Midnight Sun (Sinclair Sisters) Read Online Free Page A

she’d be warm. They wandered into the single bedroom, which was furnished with an old iron bed with sagging box springs but no mattress, a rickety wooden dresser, and two homemade bedside tables. As the ad had boasted, there was indeed a bathroom with indoor plumbing —a claw foot tub with a makeshift shower above it, a sink, and tank-overhead, flush toilet. But the toilet was stopped up and no water came out of the shower when Charity turned it on.
    She sank down on the lid of the toilet and gave in to a sigh of despair. “I thought it would at least be livable.”
    “Will be. Soon as we get it cleaned up. This used to be a real nice place. Won’t take much to make it that way again.”
    Charity looked over at Maude, saw the determined set of her jaw, and took heart from the older woman’s words. She had come here seeking adventure. She was hardly going to let a little thing like a dirty house get her down.
    “You’re right.” She stood up from the commode. “We’ll put it back in shape. It’ll just take a little more time than I expected.” And money, but she left that part out. “Once we get it cleaned up enough to live in, I’ll go back into town and hire workmen to make the necessary repairs.”
    Maude smiled her approval. “Electric works real good. Mose put that in just a couple years ago.”
    The power ran off a generator, Charity discovered, which was turned on each morning and evening. It seemed to be the only thing working in the house.
    “I’ll bring in the cleaning supplies,” she volunteered, beginning to get into the spirit. “We might as well get started.”
    Maude helped her unload the Explorer and the two of them set to work. If Charity had any doubts as to whether or not a woman Maude’s age could handle the grueling job of scrubbing walls and floors, cleaning out the fireplace, dusting cobwebs, and hauling trash, it didn’t take long to squelch them. Maude Foote had more energy than most women half her years. There were times Charity would have rested, but Maude’s boundless energy kept her working.
    “We’ll burn the trash in the morning,” Maude said. “There’s some rotten food in it and we don’t want to attract any bears.”
    Her head came up. “Bears?”
    “Don’t worry, most the time they’re more afraid of you than you are of them.”
    Most the time?
    Charity shoved the disturbing thought away and continued filling the old tin bucket she had found, with ashes from the fireplace. By the end of that first day, when Maude climbed into her battered blue truck to make the short drive to her house down the hill, the kitchen was spotless, the cupboards cleaned out, the dishes all washed and put away. The fireplace held a cheery blaze made from the last of a stack of wood they had found in one of the sheds, the pellet stove was lit and hopefully would keep the house warm through the night, and Maude had helped her rig slats to prop up the sagging box springs.
    She was grateful for the air mattress but even without it, as tired as she was, Charity had no doubt she’d be able to sleep. The bad news was, until she got the plumbing repaired she would have to use the outhouse.
    Just part of the adventure, she told herself, never having had the dubious pleasure. She thought of the bears Maude had mentioned, thought of having to go outside in the middle of the night, and set the glass of water she had been drinking back down on the rickety table next to the bed.

CHAPTER THREE
     
    At the pounding on the door, Charity’s eyes cracked open. Her little travel alarm clock said it was only 6:00 A.M. Groaning, she tossed back the covers. She had thought it would be cold when she got up, but the pellet stove had done its job, thank God, and the house was still fairly warm. Charity pulled on her thick terry cloth robe and stumbled toward the door.
    Maude Foote stood on the porch, she saw when she peeked through the grime they hadn’t yet washed off the living room windows. Charity