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One hand clasping the mail bundle, he jammed his fists to his hips and turned to the driver. “You can return her to the fort.”
The man tipped his hat back on his head and shook his head. “Ain’t goin’ a mile more’n I have to. It’s about to snow.”
The wind bit at Linette’s cheeks but the cold encasing her heart was not from the wintery weather. She could not, would not, go back to London and her father’s plans.
The coach driver went on in his leisurely way of speaking. “I’m taking these two gentlemen to the OK Ranch then I’d hoped to make it back to Fort Benton where I intend to hole up for the winter. I don’t fancy being stuck in Edendale.” He made a rattling noise in the back of his throat. “But it looks like I’ll be stuck at the OK for the time being.”
Linette cared not whether the man was returning to the tiny cluster of huts bravely named Edendale or back to Fort Benton. She wasn’t going anywhere.
The gentleman who’d helped her down still stood at the steps, waiting and watching. “The girl is strong. Tough. Takes a special kind of lady to take care of travel arrangements and her traveling companions. Not a lot of young women are prepared and able to do that. You could do worse than have her at your side in this brave new frontier.”
Linette gave the man a fleeting smile of appreciation then turned back to Eddie.
Eddie met her gaze. He must have read her determination though she hoped he hadn’t seen her desperation. “We need to talk.” He grabbed her arm and marched her around the side of the house, out of sight and hopefully out of earshot of the others, where he released her to glare hotly at her.
She tipped her chin and met his gaze without flinching even though her insides had begun to tremble. Where would she go if he sent her away? Not back to the marriage her father had arranged. Perhaps money would convince him. “I have a dowry.”
“Keep your money. I have no need of it.”
“I came in good faith. I thought you’d received my letter.” Come before winter. The words had seemed so welcoming. She’d made preparations as quickly as she could. How was she to know he didn’t respond to her letter? Hadn’t even received it. She stood motionless. She wouldn’t let so much as one muscle quiver.
“Obviously I hadn’t.” He stared at the bundle in his hand, sounding every bit as confused as she felt. A contrast to the anger her parents had expressed when she’d informed them she would not marry the man of their choosing and meant to go West. Only after she showed her father the letter from Eddie and only because the Gardiners were a well-respected family had he agreed. With many constraints. Her father knew her too well. Knew she would avoid this marriage, too, if she had the means to strike out on her own. Knew she would not flinch before the dangers nor shirk from the challenges. That’s why he’d allowed her barely enough money to keep from starving to death on the journey and made sure her dowry would be held until he had proof she was married. He’d made her understand he would allow her only enough time for the necessary documents to cross the ocean. Should they not arrive in a reasonable time he would send one of his henchmen to bring her back. She’d used the limited funds he’d provided caring for the sick and destitute she’d crossed paths with. She had not so much as a penny to her name.
She shuddered as she imagined one of her father’s cruel servants poised and ready to pursue her.
There was no escape from her father’s plans apart from this marriage.
She understood Eddie’s shock. It couldn’t feel good to realize Margaret had refused to come, refused his offer of marriage. She swallowed back a swell of sympathy, and resisted an urge to pat his arm. She brought her thoughts back to her own predicament. “I’m prepared to care for your home.” As soon as she and Margaret agreed Linette should take her place, Margaret had reluctantly arranged for their cook to teach Linette to prepare food and run a house. She hadn’t dared to ask for such instructions at home. Her father had often enough said they were rich and had servants to do menial work. Only the death of some distant relative of her mother’s who’d made a fortune in India had changed the family circumstances from penniless to well off before Linette’s birth. Father wanted everyone to believe they were landed gentry, but she often wondered how much of the inheritance still existed and suspected her father’s plans for her were meant to add to the coffers. But how much was enough to satisfy her father? She wondered if enough existed.
“He should have servants to do those things,” Margaret had fumed when Linette badgered her to arrange instruction.
“It will be an adventure to do something useful.”
Unless Eddie changed his mind, her lessons seemed destined to be useless. She stiffened her spine. Failure was not an option.
Eddie turned his gaze back to her then with a great sigh eased toward the stagecoach.
