B00BWX9H30 EBOK by Cynthia Woolf Page B

skillets on the stove filled with bacon and sausage. After that she poured herself a cup of the coffee Martha made and started on the first batch of biscuits. Feeding fifteen hungry cowboys was a lot of work and when that was done there was still housework to do.
    Except for some light cooking all of these were things she’d never done until now. She’d had maids and cooks for all of her twenty-four years. Her old nursemaid, Bridget, had taken care of her after the accident. That had been the hardest thing to do, saying goodbye to Bridget.
    She’d thought of bringing her along, but didn’t want to subject the elderly woman to the hardships of the trip. It was for the best all around. Bridget would have tried to do all the work and Ella would have learned nothing.
    In these last two months, her whole life had changed. She had a husband, a home of her own, not her father’s or her brother’s, but hers. She was going to have a baby soon, well in seven months, but that was soon enough. She’d have someone she could love unconditionally and who would love her back. Maybe when she gave Nathan a child he would fall in love with her, too. She knew she’d already fallen in love with her husband. He was strong yet kind and intelligent. He treated her gently. A powerful combination. He was all man. The best kind of man.

 
    CHAPTER 6
     
    Laundry day. The worst day of the week as far as Ella was concerned. She hated standing over the wash tub and stirring the clothes in boiling water with the long wooden paddle. Even when the water got cool enough for her to put her hands in, the harsh lye soap still ate at them. They were no longer the lily white, soft appendages she’d arrived in Golden City with. Now, more often than not, they were red and chapped and sometimes hurt like hell.
    She chastised herself for her language. That was another thing she’d learned. How to cuss. Martha was good at it, her language often very colorful. Nathan tended to watch his language in front of her, but she heard him, when he didn’t think she could hear, cuss a blue streak more than once. Usually over something that one of the cowboys did. He never disciplined them in front of the other men, but they heard about whatever it was in private.
    Laundry was almost done. All she had to do was hang it. She put it in the basket and carried it to the clothes line. She started to put the basket down when she saw it. A snake coiled right in front of her. She stopped, but not soon enough. It struck and caught her on the leg above her ankle.
    She dropped the laundry basket. It landed on the snake, blocking it from striking again. “Nathan!”
    Martha heard her and came running. “What in the world is wrong?”
    Ella walked to her. “I got bit by a snake. Get Nathan. Hurry.”
    She sat down on the porch steps and waited for what seemed like an eternity. Knowing that with every heartbeat the poison pushed its deadly way through her system. Her leg hurt like the dickens.
    Nathan came running with Martha far behind. His long legs ate up the distance between the barn and the house.
    “Ella. Honey. Show me the bite.”
    She lifted her dress. There were two distinct marks on her leg.
    “We have to get the poison out.” He took his knife and cut across the two bites. Then he put his mouth on her and sucked. He spit the blood out and repeated the procedure. “I know that some of the poison is still in your system, but you’re going to be fine.”
    Ella nodded. “I don’t feel well, Nathan. I’m scared.”
    He picked her up and carried her to the bedroom. There he undressed her and put her in her nightgown. “I’ll get you some water. I sent one of the boys for the doctor.”
    Ella closed her eyes and the tears began to fall. “I’m going to die aren’t I?”
    “No. You’re not. Snake bites aren’t usually fatal, but you’re going to be very sick for awhile. I’ll get you some water. You just lie here and rest.”
    “Nathan. I don’t want to