Read Online Rachel's Choice by Judith French - Free Book Online

to him and grabbed hold.
    Susan bellowed as though he’d just sliced off her teat with a bayonet. She threw both hind legs into the air, and Chance leaped backward. He moved fast, but not fast enough to miss the stinging blow across his cheek from her dung-laden tail.
    Chance’s feet tangled with the bucket. He tried to catch his balance against the wall with his bad arm, but it folded under his weight. He struggled to keep from falling, but it was useless. He ended up flat on his back in the soiled straw. One leg of the stool ground into his hip, the bucket handle was still hooked over his left foot, and the cow’s wicked-looking hind quarters were only inches away from his head.
    â€œWhoa, steady, Susan. Good cow.”
    â€œWhat are you going down there?”
    Chance looked up to see Rachel peering over the top of the stall.
    â€œIt isn’t funny,” he fumed. “If you value this beast, you’ll get her away from me before I—”
    â€œBefore you do what?” Rachel snickered.
    The cow mooed loudly, and Chance looked back just as she raised her tail.
    Rachel flung the door open, slapped the animal on a bony hip, and turned her away seconds before the cow let fly with a yellow stream.
    Chance got to his feet. He wasn’t sure who he was less happy with, the cow or the woman. “Susan is obviously a woman’s cow,” he muttered between clenched teeth. “She isn’t trained to allow a man to milk her.”
    â€œNonsense. James milked her all the time. And when Igo into town, Cora Wright’s grandson tends her and he’s only twelve. You squeezed too hard, that’s all. A cow’s teats are tender. You have to handle her gently, talk to her so she isn’t nervous.”
    â€œShe’s nervous?”
    â€œLet me show you.” Rachel retrieved the bucket and the stool and took her place beside the cow. “You do it like this,” she explained. “Squeeze and pull, squeeze and pull.” Two streams of milk hissed against the sides of the pail, filling the air with a comforting scent.
    A black cat with a white spot on his face appeared out of nowhere and rubbed against Chance’s leg and began to purr loudly.
    Rachel pressed her head against the cow’s belly and continued to produce a steady flow of milk. Then she rose and motioned to the stool. “Now you try.”
    Chance sat down, extending his hand, and Rachel positioned it on a warm teat. He applied pressure.
    Not a drop came out.
    â€œSqueeze and pull at the same time,” Rachel said. “If you just pinch it shut, it doesn’t work.”
    A crude remark rose in Chance’s mind, but he kept silent. Rachel Irons might be an exasperating female, but she was a respectable woman, and he’d not insult her with crass behavior.
    He tried again, remembering to tug downward as he tightened his fingers. This time milk dribbled out, not so freely as when Rachel did it, but something.
    â€œGood,” she said. “Another thirty minutes, and you’ll have this licked. I’m making sausage and biscuits for breakfast. I expect at least a third of a bucket of milk this morning. Don’t stop until every teat is dry, and don’t let her kick over the bucket before you’re done. Understand?”
    â€œPerfectly.”
    â€œShe likes it if you sing to her.”
    â€œI’m not singing to a da—to a dumb cow.”
    Rachel shrugged. “Suit yourself. But you can’t come to the table smelling like that. I’ll leave some clean clothing, a towel, and a bar of soap by the back door. Go down to the creek and have a bath before you come into my house.”
    â€œI want a razor.”
    â€œPlanning on cutting your throat, Reb?”
    He knew she was laughing at him, but he wouldn’t give her the satisfaction of seeing that she was annoying him. “I want to shave.”
    â€œWhat? Give up that handsome beard of