Her Silent Burden (Seeing Ranch series) (A Western Historical Romance Book)

by Florence Linnington

  “Cowgirl,” Miss Flynn corrected, a saucy smile on her face.

  “Right,” Noah breathed, looking down at her.

  They needed to get back to the two people waiting behind the rocks, and back to the train, but right then Noah didn’t want to be anywhere else in space and time.

  Her brows pushed together. “I am sorry, but I do not believe I caught your name.”

  “Noah Hahn.” He touched a finger to his hat brim. “I’m here to escort you to Whiteridge.”

  Miss Flynn’s lips parted in surprise. “Oh! I’m sorry. I did not know.”

  “I didn’t tell you,” he grinned.

  She blushed, and a giddy feeling spun through Noah’s stomach and chest. After all the joking he’d made about picking up an old, withered schoolteacher, and now look at his luck. To top it all off, she wore no ring.

  “Rosalie Flynn,” she introduced herself. “And that boy over there is my son Jacob,” she said as she gestured toward the rocks.

  “It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Noah said.

  It was the understatement of his life.

  Chapter 4

  supper will not be fancy

  4. Rosalie

  Chapter four

  Noah lifted Rosalie’s packed-to-the-brim suitcase like it weighed nothing, setting it in his wagon bed with one smooth, easy movement. He’d dropped his hat on the front bench, and as he turned to look at her, the sunlight caught his blonde hair, making it look even lighter.

  Noah’s gaze connected with hers and a heat that had nothing to do with the warm spring day filled Rosalie. Without meaning to, she looked away.

  “That was amazing, how you found the horses,” Jacob said, climbing onto the wagon bench. “Maybe you can teach me some tracking skills, Mr. Hahn.”

  “Jacob, I am sure he is busy,” Rosalie quickly answered.

  “I’d love to,” Noah said. Rosalie looked back at him and found his hand extended, ready to help her into the wagon.

  Afraid he could hear her nervous swallowing, she accepted the help. His touch was firm, the palm calloused. He was a man of strength and grit and obviously knew a hard days work.

  After returning from the horses, the conductor of the train had announced everyone would proceed by horse and foot to Pathways, as it would be a while before the derailment was taken care of.

  Rosalie and Jacob, of course, had no reason to go to on to Pathways now. So they settled into Noah Hahn’s wagon and headed for the mountains toward Whiteridge.

  The wagon bucked and swayed underneath them. Jacob sat between Rosalie and Noah, and Rosalie couldn’t decide how she felt about that. Noah was an extraordinarily handsome man, for sure. And talented, as well. He had not been exaggerating when he had claimed he had the skills necessary for tracking the horses.

  If Rosalie were younger, then she would have known what to do with her attraction to Noah. More specifically, if she were the same girl she had been before she was married, then she would have known what to do.

  As it were, it had been years since she’d entertained any thoughts of courtship. After her husband had left, she’d been too torn up over his betrayal to find a man to fill that void in her and Jacob’s lives. She also didn’t trust anyone either.

  Now that she found herself a little older, she also discovered she was out of practice when it came to the world of courtship. Before she’d married Enoch, it had all been simple. Fun.

  Not anymore. Now she felt like she was close to being an old maid, despite the fact that her thirtieth birthday was still a year away.

  It all depended on how you looked at it, Rosalie supposed. But the truth remained: she was an aging schoolteacher with a child. Not exactly every man’s first pick.

  A farmer in Wisconsin had shown interest in her two years before, but at that point, Rosalie had spent so many years alone she saw the affair of marriage differently. It used to be, she believed she needed a husband. He was the person who supported her and any children she raised. But that wasn’t always the case, was it?

  As Rosalie had seen, she was capable of supporting herself and her child. And that meant she had more options. She could marry for companionship rather than out of necessity. Although, so far, she hadn’t found anyone she wanted to spend the rest of her life with. The farmer in Wisconsin had been so dull Rosalie almost nodded off to sleep the first time he came calling.

  But Noah Hahn... here was a man unlike any she’d ever come across. It was not merely his physicality or fine tracking skills. There was an electric air about him.

  “How old are you, Mr. Hahn?” Jacob asked out of the blue.

  Rosalie gasped. She was very curious to know anything about Noah, but that did not mean they should just come right out and ask such personal questions.

  “I’m sorry, Mr. Hahn. He knows better than to ask that.” She gave Jacob a hard look. “Don’t you?”

  Noah chuckled. “It’s fine. I’m twenty-nine.”

  “That’s how old Mother is,” Jacob said.

  Noah leaned forward to look around Jacob. “You don’t say? May I ask, Miss Flinn, when your birthday is?”

  Rosalie sucked in her bottom lip, her heart speeding up. “January twentieth.”

  Noah smiled wide. “Mine is January twenty-fifth.”

  Before she knew it, Rosalie was giggling. “So I have you beat by five days.”

