Coldwater Creek

Chapter 1

Wind rattled the windowpanes of the kitchen as I rolled bread dough from the mixing bowl and onto the floured table top. Kneading the bread into loaves, I watched the sky turn to a blaze of color as the sun peaked over the horizon.

"Good morning, Emma," a female voice came from the doorway and I turned to find a familiar smiling face.

"Good morning, Aunt Hattie," I smiled as she set to work alongside me.

A slamming door and a swishing of skirts signaled the arrival of another.

"Storm's brewin'," Adaline Faraday announced as she joined us in the kitchen. "It looks like it's gonna be a right nasty one at that. I hope it doesn't delay the stagecoach commin' today."

"You expectin' somethin', Adi?" I asked, moving the dough into bread pans.

"Not me. Papa," she responded, helping me move the bread into the oven. "His office is runnin' awful low on supplies and this stage is supposed to be bringin' the stuff he needs"

I nodded. Adaline's pa, Doc Faraday, was the doctor for our little town of Coldwater Creek. The past month had been a wild one.

Given that Coldwater Creek was a frontier town we had our fair share of shootouts, cattle rustling, bandits, and drunken brawls. It also meant that we had very little help from the outside world both in the way of medical access or law enforcement. The Wells Fargo Stage came through every other Thursday, but other than that and the telegraph station we had very little contact with the rest of the world. Though, it was far more civilized than the mining town I had spent the first part of my life in.

The three of us worked in a companionable silence baking breads, rolls, pies, cobblers, biscuits, cornbread, and muffins.

"Have ya eaten yet, Adaline?" Aunt Hattie asked as she started a huge batch of hotcakes.

"Not yet, Ma'am," the girl responded. "You can just put my meal on Papa's tab."

"Nonsense, child," Aunt Hattie said with a wave of her hand.

Adaline and I cleaned off and set the table while Aunt Hattie finished up the hotcakes, sausage, potatoes, and eggs.

Uncle Matthew was the first to arrive for breakfast.

"Mornin', Love," he smiled, kissing his wife.

"Mornin," she responded with a smile.

Uncle Matthew ran the general store in town and Aunt Hattie had added a little cafe onto it for those passing through or staying in Johnson's Boarding House. They had two sons: Joshua, who was nearing his 23rd birthday, and James, three years younger than his brother and only a year older than myself. I had come to live with this extended family after my folks passed four years prior.

I smiled catching a faint blush across Adaline's cheeks as the brothers entered the room. Though we had been close friends since we both arrived in town, I suspected she spent so much time with me in hopes of seeing James more often. I didn't blame her. The brothers were very handsome in their own way. Both were tall as trees with broad shoulders and skin that tanned easily in the sun. Their hair was dusty blond and they had the darkest brown eyes I had ever seen. They looked so alike that more and more often people would ask if they were twins. Both were spitting images of their pa, whose hair was beginning to grey at the temples and whose smile and contagious laugh could light up any room.

Aunt Hattie looked more like my Momma had. It made sense considering that Momma was Aunt Hattie's baby sister. She had a delicate build and long honey brown hair she kept up in a simple bun on the back of her head. Her olive skin was smooth and her high cheekbones brought attention to her caramel colored eyes.