by Lydia Olson
Hank breathed out a sigh of frustration but listened to his wife. “I’m just glad that I get to have a bit of whatever smells so delicious,” he said, taking a deep breath.
“You’ll eat with everyone else,” Sara said decisively. “Now come and help me set the table.”
Hank said nothing as he followed his wife.
Jane turned toward Milton. He did look handsome. His golden hair was slicked back from his face, and it made him look like a gentleman instead of a weathered rancher.
“Thank you for doing this,” Milton said. “I know it was a lot of work on your part.”
Jane smiled. “It wasn’t that much,” she said. It was a great deal of work. She’d been preparing for nearly two days, and she and Sara had been cooking all morning. Jane was sure that she wouldn’t have been able to get everything done without her help.
But Milton doesn’t need to know all of that, she thought. He looked as nervous as she felt, and from the way Sara had talked, it could be because he had never had a party in his home before.
“It’s no problem,” she said. “I’m just hoping that everyone likes it.”
“They’ll love it,” Milton said.
Before Jane could say anything more there was a sharp knock on the door. “Seems that guests are starting to arrive.”
She reached out and grabbed onto Milton’s hand. She hadn’t thought too much about it. If she had, she probably would have kept her hands to herself. But she hadn’t, and Milton wasn’t pushing her away. In fact, he squeezed her hand in his own. The feeling of his rough skin on hers calmed her nerves.
“We should go out there,” Jane said.
Milton nodded, and he walked them towards the kitchen door.
“Here we go,” he said.
Jane took a deep breath, fixed a smile on her face and prepared herself for whatever would come next.
***
“I’ve never tasted something this delicious,” Serena James said. She was Sara’s sister, and she was just as lovely. She and her husband had joined the group for dinner, and Jane was enjoying her company.
Serena was a lovely young woman. Tall but delicate with small features. She wore a navy dress with a bustle in back. There was a light blue sash across her waist that matched her husband’s cravat. She was so glamorous that Jane felt a bit nervous sitting in her presence.
In truth, she enjoyed the company of all five of the couples who had joined him. She had expected some sort of hoity-toity attitudes. Denver was a larger city than the one she came from, and she had not been sure of what to expect.
Her father had entertained, but she had never been expected to run the dinners herself. Most of the time she hadn’t attended. She shivered as she remembered the last time they had had a guest. It had been Brandon Elmer, the man that she almost married.
“Jane?” Milton leaned down. “Is everything alright?”
She shook herself slightly. “Sorry,” she said to the guests, “I got lost in my head.”
Everyone gave her a small, kind smile. It was the type that was awkward and made her uncomfortable. They are going to think that I’m completely addled in the head, she thought, twisting her hands in her dress.
“Happens to me all the time,” Hank said. “I barely remember what I was doing this morning.”
Everyone laughed, and Jane gave him a grateful smile.
He was the life of the party, and Jane was glad of it. Milton was a kind man, but he was not someone who brought about laughter and fun. In fact, he had barely said anything during the majority of the meal.
“Where did you learn to cook so well?” Margaret Browning asked. She was the wife of the second largest landowner in Denver. She was in her thirties, a handsome woman who retained a good bit of youth. Jane was surprised by the smoothness of her skin, especially when she heard that Mrs. Browning had five children.
“My mother taught me,” Jane said. “She was twice the cook that I am.”
“Well, you’ll have to have another party when she comes to visit. I’m going to have to judge who is better for myself.”
Jane smiled tightly. She did not want to bring down the mood by telling her guests that her mother had perished. She was sure that they would find out in some way.
“Jane’s mother is dead,” Milton said. “So, she won’t be meeting us for the holidays.”
Jane said nothing, but she squirmed in her seat as all eyes turned to her.
“I’m so sorry,” Margaret said. “How terribly insensitive of me.”
Milton opened his mouth to speak, but Jane was worried that he might bring down the mood even further.
“It’s alright,” she said, before he could say anything. “You didn’t know.”
The tension in the air grew thick, and Jane thought deeply about what to say to salvage the evening.
“You’ll be able to meet my sister Kate though,” she said. “She’s not much of a cook, but she’s very fashionable. Take her to the dressmaker with you, and you’ll never look better.”
It was the only thing that Jane could think to say. It didn’t matter. Neither her father nor her sister would ever set foot in Denver. Before Jane left home, she wrote her father a note. She was honest in telling him where she was going and what she would be doing. She hoped that even in his anger he would write her, but so far, she heard nothing from him.
“That would be lovely,” Serena said. “I love going to the dressmaker.”
“We know,” her husband said meaningfully.
Everyone at the table, including Milton, laughed, and the tension eased a bit.
