~~ ~~
Texas 1886
Caroline knew Jack Spencer was going to be trouble the moment she laid eyes on him. Mostly because he had eyes on her… dark, brooding eyes that contained a strange mix of appreciation and fear.
She’d known him almost six months and the appreciation had grown considerably while the fear had lessened to the point that she knew she should be afraid. “I don’t think they wore masks,” he said now, those dark eyes daring her to argue with him.
Caroline happily obliged. “Of course the thieves had their faces covered.”
“But if Anna could identify them, we could send the sheriff after them.”
“If we caught the outlaws, the stories wouldn’t have any.”
Jack released a hearty laugh. “You mean to tell me it’s the same five men responsible for all the mischief in your stories?”
“Every bit of it.” She wondered if he really hadn’t picked up on that fact – she described them the same way every time – or if he only wanted to hear her defend herself.
Caroline’s brother, Sam, owned half the ranch where they lived. He and his wife were content to let her entertain the room with a story regardless of how little sense it made. Jack, who owned the more exasperating half of the ranch, always pointed out flaws. He seemed to actually delight in finding them.
“Stories need villains,” Caroline said, “but I prefer to think of most people as incapable of such atrocities. So it’s always the same men. Or one of the men.”
“Here I thought we were unlucky,” Jack said, “to have so much trouble on our land. But we’re just bad at chasing it away?” He lifted his eyebrows incredulously.
Caroline lowered herself into a chair. She typically stood when her storytelling got exciting. She had just been imagining Jack’s heroic rescue though and now he was looking at her so intently she might be on the verge of actual swooning. The man had no idea how unfairly he fought. “You… and Sam… you do a wonderful job chasing off the thieves. This time and every time. It’s just that Anna is uncommonly pretty.” Anna was also imaginary. Caroline had invented a young charge to star in her stories.
“Ah.” Jack sat back as though he’d understood.
He was likely biding his time for another interruption. Caroline tried to return to her story anyway. “Let’s see,” she said. “Jack had successfully untied Anna. Sam, meanwhile, bound the hands and feet of her captor and left him in the cave. Jack wrapped his strong arms around Anna and assured her that she was safe. Then he rode faster than the wind to bring her back to me.”
“Until tomorrow,” Jack mumbled.
Caroline ignored him. “Anna was delighted to be reunited with me and with Ruth,” she flashed her sister-in-law a smile, “and the three of us spent the evening in the kitchen making up a special meal to reward the men for their daring rescue. But Sam was so hungry he ate it all before Jack could get much.”
“Hey!” Jack looked at Sam as though he really had been that greedy.
Sam held his hands up in a gesture of innocence. “Why do I always end up in the middle when you two are going at it?”
“We are not…” Caroline sputtered. She did not like the insinuation that there was anything between her and Jack, not even an argument. “I’m only trying to tell a story.”
“It was wonderful as usual,” Ruth said. It was nice to have another woman in the house, especially one who could be counted on to be on Caroline’s side.
“But here’s what I want to know,” Jack said.
“What?” Caroline waited less than patiently for him to poke yet another hole in her fantasy.
“If we left one of the men tied up in a cave, can we expect no more than four to cause trouble from now on?”
“Of course not.”
“Uh…” Jack looked at her expectantly.
“Well, naturally his friends go and untie him later.”
“Why didn’t you say that?”
Caroline tried to glare at him. She knew he was being difficult on purpose. Unfortunately, she also knew that he knew she was enjoying it. “It would ruin the happy ending.”
Mock disapproval appeared on Jack’s face. “Then why did you tell me?”
“Why did you ask? You know the story has to end happily.”
He only smiled smugly.
“Don’t worry, Caroline,” Ruth said. “We’ll separate that detail from the real story.”
“I know you will.” Caroline smiled at her friend. “And tomorrow… I’ll tell you what I envision happening on Anna’s nineteenth birthday.”
Sam nearly jumped from his chair. “That’s my cue to turn in,” he said. He had very little patience when Caroline’s stories took a romantic turn and he apparently sensed it in her voice.
She came over and patted her brother’s arm. “Oh, relax. That’s for tomorrow when you’re out of the house. I’m heading up myself. Goodnight.” Caroline excused herself from the room and began to climb the stairs. The others would follow soon but she was typically the first to go to her room for the night.
Jack’s room was at the top of the stairs. Next was Sam and Ruth’s room. There was an empty room next to that. Caroline hoped her nieces and/or nephews would eventually fill that room. Since Ruth was only now expecting her and Sam’s first child, it might be empty for some time yet. The last room was Caroline’s. She went inside, closed the door and pressed her back against it. She was safe. From Jack.
She knew nothing would happen as long as Sam or Ruth was around but she only felt truly safe in the privacy of her room. The last time she had been alone with Jack, he had told her that he thought she was a beautiful woman. It was clear he meant it in a way her late husband never meant it. That’s why she was terrified of what else he might say if given the chance. That’s why she had been so careful not to let herself be alone with him.
