“How sweet of you,” Carly cooed in a voice like saccharine, but as Ezra turned to lead the way down the stairs, the look she turned on Ellie was pure venom.
Chapter Four
Ellie sighed and stretched, a lovely lassitude seeping into her bones. Cracking one sleepy eye, she noted it was still pretty dark, so she rolled over and simply enjoyed the luxury of the first bed she had slept in for an entire month. It was one of those things you took for Granted; never truly considered it for what it was - until you lost it. Right now, attic room or not, a bed had never felt so good.
She could barely remember the last time she had slept so well or hadn’t woken up with aches and pains through pretzeling her body into the cramped confines of her small car. Just other examples of things that were often taken for granted. Ellie vowed she would never do such a thing again. There was a lot to be grateful for in life, and sometimes it was the little things, like simple creature comforts, that people forgot to be thankful for.
Mmm… she could wash all her clothes. She bet there was even fabric softener to be used in this rambling old ranch house. The thought of having sweet smelling, properly laundered clothes was enough to have her rolling out of the comfort of her narrow bed.
Listening at the top of the attic stairs, she noted it all seemed quiet and judged it safe to run to the bathroom.
Ellie realized as soon as she hit the second level that it was in fact a lot later than she had imagined. Not having a phone or a watch it was difficult to judge, but the way the sunbeams danced through the windows and lit up the dust motes like tiny sparkles of glitter told her it was well past dawn and her little garret room simply didn’t let in a lot of light.
She washed up with that kind of sinking feeling you get from knowing something’s not quite right, but not being one hundred percent certain. She grasped hold of that tiny nugget of hope that it wasn’t too late for the breakfast she had wanted to wow everyone with this morning.
She felt that hope sinking fast as she found her way back to the kitchen.
There was no sign of anybody at all, but the breakfast dishes were piled up on the work surface next to the sink and a stodgy, unappetizing looking pan of cold oatmeal stood on the table. She poked at it to see if it might be salvageable, but the black bits that flecked into the white stodge gave away that it had likely been burned to the bottom of the pan. Great, that would take some scrubbing.
She searched around and finally found a wall clock, which gave the time as nine thirty. Seriously? She hadn’t slept that late in years! Oh well, there wasn’t much she could do except try to make up for what she couldn’t change. Perhaps a slap-up evening meal was a better idea, anyway.
Smiling to herself, she ran upstairs to find her laundry and rummaged around in the utility room and the bathroom until she’d found anything else that needed to be washed. It wasn’t long before she had the machine going and two other loads sorted and ready.
She also fetched Gran's recipe books and found space on one of the kitchen dresser shelves to keep them on. Then, while she waited for the washer to finish, she leafed through her Gran’s special scrapbook looking for inspiration on what dish might prove to be the way to a cowboy’s heart. She supposed they wouldn’t go for anything too fancy; they’d need good, hearty food to sustain them after a hard day’s work, but she was sure she could come up with better than old-fashioned beef and beans. A quick look in the pantry and the freezer showed there was a lot of both. She supposed the meat was a given, considering this was a cattle ranch.
She decided on Beef Wellington and started on the prep, making her own pate with some liver she’d found and looking to see what vegetables there were to go with it.
She couldn’t help wondering where everyone was. Cody, Syrus and Ezra would obviously be out on the ranch, but where the heck were the sisters and why weren’t they pulling their weight?
During the couple of hours that she’d been in the kitchen, she’d scrubbed the oatmeal pot, loaded the dishwasher, gotten started on most of the washing, even pinned one lot out on the line, and gotten started on the evening meal. And in all that time there hadn’t been the slightest sight nor sound of any of them.
At two o'clock they finally filtered into the kitchen and she did her best to make polite small talk.
“Where have you been this morning? Out on the ranch?”
“What is it to you? Mind your own business.” She thought it was Carly speaking, but wasn’t completely certain which was which when it came to her and Sheri.
Shaking her head, she tried again. “I was just thinking it’s a beautiful day to be outside.”
Someone made a harrumphing noise, and Ellie turned in time to see Sheri - maybe - rolling her eyes.
“Why would any sane person want to be outside in all that dust and pollen! God, it would play havoc with my sinuses.”
“Why on earth would you come to a place like this if you don’t like the environment?” Ellie asked in surprise.
“Because Cora wanted…”
“She’s just teasing you,” Cora interrupted. “You had a beautiful, romantic moonlit walk with Ezra last night, didn’t you?”
Carly then, Ellie thought to herself, filing away the differences between the two so she could tell them apart. She couldn’t help wondering what it was she’d been about to say, though.
“I thought we could eat in the dining room this evening. I’m preparing beef wellington. I could use some help if you’re not busy.”
“Urgh! Dream on!” said Sheri, slouching against the work surface. “I already tried using that damn Aga. It’s a nightmare, there’s no way to cook anything decent on it.”
“You’re just saying that because your baked potatoes weren’t cooked last night,” Carly retorted with a smirk.
“Like you could have done any better.”