Adela's Prairie Suitor (The Annex Mail-Order Brides Book 1) by Elaine Manders Page B

spend most of the afternoon shucking corn and jawing, as Mrs. Calhoun put it. Hilda Jane and her father came early—to help they said, though Hilda Jane didn’t put herself out any.
    Mr. and Mrs. Hawkins came. Ester Hawkins was the only woman who paid Adela any attention, but not enough to prevent her from again feeling like a wallflower and in the way.
    Leaving the women discussing the recent birth of a baby, Adela went to the kitchen and mixed cocoa, sugar, and milk in a pot on the stove. She was stirring slowly when Hilda Jane came in.
    She stuck her head over the pot. “You making fudge? Bertha won’t like that. Fudge’s her specialty.”
    “No, I thought I’d make some hot cocoa for the men. It must be cold out there.”
    “Don’t use too much cocoa or sugar. Bertha wants to make fudge later. Do we have enough sugar?”
    “Yes, Byron bought extra last time he went to town.” Adela didn’t realize she’d used Byron’s given name until she saw Hilda Jane’s eyes widen. Well, let her think what she would.
    Hilda Jane held her peace about that, though. She gathered cups in a basket and started to grasp the pot’s handles. “I’ll take this out to the men.”
    Adela took hold of the handles and held on for dear life. “No, I’ll take it. I’m sure you’re needed out in the parlor.”
    Hilda Jane backed off, and Adela hung the basket over her arm, placing the lid over the pot. Before she could lift it off the stove, Hilda Jane asked, “Has Byron kissed you yet?”
    Adela almost dropped the pot, and the heat from the stove didn’t compare with the flush rising from her neck. “I have to get this out there before it cools.” She certainly wouldn’t acknowledge Hilda Jane’s brash question with a reply, but she had to push her way around the sulking blonde.
    “It’s just that if a man had kissed me and still hadn’t proposed, I’d be getting a little…worried.”
    Without looking back, Adela backed her way out the back door. The cold air felt good, and she prayed for composure before entering the barn.
    She could hardly believe the huge bins of corn already shucked, but she supposed eight men working together could clear a whole barn full of corn quickly. Silence fell as she made her way to Byron’s side.
    “I brought you fellows some hot cocoa.”
    Byron helped her set the basket and pot of hot liquid down on a bale of hay. He poured as she held each cup and the men lined up. “Adela found that mistake in Pa’s books I was telling you about.” Byron spoke loud enough for them all to hear. Apparently, he’d decided to share the bookkeeping error with the neighbors after all.
    Abel Hawkins took his cup. “You want to come look at my books, Miss Adela. I need to find a mistake like that.” For once she didn’t blush at the grandfatherly tease.
    “How do you know they’ll make good on that payment, Byron.” Another man dropped his last ear of corn in the crib.
    “They will,” someone else said. “They’re an honest outfit. Still, you’d better go see them in person.”
    “Their headquarters are in St. Louis.” Byron filled his own cup, and Adela glanced around the room. She’d not thought of that. If Byron went to St. Louis, he’d not have any time to spend with her before she went home.
    “Couldn’t you just write them?” she asked.
    Byron poured the last cup and gave it to her. “The fellows are right. I expect I’d better take the documents in person, and the ledger you reconstructed, so I can explain to them.”
    “I suppose.” She wrapped her suddenly cold hands around the hot mug. A cloud descended on the festive gathering, and turned into a thunderhead when Hilda Jane sashayed in.
    She made a point of stopping by each of the single men, except Byron, and leaving a flirt in her wake. “Adela, you’d better get back to the house. We’re setting out the sandwiches, and after that, we’ll start cooking the candy. Sweets for our sweeties, right fellows?”
    “Hey