The Widows Choice Read Online Free Page B

helping air out the overheated kitchen. She glanced once again outside.  The sun's setting always gave a beautiful glow to the valley.
    "I hope they are trustworthy.  Joe sure seems to like them." Charlie wasn't convinced Jessup Winfrow didn't send the two men to sabotage her efforts and spy on her.  The man was evil enough to do something like that.  Hire men to work for her and undermine what work needed to be done.  It seemed convenient that only days after Joe went to town to look for help, the two appeared.
    It made her suspicious, they did not negotiate at all on the wages, seeming to be more interested in room and board.  Something was off.
    During supper, days earlier, she'd overheard Jerrick ask about her family and husband.  But when Joe had not replied in full, they'd not asked anything further.  Could it be because they already knew the answer?
    There was too much on the line right now.  It would be the perfect time for the underhanded man to plan something against her.  It was uncanny how he seemed to know everything that went on at Horseshoe, more than he should, had spies everywhere when it came to her property and her.
    If the cattle sale the following month did not go through for whatever reason, Winfrow would swoop in and buy them, just to prove a point.  To hold something over her and she'd owe him.  There was no way she could survive the winter without the money. 
    He'd already asked about buying them for a lower price than she had arranged with the buyer.  He claimed he'd have to turn around and sell them himself and would barely turn a profit.  Charlie closed her eyes, tired of having to devote so much thinking and effort to Winfrow. If only he'd leave her be.  Find someone else to torment.
    Yes, it would have been easier to sell the cattle to him and be done with it, but she didn't trust the man enough to go into business with him. Besides she had a buyer of her own.  And it was more than Winfrow offered her, and yes, it was still not as much as her husband would have negotiated for, but enough that she'd not have to worry about maintaining her ranch for the next year.
    A month earlier, Winfrow had been enraged when she'd turned down his marriage offer, stating she'd run Horseshoe ranch into the ground without a husband. Jessup Winfrow's cruel streak was well known.
    She'd heard rumblings of how he mistreated his workers and rarely had a kind word for anyone.  The man was both admired and feared in town.  But she refused to back down. Somehow she'd make it on her own, she had no immediate need of a husband.
    She'd been married to a gentle and honest man; Daniel Kennedy was a good man who'd cared for her and she for him.  Their relationship had not blossomed to a love or passion, but she'd been content and well provided for.  Her life was predictable, yet comfortable, never needing for anything.  Then one day it all changed.  Daniel was thrown by his horse and hit head first into a pile of rocks.  He'd died instantly and she'd been left alone with all that had been his.
    Mary Ellen looked to her.  "You have the melancholy look about you.  Missing my brother?"
    "He was so kind and gentle.  Caring to a fault," Charlie replied with a soft smile.  "All I could hope for when leaving my home was getting away from that old man my parents insisted I marry.  Never expected to be blessed by marrying a man like Daniel."
    Mary Ellen laughed.  "Although he did have his faults.  The man loved the outdoors."
    "Spent more time out on the trail than home.  He never understood why I complained about the countless days he was on drives and such.  It was a blessing when you came to live with me.  Saving me from loneliness and boredom."  She patted Mary Ellen's hand.  "As much as I cared for Daniel, his quiet ways were a bit annoying."
    "Yes, it was hard to hold a conversation when his only responses were one word at a time."
    They both became silent lost in their memories of Daniel