Chapter 3
Chapter Three
It was almost dark as Zach made his weary way home.
His stomach kissed his backbone. He was hungry enough to eat the bark off the trees he passed.
He’d missed dinner in order to answer the urgent message that he was needed in town at someone’s request. And now he was set on missing supper.
Those at home would have eaten a long time ago.
Though with Gil drinking again, who knows if they’d get a proper meal?
They might have had to scrounge for whatever they could find in the kitchen.
What he wouldn’t give for Gil to stay sober and cook a decent meal.
While he was wishing for the impossible, he might as well wish Kathy would turn into a sweet young gal, and Pa would be well enough to take back the responsibility of running the ranch. And Miss Pressly and her adorable baby hadn’t added to his responsibilities.
His stomach growled. If only Ma were alive. But he might as well wish for rain from the cloudless sky.
God in heaven, our land is suffering from lack of moisture. Could You please send some our way?
God didn’t always provide the answers a man sought.
His ma would have said God had bigger, better plans, but Zach couldn’t see how that was possible.
Without rain, the grass would wither, the cows would lose weight, and the weaker ones would die.
How was he to take care of his family if he lost his livelihood?
The house came into view. A light flickered in the kitchen window.
He rose in his stirrups and studied the place.
One of his worries was that Pa might accidentally start a fire.
He nudged his horse to a faster pace. The light focused on the table.
Soon, he could make out a lamp. Had someone forgotten to put it out?
He dismounted at the house and threw open the door.
“Welcome back.”
He skidded to a halt at the cheery greeting.
“Miss Pressly, what are you doing up?” A calming beat of his heart eased the tension in his ribs.
“I half forgot you were here.” Truth being he’d done his best to push away thoughts of the young lady because he didn’t want to deal with another problem in his already troubled life. What was he supposed to do with her?
“First, let’s dispense with the formality. You’ve addressed me as Amelia in your letters.”
Before he could protest, she held up a hand. “Or at least I believed you did. So please, call me Amelia. And the reason I’m up is to wait for you.”
Just like Ma used to do. Except Ma wouldn’t have ignored his comment about forgetting about Amelia. She would have pointed out that either he was pretending or he was being rude. In this case, it was a little of each.
“I didn’t know if you would eat at the chuck wagon, but I saved you a meal in case you were hungry.”
His stomach rumbled. “I’m starved.” And he wasn’t about to turn away good food just because the woman offering it posed a problem in his tidy little life. He barely kept a snort from erupting. Tidy life? He hadn’t seen such since Ma died.
“Let me put my horse away first.” He wasn’t in a hurry. Of course not. But he ran to the barn and took care of the animal in record time. Only because he was hungry, his stomach rumbled to prove it.
As he stepped inside the house, Amelia got a plateful of food from the warming oven and set it before him.
“Thank you.” Mashed potatoes and pork chops drowned in rich gravy, turnips, and peas. “Did Gil sober up enough to cook?” He dug in without waiting for her answer.
“I made it.” She sat across the table from him.
“It’s good. Thank you.” He glanced toward the stairs. “Pa?”
“I found him in the trees to the west. He’s home and sleeping soundly.”
“I gotta say I was worried about him. I didn’t know if—”
“If I could manage him?”
He nodded, then thought better of it, and shook his head.
“He was agreeable. Seemed to like having company. Poppy is calling him gampa.”
“That’s nice.” I guess. But wouldn’t it confuse Pa even more to have them move in and then move out? “I take it Gil was too hungover to cook.”
“He sobered up enough to join us for supper, then went to the bunkhouse. I hope he doesn’t have a bottle stashed there.”
Gil had bottles hidden in half a dozen places, but why bother saying so?
Zach cleaned his plate and snuck a glance around the kitchen. Ma always made dessert, but no reason to expect it now.
Amelia brought a large serving of apple crisp to the table.
How? What? Where? She must have found the apples in the cold room, though he thought they would be soft and unusable by now.
He ate a bite of the dessert and barely held back a sigh of pleasure.
Obviously, they’d been good enough to bake with.
Either that or she had some kind of special skill.
Whatever the answer, he only wanted to enjoy the sweets.
And relax knowing Pa was safe in bed and Gil was in the bunkhouse—whether sober or not remained to be seen.
“Were you able to deal with your cows?”