  “Looks like it,” Noah answered, the look on his face suggesting he did not mind her ‘beating’ him at all.

  The road was becoming rockier, the valley giving way to a steady incline now. Rosalie held onto the side of the bench as the horses and wagon began the arduous climb.

  “No mountains like this out in Wisconsin, huh?” Noah asked.

  “No,” she answered through gritted teeth. Rosalie didn’t know whether or not she’d ever been as high as they were going, and a sudden anxiety gripped her.

  Eventually, the road smoothed out a bit more. Though it was still rough going for the horses, at least it was nothing like the initial descent. She relaxed in her seat, able to take in the scenery as the afternoon passed.

  Whether she’d been sitting on the wagon bench for one hour or four, Rosalie couldn’t tell. She’d been so riveted by Noah’s stories of growing up back east and then coming west to work for the railroad she hadn’t noticed the passage of time. She wanted to know everything about him, down to what he liked for Sunday dinner and what he liked to do on lazy Saturday evenings.

  “Here we are,” Noah announced.

  Rosalie turned to look forward, at first surprised that they’d approached town without her noticing. Within a few seconds, though, she understood just why she hadn’t taken note of Whiteridge. There wasn’t much there to note at all.

  “There’s the saloon,” Noah pointed out, as the horses pulled the wagon down the one road. “And there’s the general store. And that’s the hotel.”

  “That’s it?” Jacob asked.

  “Plus the schoolhouse, which I’ll take you to now, if you like. Oh, and we’ll have a church soon. Hopefully, this fall.”

  Rosalie took it all in one more time. She’d known the place was small, but this hardly passed for a village.

  “Where is the mine?” she asked.

  “On the other side of the mountain. You’ll hear blasts from it on occasion.”

  Passing the buildings on the street, Noah guided the horses around back of the general store. There, set back a way from the road, was the schoolhouse. With trees surrounding two sides of it, it had plenty of shade and soft-looking, green grass.

  “I know it’s small,” Noah apologetically said. “But it has a new cook stove in it, though. And desks I helped make myself. A chalkboard, too.”

  “It’s lovely,” Rosalie told him, meaning it with all her heart.

  Noah’s shoulders rose with pride as he inhaled deeply, and Rosalie ducked her face. Goodness. Was this flirting? She wasn’t sure. She couldn’t really remember what it felt like to flirt.

  But s
he did know it would do no good to dwell on Noah. Perhaps he was available, and perhaps he was not. If he was...

  Well, Rosalie didn’t know what she would do then, that’s how out of practice she was when it came to men. She’d say yes if he asked to call on her, she supposed.

  “Would you like me to take you to your house now?” Noah asked. “Mr. Zimmerman plans on coming down and greeting you at some point, but he might not be able to do that until tomorrow. So it’s only me till then.”

  “Yes,” Rosalie said, unable to stop her giant smile. “That would be nice.”

  The house ended up not being far from the school at all, just up the hill a bit. Rosalie and Jacob would be able to walk into town in a few minutes’ time. It was a log cabin, with a glass window in the front and an area cleared for a garden.

  “I’ll build you a stable soon as I can,” Noah said as he helped Rosalie down from the wagon. “It won’t be anything fancy since we have no lumber yard up here. I’ll use the best logs I can cut down, though.”

  She looked at him in surprise. “Oh, you don’t have to do that.”

  “You’ll need it.”

  “But we have no horses.”

  “You might, eventually.”

  “It’s so much work for you,” she protested. “And you’ve already done so much already.”

  “Miss Flinn. Please. Let me.” Noah’s voice was low and rumbly, impossible to hear and not become weak in the knees.

  Rosaline licked her lips. “Yes. If it is no trouble, then I would be very pleased to have your help.”

  “There’s furniture in here!” Jacob suddenly shouted from inside the cabin’s doorway. It seemed he’d gone and inspected their new home without Rosaline noticing. “Two beds, a table, and some chairs. Plus a wardrobe, Mother.”

  “If there’s anything missing,” Noah said, “let me know.”

  “You work for Mr. Zimmerman?” Rosalie asked.

  Daniel Zimmerman had been the one to hire Rosaline. Though she had never met him, he knew the director of the school board Rosaline worked under in Wisconsin, and it was through that association that she had been recommended.

  “You work for him?” Rosaline asked.

  “Um, no...I...” Noah cleared his throat, looking flustered.

  Suddenly, Rosaline’s face turned hot. How silly of her. Noah was going out of his way to help her. He was only being kind.

  “Thank you very much,” she told him. “I will let you know if anything is missing, although I am sure we will manage quite well. It looks like a lovely home.”

  “Good,” Noah said, his voice deep and rich. “I live right above the saloon. If you need anything at all, just come on by and knock.”

  “I will, Mr. Hahn. Thank you.”

  “Have a good evening.” With a final tip of his hat, Noah climbed back into his wagon and took the horses back down the hill.

