Chapter 12
“She seems uncertain,” Nathaniel commented, leaning against the door frame with arms crossed over his chest. Beyond, Chloe washed the outside windows of the cabin while Eliza helped, moving the pail and handing a drying cloth to Chloe.
Just a moment ago, Eliza had glanced over her shoulder at him, just watching him for several moments before she turned away.
“Maybe if you’d quit looking out the doorway like that, she wouldn’t be,” Lillian said, emerging from the kitchen. “You’re making the child nervous.”
“Me?” he asked. “I’m not doing anything, I’m just watching.”
“That’s the problem,” Lillian said. “Don’t forget, Natty, that the child has been brought up in a different world. She’s been rejected and abandoned twice by perspective families.”
“Three times,” Nathaniel said before he thought.
“Now that’s not fair,” Lillian scolded. “You heard her, what her husband was like. She was probably frightened out of her wits. It must’ve been one of the hardest thing she’s ever done, leaving her baby at the orphanage.”
“That may be, but that little girl is quiet, much too quiet. And every time she looks at me she looks suspicious or maybe even a little afraid.”
“And why shouldn’t she be? She’s reserved. She’s been abandoned. It will take time for her to regain her trust in anyone, even Chloe.”
Nathaniel considered what his sister said and realized she spoke the truth.
He supposed if he’d been in the child’s position he’d be wary as well.
Over the past couple of days, he and Chloe, and sometimes Lillian and Dalia if they had time, helped out.
In addition to young Thomas Hale, they’d received another border, an older woman named Millicent Evans, who was making her way to California but didn’t seem to be in much of a rush.
“How are things going with your boarders?” he asked. “Has Thomas found a job yet?”
Lillian fidgeted for a moment with her feather duster.
“Not yet,” she sighed. “Unfortunately, he grew up in a large town in Ohio. He doesn’t have much experience for any of the ranch jobs available around here, nor with any of the outfits preparing for their cattle drives up into Oklahoma or Nebraska. ”
He turned to his sister. He knew she was attracted to the young man, but as of yet he hadn’t broached the topic with her. Nevertheless, she seemed to read his mind.
“He’s well-mannered and has a nice personality, but he just hasn’t gone any experience.” She frowned. “This morning he’s off to the bank and then the mercantile, hoping that one of them can hire him for something.” She paused. “If he doesn’t find something here, he’s going to have to move on.”
“You like him.” He wasn’t particularly surprised by the smile that formed on his sister’s lips.
“I do,” she nodded.
“What about Missus Evans?” he asked, temporarily avoiding the topic of Thomas Hale. “What’s she like?”
Lillian’s expression changed and she offered a soft laugh. “I like her. She’s got spunk.”
“Spunk?”
Lillian nodded. “Let’s just say that she speaks her mind. She says she’s old enough to have earned the right.”
“She likes it here?”
Lillian shrugged. “I suppose so. She hasn’t complained about anything yet. In fact, she spends most of her day in her room.”
“Resting, probably.”
“Maybe so, but when I pass her doorway I sometimes hear her talking to herself as if she’s carrying on a real conversation.”
Nathaniel shrugged. “Maybe she is.”
He recalled old Carson Withers, an old rancher who’d died years ago.
He used to talk to people who weren’t there, sometimes arguing with them.
At other times, he simply forgot where he was, often right in the middle of doing something.
He could be at the store purchasing supplies and then suddenly become confused as to why he was there.
Once, Nathaniel had had to take him home because he couldn’t remember where he lived.
Lillian returned to the kitchen and Nathaniel turned back to watch Chloe and Eliza. She’s a married woman, he reminded himself. You can’t be interested in her. Even so, he couldn’t help it.
There was something about Chloe Whitfield that drew him to her, regardless.
He watched as Eliza took the bucket over to the water pump in the backyard and struggled with the handle.
Though it was hard, the child didn’t give up but kept priming the pump handle until water gushed out.
She filled the pail to overflowing, but then when she lifted it, seemed startled by its weight.
He stepped from the doorway and walked toward her. She heard him and looked up, her eyes wide and wary. He slowed his steps. “Let me help you with that, young lady.”
