Read Online Petticoat Ranch by Mary Connealy - Free Book Online Page A

him into a chair. His head cleared, and he wasfairly certain that he’d almost passed out because of his injuries—not because he’d thought about how it was really his Christian duty to see that Sophie had another baby. Cliff still needed that son.
    Clay didn’t look at Sophie again. He wasn’t sure he’d survive it. But he decided in that moment that, if they wanted to carry on Cliff ’s name, it was going to be the name Cliff was born with. McClellen. Everyone in this house was changing her name to McClellen and like it!
    He pulled the plate of biscuits toward him and started spreading on jelly as he continued making plans in his head. And while he was making changes, he’d get them out of this thicket and make sure they had meat on the table. And her next child was definitely going to be a son.
    With grim satisfaction, Clay decided they’d name the boy Cliff.

F  I V E                   
    S ophie paced around the outside of the cabin and fumed. She stopped and glared at the closed-up house and thought dark thoughts about the occupant. He didn’t emerge. She started pacing again. After a long time she started to think he might have died in there. That softened her anger somewhat. True, he’d insulted her years of backbreaking effort to keep a roof over her girls’ heads. True, he’d told her she should have married one of the rabble who proposed to her—and she included the banker and sheriff in that lot. True, he’d looked at her with Cliff’s eyes, and she’d seen straight into his soul.
    She stopped pacing and admitted that the way he made her feel when he looked at her was the real reason she was so mad at him.
    Once Sophie stopped being angry, she started to worry in earnest. She was a mother, after all. Worrying was her job! He’d been in there too long. How long could it take a man to bathe? She’d left some of Cliff ’s clothing—rescued from the rag bag—for him to wear. How long could it take a man to dress? He was still unsteady on his feet. What if he’d fallen? He might have hit his head again. What if he’d passed out in the tub and sunk under the water? Sophie gave up her pacing and charged toward the door. She might already be too late to save him.
    She was on the step when he opened the door.
    “Coming to scrub my back, Sophie?” he drawled.
    Sophie felt her cheeks heat up. “I was afraid you’d fallen. . .or something. You’ve been in there a long time.”
    “Trying to soak out some aches and pains.” He tilted his chin slightly and gave a little one-shoulder shrug. It was a gesture so like Cliff ’s Sophie almost gasped out loud. He was watching her intently, but he didn’t outwardly react to what must have been blatant fascination on her part.
    “First things first. Where’s my horse?” he asked.
    Sophie and the girls, who had been waiting impatiently with her, all looked at each other.
    Mandy said bluntly, “I reckon he’s dead, Uncle Clay.”
    “Dead!” Considering all the shocks the man had endured so far today, Sophie was surprised how upset he seemed about the horse.
    “You went over the creek bank,” Beth reminded him. “And your horse went with you.”
    “We never saw any sign of a horse, Clay,” Sophie said sympathetically. “It was pitch black. You were half buried in mud. I suppose your horse was down there, too. But there was no time to look. A flash flood came through the creek, and we were lucky to get out alive.”
    “I ’spect the fall kilt him, but iffen it didn’t, I reckon the flood got him,” Sally said, patting Clay on the arm.
    “You girls went down into that creek, in front of a flash flood, to pull me out?” Clay asked incredulously.
    Sophie hadn’t been called a girl in a long time. She hadn’t felt like a girl for even longer. She kind of liked it. She said in exasperation, “Well, we didn’t know there was a flash flood coming when we went down!”
    “You could have been killed!” Clay