Her question startled him back to awareness of her presence. “We found a couple of dozen head hours away from water and had to drive them back at a slow pace. Lost six.”
“How did they get so far? Doesn’t seem natural.”
He cleaned his bowl and resisted an urge to lick it clean. “It’s not. Someone has been systematically separating them out a few head at a time and driving them away.”
“Where was your foreman? Morgan Grant. Right?”
He stared at her. “How do you know that?”
“From the letters?”
“The letters I didn’t write?”
She chuckled, her green eyes catching the lamplight in glittering sharpness. “You don’t by any chance have a twin no one knows about?”
“If I do, it’s about time he started pulling his share of the workload around here.”
She laughed, and he stared.
As if he’d never heard a woman laugh before.
“About the foreman?” she asked again, her eyes twinkling.
“He’s been busy at the river, fighting Sobel’s men to allow the cattle to drink.”
“Aw. That’s not nice. I’ve not liked this Sobel man since you—” She stopped before she could again say he’d written her. “Since I first heard of him. But you got everything sorted out, did you?”
“For now. But Sobel is determined to make me quit. He thinks he’ll succeed because, in his eyes, I’m nothing but a boy.”
“Just as I’m nothing but a girl, and yet, I’ve taken care of my grandmother and her house.
She is failing. I hated to leave her, but she assured me she could manage with the help of a girl she hired.
I nursed Callie as she lay dying. I will raise Poppy as my own daughter.
” Her voice grew firmer with each word. “And I traveled west to get married.” The fire in her voice died, and she stared at her hands.
“I feel at a disadvantage. Someone has told you all about me and my situation, but today is the first I’ve heard of yours. You’ve had a lot to deal with.” Not unlike himself. He dismissed a tremor of connection before it could take up residence.
She lifted her head and gave him a look full of determination. “No more than have you.”
Their gazes fused as he recognized in her someone who’d been forced to grow up early and fast. Again, the thought… not unlike himself.
This time, he couldn’t as easily dismiss the notion. In that moment, he felt they shared something he’d been unable to share with anyone else. He couldn’t understand why it should be, but the idea calmed his soul and strengthened his spirit. Made him feel lighter.
“Did you get settled into a room upstairs?” His gaze sought the steps that rose to the second story.
“Kat helped me move into the next to the last.”
Zach had the first, Pa next to him, and then Kat.
“Kat helped you?” He couldn’t keep the disbelief from his voice. “Lately, she’s balked at helping do anything but eat.”
Amelia raised a hand. “I’m not about to claim she was overjoyed, but she helped.
She and Poppy played together, and that helped as well.
” A smile curved her lips as her gaze circled the room.
“Your home is every bit as lovely as I expected. What I’ve seen of the countryside is peaceful.
I can see why you called the mountains ‘guardians of the land.’”
“I said that?”
“Well, whoever wrote the letters and signed them Zach Taggerty did. I’m still having trouble thinking that person isn’t you.” She pressed her fingertips to her forehead. “Who would do such a thing and for what reason? It puts me in rather an awkward position, wouldn’t you say?”
Him too. He tried to think how to answer, but everything that came to mind sounded unkind. “Someone will want to marry you.”
“Of course they will. After all, I’m a hard worker. I made a decent meal, didn’t I? I tended the horses with Kat’s help, and I settled your pa. By the way, your pa thinks I’m here to help.”
“What does Kat think?” She could make life difficult for them all if she chose to.
“I think she was glad to have someone take charge of Gil and your pa and supper.” She gave him a look that made him blink. What had he done to earn a silent challenge? “I hope you don’t mind that I took over things.”
“You said you would, and I left you to do so.” He pushed back from the table. “I appreciate coming home to a hot meal. Thanks.”
He stood behind his chair. “But it doesn’t change anything.
I don’t have time for courting or tending to a wife’s needs.
Truth is, I don’t even know if I’m going to be able to save this ranch from ruin, and not just because I’m a kid, as Sobel never fails to remind me.
Between the drought, the men—” He didn’t know what the author of those letters had told her about the men, but he didn’t intend to whine about it.
She rose and faced him, her hands clasped to the chair’s top rung. “What about the men? The letters mentioned they didn’t feel they should obey your orders, but I thought getting Morgan as the foreman had fixed that problem.” She waited a heartbeat. Two.
He didn’t answer, didn’t know how.
She pressed. “Did it not?”
“Not entirely.”