Slade nodded. “It’s the same mine where Billy died.”
“Or was killed,” Frank said somberly.
Now, more than ever, Joseph was convinced that his pa had been murdered. And with the attempted kidnapping of Nugget and the attack on Annabelle, whoever was after the silver was willing to get it at any cost.
Chapter Fifteen
Polly’s dismissal and subsequent lie about what happened at the creek stung. Annabelle had said unkind things to Polly. And yes, she deserved to be punished for her thoughtlessness. But that didn’t mean it was right for Polly to be so nasty to her at the creek and then lie to everyone about it.
“How’s your foot?” Gertie asked, the familiar kindness in her voice not nearly as painful as her foot.
“It’s fine, thanks.” Annabelle tried to stand, but Gertie shook her head and clucked at her.
“You sit right back down and put this compress on it. Polly may think you’re faking it, but a foot doesn’t swell up to twice the size of the other on its own.”
Gertie handed her the compress, and Annabelle tried not to wince. Still, it was some comfort to know that Polly’s poison hadn’t completely taken hold.
“I’m sorry for the inconvenience. I truly appreciate your kindness,” Annabelle said, not knowing what else to say.
Gertie brushed her hands on her apron, then frowned. “I need to get supper started. I’d ask you to mind the girls, but I suppose you can’t go chasing after them.”
Yes, a lot had changed in her relationship with Gertie. As much as she’d thought it wouldn’t matter, given all of the hurt Annabelle felt, she’d come to realize that it actually did, quite a lot.
“I could help with supper,” Annabelle offered. “I assist Maddie all the time.”
“Can you peel potatoes?”
“Of course.” Annabelle smiled. “And as far as minding the little ones, why, they can help.”
Just then, the little girls came bounding over, huge smiles on their faces. “Annabelle! Guess what we found?”
Nugget held out a sticky handful of tangled wildflowers.
“Lovely.” Annabelle smiled at the little girl. When her foot got better, they’d have to go flower picking again.
“We brought these for you to feel better,” Caitlin said shyly.
Annabelle closed her eyes for a moment, giving herself time to collect her thoughts. Yes, her heart hurt, but she had to remember that poor Caitlin had lost someone, too.
“Thank you so much, Caitlin.” She made a big show of smelling the flowers, even though they were just a bunch of weeds. Still, as she gave an appreciative, “Mmm...beautiful,” the smiles she was rewarded with made it worthwhile.
“Now that I’ve got my flowers, you two wash up and you can help prepare supper.”
“All right,” Nugget said with a smile. “Come on, Caitlin. If we’re real good, and there’s biscuits, Annabelle might let us help roll them out. Annabelle makes the best biscuits.”
The compliment warmed Annabelle’s heart, and for a moment, she wished she hadn’t been so wrapped up in her own life that she’d failed to do such with her sister. Of course, their mother had, which was where Annabelle had gotten the idea to do it with Nugget.
“You’re good with them,” Gertie said quietly. “Your mother would be proud.”
She looked up at the older woman. “At least I’ve done something right. I know she wouldn’t be proud of how I’ve been shutting everyone out. I hope you know I’m trying to do better.”
Slade’s story earlier in the day had made her realize that Gertie, too, probably harbored unspoken grief over her family’s losses.
“I know you are,” Gertie said quietly. “I just hope you learn to do it for your sake, not for hers.”
She turned, then handed Annabelle a sack of potatoes. “Your father was too generous. I invited a few other families for dinner tonight, so you can fix them all. We’ll fry them up with the venison the boys brought back yesterday and it’ll be a wonderful meal.”
Gertie turned her back before Annabelle could respond, and she knew that tonight’s dinner with all the other families would be equally uncomfortable. She’d try to put on a brave face, and hope that no one said anything that tore at the tiny pieces of her heart she was trying desperately to hold together.
The sound of gravel crunching beneath someone’s boot drew Annabelle’s attention. She looked up to see Joseph approaching.
