Hill Country Courtship

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Mrs. Meyer was predictably dismayed when she learned of Maude’s plans. “Maude, I was planning on you inheritin’ the boardinghouse when I die, since my children don’t want to move back here and take it on. I thought of us as partners here. Was that nothing to you? Now you’re going to go somewhere else, leaving me behind?”

She saw hurt and insecurity lining the woman’s red-rimmed eyes, and felt a moment of regret at causing her pain. Truly, the woman had been kind and generous to her from the start. And the boardinghouse was a good, honest business. It just wasn’t the right business for Maude—not right now, with the responsibility for Hannah’s care resting on her shoulders.

“I’m sorry, Mrs. Meyer. I hope you still think the place would be in good hands if I managed it someday—and we all hope that’s a very long time from now,” she assured the boardinghouse proprietress. “No one’s saying I will be living at Five Mile Hill Ranch for the rest of my life. I’m going to go try it. If I don’t like it, I’ll be back.”

‘“Like it’?” Mrs. Meyer responded with a laugh that edged on hysteria. “What is there to like? What sane woman would like living clear out there with that tyrant and his harridan of a mother? What could have induced you to make such an insane deal, girl?”

Just then Hannah set up a thin wail above them. After Maude went and got her, she returned to finish the conversation, picking it up just where they had left off. “This—little Hannah—induced me to take Mr. MacLaren’s offer,” she said, cuddling the sweet-smelling baby closer. “I want to give her a home, Mrs. Meyer, a home with me as her mother. It wouldn’t be fair to you or the boarders to make that home here, not when she’s up crying several times a night. And you wouldn’t have let Juana stay indefinitely to nurse her, would you? She can’t afford to pay rent.”

Mrs. Meyer was too honest a woman to dodge the truth. “No, I haven’t survived this long running a boardinghouse with butter for a heart, Maude. Nothing can be free forever, not if I’m to make a living. And you’re right that the lodgers haven’t been best pleased about the baby’s cries during the night since she’s been born. I should have realized you’d seek that baby’s good over your own. But have you thought about what you’re doing to your good name, taking on the raising of that child?”

Something in the older woman’s tone made Maude bristle. “What do you mean, Mrs. Meyer?”

The other woman shrugged. “Well, what will men think of you? Will they be interested in courting a girl that has a child with no apparent father? You should have a care to your reputation, Maude.”

A sharp bark of bitter laughter erupted before Maude could stifle it. “You mean, the hordes of men who hang around outside every night, just hoping for a kind word from Maude Harkey, will be discouraged and stop serenading me? Pardon me, but unless I’m mistaken, they stopped coming years ago, which is why I’m the president of a dwindling Spinsters’ Club and still unmarried, years after most of my friends have achieved their happily-ever-afters.

“I believe thinking of how my non-existent suitors will react is what’s known as a ‘forlorn hope,’ so yes, I’m not exactly worried about my reputation. I’m twenty-five years old, Mrs. Meyer, and I want to be a mother to this innocent baby here, who at this moment has no one in the world to care for her but Juana and myself. And anyone who wants to question her parentage can deal with me on that issue.” She heard her defensive tone, but knew a foolish questioner would have a very poor time of it indeed.

“I—I am sorry, dear,” Mrs. Meyer said. “You know, I only want what’s best for you. If that big oaf of a Scotchman doesn’t treat you right, you just come right back here. I’ll hold your room open till we’re sure it’s going to work out for you to stay on the ranch.”

It was no light promise. Mrs. Meyer usually had a waiting list of folks wanting to board with her. “Thank you,” she murmured. It made Maude feel a little less fearful about being “collected” the next day to know that she had a place to come back to, if she needed it. But it didn’t make it any easier to think of leaving the place that had been her home for so long now.

It was even harder to take her leave of Ella, who had been her best friend through all that time. “But if you’re leaving tomorrow, you’ll miss the wedding this weekend!” she wailed. “You were going to stand up with me! Can’t you ask him to wait till Sunday to come for you?”

Hating that she had to say no, she shook her head. “I’m so sorry, really I am, Ella, but I need this new job in order to keep little Hannah,” she said, nodding toward the infant whom she’d brought with her. “He wasn’t pleased that I asked even for another day in town, to see to April Mae’s funeral. I was afraid he’d change his mind about hiring me altogether if I asked him to wait any longer. From what I understood, they desperately need the help out at Five Mile Hill Ranch as soon as they can get it.”

