Redemption

Chapter 19

Chapter 19

Jessie connected the corners of the sheet she was folding. Carby had washed everyone’s bedding earlier that morning before going out to plot a place for her garden, leaving a command for Jessie not to touch then before she returned.

However, they had dried and Jessie was determined to do something beside sit on her rear end all day, whether Carby liked it or not.

It wasn’t until she saw Carby’s head of white hair pass the window that she began to feel a twinge of regret for what she had done.

The front door opened just as Jessie was finishing folding the sheet.

“What do you think you’re doing, young lady?” Carby asked in a scolding tone.

“I’m folding the sheets. They dried quickly,” Jessie replied, trying to keep her voice as nonchalant as possible as she placed the folded sheet on the table and reached for another.

“Didn’t I tell you not to touch them? You’re not well enough to be doing housework.” Carby snatched the sheet from her.

“I’m as well as I’ll get, and if it wasn’t for this bum leg I’d be putting you to shame with the work I get done. I’m not gonna keep sitting all day every day while watching you work.” Jessie snatched the sheet back from Carby with a determined jerk.

“What do you take me for? Quit being silly and go sit down before you hurt yourself worse,” Carby tried to shoo her away with her hand as she spoke.

“I can be just as stubborn as you can, Carby.” Jessie folded the sheet as if Carby’s words the moment before hadn’t been spoken.

Carby scowled and shook her head. “Colt’ll chew me up one side and down the other if he finds out I let you do this to yourself.”

“He will do no such thing. He also ought to know that I have a mind of my own and do as I please,” Jessie shot back.

Carby waved her off with her hand and walked across the room to the washbasin.

“I found a place for my garden,” she said.

Jessie smiled and set the folded sheet down with satisfaction. “Oh?”

“Right over here so I can see it from the window,” Carby pointed her finger in the direction she wanted to place her garden.

Jessie nodded. “Sounds like a good plan to me.”

The two-week mark was coming up in a few days and Colt’s telegraph would be sent to her family. The idea didn’t bring as much joy to her as before. She still missed her family something terrible, but she was feeling as if they hadn’t searched for her at all. What if they hadn’t even tried looking?

Whatever her reason was for coming all the way out West, her family couldn’t have supported her. Momma was too clingy to her children to allow her to leave without as much as an escort.

The more she thought about it, the more confused she became.

*****

Colt hummed as he hammered a nail into the slab of wood that served as a piece of wall on the inside of Bliss’ house. Building had been coming along nicely. The roof was halfway done and the inside walls had been started on that day.

“What’s gotten you into such a good humor these past few days?” Doc asked beside him.

Colt had convinced Sherman that he needed Doc to help with the building a few days before, but in reality he just wanted the man’s support nearby when the men started acting up.