JAMES Page 10

  James nodded but didn’t comment.

  “Will there really be that many people?”

  “Men,” he corrected. “Cowboys, ranchers, some prospectors come down out of the hills to spend a little gold, play a few hands of cards and win some money off the less experienced cowhands. You’ll need to be careful going back and forth.”

  “I’ll be fine. I know I’ll be going in before sun-up, but surely if Robbie is with me…”

  “It will be as rough as I suspect it was for you in the gold camps.”

  Esther couldn’t stop the shiver of fear that ran through her. Memories of endless nights where she hid in the tent with Jonah and Zeke, too frightened of the rowdy, drunken miners to stay in her own.

  “Esther? Are you all right?”

  She realized she’d come to a stop in the middle of the road. Nodding, she concentrated on taking deep, slow breaths to slow her racing heart, and put one foot in front of the other until the parsonage came into view. It felt like she’d walked miles rather than a few hundred yards. And it was daylight. How much worse would it be with crowds of strangers in the streets and no James beside her?

  “I didn’t mean to frighten you. You just need to understand that our quiet little town changes during Harvest. It isn’t safe for a woman to walk alone for the duration. Don’t worry, if you insist on working with Aurelia, I’ll take you there every morning and have Doc walk you home.”

  “But I may be living in the boardinghouse by then. That’s right next door.”

  “Why would you be there?” James opened the cabin door and gestured for her to go first.

  “Because she rents rooms to people who need a place to live.” Lifting her skirt Esther sailed into the cabin and straight to the back to take care of Robbie.

  Esther avoided speaking to James again until Robbie was fed and dry, she had washed up and supper was on the stove. The sun had set and darkness blanketed the land. Pouring herself a glass of water, she sat in her place at the table and stared at the rising moon framed in the open doorway.

  “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”

  She glanced over her shoulder at James. “I’ve always loved looking at the moon. It’s odd, but I need to see it to feel like everything is going to be all right.”

  He settled beside her at the table. “One of those constants in life.”

  “I suppose. Even when the moon in new and I can’t see it, I know it’s there. It makes me feel less alone in the world somehow. I suppose that sounds silly.”

  “Not at all. I like learning something new about you. You have a beautiful way of looking at God’s creation. You love the sun, but you’re content to listen to the rain. Though it threatens the chickens, you stop work to watch a fox lope through the tall grass. You’ve made me aware of things I tend to take for granted. I thank you for that.”

  She smiled, feeling that they would be all right now, they’d be able to work out their disagreement without arguing. “Speaking of chickens, someone dropped a coop and a dozen hens in your backyard.”

  “Dolores Abel left them for us. She said, with my growing family, I was going to need them. I asked Hank to help me move them while you were at the café. It’s a lot of stinky, noisy mess just for fresh eggs for my breakfast.”

  “And an occasional chicken stew.”

  “Which is a welcome change from beef and ham. But still.” He gave an exaggerated shudder, making her laugh.

  “Are you hungry?” Esther pushed to her feet. “Supper is almost ready, though it isn’t chicken.”

  For the rest of the evening, they tiptoed around her job and finding a place of her own. They retired to their separate beds, but she didn’t get much sleep. The next morning dawned bright and cool, but James didn’t appear for breakfast. Before she could decide whether to wait or go looking for him, a shout from the yard stopped her.

  “What on earth?” About the time she recognized the sounds of lots of animals on the hoof, the dust reached the parsonage. Shrieking in outrage at whoever was causing her more work, she hurried around the room, closing the doors and window, even stuffing rags at the base of the back door and hanging a tea cloth over the window to try and keep it out. But all that accomplished was making the place so dark she could barely see to move. She’d spent half the night cleaning the cabin from rafters to corners and now she’d have to do it all over again.

  “Esther, come and see,” James called from the porch, then opened the front door, letting in blinding sunlight and another wave of dust. “The Harvest is beginning.”

