Cowboy to the Rescue (9 page)

“No, no, Miss Susanna, too much water.” Angela laughed as she reached over to add more finely ground cornmeal to the bowl she’d given Susanna. “Make the dough like this.” She held up a round lump that appeared pliable enough to flatten without falling apart.

“Oh, dear.” That was what she got for not paying attention. “Have I ruined it?”

“Do not worry, Miss Susanna.” Rita had entered the room moments ago and begun washing the dishes. “I still cannot make tortillas like
madre mia.
” She reached to place a glass jar in the rinse pan, but it slipped from her fingers and crashed to the floor. “Oh, no.”

“Be careful,” Angela and Mrs. Northam chorused.

Rita grabbed for the shattered jar too quickly, then gasped and pulled back her hand. Trying not to cry, she gripped her injured palm with the other hand, but blood seeped through her fingers. “Mama,” she whimpered.

With a worried gaze on her daughter, Angela rinsed her hands, while Mrs. Northam left her cookie-making to come help. Susanna waited until they moved to the center table to tend the wound before finding a broom to sweep up the shards. She could not help but wonder how this would affect the poor girl’s assignation with Colonel Northam.

She soon found out. Once the hand was bandaged, they all went to work again and within a half hour had supper ready. As Susanna and Rita set plates and silverware around the table, the Colonel entered the room, spied the wounded hand and demanded to know what happened. After hearing Rita’s explanation, he summoned Angela and Mrs. Northam.

“This child is not to wash dishes again. Is that clear?” Both women appeared surprised by the vehemence of his order, but both agreed to obey him.

But Susanna wasn’t the least bit surprised. The Colonel would likely do anything to protect the girl who was the object of his favor.

Chapter Ten

T
he moment Reverend Thomas opened his mouth to speak, Susanna felt as if she’d come home. His Southern pronunciations varied slightly from hers and Daddy’s, but it was clear the man was no Yankee. She couldn’t imagine why the Colonel had let this Southerner take such a prominent place in his community, but she expected to enjoy his sermon. Maybe the minister would visit Daddy, who’d insisted that Susanna must attend church with the Northams.

After a few words of welcome to Susanna and two other visitors, Reverend Thomas announced the Scripture verses he would address in his sermon. Seated beside Susanna, Nate held his Bible up so she could look on, just as he had the hymnbook at the beginning of the service. When they’d begun singing, she could barely hold back a giggle. Nate was no singer, but what he lacked in pitch, he made up for in enthusiasm. From the light in his eyes as he sang “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross,” she could see that he held deeply the faith he’d spoken about on the trail. She might as well admit, if only to herself, that a Yankee could be a true and decent Christian, despite what his people did to the South during the war. Despite what his father said in the back hall of their house.

Before they’d left the ranch, Nate had gone out of his way to make sure she was comfortable in the family carriage with Mrs. Northam, Rosamond and Maisie. Everything he did prompted warm sentiments in Susanna’s heart. Somehow she must find a way to cool that warmth before it blazed up and burned her.

She quieted her thoughts and settled back to enjoy the sermon. The verses they’d just read in Hebrews 11 might be the very thing to help her. All those Bible folks had acted in faith in the midst of serious difficulties, and most had suffered terribly for it. While staying in the home of a Yankee colonel wasn’t exactly perilous, spending time with the man’s son could well be dangerous to her heart.

As it turned out, the minister focused his message on the faith these congregants had in building this new community in such a harsh land. In faith, they had all left their comfortable homes back east at the invitation of Colonel Northam. His purpose? To build a Christian community where all would be welcomed with the love of Christ.

The moment the pastor mentioned the Colonel and the Lord in the same sentence, Susanna stopped listening as Rita’s sweet, innocent face came to mind. Oh, the deeds done in secret! Wasn’t there a passage of Scripture about how those deeds would be brought to light? If it wouldn’t cause a scene, she’d grab Nate’s Bible and hunt that verse right here and now.

* * *

Figuring he should dodge Mother’s matchmaking efforts outside of church, Nate didn’t mind when she put him next to Susanna in the pew. Susanna was wearing Rosamond’s Sunday dress from last summer, so he would just think of her as a sister.

Who was he fooling? No man in his right mind could lightly dismiss the effects this beautiful lady had on him. When she’d worn that blue dress yesterday afternoon, her eyes had sparkled like the rare gems in Mother’s sapphire necklace. And now in this frilly pink gown, her ivory complexion glowed like one of Mother’s alabaster vases, the ones painted with roses like the soft blush on Susanna’s fair cheeks. How had she managed to cross the entire continent without turning brown? Or freckled like Maisie. Maisie, whom the Colonel had seated on Nate’s other side.

