Keeping Secrets Read Online Free Page A

on the porch, and let herself into the kitchen. This huge, commercial room was her work place; the room where large meals were planned, cooked, and served to the dozens of hungry ranch hands who worked for Richard Caldwell. Richard was a massive giant of a man with a voice that matched his size, never failing to give Sadie a start when he entered a room.
    This morning, there was no one in the kitchen.
    Hmm, that’s strange, Sadie thought.
    She sniffed the air. Biscuits baking. She turned to lift the lid on a large, cast-iron Dutch oven. Sausage on. She pulled on the stainless steel container that held the filter of coffee grounds and found it empty. No coffee made yet.
    “Dorothy?” Sadie called tentatively.
    There was no answer, the kitchen silent except for the hissing sausage in the Dutch oven.
    She bent to retrieve the coffee can and filters from the cupboard below. Measuring a half cup of coffee grounds into the white filter, she placed it into the container and slid it into place. She pushed the “START” button, happy to hear the usual gurgle accompanied by a whirring of sound.
    Where was Dorothy?
    Sadie walked to the basement door, opened it, and called Dorothy’s name again. She was just about to pull on the bathroom door handle when it flew open. A red-faced Dorothy stepped out, wiping her hands on two very wet, brown paper towels.
    “Sadie! Can’t ya give a person a rest? You just ‘Dorothy! Dorothy!’ all over this kitchen the minute you can’t find me! Can’t you just come in quiet-like and figger I’ll be around? When nature calls, I have to heed its voice. Can’t I get a moment’s peace in the bathroom? No!”
    “I’m sorry.”
    “Sorry ain’t gonna getcha nowhere. From now on, if’n you come to work and I ain’t around, nature has called, and I’m where I should be at such a time.”
    Sadie looked into the snapping blue eyes below hers, the round face red with exertion, the gray hair electric with fury, and burst out laughing. She laughed until she clung to the counter for support, until tears squeezed between her eyelids, until she gulped and giggled and hiccupped. She peeped at Dorothy sideways, and when she saw Dorothy was still huffy, sitting now on a kitchen chair and eyeing her testily, she laughed some more.
    “Ach, my. Oh, my.”
    Sadie straightened her back and grabbed a paper towel from the roll on the wall to wipe her eyes, apologizing as she did so.
    “Dorothy, I won’t do it again. I am truly sorry.”
    Dorothy slurped from her big mug of tea, licked her lips, and eyed Sadie levelly.
    “It ain’t funny. When you get to be my age, the constitution of your body is an important part of your life. I ain’t had my bran muffins in quite some time, an’ I’m plumb out o’ Metamucil. You know, I told Jim all week, when he gits to town, go to the Rite Aid and git me the biggest bottle of Metamucil that’s there. Does he? Does he remember? No siree, he don’t. So see what happens? I got to set in the bathroom and here she comes. ‘Dorothy. Dorothy. Dorothy!’ It’s enough to weary a person at this early mornin’ hour.”
    Sadie felt the waves of humor, the beginning of a wonderful, deep-down, belly laugh, but she turned to start another pot of coffee before Dorothy could see her shoulders shaking and her mighty struggle to stay straight-faced.
    The kitchen door swung open, and Jim strode purposefully up to Dorothy.
    “I’m goin’ to town. Ya want me to git ya anything? Boss needs some three-quarter-inch nails.”
    Sadie watched as Dorothy rose from her chair, all five feet of her. Her chest swelled to even greater proportions as she took a mighty breath. Sadie ducked her head at the coming tirade, watching as Dorothy’s eyes narrowed and her lips pursed.
    “Now, Mr. Sevarr, what would I possibly want from town? Isn’t a thing. Nary a thing.”
    “But … I recollect there was somethin’. Wasn’t there somethin’ at the beginnin’ of the week? Asprin or