  “Shut that door,” she shrieked, and the man had the audacity to laugh.

  “Come on. It’s only dust. You have to see this.” He grabbed her hand and pulled her outside. “There’s nothing like your first cattle drive.”

  Beyond the cabin to the north, a river of brown and black undulated across the wide-open land. As the first wave disappeared into a hidden crevasse, more poured over the rise to the west. “There are hundreds of them.”

  “Thousands, more likely. The ranches west and north of here in the Dakotas aren’t large by most standards, not like the ones in Colorado and Texas. But they seem like it from here.”

  “Why do they come this way? Wouldn’t it be closer to the railroad to go to Cheyenne?”

  “Are you trying to take away a major source of income for King’s Ford?” he teased. “Actually, going west means a longer train ride and more cost to transport them. And that grazing land will be hit pretty hard by the herds already there.”

  Now that the dust had settled a bit, Esther got caught up in the excitement of something new. “Can we get closer?”

  “Not until they’ve quieted down some. This herd will keep pushing east until nightfall, but the next won’t be far behind. It will only last a week or two, but the town profits by it all the same.”

  “Where are these cows from?”

  “I’ll be able to answer that tonight or tomorrow, when the cowboys or cookies come into town for supplies.”

  “Cookies?” Esther had no idea what that was.

  “Their cooks. They run the chuck wagons, feed the cowboys and do some doctoring. If anything happens on the way here the cookie can’t handle, they’ll bring the man to Doc Finney.”

  “Is anyone in town not going to have extra work?”

  “Robbie,” James stated, making her smile.

  “When do we start? Where do we start?”

  “You start by making sure you have all the staples you’ll need for about three weeks. Beginning this afternoon, you can’t wander in town without an escort. I’m serious about this.”

  “I can see that you are. Where will you be?”

  “I’m going to see the Marshal and make sure he knows the first herd is here. Then I’ll visit Orland at the bank and let him know so we can call a town meeting for tomorrow. That’s where we’ll set the schedule for haying and whatever else needs to get done before winter.”

  “Give me time to take care of Robbie and you can walk me to the mercantile. You might check the inventory I wrote up in the pantry. See if there are things you think you’ll need.”

  As they strolled down the main street about an hour later, Esther could already see the changes. The saloon was open and someone was banging out a raucous tune on a piano, though it was barely nine o’clock in the morning. The café was already filling with people Esther had never met, and Marshall Black was walking from business to business, a shotgun in his left hand and a revolver in a belt around his waist.

  “Good morning, Marshal. Have you met Mrs. Travers?”

  Marshal Black shook James’ hand and tipped his hat to Esther. “Nice to see you again, Ma’am.”

  “The marshal and I were introduced after Mr. Abel’s funeral.”

  “You met a lot of folks that day. I’m surprised you remembered me.”

  Esther laughed lightly. “It’s difficult to forget someone like you, Marshal.” She looked up and down the six and a half feet of him, making the perusa
l exaggerated. When she stopped and stared pointedly at the long blond hair tied at the base of his neck with a leather thong, he laughed.

  “I suppose it is, at that.”

  “Did you hear the first herd come through?”

  The marshal shook his head. “Didn’t need to hear them. I choked on the dust they kicked up. It’s Randall’s herd. He parked them about four miles southwest of town. Told me Harrison is a day behind.”

  “And so it begins. Mrs. Travers is heading to the mercantile to stock up on a few essentials. If you’re available, I’d appreciate it if you could be sure she and the baby get back to the parsonage safely.”

  “I’ll be happy to do that. Ma’am, if I’m not where you can see me, come tap on that door.” He pointed across the street to the jail. “I’ll be watching for you.”

  “Thank you, Marshal.”

  Waving goodbye, James and Esther crossed to the mercantile. Through the window she spotted a shotgun lying diagonally across the counter. “You weren’t exaggerating the danger, were you?”