She followed at his heels. “I’m a hard worker.” She would press her point but she wouldn’t beg.
The driver stood at his horses, staring at the horizon and shifting from one foot to the other. “Eddie boy, the wind has a bite to it. Winter is likely to clutch us by the throat any moment.”
She’d wondered at the earliness of the snow, but the man in the coach had explained it was due to being in high country. “Snow can come early and stay or leave again. There’s no predicting it.”
Eddie turned to speak over his shoulder. “I’m to be stuck with you then. But only until the weather moderates then I’ll send you back.”
“Stuck? Seems you’re getting the better part of this bargain.” She had no intention of staying one day more than she must, but she silently prayed the winter would set in early and be long and cold, preventing travel. That would give her sufficient time to persuade Eddie to change his mind.
She would not—under any circumstances—return to her father and his despicable plan for her.
Despite her lack of funds, she considered setting off on her own but she must acknowledge the facts—her father would not let her escape his clutches. He had ways and means of tracking her wherever she went. And he wouldn’t hesitate to use them. She knew she couldn’t hide from him even if she found a means of surviving on her own.
Eddie still provided the only answer to avoiding her father’s plans. Winter provided a reprieve. She would use the time to prove to him she was the ideal pioneer wife. She would make him want to keep her. He’d beg her to stay.
Eddie ground to a halt and turned to face her.
She blinked back her silent arguments lest he guess at her thoughts.
He edged forward, forcing her to retreat until they were again out of sight and hearing of the interested party waiting at the stagecoach. “You might want to reconsider this rash decision of yours. It’s wild out here. There are no luxuries. No chaperones.”
“I brought my own chaperone.” If he found her arrival a burden, he was not going to like her next announcement. She tipped her chin and faced him squarely. Not for all the roses in her mother’s garden would she reveal so much as a hint of trepidation. “And a child.”
“A child?”
“Yes, I brought a child.”
He swallowed hard enough to lose his Adam’s apple. “You have a child?”
He thought the child was hers? Embarrassment, laced with a heavy dose of amusement, raced through her at the shock on his face. Her amusement could not be contained and she laughed delicately, feeling her eyes dance with merriment. “He’s not mine.”
“Then why do you have him?”
“I met his mother on the boat. She died in the crossing and asked me to take the child to his father.”
“I’m not his father.” The poor man almost choked at the thought.
She laughed again, thoroughly enjoying his discomfort. “I didn’t mean to imply you were. His father met us in Montreal and when he heard his wife had expired, refused to take his son.” A dreadful scene had ensued as Linette tried to convince the man of his duty. “I had little choice but to bring him along.”
Eddie choked again.
Maybe she would have to thump him between the shoulders, and found the idea rather satisfying. With every passing moment, he proved more and more annoying. She’d expected a welcome of some sort, guarded perhaps, or even perfunctory. She assumed he would have made arrangements to have someone present to perform their emotionless union. But never in her many far-flung imaginings had she considered this possibility.
He cleared his throat. “I think a place the size of Montreal would have a foundling home. I think the nuns have—”
“Are you suggesting I should have abandoned him to strangers?”
“It’s not called abandon—” He must have read the challenge in her eyes for he stopped short. “Seems to me that’s what a sensible woman would have done. Besides, wouldn’t he be better off there with schools and playmates?”
She pulled herself as tall as she could, annoyed she still had to tip her head to glare at him. “We better get something straight right here and now. I have no tolerance for the pharisaical affectations of our society. I refuse to stand by and not offer help to someone when it is within my power to give more than an empty blessing. I could not, nor would I, turn my back on a small child.” Helping others was one of the many things she and her father had warred about. She expected things to be different in the British Territories of Canada.
She planned to make sure they were.
Eddie stared at her then scrubbed at the back of his neck. “All I have is a small cabin. Only one bed.”
She had gained a small victory. No need to push for more at this point. “We’ll take the bed.”
“And I’m to what?”
“I understand from your letters to Margaret that there is a bunkhouse for men who work for you.”
“I will not sleep with them.”
