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Amazon
Website of Madison C. Scott
Category:
Young Adult/Teen
Publisher: PublishAmerica
ISBN-10: 1604747986
Type: Fiction
Pages: 177
Copyright: March 3, 2008
ISBN-13: 9781604747980
If your family is with you, you don’t need the approval of friends; and if your family is big enough, you don’t even need friends! Or, you don’t if you’re Reba Chester. No one else approves of her, or the things she does. "A lady," they claim, "does not rope cattle, she does not ride bareback. A lady does not even know how to handle a gun, and most certainly has never killed a man! A lady does not go visit her sister and deliver her baby nephew before leaving. A lady would never ride in a horse race and she wouldn’t refuse a proposal from the aristocratic, landed, but also undeniably dumb and deceitful young Bruce Lawton!" But Reba does all of these things and more. No one but her family approves of her actions, and that doesn’t bother her. She’s a new kind of lady, and the people of Bramble Ford would do well to realize it!
Excerpt
Excerpt from Part Three
Bright and early the next morning the family that was still at home gathered to eat breakfast. Then they parted, each to go their separate ways. Enoch and his nephews went out to the fields. Laurel and Hazel set about baking. Louisa began her fall sewing and Reba mounted her horse and rode off to visit Rita.
“Hello, Rita!” Reba threw the bridle and dismounted at the front door of her sister’s new home. “Rita? Anybody home?” she called, knocking.
A small, very pregnant young woman opened the door. “Reba!” She hugged her sister. “When did you get back?”
“Last night. I fell into bed at nine o’clock after riding for eleven hours.”
“And only you would be out visiting by nine o’clock the next morning!”
“Complaints?” Reba laughed.
“You’re too tough and strong, Reba. How do you ever expect to get a man to take care of you if you act thataway? Coffee?” Rita led the way into the kitchen.
“Don’t give me that,” Reba said shortly. “I’d like some coffee, please, but none of those husband questions, thank you. I get enough of those from every kindly lady that I see. He’ll show up one of these days.”
“How can you be so sure?” Rita questioned. “He won’t just come in the door someday and say ‘Reba Chester, marry me.’”
“How do you know?” Reba asked. “He might. I hope not, but he might. How’s the baby?”
“Fidgety. It won’t hold still at night. Makes it hard for me to get any sleep.”
“I’m sorry. I can’t wait for it to be here, you know.”
“Me either, neither can Tricia. She’s over here almost every day, helping out. She and Hazel are becoming really close, because Hazel’s here almost as often. And Dave takes Tricia home when he comes for Hazel.”
“Rita, don’t get all silly about it! It’s on the way home and the gentlemanly thing to do.”
“Reba, honey, why do you refuse to have any thoughts of anyone getting married? Almost everyone does, it’s how God meant it to be.”
“I know. But it scares me. Rita, what if all my brothers and sisters get married and I don’t?! I’ll have lost all my friends and gotten no one in return. And I can scarcely bear to think of losing Adam, Dave, and Ike. We’re the closest ones. They understand me like no one else. The idea of dozens of nieces and nephews is very exciting and I long to spoil them all, but I don’t want to give up my friends to get them.”
A horse and wagon pulled up. “That’s Tricia,” Rita said, going to the door. “Come on in, Trish, I’ve got Reba here.”
“And she has returned!” Tricia smiled, coming in. “The story is already out, ‘Miss Reba Chester, also known as Rebel Reba, gets the whole Harper Gang in one fell swoop.’ I heard it from Pa, who heard it from the postmaster, who heard it from the train engineer, who heard it from the clerk at the Cottonwood hotel, who, so he says, heard it from Adam Chester himself!”
“Altogether likely.” Reba grinned wryly. “What that boy won’t say about me! Rita, while trying to find me a husband, choose one who pays no attention to rumors, please. Good to see you, Trish. I’ve gotta get back before Missy shows up to torture Laurel and Hazel. Bye, Rita. See you later, Trish.”
“Bye, Reba,” Tricia called. “Zack says he’ll be by this evening. I think he’s planning to propose – again.”
“There’s your chance, Reba!” Rita laughed.
“Rita, please!” Reba groaned. “No offense, Tricia, but I wouldn’t marry your brother if he was the last man on earth.”
“Neither would I.” Tricia grinned. “Don’t worry about me taking offense!”
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