Read Online Within My Heart by Tamera Alexander - Free Book Online Page A

had indeed accomplished such a thing, he’d saved Ben’s life. For that she was most grateful, and eager to know how he’d done it.
    After fluffing the mattress ticking, she tucked in the fresh bed sheets and dusted the side tables, knowing it wouldn’t be long before Ben occupied the room. She and Lyda had debated the wisdom of taking Ben home to the Mullinses’ house a few streets over, versus the two of them living above the store for a while, until Ben regained his health. Lyda had opted for the latter, preferring to keep Ben close so she could check on him throughout the day, and Rachel agreed.
    It would also be easier for her to help Lyda with the store and to assist with Ben’s care if the couple stayed in the spare upper room. Not that Rachel had an inkling how she would accomplish helping them with every hour of every day spoken for. But Ben and Lyda were like family to her, and she couldn’t not help them. Plus this room had special meaning to them as a couple, she knew. This was where they’d first lived upon moving to Timber Ridge many years ago, before they’d built their house.
    As Rachel moved to wipe off the dresser, a chorus of angry voices drew her attention. She peered out the bay window to see that the crowd waiting on the boardwalk below had multiplied and was pressing forward toward the doors.
    “I’ve got an order to pick up,” one man yelled.
    “We need to get our supplies!”
    “Mullins said they’d be ready today! Why’s he closed up so early?”
    The chorus of complaints piled one atop the other, and Rachel turned to head downstairs, worried about Mitch and Kurt fending off such an onslaught. Then she caught sight of a gentleman stepping up onto a bench. She looked closer. It was the same man she’d seen on the boardwalk earlier, the one who’d unofficially volunteered to stand guard. Arms outstretched, he addressed the gathering. She couldn’t make out his words, but to her surprise, the complaints died down.
    She waited, watching, debating whether her assistance was needed. Apparently it wasn’t.
    She closed the window and hurried to finish dusting, then readied the bed.
    “Be careful, please, Mr. Daggett!” Lyda’s sharp warning echoed up the twisting stairwell, and Rachel couldn’t fault her for it. She’d nearly lost her footing on the stairs herself a moment ago. Lyda’s instruction continued. “There’s a sharp turn ahead where the stairs grow more narrow.”
    As Rachel plumped the pillows, Charlie Daggett’s heavy footsteps sounded in the hallway, and she turned to see his frame filling the doorway as he cradled Ben in his arms. Ben Mullins was no small man, but he resembled a mere boy when measured against Charlie Daggett. Then again, what man wouldn’t?
    Rachel motioned. “Here, Mr. Daggett. The bed is all ready.”
    “Yes, ma’am, Miss Rachel.” Charlie moved with surprising agility for so large a man—and with surprising steadiness for being into the bottle so early in the afternoon, if the smell of whiskey wafting toward her held any truth. His drinking wasn’t new to her, nor to anyone else in Timber Ridge. But the better she’d gotten to know Charlie over the two months he’d been working at her ranch, the more his drinking puzzled her.
    He never showed up for work intoxicated and had never behaved rudely or unseemly toward her or her boys. That wasn’t the source of her concern. It was more the question of why he often drank to such excess that she found so troubling. A hard worker and a quiet man by nature, Charlie Daggett was stone silent when it came to his past.
    Ben grimaced as Charlie lowered him down. “I’m not an invalid, Daggett,” Ben grumbled beneath his breath, heaving a sigh when Charlie deposited him on the bed. “At least not yet.” He repositioned himself on the mattress, wincing. “I’ve still got two good legs. I could’ve climbed those stairs myself.”
    Charlie’s whiskered cheeks pushed up in a customary grin.