“How’s the foot?” Joseph bent down as if he was going to tweak her nose or something, but then straightened, like he’d thought better of it.
“I’ll be fine, thanks.”
The girls returned, fortunate, since she could tell by the light in Joseph’s eyes that he was probably going to say something to dispute her claim.
“Joseph! I’m gonna help Annabelle fix supper!” Nugget’s clear voice made it impossible to feel too sorry for herself. Though she’d done a lot of things wrong over the past couple of days, at least this was clearly one area in which she’d done all right.
Concern littered his face. “Are you sure you should be doing anything with your injured foot?”
“I’m just peeling potatoes,” she told him with a smile. “I can do that sitting.”
“I’ll help.” Joseph sat next to her in the dirt. Did he have any idea how charming that grin was? Why couldn’t he be doing something useful with his life like being a banker or a teacher or a blacksmith or, well, just about anything other than a miner? As soon as he found silver, Joseph would leave, taking Nugget, and where would that leave her?
She turned away before he could see that her cheeks were feeling a bit warm. Surely she was as red as fire.
And really! She shouldn’t have been thinking such thoughts about Joseph anyway. About any man. Here, of all places. Where she’d met Henry and carelessly given her heart away knowing so little about him. She’d not make that mistake again.
Stronger in her convictions, Annabelle turned back to Joseph. “Haven’t you ever heard that too many cooks spoil the broth?” She dug in the bag of potatoes and began peeling the first one. “Nugget, have you ever peeled a potato?”
The little girl shook her head, and Caitlin stared at her wide-eyed. “Mama says knives aren’t for little girls.”
Unfortunately, that was just the right amount of inducement Joseph needed. “You girls fetch us some water and I’ll help Miss Annabelle.”
Miss Annabelle. Her cheeks heated again, which was absolutely silly, given the close quarters in which she’d found herself with him over the past day or so. She was used to much more familiarity from him, and yet, moving to more formal address felt... Something prickled in her heart, stinging and leaving her more alone than ever. Why had she thought that opening her heart to a friend would be a good idea?
The knife slipped in her hand, nearly nicking her skin. Why did she always have to be so clumsy around him?
Her father entered the campsite, and he looked at Joseph, then at her, almost as though he was signaling Joseph in some way. Joseph gave a quick nod.
Joseph cleared his throat. “Miss Annabelle, if I may, I’d like to escort you to the creek for some water.”
Did he grow daft all of a sudden? They’d just sent the—Annabelle glanced at her father, who nodded. Of course. Her father had something he wanted to have Joseph talk to her about. Right now, her heart couldn’t take any kind of talk. Especially not one encouraged by her father.
Annabelle lifted her swollen foot. “While I do appreciate your kind offer, you might recall that I’m unable to put any weight on my foot.”
Polite enough to satisfy even the stodgiest of matrons. She was very tempted to stick her tongue out at both Joseph and her father for being such meddling oafs, but that would only prove just how childish she was. Annabelle sighed.
Fortunately, Joseph looked just as relie
ved as she felt at the prospect of not having to go to the creek together—code for having a little chat, she was now certain.
“I’d forgotten. Please accept my apologies.”
“Certainly.” She smiled in the direction of her father. Annabelle dropped a peeled potato in the pot.
“You thoughtless wretch!” Polly grabbed the pot off the ground and glared at Annabelle. “Have you any idea how wasteful you’re being? Look how much potato you’ve taken off with the peel!”
The insides that had finally begun to feel more comfortable in this place knotted up. “I meant no harm,” Annabelle stammered. “This is how Maddie told me to do it.”
“There are a lot of hungry bellies to fill, and you’ve just wasted the food that goes into them.”
Annabelle looked at the pot of potatoes she’d carefully peeled the way Maddie had shown her. “I’ve only done a few. I’ll be more careful with the others.”
Then, because she couldn’t bear to look at her father or anyone else witnessing more of her humiliation, she looked at the ground. “As for filling hungry bellies, someone else can have my share of the potatoes. It’s the least I can do.”