He forced his thoughts away from his woman troubles and tried to concentrate on Reverend Thomas’s sermon. Faith. That was what he needed. Faith that the Lord would continue to build this community. Faith that in spite of the Colonel’s domineering ways, Nate could stay and make a contribution worthy of the Northam name. Faith that one day he would earn his father’s approval.

With that thought, his spirits sank. The only way for him to get the Colonel’s approval would be to become Rand. And there at the other end of the pew sat his middle brother, dozing after his late-night doing who knew what with Seamus and Wes, two of the Northam cowhands. They’d probably been gambling, something the Colonel had made clear he wouldn’t permit in his community. Yet he refused to come down hard on Rand when he did it.

The familiar resentment against his brother crowded out Nate’s attempts at worship. Yes, those Bible heroes had great faith, but right now, he just wasn’t up to joining their ranks.

After the sermon, Nate listened halfheartedly to the announcements. The fever that had spread through the Swedish community was now under control, thanks to Charlie Williams and his herbal remedies learned from the Indians. With the plan Mother already had in place, meals would be delivered to those folks until they could stand on their own feet again. Finally, Reverend Thomas commended the congregation for their donations to the charity fund, for several needy families had been helped.

As usual, the congregants lingered in the churchyard, chatting and catching up on news and innocent gossip. Then hunger sent them scattering to their respective homes. The Northams parted company with Maisie with a promise to send Rosamond for a return visit in a few weeks.

Nate couldn’t help but notice that Susanna had been very quiet. Other than brief chats with Pam Williams and Reverend Thomas, she had stood by the carriage waiting to go home.

Except she didn’t have a home. And Nate didn’t have one of his own to offer her.

* * *

Susanna spent part of Sunday afternoon reading to Daddy and the remainder of the day alone in Rosamond’s room. The Northams took the Sabbath seriously, resting after church just as her family had back home in Marietta, so no one came looking for her. She’d wanted to take Daddy out into the sunshine, but he wouldn’t be able to go down the long staircase for some time. An upstairs veranda opened out from Colonel and Mrs. Northam’s suite, but she wouldn’t go anywhere near that end of the upstairs hallway.

Rosamond had told her that even Sunday supper was quiet and simple, with Angela and Rita away visiting family in a small Spanish settlement to the southeast. Susanna wondered if Rita would find a confidante, maybe a grandmother to whom she could expose the Colonel’s reprehensible behavior. Obviously, she had not been able to tell her mother, probably because she feared they would lose their employment.

Not wanting to encounter either Nate or his father, Susanna waited to fetch supper until she observed through the bedroom window that the two men had walked toward the stables, no doubt to tend to chores. In the kitchen, she found a tray laden with food and a note for her to take all that she and Daddy needed.

As they ate in the bedroom, Daddy seemed to grow more cheerful, while Susanna’s heart grew heavier. How long must they stay in this place? After only two days of bed rest, Daddy’s leg hadn’t healed enough for him to find new horses, much less hitch them up and drive the wagon. She certainly didn’t have the strength to manage all the work required for traveling.

After church, she’d thought about asking Miss Pam if they could stay with her and Charlie, maybe camp out behind the café. Before she could say a word, however, Miss Pam had told her how fortunate she and Daddy were to be in the care of such good people as the Northams. When Susanna thought to make her plea for other accommodations to Reverend Thomas, the young minister had gone on and on about what a good man the Colonel was.

In this small, developing community, no hotel had been built, and none of the homes had been made into boardinghouses. Susanna found it more than frustrating to have plenty of money to move out of the Northams’ house, yet to have no place to go and no means to get there. All she could do was remember Mama’s everlasting optimism and try to make it her own.

The next morning as she sat again beside Daddy’s bed as he ate breakfast, Nate came to the half-open door and gave them both a big smile. That cute smile of his, with one side of his upper lip higher than the other. Despite her determination to shield herself from his charms, her traitorous heart skipped.

“Susanna, would you be able to help me with something?” The twinkle in his green eyes did nothing to fortify her resolve.

“Well...” Having left Daddy alone too much these past two days, she’d turned down the invitation to go with Rosamond and her mother to deliver food to the needy. “I planned to read to Daddy—”

“Nonsense, daughter.” Daddy gave her arm a little nudge. “You go on. I’ll be fine.”

Her heart tried to pull her out of the chair, while her mind refused to budge. “Exactly what do you need help with?” In spite of herself, she couldn’t keep the sassiness out of her voice.

He glanced back down the hallway, then ducked into the room and closed the door. “The Colonel wants me to make sure none of the china is broken. Mother and Rosamond are going out calling all morning, so this is the perfect chance to go through the boxes. I figure it’ll take two of us.”

