“I don’t need to. Once I’m married to Ezra, I’ll persuade him to modernize this excuse for a kitchen into something sleek and sexy and fit for the twenty-first century.”
Ellie looked around the lovely room in alarm. It was just perfect in her mind. Beautiful antique pine cupboards which she guessed had been skillfully handmade with wood from the surrounding Kootenai forest. The butcher’s block and the countertops were aged oak with the shine and patina of yearsoflove. It had been built to last, and nothing modern could ever compare with the quality of what was here now.
“You say that like it might improve your cooking.” Sheri and Carly continued to bicker like a pair of adolescent teenagers. It made her wonder just how old they actually were.
“Personally, I won’t need to cook. Once I’ve got a ring on my finger, I plan to tell Syrus, in no uncertain terms, that he can hire a housekeeper.”
“I think the plan was for them to find wives who would help do the chores,” Ellie said without thinking.
“Well, no one asked you to think now, did they,” Carly snapped, her squabble forgotten. “And you certainly won’t be around for long enough to need an opinion.”
“Oh, I don’t know,” Sheri said with a nasty laugh. “Maybe she could stay on as that housekeeper you wanted.”
“Don’t be stupid. I’ll make sure that job goes to some matronly old biddy who none of our men will look twice at.”
“Pfft! Like they’re going to look twice at Ellie, when they’ve got us!”
Ellie gritted her teeth and, stoically ignoring Cora who had a nasty smirk on her face, escaped into the utility room to finish the laundry.
When she came back, they’d finished their lunches and Sheri and Carly had disappeared again.
Turning to Cora, she tried at least to be civil. “I don’t suppose you know where the veggies are kept, do you?”
She was older than the other two, older than Ellie as well, at a guess, and at least seemed to know what she was about. Although that probably made her the one to watch. Sheri and Carly were just young and bitchy, she’d decided. Cora was much more deliberate in her deeds.
“There’s a vegetable garden out back,” Cora told her. “I think mostly everything is picked fresh.”
Ellie eyed the other woman while she dragged a huge sack of flour out of the pantry and decided she was being genuine. It made sense. Maybe she was being unfair in her estimations.
Right now the other woman was stacking the dirty lunch dishes and clearing off the table.
Ellie hefted up the sack of flour. It was open but almost full and took most of her strength to handle it.
At the same second, Cora spun around with the dishes. Both went crashing to the floor.
“What the…” Ellie screeched as flour spilled and plumed everywhere amid the clatter of dropped cutlery and the shards of broken crockery.
“Oh, my goodness, I’m so sorry! I didn’t see you there,” Cora apologized quickly.
She didn’t see her? Seriously?
“Look, I…”
Ellie didn’t finish as Cora interrupted.
“I’ll clear up. It was my fault. Go outside and brush yourself down. There’s a basket in the pantry, you could look at the veg patch while you’re out there and I’m dealing with this.”
Ellie took a deep breath. Okay, perhaps it had just been an accident. Cora seemed genuinely remorseful and eager to sort out the huge mess. The entire kitchen was covered in a layer of dust, which would mean the entire room would need to be swept and dusted and more besides. Looking down at herself, she realized she was indeed covered almost from head to foot. In fact, she was amazed that Cora seemed to have gotten off so lightly, since she only sported the lightest smattering on her chic outfit.
Grabbing the basket,Ellietook the other woman at her word and went to find the vegetable garden.
#
Cody, along with Syrus and Ezra, came in for dinner at precisely the time he’d told Cora this morning, took one look at the decimation in the kitchen and damn near walked back out again.
“What the fuck happened in here?” he asked, not even bothering to curb his annoyance. He’d been hoping for a decent lunch after the burned oatmeal fiasco. Maybe advertising forwiveshadn’t been the best idea after all.
“Oh, don’t you worry about that,” Cora cooed, directing them to an area at the bottom of the table where it had clearly been hastily cleaned.