Going inside for a wrap, she went out onto the porch. From there she watched the sun come up on a carpet of smelly cows that reached as far as she could see. “That’s the last time I’ll see that for another year.”
Where would she be in a year? She liked it here in King’s Ford, and Robbie would need for at least that long. But did she want to stay knowing she’d ruined her chances with James? “Don’t think about that,” she scolded. “You can’t leave now anyway, not with winter almost here.”
“Esther?”
“Out here.” She smiled when James joined her, carrying Robbie. He was dressed in his clerical clothes, his hair carefully combed. She found she missed the working man he’d become for the Harvest.
“Someone was pushing up, trying to see where you’d gone.”
“Good morning to you both,” she said, bobbing a curtsy. “I haven’t started the coffee yet.”
“I did. Don’t worry about making breakfast for me. I have a meeting with the church elders at the Owens’. Elda always goes out of her way and she’d be disappointed if I didn’t eat my share.”
“I hope there’s nothing wrong.” Memories of Mr. Owens trying to force them to wed rose in her mind.
“It’s the last planning meeting for the festival. We always meet at Orland and Elda’s. That way the men don’t realize she’s guiding the conversation and making sure we don’t heap too much work on the women.”
“She’s very smart.”
“I don’t think I ever realized that until the two of you became friends.” He handed Robbie to her and went inside, returning with two cups of coffee. Giving her one, he took the baby back and turned to watch the cattle drive.
Esther just stared at the picture they made, her heart swelling with love. She would never forget the sight of James, dressed in black and wearing his starched white clerical collar wrapped neatly around his neck, sipping coffee and holding his son while dawn spread over the land.
“Will you be going to work this morning? Esther?”
“What?” She mentally shook herself. “Um, yes, I think Aurelia will still need some help, with this fresh batch of cowboys. But it will probably be the last day she’ll need me until next year.”
“What will you do? If you’re still determined to find another place to live, you’ll need work, won’t you?”
Was he trying to get her to leave? Had he taken her advice and found someone to marry, someone that didn’t turn him down? “I—I don’t know. I mean, yes, I’ll have to have work if I’m to afford living quarters.”
“I see. Well, you don’t have to decide that today. There’s still plenty to do for the time being.”
But his message was clear. It was time to move out of his life.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Her heart heavy, Esther made her way to the café after dropping Robbie with Ina. There was already a crowd of freshly washed and shaved cowboys milling around outside, in addition to their regulars.
“Mornin’, ma’am. Something sure smells good in there.”
She barely glanced at the young man. “Let me pass and we’ll be open that much faster.”
“Thank you kindly, ma’am.” As a half dozen men echoed their appreciation, Esther slipped inside the restaurant, locking the door behind her. “Aurelia?”
“There you be.” She held out a starched white apron as Esther stepped into the kitchen.
“Sorry. Robbie just wouldn’t be hurried.” She fastened on the apron and took quick stock of the kitchen. “The crowd is impatient this morning.”
“And early! They started lining up before I got the lamps lit. I’ve got coffee cooking, potatoes boiled and cut up, the first batch of biscuits are in the oven and the eggs are over there. We’re serving fried eggs, ham, fried potatoes and biscuits with white gravy. I’m too durned tired to make anything else.”
“If there’s bread left, I can have it ready to toast for those that prefer it.” Like James.
“Fine. See to them potatoes first, if you would, and I’ll stir up some more batches of biscuits.”
They fell into the routine they’d perfected over the last weeks. When Aurelia unlocked the door and let the customers in, Esther moved into the dining room, pouring coffee, taking orders and delivering food. If something needed cooking, Aurelia stayed in the kitchen. When she wanted to socialize with her clientele, Esther took over at the stove.
Once the torrent of breakfast customers had slowed to a trickle, Aurelia took a minute to sit at the small table in the corner of the kitchen. “I’ll be glad when all this ends. Every year, Harvest gets a little harder on these old bones.”
“And you love every minute of it,” Esther teased.
“I sure like the money it makes me,” Aurelia laughed. When the bell over the front door rang out, Aurelia groaned.
“I’ll go.” Esther checked that her apron was presentable and hurried into the dining room. “Ina?” Her friend was rocking back and forth, trying to calm a fussy Robbie.
“He just won’t see reason. I told him today is just like yesterday, that he needed to drink his milk, but he’s having none of it.”
Esther blushed as conversation around them quieted, patrons listening. “I’m sorry. I need to pour some more coffee, then I can—”
“I’ll pour. You take care of him.” She all but shoved Robbie into Esther’s arms, leaving her no choice but to take him into the back. Aurelia was already up and at the stove.
“I heard him squalling when Ina opened the front door. Take care of your boy. The rest of those folks can wait.”
“Ina is pouring coffee, actually.”
“Ina Finney? Well, I’ll be. She’s a right good woman, for a doctor’s wife.”
Esther went to the table and turned her chair to face the wall and give them both some privacy. “I take it you don’t care for doctors?”
“I like them fine as long as I don’t have to go see them.” Flipping biscuits from the pan with the ease of long practice, Aurelia brushed butter on the hot pan, refilled it and shoved it back into the oven. The scent of melted butter and hot biscuit filled the room.