His eager expression added to his charm. Here was a man who loved his mother and delighted in doing things for her. As for the china, Susanna wondered how the Colonel could worry about it being broken when it was his wife’s heart that would be broken if his actions with Rita were discovered. Still, Mrs. Northam had been kind to Susanna and Daddy, so this was one small way she could pay the lady back.

“Just exactly where do you plan to do this operation?” She pictured bringing the crates into the house and spreading the china out on the long dining room table. They would need to add the extra leaves, and there would be a mess to clean up afterward with all of that straw packing—

“In the barn. We don’t want anybody to know about it. My brothers and all the hands will be out herding cattle or working in the fields all morning, but we’ll still have to be quick about it.”

“Harrumph.” Daddy glared at Nate. “Young man, do you mean to say you’re going to be in the barn behind closed doors alone with my daughter?”

Surprised by his concerns, Susanna held back a laugh. “But, Daddy—”

“Oh.” Nate’s face turned red beneath his tan. “I didn’t even think how that would look. Would you approve if Zack worked with us? He’s the only person who knows the secret other than the Colonel and me.” His eagerness to do the job added to his already dangerous appeal. He was nothing if not persistent, another admirable quality to add to the list Susanna was trying not to compose in her mind.

Daddy’s expression changed from a scowl to a smile quicker than a blink. “Why, that would do just fine, Nate. You have my approval.”

Nate’s grin broadened. “Thank you, sir.” He focused on Susanna. “Will you help?”

She couldn’t keep from smiling at his boyish enthusiasm. “Of course I will.”

An hour later, after Rosamond and Mrs. Northam had left, she followed Nate’s instructions on going to the barn. She left the house by the front door and meandered around the grassy yard smelling the roses and checking on the columbines. Some of the transplanted flowers had wilted or lost blooms, but none looked as if they wouldn’t make it. She next wandered toward one of the corrals, where several horses munched on a pile of hay. Several barn cats called out to her, and she took a moment to pet them. Then, following Nate’s instructions on how to avoid being seen from the kitchen window, just in case Angela looked out, she found a door on the far side of the barn and quickly entered.

A medium-size black-and-white dog wandered out of a stall and eyed her curiously, tail wagging. Susanna bent down to pet her and noticed a litter of four or more puppies amid the straw and burlap on the stall floor. Her heart melting at the adorable creatures, she rubbed behind the mother’s ears. “Hello, little girl. What’s your name?”

“That’s Bess.” Nate sauntered over. “She’s been keeping to the barn since having her pups, but I expect her to get out more as time goes on.”

“Will she let me hold one?” Despite a strong urge to cuddle a puppy, she didn’t want to upset the mother.

“Sure.” Speaking to Bess in soothing tones, Nate picked up one of the pups and set it in Susanna’s waiting arms. “This little girl is the runt of the litter, but she’s pretty healthy.

“Oh, how sweet.” Susanna held her up to one cheek and received a good lick. “My, you’re friendly.”

Bess danced around as if worried, so Susanna set the puppy back among the others. “I must have one of them, Nate, unless they’re all promised.”

“I think we can work that out once they’re weaned.” Nate walked toward the specially rigged wagon where Zack stood awaiting orders. “Let’s get started.” He grabbed a crowbar and started to pry open one of the crates.

“Now, you just hold on a minute, Mr. Nate Northam.” Susanna marched over to the wagon, suddenly feeling the weight of responsibility for this endeavor. “Just exactly where do you plan to lay out the pieces as you unpack them?”

The two men exchanged a look.

“Um...” Nate looked around the barn as if he’d never seen it before.

Zack pushed his hat back and scratched his head. “Well, I’ll be. Hadn’t thought of that.”

“What did you do when you inspected the shipment at Pueblo?” She glanced around, not sure what she was looking for. All she saw were stalls, bales of hay, harnesses and other items used for the care of horses.

“The trading post owner’s wife let us use her dining room.” He and Zack traded a look and a laugh. “I think that man’s going to have a hard time when his next anniversary comes around.”

“Well, he should.” Susanna fully understood the lady’s feelings. Mama had always expected something special to celebrate her wedding anniversary and always gave Daddy something special in return. “Do you have some blankets we can lay out?”

The two men scrambled to pull out several large blankets used for horses in the winter. After shaking out the dust, they laid them on the flat dirt floor.

“Don’t know what we would have done without you.” Nate gave Susanna that charming grin of his, and she couldn’t help but smile back.

He opened one crate, removed a handful of straw and lifted out a plain oak chest. “As you can see, it’s all in smaller boxes.” Inside the box were four crystal goblets, each safely nestled in its own flannel-lined compartment.

“This is like a treasure hunt.” Susanna couldn’t wait to see what the next box held. “My brother and I used to hunt pretend treasures.” She wished back the words as soon as she said them. Would Nate think she was a “money-grubbing prospector,” as his father had accused?