“The least you can do is—”
“Polly!” Gertie banged on one of the pots. “Just because you’re cross with Annabelle doesn’t give you the right to treat her like that.”
She marched over to where Polly stood over her with the pot. “You know how to fix potatoes the way Maddie does?”
Annabelle nodded. “But I can fix them the way you want. Just tell me what to do,” she said as quickly as she could.
Please, please, please, please let everyone see how hard I’m trying to be a better person. It was just potatoes, after all. Surely that wasn’t something to be declared sinful.
“I haven’t had Maddie’s potatoes in ages.” A smile filled Gertie’s face. “So if you know how to fix them, I’ll be looking forward to eating them.”
Gertie glanced at Polly with a look that dared her to defy her, but that’s just what Polly did. “So you’re taking her side, are you? Fine. But don’t expect me to go without because of her. Bad enough she made more work for me with the laundry. Then she goes off and has to play princess with the hurt foot. Well, you can count me out. I’m through putting up with her.”
Polly stomped off, leaving Annabelle feeling like a bug that had been squashed for no other reason than existing. Pure meanness, that’s what Polly’s words were.
Her stomach churned and turned sour in a different way. This is what she’d done to Polly. She’d said horrible things out of anger and hurt, and it had squashed something in Polly’s heart.
“I’m sorry,” she mumbled again, knowing that no amount of times she said it would ever change what had caused this mess to begin with.
Joseph placed his hand over hers. “It’s all right. She’s hurting, too. I’m sure she didn’t mean to offend you.”
At least the old Joseph was back. Even under the weight of her father’s stare, she couldn’t ask Joseph to remove his hand. Someone cared for her. Someone understood how awful this whole situation was, and how she’d never meant for any of it to happen.
“Yes, she did,” Annabelle said softly. “And I know I deserved it, I just...”
Her throat felt raw and ached like she was coming down with something. But it wasn’t that. That she knew, even without a doctor. “I guess I see why they say an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind. I was hurting, so I let the harsh words take over, which led to Polly hurting, and then she needed to be mean to me.”
Annabelle removed her hand from Joseph’s and picked up another potato and began peeling. “I suppose it’ll eventually wear itself out.”
Her father stood and motioned to Gertie, who followed him out of sight of the tents. Probably more discussion over how to solve the problem of Annabelle.
Joseph picked up a potato. “Why is Polly so upset with you?”
“Because.” Annabelle sighed. There was so much to the story that Joseph didn’t understand. That no one understood. Because the one person to whom she’d bared her soul was gone.
“I was in love once. With a miner. I thought Henry a good man, and he helped with my family’s ministry. But then the sickness hit over the winter, and Henry wanted to leave. He wanted to avoid getting sick, and besides, there was gold in Alaska.”
She set another potato in the pot, trying to focus on the task at hand so her heart didn’t ache the way it always did when she remembered how selfish Henry had been. “I was needed at home to care for my family. He promised to wait. But then Polly came to see me. Told me he’d left without saying goodbye. I called her a liar.”
Her knife got caught in the potato, and Joseph took it from her. “Let me do that. You just focus on the story.”
“There is no more.” She sucked in a deep breath as she turned to look over the fire. It should have been warm, only all she felt was cold inside. “I asked why she would deliberately hurt me with such lies when she knew how I was hurting already. I’d already watched as they’d taken Susannah’s and Peter’s bodies out to the icehouse to be kept until the ground was thawed enough to bury them. I couldn’t imagine why Henry would abandon me at such a time, so Polly must’ve been lying.”
The fire popped, and Annabelle jumped, bringing her attention back to Joseph. “Turns out, Polly was telling the truth. I believed in a scoundrel over my dearest friend.”
“Your dearest friend should have understood.”
Annabelle reached for another potato and began peeling again. “Maybe. But I hurt her, and I shouldn’t have.”