She frowned. “I don’t need help,” she muttered.
Lillian was right. The girl was a bit standoffish and blustered to hide her fears.
He knew it would likely take time for the child to regain a sense of trust in adults.
“Everyone needs help once in a while.” She eyed him warily.
“After all, I’m the town sheriff. I can’t just stand by and not help out, can I? It’s my job.”
“It is?” she asked. “I thought your job was to chase outlaws.”
He smiled. “Well, it is my job to keep law and order, but it’s also my job to help people in my town if they need it and if I’m able. And I’m able to help you with that bucket of water, if you give me permission.”
Her eyebrows rose. “You mean you won’t help me unless I tell you that you can?”
He nodded. “That’s right.”
“Why?”
“Because that’s just being polite. I’m not telling you that I’m going to take that bucket from you. I’m asking if I can help you with it. Your choice.”
She stared at him for several long moments and then glanced again at the bucket before turning back to him.
“Well, it is a little heavy.” She glanced over her shoulder.
Chloe had moved around to the side of the house.
She turned back to him and, head tilted, eyed him for several more moments before she finally nodded.
“All right then, you can help me.”
He nodded, stepped toward the pump, and lifted the bucket and started toward the cabin.
“You and your mother are certainly sprucing this place up nice.”
“She said you used to live here.”
“My parents did. I was just a young’un when they built the house, so I don’t remember much about living in the cabin.”
She walked beside him, trying to keep up with him because of his long stride. He slowed down a little without making it too obvious. Lillian was right. The girl was adjusting. He couldn’t imagine what it would be like to grow up without family.
He also knew that Chloe would do her best with the child, but where would they go from here?
She was still afraid that her husband might find her.
Her fears were justified. He’d known enough bad men.
A good number of them weren’t the most rational of human beings.
He would’ve liked to talk to her about that, to do what he could to find the man, at least give her some peace that perhaps he was a thousand miles away.
He rounded the corner and saw Chloe standing on a stump, scrubbing with a dripping wet rag at the window on the far side of the cabin.
At that moment he saw her teetering and try to catch her balance, but in the next moment, the stump started to topple.
She let out a startled cry and he dropped the bucket and rushed forward.
He caught her as she fell, almost going down onto one knee but managing to keep his feet under him.
She automatically wrapped her arms around his neck, her eyes wide, mouth gaping as she stared up at him. When their eyes met, he couldn’t help but be drawn into the depths of those lovely blue eyes. If only—
“Mama, are you all right?”
He straightened and lowered Chloe onto the ground. The moment was gone. She tugged her gaze from his and turned to her daughter with a smile, her cheeks flushed with color.
“I’m just fine, Eliza, thanks to Nathaniel’s quick thinking.”
Chloe refused to meet his gaze, her cheeks flushed.
He then turned to her daughter, saw the worry, and realized that the two had already started to bond.
The last thing either one of them needed were more complications.
He took a step back, then looked for the bucket, lying on its side a few feet away.
I’ll get this filled up again.”
With that, he walked away, berating himself for his attraction, for wishing she wasn’t a married woman, but there was nothing he could do about that.
With a sigh, he refilled the bucket and brought it back, and then left the two with their chores.
By the time he returned to the house, his mother was in the kitchen, though Lillian was gone.
“Where’d Lillian go?”
“She and Thomas went out to have a picnic.”
So he was Thomas already? “A picnic?” he asked and almost blurted out “unchaperoned?” He caught himself just in time.
Lillian was old enough to take care of herself, and from what he’d seen of Thomas Hale over the past few days, he was a polite young man who treated not only his sister but his mother with polite respect and deference.
While Nathaniel had reserved judgment, he believed the man was a decent sort, and if his sister was attracted to him, well, that was her business and not his.
*
Two more days passed before the cabin was ready to move in to. Over the past week, and when he had spare time, he’d been working on building a bedframe for Eliza. He also took it upon himself to purchase a genuine spring mattress for the child’s bed, as well as a new one for Chloe’s.
He had repaired and cleaned some of the furniture that had been stored in the room at the back of the house. The cabin was livable, if not exactly homey, but they probably wouldn’t be staying for long.