Chapter 9
When Hunter arrived home with flowers, a lot of Grace’s annoyance with him faded.
She knew she had come down on him quite heavily, and that probably wasn’t the best way to handle things.
After all, they were still trying to get to know each other properly.
They had only been married for just over a week.
It was funny how it felt both a good deal longer and like no time at all.
“I’m really sorry,” Hunter said, speaking mostly to his shoes. “Robert has been running me ragged, and I’m really worried about us not finding the bandits’ lair. Not that that’s any excuse not to listen to you.”
“It’s okay,” Grace said with a rueful smile. “I shouldn’t have been so harsh. You’re doing your best and so am I. I guess we just have to keep that in mind.”
“Yes,” he said, nodding and looking her in the eye now. “These are for you.” He thrust the beautiful flowers at her.
“Thank you so much,” Grace said, taking them and smelling the beautiful fragrance. “They’re lovely.” She took his hand. “Come on, dinner’s ready. I know all this working as a deputy really gives you an appetite. I made one of your favorite meals as my own apology.”
They moved to the kitchen table, and Grace put the flowers in a nice vase.
She dished up their meal. “Baked potatoes with chicken. I added a fresh salad from the kitchen garden as well, just to round it off. If you’re still hungry afterward, there’s fresh bread.”
Hunter chuckled. “With you, there’s always fresh bread.”
She smiled. They began to eat, each intent on their plates for a while as the awkwardness lingered.
“I hope you don’t mind, but I’ll have to walk down to the station a little later and give Alberto and Miguel their dinner,” Grace said, finally looking up from her food. “Robert asked me to feed them.”
“Yes, that’s good,” Hunter said. “We had a discussion about it at the station. El Aguila has turned most of the local farmers against us. We can’t get our food from them anymore.
They simply won’t sell to us. We’ll have to go farther away and see what we can find.
But in the meantime, everyone in town will have to tighten their belts, even the prisoners. ”
Grace frowned. “Is Mr. Emmerson also not selling to us?”
Hunter shook his head. “I believe that he’s still fine. It’s all the others. Andrew had a meeting with them today, and the farmers told him they wouldn’t be selling to us under any circumstances. El Aguila has threatened them and their families. They’re scared.”
“This is terrible,” Grace said. “Didn’t some very smart person once say that civilization was two missed meals away from anarchy?”
He nodded. “Something like that. We’ll have to ration our supplies.”
Grace nodded. “All right. Well, I’ll do my best to preserve what we have. I can pickle some of the vegetables from the garden, but once the staples run out, things will get bad here.”
Hunter reached across the table for her hands. “I’m really glad that you decided to come all this way to be with me. I can’t imagine a great many women would be so calm when hearing about food shortages.”
“Well, there’s no reason to get riled up,” Grace said, quoting her mother. She squeezed his hand and let it go. “That won’t help anyone. We’ll find a way through. Is there a town storeroom where you keep emergency rations and things?”
“Yes, there is,” Hunter said. “At the moment, Anita, Emily, and Julie are running it. I suppose they will know about the shortage and start making arrangements.”
“Well. If they need help,” Grace said, “my mother was on the committee for Coalsville’s emergency supplies, and I used to help her with rationing.”
“You’ve done this before?” Hunter asked.
Grace nodded. “Sure. Some winters are awful in the mountains, and if you don’t prepare properly, then things can get really bad, really quickly.
There is a lot of snow, and you can’t get to the next town, never mind getting to a bigger city for supplies.
No, we had to make do a lot, and we did. And no one died.”
“That’s good to know,” Hunter said with a grin.
Grace grinned back. After a moment his grin faded.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“It’s just … I have to ask you for a favor that I’m pretty sure you’re not going to like.”
Frowning, she cocked her head to one side. What could Hunter possibly want her to do that had him looking this uncomfortable?
“What is it?” she asked.
“I know we all have to start being careful with our food supplies,” Hunter said, speaking carefully. “But I have to ask that you give the prisoners less.”
“What do you mean?”
“Only that we have a plan, and we need to fool the prisoners into thinking that things here are worse than they are,” Hunter said. “That’s all.”
“You want me to knowingly starve men while there is food to be had?” Grace asked, quite appalled. And then she realized what she’d said and who she had said it to.
This was Hunter. He wasn’t like that. He wouldn’t ever ask her to do something so morally questionable. She knew that even though she’d only just met the man in person.