  “I wouldn’t do that. You’re an intelligent woman and I promise to always be honest with you.”

  She smiled as another old weight lifted from her shoulders. Claude had never told the truth. “You can’t know how much that means to me.”

  James stepped closer and studied her face for a long moment. “How long do you need here?”

  “Just a few minutes. Then I’ll go visit with Ina for a bit. I promise to ask Marshal Black to walk Robbie and me home.”

  “Thank you.” Without warning, he leaned down and kissed her cheek. Did he just nuzzle her brow? “I’ll see you at home.”

  Home. Esther stared after him as he crossed the dusty street and disappeared into the bank. Somehow the word felt—right. But how had a leaky cabin beside a clapboard church become home in just a few short weeks?

  Esther wandered into the mercantile to make her purchases, moving without much thought. She was still wondering what to make of the kiss and nuzzle—and he had nuzzled her brow, she was sure of it now. When Ina led her into their family parlor, Esther looked around as if she’d never seen it before. Had it truly been only a matter of weeks since influenza had forced her into James’ home and life? It felt like she’d known him forever, even better than she’d known Claude after several years of marriage.

  “Are you all right, Esther?”

  “What? Yes. Sorry, I’m a bit distracted. James…” She paused, embarrassed that she’d slipped and called him by his first name.

  “Don’t stop now. You know I’m fine with you calling him James. It is his name, after all.”

  “Ina, he… He kissed me.”

  “Really?” Ina sounded delighted, which was not the reaction Esther was expecting. “Kissed you how? When?”

  “Just a few minutes ago, in front of the mercantile.”

  “Oh, well, that couldn’t have been too much of a kiss, out in the open like that.”

  “He kissed me on the cheek and then nuzzled my brow.” Her hand drifted to the spot, which still tingled from his touch.

  Ina leaned back on a belly laugh. “Finally, finally.” She shook her head. “The man has been attracted to you from the moment you met. Took him long enough.”

  “I’ve only been here a few weeks. That’s not very long.”

  “It is when you know it’s right. And you do, I can see it on your face.”

  “It’s just because we’ve been all but living in the same house, eating nearly every meal together and—”

  “Hogwash,” she interrupted.

  “Ina, we’d probably never have met if not for Robbie.”

  Her friend obviously didn’t believe that, either. “Has he told you how he feels?”

  “He tried,” Esther admitted. “He asked me to marry him. But I wouldn’t let him finish. He only thinks he wants to marry me because Mr. Owens and the other elders have pressured him into this ridiculous arrangement.”

  “Really?” Ina planted both fists on her hips. “For more than five years he’s told everyone in King’s Ford in no uncertain terms to mind their own business, but now that you’re here, he’s suddenly incapable of doing that?”

  “But I thought—”

  “If he’s asked you to marry him, Esther, it’s because he wants to, not because anyone is forcing his hand. James is a good man. Don’t let anything keep you from a life with him, if it’s what you want.”

  Instead of feeling settled after having tea with her friend, Esther was more distracted than ever. After the Marshal left her at the front door to the parsonage with a reminder to stick close to home, she took Robbie to the church. An hour spent practicing organ didn’t help. “Could he really want to marry me? No, it just isn’t possible.” She tried again to concentrate on the hymns for Sunday, but her thoughts wouldn’t settle. Isn’t the question, do I want to marry him?

  Esther’s fingers slid off the keys. Do I? She’d left the gold mining camp in a desperate attempt to deliver her baby safely. The closer she came to her time, the louder she cursed her fool of a dead husband. She’d sworn with every beat of her horse’s hooves that she’d never marry again.

  “But why?” She voiced the question aloud, shocking herself as the words rang through the empty sanctuary. “Why shouldn’t I marry again?” She aimed the question at the cross behind the altar—and at herself. “James is nothing like Claude. Nothing. He’s a good man, a good father. Why don’t I deserve someone like that?” Marrying Claude had been a huge mistake, but did that mean any marriage would be a mistake? She sat in silence, hoping for divine guidance, but the Almighty remained silent on the issue.

