Chapter 25: ChivareeBrigetta clung to the buckboard. Occasionally, she risked reaching up to make sure her hat was in place. Perspiration was streaming down her face and inside her clothing. Dust was billowing behind and around them, coating her heavy poplin dress, face, and hat. She had brushed and hung her one good black dress when Martin told her they were visiting the neighboring ranch to see Tante Anna and Uncle Mac. She could not imagine why they were going there first instead of into town to see his married sister and younger brother. She still hadn't recovered from the shock of the sagging roof covering a porch that stretched across a house that was a dining area and kitchen built of wood and the two bedrooms dug into the side of a cliff. Peasants didn't live that badly, did they?