Ella nodded with a sad but accepting smile. “I understand, Maude. I just wish you weren’t going so far away...” She took the contented baby onto her lap and smiled down at Hannah’s happy face. “But looking down at this little one, I really do think the change you’re going to be making will be worth it. This precious child deserves a mother as wonderful as you, and the ranch is certainly the best place for the two of you. I just wish Jonas MacLaren’s mother wasn’t notorious for being a shrew!”

Maude chuckled. “It’ll be a challenge, I imagine, but that’s why the job is available. If she were sweet-tempered, they’d have already hired someone.”

“It’ll be good for your character,” her friend said, tucking a red curl that had fallen out of Maude’s chignon back behind her friend’s ear. It had always been a joke between them that Maude had a true redhead’s temperament, just as Juana had said.

“It will,” Maude agreed. “You’ll see—I’ll learn to hold my tongue and keep my temper. I’ll give Mrs. MacLaren no reason to complain of me, no matter how shrewishly she behaves.”

“Hmm,” Ella said, noncommittally. Maude bristled.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing of consequence,” Ella said, mischief twinkling in her eyes. She focused her attention down on little Hannah. “You’ll like it at the ranch, won’t you, sweetheart? Yes, you will! You’ll have lots of fun! Because watching your mama learn to hold her tongue and keep her temper should be quite a show, indeed.”

Chapter Five (#ulink_b701b336-ee8a-5a9c-936f-6ed6bf52590d)

By one o’clock, MacLaren’s man had still not made his appearance. “Shall we eat dinner? Once we depart, we will not have the chance to eat again for many hours. Yet what if he appears right in the middle of the meal and expects us to take off that minute?” Juana fretted.

“Never pass up food when it’s available. It’s a long ride out to Five Mile Hill Ranch, and if he arrives while we’re eating we’ll just invite him to sit down with us. Men never pass up a chance to eat.”

Mrs. Meyer gestured them toward a table filled with steaming bowls of chili and bread still hot from the oven.

“I’m going to miss your chili, Mrs. Meyer,” Maude told her.

“I’ve taught you how to make it, girl. Anytime you have a hankering for it, just stir up some. Remember to use good stewed beef and lots of chili pepper, and don’t be shy with the jalapeños. If it doesn’t bite you when you lay a spoonful on your tongue—”

“It’s not Mrs. Meyer’s chili,” the two finished in perfect unison, then giggled.

Juana had still not taken her seat. “There he is, just as we figured,” she said, staring out the window to where a cloud of dust heralded a wagon coming toward them.

A middle-aged man with thinning black hair and a dusty bandana slung low around his neck jumped down from the wagon with a lumbering grace, knocked hesitantly on the front door of the boardinghouse, then straightened and blinked in surprise as Juana went forward and opened the door to him.

“Buenas tardes,” she said in lilting, melodious Spanish, and Maude was glad of all the Spanish words her father had made her learn so long ago. “I am Juana Benavides. You have come to take Miss Harkey, the baby and me out to Five Mile Hill Ranch, no? We were just having dinner. Won’t you sit down and have some chili with us before we go?”

“Mucho gusto, senorita,” the man murmured, and Maude could see that he was much taken with the sight of the pretty Juana. “I would be happy to join you for your meal, of course. I am Hector Gonsalvo, Senor MacLaren’s segundo—his right-hand man,” he added in English, for Maude and Mrs. Meyer’s sake. “I did not know I would have the honor of two ladies’ company today.”

The man might as well have thumped his chest like a gorilla, he was so obviously impressed with his own importance.

Maude sniffed. MacLaren better not think he could renege on the terms of the agreement, at this late stage. But perhaps he had just forgotten to tell Gonsalvo that he was hiring Juana, too. From the way the man was staring at Juana, it was clear that she was someone he would not quickly forget.

He’d better not think he was going to start up a flirtation with her friend right under her very nose the first afternoon they met, Maude thought, intercepting an approving look from Gonsalvo with a glare. She wasn’t taking Juana Benavides away from all that was familiar to her to endanger her honor.