“You’ll have to come into town this week and visit. The general store gets caramels delivered at the end of the month from out east, and it’s a wonderful treat after a long month,” Serena said.
“Sounds wonderful,” Jane said. She hadn’t wanted to throw this dinner party, but it turned out that that it was the best thing she could have asked for. Now, she had friends.
Looking over at Milton, she saw a small smile overtake his face, and she tried not to roll her eyes at him.
Yes, yes, yes, she thought, your plan worked perfectly. At every turn, Milton was trying to make her life on the ranch better. What he was really doing was endearing himself to her. A month ago, she wouldn’t have thought it possible to care so deeply for a husband she only met on their wedding day, but now she was finding with every day that passed, she was starting to lose a piece of her heart to Milton.
Will he soon be in possession of the whole thing? She wondered. She wasn’t certain how she felt about that. Everyone that Jane loved perished or ultimately proved not to love her. She prayed that would not be the case with Milton.
Either way, she thought to herself, as she watched her husband out of the corner of her eye, I need to guard myself. At least, for now.
Chapter Twelve
Milton was pleasantly surprised by how well the dinner had gone. It was a muted affair— just dinner and conversation. If he were being honest, Milton enjoyed dinner more than he did conversation, and though he’d tried to be slightly more talkative, knew he had done a better job eating that he had making small talk.
Luckily for him, Jane had done a great job. She’d been the toast of the town, and as their guests left, they all commented on how lovely Milton’s new wife was. She had several invites from the wives to come for an afternoon tea or to participate in a church group.
Milton was happy and relieved to see that she was fitting in and making friends so easily. He knew that would be the key to making sure she continued to be happy in Denver, which was what he wanted.
“Let me help you,” he said as he walked back into the kitchen to find Jane cleaning. She had prepared two buckets of water to scrape and wash the dishes. There wasn’t a great deal of food left; everyone had eaten with vigor, but what was left Jane said that she would give to the men tomorrow for lunch.
She was always doing things like that. It warmed his heart. He liked the fact that she was alwa
ys thinking about others.
“I’m almost done,” Jane said, as she wiped her hands on her apron. He hadn’t seen her wear this dress before. He liked that color on her. It brought out the brightness of her coppery hair. Today, she had styled it, so it was smoothed away from her face, and though she was beautiful, Milton preferred it down in a braid. He liked the way her curls normally framed her face. It was always a challenge for him not to reach out and twine one around his finger.
“What?” Jane asked, breaking Milton from his thoughts. “Why are you staring at me?” Her cheeks heated in embarrassment, and she pressed a hand to her soft cheek. Milton walked closer. He felt drawn to her in a way that he couldn’t explain.
“I’m just trying to remember what things were like before you came here,” Milton said. His voice was low and gruff. The sun was almost out of the sky, but a few last rays peeked into the kitchen window. They played in Jane’s hair, making several of the strands shine like gold.
“Do you prefer how things were before?” Jane asked, her voice high-pitched and worried.
Milton shook his head. “Of course not,” he told her. He stopped in his tracks, not going any further. “I don’t think I’m saying this right.”
He wanted to tell Jane how much she had started to mean to him. He hadn’t expected to care so much about her. Milton wasn’t sure if it was love—he’d never been in love before—but he knew what he felt for Jane was special; Jane was special.
“You can just tell me what you think,” Jane said. “You never have to worry about mincing your words with me.”
Milton knew that to be the case. He wasn’t always the chattiest man, but he was trying his best to tell her how he appreciated the things that she did. Milton didn’t know much about marriage, but his father had lamented later on in life that he wished he would have expressed himself more to Milton’s mother.
Maybe then she wouldn’t have run off with the first man who had paid her attention, Milton thought. He did not want to think poorly of his father, but he sometimes wondered if there was something that his father could have done to make Milton’s mother stay.
“Milton?” Jane moved closer.
“I’m glad you are here,” he told her simply. He left off the flowery language and the declarations of adoration. They weren’t him. He was a straightforward, uncomplicated man.
Jane smiled at him. “I’m glad I’m here too,” she said.
“Truly?”
She nodded. “I was worried when I first came here that maybe I was making a mistake. Truthfully, I never planned to marry.”
That was news to Milton. “Never?” he asked, incredulous. He couldn’t imagine Jane not married. She was the type of woman who was born to be a wife and a mother. She took care of the people around her. It was one of her greatest strengths.
“Never. I wasn’t against marriage, but I enjoyed my life on the ranch. I didn’t care to leave. It was the last place my mother and I were together.”
