stood back, her hands knotted, her gaze out the window. “It’s getting awfully dark.”
“Yup.” His eyes narrowed as he watched her.
Lightning flashed. She winced. And laughed but not with a happy sound.
More thunder sounded.
The lightning came faster. Thunder rolled louder. Rain pounded on the roof.
Bryn rubbed her upper arms and shuddered.
Pushing aside his coffee, leaving cookies uneaten, Flint got to his feet and went to her side but when he touched her, she jerked.
He dropped his hand. A flash of lightning filled the land with silver light. Then darkness was as thick as the blackest of nights. Followed in a second by thunder that shook the house and hurt his ears.
Bryn whimpered.
“Are ya afraid of thunder?” he asked.
She rocked her head back and forth. Stared with eyes so big he wondered if she’d ever be able to close them again. A squeak left her mouth. “It was a storm like this that caused Rowena’s death.”
Had he heard those whispered words correctly? Rowena? It wasn’t a common name, but it surely couldn’t be the same Rowena he’d known.
“Did you say Rowena?” He heard the harshness of his words.
Bryn didn’t move. He couldn’t even say if she’d heard him, so he repeated his question.
Slowly she turned his eyes toward him and gave one tip of her head to indicate yes.
“What was her last name?” His Rowena had gone back east to marry. “Before she married.”