His words had a familiar, unwelcome ring to them. “Does it offend your sensibilities to share quarters with the men who work for you?”
“Not at all, but it would be awkward for them. I’m the boss. They deserve a chance to relax without thinking I’m watching them.”
His reply both surprised and pleased her. She admired a man who thought of others. But her admiration did not solve what he perceived to be a quandary. She didn’t see a problem. “I believe the cabin has two rooms. You can sleep on the floor in the other room.”
“You are too generous.” The look on his face made her want to laugh, but she sensed he did not share her amusement.
“Eddie boy,” the driver called. “I’d like to get on my way before nightfall.”
Eddie and Linette did silent duel with their eyes. Although their weapons were invisible she understood her life and her future hung on the outcome of this battle. Finally he sighed. “Come along. Let’s get your things.”
“There’s something I better tell you first.”
“You mean there are more surprises? Let me guess. Another child? A brother or sister? A—”
“My chaperone is a woman I met in Montreal. Her husband died and she has no family.”
“You traveled from England without a chaperone?”
She flicked him an impatient glance. It was easy to see that rules meant a lot to him. She’d prayed he wasn’t like her father. Now he seemed frighteningly so. “Of course not, but Miss Snodgrass was eager to return, and when she saw I intended for Cassie to accompany me, she got on the next boat home.”
He waited, aware there was more.
“Cassie is a little...well, I suppose you could say she’s having trouble dealing with her grief.”
“Trouble? In what way?”
Words came quickly to her mind, but none of them seemed the sort to make him kindly disposed toward Cassie. Perhaps the less she said the better. “Let’s just say she’s a bit sharp.” She hastened to add, “I’m sure she’ll settle down once the edge of her grief has passed.”
He scrubbed at his neck again. “Let’s see what you have.”
She hurried past him, fearing if he thrust his head in the door and ordered the pair out, the ensuing reaction would give them all cause for regret. The kind gentleman who had assisted her from the coach watched for her return, doubtless listening with ears cocked. She wondered how much he’d heard. Not that it mattered. He’d already managed to get most of the story from her as they bounced along for several days with nothing to do but stare at each other. He held the door for her and with a quirk of his eyebrows silently asked if things had gone well.
She gave a quick nod, grateful for his kindly interest, then turned to the other occupants. “Cassie, we’re here. Come out. Grady, come here.” She reached to take the four-year-old from Cassie’s lap.
Grady seemed to shrivel into himself. Only at Cassie’s gentle insistence did he let Linette take his hand and lift him to the ground. He took one look at Eddie and buried his face in her skirts. She knew he would stay there until she pried him free.
Cassie grabbed her small travel valise and paused in the open doorway. The look she gave Eddie blazed with anger.
Please, God. Keep her from saying something that will give him a reason to put us on the stage again without any regard for where we’ll end.
“He’s passable, I suppose.”
Linette’s breath stuck halfway to her lungs. She stole a glance at Eddie. Surprise flashed in his eyes and then he grinned. He had a nice face when he smiled, but more than that, his smile made her feel he would be patient with Cassie, who often expressed her pain in meanness. Relief poured through Linette like a warming drink.
“Thanks,” Eddie said.
“Wasn’t meant as a compliment,” Cassie murmured.
“I’ve been told worse.” He held his hand out to assist Cassie, but she pointedly ignored him and accepted help from their traveling companion.
Linette’s attention was diverted as the driver handed down the two trunks she’d brought. Grady had only a grip bag.
Eddie whistled sharply, causing Grady to sob. Two men stepped from the building across the way.
“Yeah, boss?” one called.
“Boys, take these trunks to my house.”
Linette watched the two cross the roadway in long, rolling strides. Their gait reminded her of the sailors on the ship. They had on Stetson hats, worn and rolled, unlike the new, uniformly shaped ones she’d studied back at the trading post in Fort Benton where she’d exchanged her fine English silks and bustles for frocks she considered more appropriate for living in the wilds—simple-cut dresses of calico or wool. She’d procured a dress for Cassie too but the woman refused to wear it. “I am who I am and I’m not about to pretend otherwise,” she’d said. Linette hadn’t pressed the point. Sooner or later the old garment Cassie wore would fall apart and then she’d be glad for what Linette offered.