  Deciding to think on it some more, she gathered up Robbie, closed the windows and left the sanctuary. James would be home soon, and he’d be probably be hungry. As she reached the cabin, she spotted him heading her way, his long-legged stride carrying him rapidly to her side. The fluttering around her heart stole her breath. The man is more handsome than he has a right to be. And he’s coming home to me.

  The next weeks flew by in a haze of dust, strangers and cooking. Esther had never in her life baked more bread or chopped more apples than she did during those days.

  Aurelia had sent a message with James that day she’d tried to play away her confusion, to come to work as soon as she was able. Ina had started keeping Robbie while she worked and brought him over for feedings. She also started giving him condensed milk from a bottle, though the child was still not happy with that alternative.

  The women, including Esther, made extra food to feed all the hands that were pressed into helping with haying. James ate with the others, or, when he wasn’t needed elsewhere, came by the café for his midday meal. Those days he’d take Robbie back to the parsonage until Esther got home. More often than not she’d find them both sound asleep on the bed.

  The sight warmed her insides and made her want so much more than what they had. But James never mentioned marriage again. She could only pray she hadn’t missed her chance.

  Though she had some money set by now, thanks to her job at the cafe, she still hadn’t visited the boardinghouse to inquire about a room for her and Robbie. If she was being honest with herself, she no longer wanted to move out. But James was still sleeping on a pallet in the church, and the lack of good rest was taking a toll on him.

  James rose from the floor where he’d been playing with Robbie since supper. “It looks like the last of the herds will show up tomorrow.” He went to stare out the front door. “That operation’s cookie came to Doc’s this afternoon needing to have a serious gash stitched up. He said to expect the point men shortly after dawn, because without him there to cook, the cowboys will have eaten hard tack for breakfast, and they’ll be hungry.”

  She laughed at his imitation of a rough-tongued cowboy.

  “In a few more days, we’ll have lived through Harvest.”

  At the realization that it was almost over, weariness stole her strength and she dropped into the chair beside him. �
�No matter how many times you told me the amount of work I was in for, I didn’t believe it. I promise never to doubt you again.”

  James studied her silently, with an intense look she’d never seen before. Then he smiled at her. “At least you—we survived it. And, after a few days of rest, the whole town will gather to celebrate.”

  “I’ve heard the women talking about a festival. The Sunday after we finish?”

  “It’s become a tradition. There will be horseshoes and races, a pie baking contest, dunking for apples, that kind of thing. And food, of course. One of the farmers will donate a pig and it will be roasted all day in a pit lined with wet burlap bags. By supper time, you won’t need a knife to cut it. It will fall off the bone.”

  Suddenly Esther was anxious for Harvest to be done. “That sounds delicious.”

  “They’ll start it up before the morning worship. You and I will have to talk about music for that service, because we traditionally remember those of our flock whom we’ve lost the past year.”

  They planned the worship until dark. Several times, James had leaned close to point at something on the paper she’d been using for notes. Each time, her heart beat a little faster and she inhaled deeply, enjoying the scent of clean male. The last time, he’d brushed her shoulder and she was pretty sure he’d stolen a sniff of her, too.

  A rim of light had just begun to show on the horizon when the sound of cattle reached her. It took her several minutes to realize she was still wearing the skirt she’d put on after bathing yesterday. “Oh, heavenly days, I must have fallen asleep at the table.” And that meant…

  The idea that she’d been carried to bed by James, that he’d removed her shoes and covered her with a blanket sent shivers of longing through her, along with a stab of disappointment. “The first time he takes me in his arms and I sleep through it.”

  Stomping into her shoes, she checked to see that Robbie was still asleep then hurried to the outhouse. Returning to the cabin, she used the bucket on the back porch to wash up, shivering at the cold water. “Winter is definitely on its way.”