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A WIDOW’S WANTS

CHAPTER ONE

CHARLOTTE

It had been threedown at the s I'd co, I sed back the tears that lodged in er stay in the house without any pay work to coh to make payment on the house and keep food in my belly The meals to date had been provided as charity by the women of the church, but that couldn't sustain I put a hand at ht and sore fro over my needle and thread It was a lost cause to try and survive without Richard and I'd been told such

You were need, you will find another

You are young and must find another husband

Who will support you, if not a man?

This is no place for a woman alone

I'd heard it all since Richard had been killed in the er than we'd been married Several men, one who had only a few teeth left in his e since his death, but I'd spurned them all

I looked out thepast curtains I'd sewed the week after our arrival I'd been so full of hope then, hope that thisstar streaking across the sky Random, quick and unattainable

I'd had such hopes as a child, finding love, souely and without clarity, the way they had looked at each other, the link they shared, like a chain of daisies I'd weave into a crown onwith my parents, had died

I'd been fortunate enough to have Matthew,as he'd chopped wood one winter renous and within a week he was dead, leaving me all alone His friend, Richard, had stepped in and married me I'd had no choice but to accept his suit and was tied by holy matrimony to a man I didn't love He'd been kind, in his oay, but he did not appeal todestitute, and for that I had been thankful, but I knew love would not blossoe It had been founded solely on thankfulness and that was not enough Perhaps fondness would have developed over the years, but most certainly not love

Once again I was alone It seemed death visited me more often than most, but life went on The town around otten in the need forfrom the boon

Everyone, it seemed, but me I winced as my back pinched With no man to support me, I was doomed Skill with a needle could not support me, not with the Chinese who'd arrived in town and worked for a pittance Life would repeat itself soon enough I'd have to marry in order to survive This time, there was no Richard No family friend to whom I could trust

Collins wasn't a town for women We had a hard life, whether as a bride or a whore at the saloon, it was not easy Men were rough and life was practically lawless The way the gentlemen—no, they couldn't be called that—looked at me, approached me, pushed even the boundaries of Collins There were no eable women, especially none under a s, like a vulture cleaning a carcass, if I only gave the for my safety I had few friends and saw them only at church I had no protection of athe men