Once Robbie was satisfied, Esther returned him to Ina. “I’m sorry he’s been muley today.”
“No matter. He’s just missing his mama, I think.”
“Ina, you know I’m not—”
“You’ll need to make more coffee. And the four gentlemen at that table each want four eggs, ham, potatoes and biscuits with honey.” Ina leaned in close and lowered her voice. “And they all said please.” She sailed from the room on a wave of laughter, taking Robbie with her.
Esther saw to the orders, and several more requests for coffee before starting on the food for lunch. By the time the day ended, the sound of Aurelia locking the door was sweet music to hear. “Finally. Am I imagining it, or did this day last longer than any other?”
“Happens every year,” Aurelia cackled. “Let’s get this place cleaned up and ready for tomorrow.”
Esther pushed to her feet. “Will it be as busy as today?”
“Nah. These cowboys will push on with the herd and take the dust with them. It’ll just be the locals who are tired of their own cooking.”
Aurelia washed and Esther dried the mountain of plates, cups, and cutlery. “Leave the pots and pans soaking. I asked Geraldine Porter to come in and do them tonight. The woman needed the extra money and neither of us really wanted to scrub pots and skillets, do we?”
“You’ll hear no argument from me. I hear there’s to be a festival on Sunday.”
“Yep, that happens every year, too. It’s nice to sit with your neighbors after such a run of strangers in town.”
With the kitchen put to rights and tomorrow’s menus planned, they left the café together, Aurelia turning right to pick up a few supplies from the mercantile and Esther crossing the street to get Robbie.
Ina opened the door before she could knock. “Shh. He just went down for a nap, praise the Lord. Come in and sit a bit.”
“You get the baby, and I’ll roust Doc to walk you home.”
Doc carried Robbie all the way into the parsonage, laying him gently on the bed. “Now it’s your turn, young lady.”
“I need to—”
“Rest is all you need to do for the next hour. I mean it.”
“Yes, Doctor Finney. Thank you for walking me home.”
“My pleasure, and I mean that, too.” He winked and headed for home.
She barely heard the door close as she unbuttoned her half boots and stretched out on the bed. When she woke, the sun angle seemed about the same. She hadn’t slept long, but the doctor was right. She’d needed a nap.
Moving quietly so she didn’t wake Robbie, she poured warm water from the pot on the stove, stripped to her chemise and washed up. Wrapped in a dressing gown, she opened the front door and took a deep breath of cool air. She’d need a sweater this evening. Glancing toward town, she spotted James heading this way with two men she didn’t recognize. The men turned at the church, and James came toward home.
Instead of coming inside, he waved and circled around back toward the well. She heard him call out something about washing off the dirt of a day of labor. Waving back, she hurried inside to start something for supper, though she could hardly bear the thought of more cooking. While she started a fresh pot of coffee, she mentally sorted through what they had on hand. Spotting the basket of eggs James had gathered that morning, she decided to make some hash. It was hot and filling, and easy to prepare.
Chopping chunks of ham, potatoes, carrots and one of the hot peppers James liked, the cabin quickly filled with the scents of food. Leaving the potatoes to boil in a small amount of water in the skillet, she slipped behind the curtain to feed and change Robbie.
Before Harvest had gotten underway, she’d purchased a ready-made shirt at the mercantile. Shaking it out, she studied the needlework she’d done on it. The garment was made for a man, but the fabric was soft and comfortable. As she’d had time, she’d sewn a dozen fine tucks down the front to make if more feminine. Seeing it finished gave her a sense of accomplishment. And she needed the self-confidence to face James again.
Changing into it and her dark skirt, she let down her hair, brushed it quickly, and tied it back in a long tail that hung past her waist. She finished just as something thumped on the porch and James knocked on the back door.
“Come in,” she called, stepping around the curtain. But instead of James, two men crowded in through the back door. Esther swept up Robbie and took three running steps toward the front door.
“Bug?”
The nickname stopped her flight. Only two people had called her that. She spun back and studied the men. “Jonah? Zeke!” She met them halfway across the room and hugged each man in turn.
“Don’t you look perty?” Zeke, the elder brother, held her at arm’s length. “Got some meat on them bones, too. That’s good to see, I tell ya. Good to see.”
“This young’un yours?” Jonah tickled Robbie under the chin.
“No, he’s a foundling left in the Reverend’s care. My baby girl…” She swallowed back the tears. “She died.”
“Aw, now, I’m sorry, Bug. That shouldn’t a happened.” Zeke patted one shoulder while Jonah patted the other.
No, she thought, it shouldn’t have, but it did. “Where did you come from? When did you arrive?” She took Zeke’s hand and led him to the table, knowing from experience where he went, his brother followed.
“We got tired of digging in the dirt.”
“Didn’t want to spend another winter freezing our shovels off up in them mountains.”
“This herd was headed south so we signed on. Decided we couldn’t eat anymore dirt riding behind cows than we did digging in those hell holes day in and day out.”
She laughed. The brothers had always been like this, one carrying on half of a conversation while his sibling filled in the rest. “I’ve missed you both, so much. How did you find me?”