The weather had been her ally. Winter seemed to magically set in as she needed it. Sam and Ruth used to spend some evenings sitting on the porch. Now that it was colder, they stayed in the sitting room with her and Jack. It was December – only a week from Christmas – and she hoped to have at least two months before she had to worry about weather warm enough for porch-sitting.
And the baby would come in the spring. Who knew how that might change anyone’s habits? Caroline took a few steps and knelt by her bed. The baby was the one thing that could drive Jack from her mind. Each night she prayed long and hard for the day her brother’s child would fill their house with his cries. What a heavenly sound that would be.
~~ ~~
Jack Spencer never knew his mother. She died a few days after his birth. He grew up with his father and an older brother in a small house behind his father’s blacksmith shop.
They had a neighbor who helped tend to the boys when they were young. The woman had six children of her own and five of them were also boys. There wasn’t much of a female presence in his life for the early part of it and that may have been why he started making plans to marry earlier than most boys.
He knew he would need a way to provide for his family and that blacksmithing wouldn’t be it. His brother was going to take over their father’s shop and there wasn’t room for two blacksmiths in the small town. As long as he wasn’t going to have the family business he thought to look into something else entirely. Jack was studying farming when a chance encounter changed his life’s direction.
Some men stopped in town on their way home from a cattle drive. One of the men came into the shop and Jack got to talking with him while his father re-shoed the man’s horse. The man described his job rather bleakly, as he planned to hang up his spurs as soon as he got back. It still sounded like a wonderful opportunity to Jack. If this man was about to give up his job, his employer might be looking for someone else to fill it. Jack asked if he could travel with the men and be introduced to the owner of the ranch. He was seventeen and ready to leave home.
Jack also thought himself in love. He’d taken a fancy to the neighbor’s only da
ughter, who was nearly his same age. He didn’t ask her to make any promises but he told her his plan to make a living and then come back for her as soon as he could.
The ranch owner was a man named Jonas Hughes. Jack was upfront about the fact that he wanted to learn from him enough to get a place of his own. Jonas respected the ambition and took Jack on as a hired hand. In addition to being an excellent teacher, the man was generous. After two years, when Jack had saved enough to buy a piece of land, Jonas offered to give him enough cattle to start his own herd.
Jack had been writing to the girl back home only sporadically and her replies had spaced out as well. He was still shocked at her answer to his letter containing the news that he could come for her soon. She was married. She had already married someone else. She hadn’t waited for him and even claimed to be unaware that he had expected it.
Once he recovered from this setback to his plan, Jack began spending most of his time off in town, where there were other woman. Not a lot of them for sure but he only needed one if she was willing. The banker’s youngest daughter immediately caught his eye. She was the most feminine creature he had ever seen. She appeared so delicate and so much his opposite that he hoped she could fill what was missing. Her skin was pale and smooth where his was tanned and rough. She had lace and frills on every inch of her clothing. She smiled easily and even laughed a delicate, tinkling laugh.
The young woman had competition for her attention. She was regularly found on one of the benches in town surrounded by men who enjoyed her flirting and her smiles. Jack was one of those men. They took turns fetching things for her and trying to get her to accept tokens of admiration.
It was Jack’s hope that she was waiting for one of the men to show her more serious attention. He intended to be the one. The first chance he got, he asked if he could have permission to call on her at home.
She laughed. It wasn’t the delicate flirting laugh he usually heard. It was more like a dismissive snort. She tried to cover it with a cough and made some vague statement about needing to check with her parents about a good time.
Jack’s plans to wed were folded up that day and tucked into a deep corner of his soul where he vowed not to let them out ever again. He could let a woman break his heart, but his pride was altogether different.
Jonas had a housekeeper named Mary. She was a motherly type and she gathered all the hands for a big meal after church on Sundays. Jack decided that Mary was the only female presence his life required.
Within a few years, Jack was promoted to foreman and asked to move from the bunkhouse to the main house – where he still lived now – and he was able to enjoy Mary’s cooking at every meal, not only on Sundays. But like most motherly types, she had the habit of asking him when he was going to settle down with a wife. Jonas also made similar hints.
Then Sam showed up like a lost pup to distract them all. The scrawny kid demanded to be put to work. He claimed he had recently lost his family and needed to support himself. The old scars mixed with fresh wounds on his back suggested a different story, one that no one wanted to hear.
It wasn’t the traditional family Jack had set out to form – the lonely old man, the fussy widow, the bitter bachelor, and the troubled kid. But for several years the four of them made it work.
Until Mary died and Jonas took it worst of all. Though he never admitted it, the younger men suspected he’d had feelings for Mary that could have made the two of them true family. He insisted they shouldn’t waste any time if they wanted families of their own. Jack resisted and Sam resisted. Sam even went so far as to suggest they didn’t need another housekeeper. But women simply had a softness that men did not and Jack convinced the others to hire a woman to cook.
Then Jonas died and Sam’s real story came out. He’d obviously been carrying some sort of secret in the ten years he’d been there. The fact was that he’d left two sisters when he ran away – abandoned them, he said – and the weight of what might have happened to them was crushing him.