  “Mother,” Jacob said. “Come see inside.”

  Rosaline turned away from the road Noah had vanished down, though it was hard to. “The bags need to be brought inside.”

  Together, they hauled everything they now owned in the world into their new cabin. The home was new, by the looks of it, and had come free as part of Rosaline’s job. Perhaps this bonus had been Mr. Zimmerman’s way of luring a teacher into the Wyoming wild, but Rosaline would have come regardless. Wisconsin had felt increasingly stifling the last seven years, ever since Jeb had left. With Rosaline’s family all gone, the reasons for staying there had up and vanished as well.

  “It is very nice,” Rosaline said, taking a look around. There were three rooms. A main one and two bedrooms. After spending the last eleven years of her life in a two-room house, three separate rooms felt like a luxury.

  “Supper will not be fancy,” Rosaline said, going and inspecting the cook stove and shelves nailed into the wall. “But there is a general store here. That is good. We can make a trip first thing tomorrow.”

  “I like Noah. Don’t you?”

  Rosaline spun around. Jacob had opened up his bag and was getting busy pulling out his books and stacking them right there on the wood floor.

  “Yes. I do,” she answered.

  Jacob paused in his work and looked up. “We’ll be happy here, right?”

  A strange sensation grabbed at Rosaline’s heart. She was happy and sad at the same time and didn’t know which emotion was stronger.

  “Yes, Jacob,” she said. “We will be.”

  Chapter 5

  he’d soon have it

  5. Noah

  Chapter five

  Saturday morning. It used to be Noah’s favorite time of the week. When Daniel Zimmerman bought Outpost from Wakefield, he changed up some of the saloon’s hours, pushing opening time on Saturdays till the evening. His thinking behind this probably had something to do with morality and preventing the miners from drinking all day long on Saturday.

  Noah wasn’t sure whether the different hours meant anything or not. Going off of his own observations, loads of men got drunk whenever they had the chance, whether you gave them ten hours to do it or two. Some people would make sure it happened regardless.

  But because of Zimmerman’s new hours, Noah was now a free man on Saturday mornings. Sometimes tasks such as stocking and cleaning took up his time, but today nothing needed to be done.

  Which meant he’d spent the whole morning so far thinking about Rosaline Flinn.

  Noah wanted to go and check in on her and her son so bad he ached, but he knew he couldn't do that. They’d only just arrived, and they needed their space to settle in.

  He’d stayed up half the night, waiting to see if Rosaline would knock on his door asking for anything. Some firewood to be chopped. A cup of sugar to be borrowed. Anything at all, and he would give it to her.

  It had been a long time since Noah set his gaze on a woman so captivating, and it certainly hadn’t happened in Whiteridge. The females there he could probably count on one hand, and they were all married. All except for Rosaline.

  Where was her husband? Had he died? She must have been married at some point since she had a child. Or maybe not.

  Noah didn’t care either way. The only thing that perplexed him was the thought of a man walking out on a breathtaking woman like Rosaline and a nice boy like Jacob. That didn't make sense at all.

  With a start, Noah realized he’d already arrived at Wakefield’s house. He’d been so lost in thought he’d walked halfway up the hill without really noticing the scenery around him.

  The door was propped open, but he knocked on it anyway. At the sound, Thea appeared from the bedroom door, Aria in her arms.

  “Little lady ready for her first drink?” Noah asked, shaking the flask he’d pulled from his pocket.

  Thea frowned, and Aria whined loudly. There were bags under the mother’s eyes, and the baby’s face was red and puffy like she’d been crying a lot.

  “I’m kidding, Thea. Sorry. It’s vanilla extract. I don’t trust whiskey on a baby’s gums.”

  She sighed. “No, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be rude. Thank you for bringing the vanilla.”

  Taking the flask from him, she sat at the table, dabbed some vanilla on her finger, and attempted to rub it against Aria’s gums. The baby squirmed at first, but then noticed how good the vanilla tasted and started murmuring for more.

  “Where’s Wakefield?” Noah asked, leaning in the doorway and folding his arms.

  “He’s working on the pig pen. He should be back in soon.” Thea looked up at him. “Coffee?”

  Noah hesitated. “That sounds nice, but I need to get back to the saloon.”

  “You’re not ready for opening yet?”

  He avoided her gaze. “That’s right.”

  Noah didn’t want to admit the truth. He wanted to be at Outpost in case Rosalie needed something. The thought of her going to any other man in Whiteridge for help got his blood boiling. He knew it was immature, but he wanted to be the only man lending her a hand.

 
; “Ba,” Aria peeped.

  “It’s vanilla,” Noah told her.

  “Ba,” she said again, right as Wakefield stepped up behind Noah.

  “Is that helping?” he asked, looking at Aria, who smiled at him in return.

  “Just as good as liquor,” Noah answered. “Better tasting for a baby, too.”