“Even if Polly was hurt by your words,” Joseph said quietly, “she had no right to speak to you like that. Or even to tell lies about you.”
She looked up at him. Why did he have to be so wrong for her? “Thank you.” She finished the last potato and brushed off her skirt. “I wish...”
No, she couldn’t say what she wished. She wished too many things that would never come true.
“Well, I suppose it doesn’t matter.” She turned her head, wishing she could stand and get away from the closeness of this man who confused her so.
“It does matter. And I...” Joseph looked in the direction her father had gone, then back at her. “Annabelle, your father has asked me to get something straight with you. As a gentleman, I need to be sure that I don’t dishonor you in any way.”
Not another proposal. Annabelle’s heart fluttered in the pit of her stomach. If he asked, she’d almost say yes. Except the retelling of her story reminded her just how little she knew of Joseph. She’d known Henry far longer, had known him to be honorable, and been betrayed.
“Your father is concerned that you might have...feelings...for me.” His shoulders rose and fell as he glanced again in the direction her father had taken Gertie. “I assured him that we were merely friends, but he felt it necessary to clarify my intentions.”
If a person could die of mortification, she’d do so right at this very moment. How could her father be so...so... Annabelle sighed. She did have feelings for Joseph. But they weren’t the sort a person ever acted upon.
Joseph cleared his throat. “You know my situation. I have a brother and sisters to care for back home. I intend to move them west somewhere, but I can’t promise anything to anyone. All I know is that my duty lies with them. I can’t be a proper husband to any woman knowing that I have seven others to provide for.”
He looked at her with such tenderness, it made her heart want to break. “If I were to take a wife, I would want her to be every bit as bold and strong as you. But I can’t. It’s impossible for me to marry. Not when I have the children to raise. It’s an impossible burden to put on anyone.”
He had said as much before. Yet this time, it made her heart ache in an unfamiliar way. “Of course your family must come first,” she said, hoping it sounded
sympathetic to his cause. It wasn’t as though she wanted him for herself.
Joseph’s slow nod only made her feel worse. “Good. So then we have an understanding. Your father will be much relieved to know that your heart isn’t entangled.”
She forced a smile to her face, not caring if he saw through it or not. Over Joseph’s shoulder, she could see her father and Gertie returning. For all they saw, it was a perfectly amiable conversation that wasn’t creating strange feelings in her stomach. She was fine. Just fine. Or at least she would be once these feelings left. Because they all knew that based on both his words and hers, anything between them was an impossibility.
* * *
The old Annabelle had returned. Joseph watched as she greeted her father with a smile and a too-friendly tone. On the surface, the conversation had gone well, but he knew better than to trust her glib answers. But what else could he do? Carrying on the conversation meant digging in to the places of each other’s hearts that neither was willing to risk. He simply couldn’t afford to, and whatever Annabelle’s motivations, it didn’t matter.
Frank stared at him with a keen eye, questioning. Joseph gave a small nod to indicate that they’d had the conversation.
“All is well?” Frank addressed the question to Annabelle, but looked at Joseph.
“Yes, Father,” she told him in a perfectly proper tone. “Joseph and I are clear that neither of us have intentions toward the other.”
Frank looked almost shocked, taking a step back. Gertie’s soft gasp all but accused Annabelle of being impertinent. Then again, the whole situation bordered on impertinence. Things had been fine between him and Annabelle until her father had decided to protect his daughter’s honor.
Joseph rubbed his temples. He couldn’t fault Frank. If he’d thought anyone trifling with any of his sisters’ affections, he’d have insisted upon the same conversation.
Annabelle indicated the pot beside her. “I have the potatoes ready. If someone could put them on the fire, I would be much obliged.”
The rest of the evening passed with the same sullen silence he’d had from Annabelle when they first met. No one could accuse her of being rude, and some would probably even say that she was pleasant. But she wasn’t Annabelle.
Rocky Mountain Dreams & Family on the Range Page 14