She glanced at her own dress. A little the worse for wear after crossing the prairie. She’d clean up once they got settled in case Eddie took note of her rumpled state.
As they walked, the men jingled from the spurs on their boots. They yanked their hats off and squirmed inside their buffalo coats. “Ma’am.” They nodded to Linette and Cassie.
“Miss Edwards, may I present two of my men, Slim—” he indicated the taller, thinner man. “And Roper.” The other man was heavier built. Solid. Younger. And he watched Cassie with guarded interest.
Linette realized she hadn’t introduced her companion and did so. “Cassie Godfrey.” Then she indicated the boy half-buried in her skirts. “This is Grady Farris. He’s four years old.” He shivered enough to make her leg vibrate.
The men nodded then jammed their hats back on and took the trunks into the house.
Eddie spoke privately to the driver who then swung up to his seat and drove from the yard. Linette stared after the coach, knowing she now had no escape. She was at Eddie’s mercy. Her resolve hardened. Only so far as she chose to be. She’d be no man’s slave. Nor his chattel. Any arrangement between them would be based on mutual benefit. No emotions involved to turn her weak.
The stagecoach no longer blocked her view and she saw, on the hill overlooking the ranch, a big two-story house, gleaming in its newness. It had the unfinished look of raw lumber and naked windows. They must be expecting neighbors. People who put more value in their abode than Eddie. When would these people finish the house and move in?
“I suppose you would like to see your quarters.” Eddie indicated they should step toward the low dwelling.
She turned from studying the house on the hill to closer inspection of the cabin. It looked even smaller than she expected. But she didn’t care. She’d escaped her father’s plans and the future beckoned.
* * *
Eddie resisted the urge to squeeze his neck. It was tight enough to withstand a hanging. He’d expected the mail would contain a message to meet Margaret. He’d planned to marry her at the fort before bringing her to his home. He’d thought of her every day as he worked on the new house. He’d counted the days until she joined him.
Margaret was the ideal young lady for him. He remembered many a pleasant afternoon sharing her company in her family home in London before he’d left for the British Territories. He’d grown quite fond of her and she of him. Or so he thought. In time their affection would grow. He anticipated the day she would arrive and marry him. Margaret would grace the big house he would have completed by now except for the necessity of making sure the breeding stock he’d had shipped from Chicago was herded safely from Fort Benton to the nearby pens.
Instead, a ragamuffin of a woman stood before him in a black woolen coat that practically swallowed her. As it flapped open he saw a crude dress much like those he’d seen worn by wives on hopeful dirt farms and the half-breed women in the forts. She looked ready to live in a tepee or log hut, which was likely a good thing because the latter was all he had to offer her.
The cold wind reminded him he’d hurried outside without a coat. “We might as well go indoors.”
How Linette managed to make her way to the house with the boy clinging to her side like a giant burr amazed him.
She was an Edwards daughter if he believed what she said. He wasn’t prepared to believe anything about her at the moment. How had he ended up in such an awkward position? And with an Edwards woman! His father had had some business dealings with Mr. Edwards years ago and had expressed distaste for the other man. “A churlish man,” he’d said. “Thinks because he inherited money through his wife it makes him an aristocrat, but he lacks any sense of decorum or decency. I vow I will never have business dealings with him again and I intend to avoid any social contact.” Eddie couldn’t think the Edwards daughter would warrant any better opinion from his father.
Slim and Roper hurried out and jogged back to work. Not, he noted, without a backward glance at the women. They’d be filled with curiosity for sure and spend the rest of the day speculating about this turn of events.
Eddie had always done his best to live up to his father’s expectations. After all, he owed the man so much. Coming West and starting a ranch to add to the Gardiner holdings, establishing a home that would make his father proud provided him an opportunity to repay his father for giving him the Gardiner name. Randolph Gardiner had married Eddie’s mother when Eddie was an infant. If not for that, Eddie would have been an outcast bastard child and his mother would have lived in shame and disgrace.