Meanwhile, things weren’t exactly working out with the new housekeeper. When Jack sent Sam home, he harbored a hope that one of those sisters might come back with him to complete the family closer to the way Mary had.
Sam was gone for almost three weeks. He wired that one sister was well provided for but the other was widowed and coming home with him. Jack had been not at all prepared for their arrival. Upon meeting the train, he was introduced to Ruth as Sam’s wife. The man had been away not even three weeks and came back with a wife. He had left in search of his sisters, where had the idea for a wife come from? And how had he secured her in so short a time?
The real surprise though had been Caroline. Even though Sam was significantly younger than Jack, he had expected Sam’s sister to be older. It wasn’t an idea he had properly thought out. Just a vague expectation that if they were going to have a woman in the house, she would be a motherly type.
Caroline was young and beautiful and she was all softness. She had light brown eyes and a lilting voice that almost sounded like a lullaby, even during an action-packed story. Her golden hair had been pinned up that first day but she regularly let it hang down her back in a thick braid that looked like the smoothest rope Jack had ever seen.
While she was soft, she was not delicate like the banker’s daughter. Caroline worked hard alongside Ruth to keep the house clean and the food delicious. She was strong on the inside and hope shown from her eyes like no one Jack had ever met before. He fought his attraction to her for months, even when there were hints that she might feel something for him as well.
He had spent too long convincing himself that he didn’t want to be married to let this unforeseen woman convince him otherwise. But she had convinced him. Somewhere between running around the room to illustrate a fight against a raging fire and sitting quietly with a needle and thread, she had convinced him that he needed her.
The problem, however, was that as soon as he gave up and admitted to himself that he was hopelessly in love with Caroline, it became impossible to be alone with her to tell her. He didn’t know if he was planning to kiss her or propose. It didn’t much matter as either one would necessitate the other. It mattered less when there was no opportunity.
Getting her alone should not have been difficult seeing as how they lived in the same house. Jack spent a good part of the day outside though, tending to the needs of the animals. And whenever he found an excuse to be near the house, Ruth was stuck to Caroline’s side. They preferred to do everything together rather than split the chores. He didn’t like to feel as though he was lying in wait for her. He supposed that was, in a way, what he was doing. Sooner or later, he was going to find her alone.
~~ ~~
Caroline enjoyed the winter days when she could rise before the sun. She felt productive when she put in more hours than they had daylight even if it meant her lamp used more oil. That was a new luxury for her. She hadn’t had the oil to spare in previous winters.
As soon as she had said some prayers, she lit the lamp and pulled out a shirt that she was making for Jack. It was a Christmas present. She had already made a similar one for Sam. It didn’t feel similar though. The shirt for Sam was just a shirt. This one had her head constantly filling with thoughts of Jack slipping his arms into it. And thoughts of him taking it off.
Caroline dropped her needle and put her hands over her flushed face. Sometimes an active imagination was a curse. She tried to focus on the fabric in front of her. Christmas was only three days away and she still needed to make something for Ruth.
Her stomach growled at her to let her know when it was time to stuff the project aside to go work on breakfast. Ruth was up now so it should be safe downstairs. Caroline tiptoed down the hall and moved quickly down the stairs. She found her friend and sister over a boiling pot.
“Oatmeal?” she asked.
“That was my thought,” Ruth said. “Can you perhaps find some fruit to go with it?”
Caroline went into the store ro
om in the cellar. She rubbed her hands over her arms as she looked at the shelves. It was cooler down there. “What will the men feel like having this morning?” she wondered aloud.
“Peaches?” A deep and unexpected voice made the suggestion from behind her. Jack had apparently followed her. She hadn’t seen him anywhere near the kitchen. “Anything I can help with?”
“Peaches,” Caroline echoed. That would work. She grabbed a large jar from the shelf and quickly handed it to Jack. “You can carry this for me.” She slipped past him and back to the kitchen as though she was in a hurry to offer Ruth more help, or otherwise in a hurry that didn’t have anything to do with how badly she did and did not want to give Jack a chance to say something more personal.
Jack followed her slowly and set the jar on the kitchen table.
“Thank you,” Caroline said.
“Hey, Jack.” Ruth seemed confused. “Where did you come from?”
“Oh, I was checking the cellar for outlaws. Thought it might be nice if I stopped them before they got Anna for a change.”
Ruth laughed. Caroline was trying to decide if she should act affronted or simply try to work that idea into a future adventure. Sam came in the back door before she could do either.
“Are we late with breakfast,” Ruth asked, “or are you men finishing chores early today?”
“You set the schedule, my dear, so you can never be late.” Sam flashed his wife a very sweet smile and her fingers fumbled over the spoon.
They were so cute.
Jack appeared thoroughly immune to it. “I don’t know,” he said. “My stomach thinks you might be late.”
“Make yourself useful then.” Caroline handed him a stack of bowls and pointed to the peaches.
Jack took the bowls and got to work as instructed. Caroline filled some cups with milk and soon all four of them were around the table. Jack offered a quick blessing over the simple meal and no one’s stomach had anything to complain about. Jack was always the first one done eating. He did not immediately jump from the table as was his custom.
A Quiet Life Page 18