Page 23 - Homestead By Ann Newhouse

“Did I call out?” I asked, wondering.
“No, you just moaned in pain, so I gave you medicine which kept you sleepy. Tomorrow I’ll ask Josh to help me get you up to sit by the fire, until then rest,” she ordered. She left and I drifted into a deep slumber.
I woke as I felt someone messaging my feet. It was early morning, and, through the skylight window, I could see the haze which comes at the beginning of a very hot day. Sofie was gently attending to my wounds.
“Good morning, how did you sleep?” she inquired as she wrapped and bound my feet. She smiled when she saw the shocked look on my face, when I realised, I was wearing just a floral nightshirt.
“We couldn’t find anything suitable or clean enough for you to wear in your rucksack! My father said you probably wouldn’t object to wearing a lady’s nightshirt,” she went into a fit of giggles.
“Well I do object,” I said, embarrassed.
“Oh, Ned I’m so sorry, please excuse my bad behaviour,” Sofie tapped my leg lovingly as she covered me up. “I’ll see if Peggy, our laundry maid, has any of your clothes ready to wear by this evening. I have asked Josh to join us for supper tonight, as my father has gone on a cattle drive. We are one man down on the drive. Mitch, one of our hands, went to town and got into a brawl and ended up in jail for a couple of days. As my father takes that seriously, he refused to bail him out, so he will remain there until my father comes home,” Sofie told me with a frown.
“Your father is a hard man for sure. Who is Mitch to your father?” I asked, interested, so I wouldn’t get on the wrong side of him.
“Mitch’s father worked on the Texas Ranch. His name was Buck O’ Neilson but he died before he had time to build a new home for his family. They never found out how Buck died they found him just after the fire. Margarete was left to rear Mitch alone. She is getting on in age and cannot control Mitch, so my father helps. Mitch is twenty, and a little hard to handle. He is Josh’s best friend, which worries my father, so he tries to keep Josh on a short leash.” I must have turned pale because Sofie looked concerned and asked. “Are you feeling any better to-day?”
I assured her I felt much better and hoped to get up later. I didn’t want her to know that I had a paper cutting with Mitch’s parent’s name in the headline. I then remembered it was in my rucksack. I felt a panic in the pit of my stomach. I debated whether to ask for my rucksack or play it cool and wait until they returned it, hoping the documents hadn’t been seen when they had looked for my clothes.