Milton nodded. He understood. He had inherited his ranch and for years he had kept things mostly the same. He hadn’t wanted to change anything that reminded him of his father. His father was the only parent he had for most of his life, and he was someone who Milton had loved and admired. Changing the way his father had done things around the ranch had been difficult.
“Well,” Milton said, “I’m glad that you’re here.”
Jane smiled. “I’m glad too. Now I realize all the things that I would have missed if I never left New Mexico.”
Though her words weren’t anything particularly special, they warmed Milton’s heart. He was glad to hear that the ranch gave her something that she’d been missing, because she had brought a lot into Milton’s life.
“You should get some rest,” he told her. “I know you’ve been on your feet cooking all day.”
“There’s still silver to polish,” she told him, “and I need to make sure the plates all end up back in the proper cabinet.”
Jane made her way to sit at the table. Milton sighed. He was tired. They’d put in a hard day of work today as they used the last days of nice weather to their advantage. His arms and back ached, and his eyes felt heavy from both the ale he’d consumed that evening and his general weariness. He knew that Jane wouldn’t fault him for leaving her to the rest of the cleaning, but he couldn’t do it.
Despite his desire to retire to his room, he walked to the table and plopped down. “It’ll go faster if we do it together,” he said, grabbing a spare cloth rag dipped in vinegar to clean the silver. The smell permeated the kitchen, but Milton rather enjoyed it. It reminded him of simpler times.
“I’m happy to do it alone,” Jane told him. “I honestly do not mind it. Chores help me think.”
“And what do you need to think about?” he asked. He meant it to be teasing, but the words came out gruff.
Jane didn’t flinch though. It seemed that she was indeed becoming used to his mannerism. “Nothing in particular,” she told him. Milton could tell that there was more to it than that. He had come to know a great deal about Jane over the past few weeks. He had learned about her family, what she enjoyed, and how she reacted to certain things.
From their letters, he knew that she had contacted the marriage agency because she had not wanted to marry the man her father had chosen for her. She hadn’t given him too much more information from that.
“Do you miss your family?” It was a question that he hadn’t asked. She’d only been at the ranch for a month, and she hadn’t made mention of her family too often, but he also noticed that she had not received any correspondence from them either.
“Why do you ask?”
Milton noticed that she had begun rubbing the silver with a bit more rigor, and he knew that he had upset her.
“You mentioned them during dinner tonight,” he said.
“I was asked about them.” Jane rarely tried to avoid answering his questions. He liked how open she was with herself. She was one of the few women he had met who did not attempt coyness at every turn.
So why is she being coy now? He knew that she had not left things well with her father, but he thought that she might at least want her sister to come for a visit. Milton did not have any siblings, but he did wish for Matthew’s companionship some days.
“I haven’t seen any post come for you,” he told her.
“Have you been checking?” she asked, her tone biting.
Milton knew that he had stepped in it. He could see the physical signs of his questions in the way she rubbed the silverware and dropped the pieces with a loud clank on the table. She might not tell him to beg off, but she certainly wanted him to.
“It was a simple observation. I didn’t mean offense.” It was the truth. Milton deduced that Jane’s family, her father especially, had not taken proper care of her. But Milton could tell that something about the way she left things with them had been a thorn in her side. He simply wanted to know how to relieve it.
Jane’s shoulder’s sagged and for a moment, Milton worried she would start crying. He wouldn’t know what to do if that were the case. He had no idea what to do with a crying woman.
Luckily, Jane kept her composure. “I’m sorry,” she told him. “I’m not angry with you.”
“But you are angry?” he pressed.
Jane released a deep breath before giving a short nod. “I suppose I am. My father … he never listened to anything I had to say, but I just thought that was how things were between a father and a daughter. I never thought he would force decisions upon me that were not in my best interest.”
Milton assumed that she meant marriage. He said nothing. He didn’t agree with forcing marriage upon anyone, but it was a father’s right and duty to make sure that his daughter was safely ensconced in another man’s household.
“I’m not even cross about that,” Jane told him. “I’m upset that he’s made no effort to send me correspondence.”
Milton reached out and placed his hand on top of her ow
n. He pressed his calloused thumb against her smooth skin as he tried to give her some comfort. Once again, he was learning that he and Jane had a great deal more in common than he originally thought. Neither of them was a stranger to family disappointment.
“Maybe he just needs time,” Milton said. He did not like imparting false hope, so he prayed Jane’s father didn’t make a liar out of him.
“Perhaps,” Jane said. She brushed away a stray tear. “Once feelings have settled and pride is mended, maybe he would like to come and see the ranch.”
Milton wasn’t sure how he felt about that, but he would host Jane’s family if it made her happy. After all, the ranch was her home as well.
“Thank you,” Jane said softly.