Read Mail Order Bride: Christy for Free Online Page B

brownish-grey hue, that stood out against the greens and yellows of the grasses surrounding it. There were several good sized glass windows along the front of the house and they looked out over a weed infested front garden, and a dusty wagon track that circled in front of the house and meandered over to the solid square doors of a tall timber barn.
    Christy was close to total exhaustion by the time they reached the house, but the sight of it made her wake up. She opened her eyes wide as she looked at the sprawling building. “Wow. You’ve got room for a large family and more inside there! I can see why you were lonely living all alone in such a place!”
    Christy stopped talking all of a sudden, blushing when she realized what she’d said. Brent smiled widely at her. It seemed uncouth to her, somehow, to reference the admissions Brent had made in his letters, now that they’d decided the union was a mistake. It felt like those things were too intimate to talk about now.
    Christy turned her blushing cheeks away. “I’m sure I’ll be more than comfortable here for a few days. It will be far better than sleeping on the train at any rate.”
    Brent nodded and walked Christy up the front path. “Now, I’ve gotta warn ya, it’s a little run down. I'm not much good at housekeeping, and the stock keep me busy outdoors, so...”
    He pushed the front door open, and led Christy inside. Christy didn’t think too much of the warning at first. The house looked so lovely from the outside that Christy had little concern about the interior. But the inside of Brent’s farmhouse was another thing entirely. The first room she saw was an open living area, with a place to sit before the hearth at night, and a sturdy dining table. The kitchen lay beyond the dining table, and Christy was pleased to see a stout stove with a pipe leading up to the high ceiling above and through an opening to the clear air beyond. The room was full of dust, cobwebs, and dirt, and lay in complete chaos. Christy wandered around in dismay, looking in each room one by one. Down a wide hallway, she found four separate bedrooms. It seemed to Christy that each room she found was in a worse state of disarray than the one before it.
    Brent caught Christy’s expression of horror. “Don’t worry, I'm sure it will clean up just fine.”
    Christy smiled wanly at him, "Of course it will. No matter to me, it's safe and dry and that's all I can ask for."
    Brent smiled at her, looking relieved. He hurried to put her bags away in her room, and then they both returned to the living room after he had given her a tour of the house. They looked at each other for a moment, and Christy’s stomach flipped once. Maybe I could stay here after all. Perhaps Brent even wants me to.
    Brent stared hard at the fireplace and cleared his throat. “Well you're all set in your room. It’s small, but you’ll only be here a few days, so it ought to suit you. I'll just get a fire going.”
    “And where will you sleep then?” Christy asked.
    “I don’t want to sleep in Ma’s room, and there ain’t any other beds in the house yet. I’ll sleep on the floor in the living room,” Brent replied quickly, as he set about building a fire in the cozy hearth.
    “Oh,” Christy said. “Okay then. Thank you.”
    “There’s a bit of bread and cheese here in the kitchen if you’re hungry,” offered Brent, as he bit into a chunk of bread, the crumbs dropping onto the floor around him.
    “Thank you,” said Christy, suddenly feeling ravenous. She took a piece of bread from Brent’s outstretched hand, and sat down on a chair at the dining table to eat it. He cleared his throat, and quickly sat down opposite her, removing his hat and placing it on the table beside him. She smiled at him, biting into the crusty bread, savoring the yeasty flavor.
    After their meal, Christy retired to the bedroom. She didn’t even unpack her bag, certain that the day after next, Brent would take her back to the