“That preacher man, Reverend Hathaway, he got to talking to us and askin’ questions and afore long he figured out we knew you from before. So he invited us to come and eat with you.”
“Hope it ain’t too much trouble, but boy, I’ve been missing your biscuits.”
“Sure have,” Jonah echoed.
“It’s no trouble at all, as long as you like hash.”
“If you make it, I’m gonna like it,” Zeke assured her. They both rose when James joined them.
“I see you found your surprise, or they found you.”
“Thank you, James. It’s a delightful way to end a long and trying day. If you gentlemen will entertain Robbie, I’ll get dinner—and biscuits—going,” she promised the brothers.
The meal was full of stories and laughter, and a few tears, as they reminisced and helped James understand what they’d gone through in the Dakota mountains.
“Why Bug?” James refilled cups.
“’Cause of how big her eyes are.”
“Especially when she was so thin you could practically slip her under a closed door.”
Esther nodded. “I’ve told you Claude wasn’t prepared to make a move like that. By the time we reached his claim, we had very little left to eat.”
“And that good for nothin’ sidewinder couldn’t hunt.” To Zeke, this was unforgiveable.
“I’m not sure he could a killed a spider if it already had all eight legs in the air.”
“True ‘nuff,” Zeke nodded in agreement. He leaned to one side and tugged an old watch out of his pocket. “We best be thinkin’ on getting’ back.”
Jonah patted her hand. “First we got some things of yours, though.”
“Mine?” She waited while the brothers went onto the back porch and returned with two bulging saddlebags.
“You left a lot of stuff when you came south.” Jonah put one bag at the foot of the bed, then took the other from his brother. “We thought you should have it back.”
“When we were packing up, we found this.” Zeke tugged a small leather pouch from his jacket pocket. “I found it in the skirt pocket of that pretty green dress you never wore.”
“There was nowhere appropriate to wear that dress without other men getting ideas.”
“Well, Claude musta tucked this away and forgot about it.”
“Or died before he could gamble it away.”
Intrigued, Esther turned up the lamp in the center of the table and untied the strings. When she saw what was inside, she could only stare.
“What is it? Esther?” James came to her side. “Are you all right?”
“Gold,” she whispered. Looking up she caught Zeke’s gaze. “It’s full of gold.”
“Probably every bit he ever got out of his claim.”
“Or stole from someone else’s. Don’t matter now. He’s gone. It’s yours.”
“And you earned ever bit of it,” they said in unison.
“So don’t even think of tryin’ to give it back.” Zeke nodded once, emphatically, telling her she could argue with them until a week from next Sunday, but the gold was hers to keep.
“I don’t know what to say,” she murmured.
James laid a gentle hand on her shoulder. “Then just say thank you.”
She hugged the brothers in turn, knowing they had to leave but not wanting to let them go. “Will you let me know how you get on from time to time?”
“Sure, we can do that, as long as you don’t expect regular correspondence.”
She smiled at Jonah, the only one who could write. “I’ll be happy just to know that you’re happy.”
“You gonna stay here, then?”
Her smile faded. “For a while, at least until Robbie doesn’t need me anymore. After that… I don’t really know.”
“Well, now you got ‘nuff gold to do whatever you want.” Zeke wrapped her in another hug. “You take care, now. We might come back throu
gh here sometime and I want to find you fit as a fiddle.”
Jonah hugged her next. “And happy as a pup with two tails.”
“You stay safe.” She and James walked them to the front door and stood on the porch until they turned back to wave one more time. “They always did that,” she told him. “Every morning when they left for the mine, they’d climb that goat path up the mountain and just before they disappeared over the lip, they’d turn and wave once more. I came to need that as much as I needed to breathe.”
He put an arm around her shoulders. “It meant they cared.”
“And they did.” She leaned against him with a watery laugh. “They still do.”
“What will you do, now that you have the means to do anything you wish?”
“I truly don’t know.” They went inside and started cleaning up. “I suppose I can afford a place to live, now. I was worried because Aurelia won’t need me more than another day or two, but that no longer matters.”
“Please don’t move to the boardinghouse.”
His plea was so unexpected, she dropped into the nearest chair. “Oh, James.”
“I’m happy that you have the gold, but why do you have to leave?”
Hope made her lightheaded. “I’ll be just down the street.”
“But you won’t be here.” When she rose again, he moved to stand in front of her. “I want you to be here. I love knowing you’ll be inside when I open the back door in the morning. I love sharing meals with you, just being with you. Knowing I can talk to you at any time about almost anything. I’ve never had that before and…” He looked beyond her into the darkness. “I didn’t realize how much I needed that, how much I needed you until you said you were leaving.” He took her hands and waited until she looked up. “I didn’t realize I’d fallen in love with you.”
Love? “You love me?”
“I know I’ve never given you any reason to believe me.”
She smiled up at him. “I promised last night I’d never doubt you again. But I thought you wanted me to leave. This morning, when you said—”
“That wasn’t what I meant. I was trying to make you see that right here is where you should be. Where you’re wanted.” He raised her hands to his lips and brushed a kiss to her fingers. “Where you are needed. By me.”
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