“I’m sorry,” she said, not liking the look of incredulity on his face. “I didn’t think. I didn’t mean it like that.”
“Yes, you did,” Hunter said. “You think I am being manipulated by men like Robert. But Robert isn’t a bad man, and neither am I. I’m trying to get this problem resolved quickly and without any bloodshed or broken bones.”
“Broken bones?” Grace asked. “What are you talking about?”
Hunter shook his head. “Folks are worried, and that makes them do strange things. I’m trying to avoid that.”
“Okay,” Grace said. “Okay, I understand. We’ll make this work, whatever your plan is.”
He looked relieved. “So, what will Miguel and Alberto be getting for dinner tonight?”
“I made their dinner earlier,” she said. “It’s just a casserole.”
“Good,” Hunter said. “Maybe you can mention that stores are starting to run a little low for us. You can tell Robert or Jeff, and they’ll make sure the prisoners can hear you.”
“I don’t know,” Grace said, suddenly nervous. “I’m not good at that sort of thing.”
“What sort of thing?” Hunter asked gently.
“Acting under pressure,” she said.
“You’re not under pressure,” Hunter assured her. “All you need to do is what you’ve been doing for a week anyway. Just add in a little bit about the food situation.”
She looked into Hunter’s pleading gaze and made a decision.
She might be a mouse, but even mice could be brave.
She could do this for him, for the town he clearly loved so much that he had volunteered to take orders from Robert, who appeared short-tempered and difficult.
The very least she could do was step up when her husband needed her to.
And she wasn’t lying, as such. She was just slightly …
preempting a situation that was on the cards.
They would be out of food soon apart from whatever they could grow in their gardens. It was the truth.
“All right,” she said. “I’ll do it.”
Hunter beamed at her. There was a lot of pride in his look. “Thank you, Grace. I know it goes against your beliefs, but this is a good thing. I promise. And it’s not as though we’re outright starving the men. Just leaving them slightly hungrier than usual.”
Grace nodded, suddenly very nervous and not keen on her dinner.
She choked some more of it down and then left the rest. She covered her plate with a dishtowel and set it aside.
She would eat it later or the next day if she got hungry.
There would be no wasting of anything now.
She would have to recall her mother’s tricks to make sure there was enough food for everyone.
When the meal was over, she packed up the casserole and got ready to make the short walk to the station.
“I should probably go alone,” Grace said to Hunter, who looked ready to walk with her. “I’ve been doing it all week by myself.”
“When?”
“I walk down to the station each evening around now when you get settled in the parlor after dinner,” she said.
“Oh, well then. I’ll do the dishes,” he said.
“You don’t have to,” she said.
“I want to,” he replied, and headed off to the kitchen.
Grace smiled, pleased that they seemed to have crossed some sort of milestone in their young relationship.
Then she set off with the casserole in a basket on her arm.
It was still early evening, and the sun hadn’t set all the way yet.
She walked in the dusk evening air and felt the cool breeze on her cheeks.
She wasn’t yet used to the Texas heat, and she felt she only started to breathe in the evenings when it finally cooled down.
She found Jeff at the station. He smiled when he saw her.
“You just caught me,” he said. “I was about to lock up and head home. It’s been a long day.”
“I’ll bet it has,” Grace said. “I just brought them their dinner.” She inclined her head toward the cells in the back.
Jeff sniffed the basket. “That hardly seems fair. They get better grub than I do.”
“What are you having for dinner tonight?” Grace asked.
“Beans on bread,” he said. “As a bachelor, I have to live by my wits.” He chuckled.
“If you come by the house tomorrow evening, I’ll make you a proper dinner,” Grace said without thinking. She was supposed to be rationing, playing the part that Hunter had asked her to. “Although, it won’t be anything fancy. With the farmers not selling to us, we’ll have to go carefully.”
“That’s very kind of you,” Jeff said with a wink. Did that mean he knew what she was trying to do? Probably. He was naturally wily, she thought, remembering how he’d tricked the bandits that had been chasing them when they left San Antonio. “I’ll bring a can of something.”
“Sounds perfect,” she said and handed him the casserole. “I hope they like it.”
“Well, so far they’ve enjoyed everything you’ve made,” Jeff said. “Probably better than anything they’re usually fed in the bandit camp. You want to give it to them?”
She shook her head. “Not tonight. Hunter wasn’t asleep when I left for a change, so I’d love to spend some time with him.”