Monday morning blushed through the lace at Corra’s bedroom window and her heart fluttered like a silent sparrow. Her sister had been right about one thing. Corra longed to live, really live, outside the pages of her books.
How weary life had become in Cincinnati. Dull, dreary, predictable. Even here in Ford Junction it had settled into unchanging routine—until a meadow-eyed cowboy trailed his cattle past the boardinghouse.
Excitement bubbled up again, and she questioned her motives. “Oh, Lord, have I rushed ahead in a blind, romantic notion, as Letty put it?” She forced aside the rancher’s image and probed her memory for a girl riding herd like a common cowboy. A smile tugged Corra’s mouth. What she would have given to do the same at such an age.
She rose and completed her morning ablutions then twisted her hair into a neat bun, counting on her yellow gingham dress to brighten her appearance. After straightening the bedclothes and quilt, she gathered her bag and hat, left them at the hall tree downstairs, and joined the family in the kitchen. Robert pored over a catalog, his glasses perched at the tip of his nose. Alicia stirred her oatmeal, and Letty fried eggs and a thick ham slice.
Corra helped herself to coffee and took the chair facing the hallway. “Ali, did your mother tell you I am leaving to help a rancher and his daughter for the summer?”
“He’s the cowboy who tipped his hat at you, isn’t he?”
Heat shimmied up Corra’s neck, and she reached for the sugar as daylight dimmed in the hall. A firm knock sent her heart to her throat.
“I’ll get it!” Alicia dashed from the table, slipping past Robert’s reach to run down the hallway and open the door.
Josiah Hanacker removed his hat and stepped inside. Corra took her cup to the sink and waited while Letty and Robert greeted him. Smoothing her skirt, she turned for the hallway and her new employer, holding his gaze as she approached. Bold, yes, but if he had second thoughts, she preferred to know sooner rather than later.
Letty gestured to the parlor. “Might I offer you some coffee, Mr. Hanacker?”
Addressing Letty, his eyes stuck to Corra like a broach. “Thank you, but I need to be back at the ranch as soon as possible.”
Corra stopped before the hall tree. “You must have been up before dawn to arrive so early, Mr. Hanacker.”
His hat brim curled inside his fingers. “Yes, ma’am. We start before daybreak at Hanacker Land and Cattle Company.”
“I see.” She reached for her bonnet. Quite a pretentious name for a small family ranch. Unless it was not so small as she had thought. “Do you mind? My trunk is there against the wall.”
Apparently happy to have something to do, he clapped on his hat and lifted the trunk as if it were an empty bushel basket. Alicia threw her arms around Corra’s waist and captured her with worried eyes. “Are you going to marry the cowboy and move away for good?”
Corra’s already pounding heart threatened to burst through her bodice. She knelt and cupped the sad face in her hands. “Goodness, no. I’m just helping Mr. Hanacker for the summer. He needs someone to show his little girl how to be a lovely young lady like you.”
The compliment found its mark, and Alicia’s pink mouth curved in a smile. Letty joined her daughter and embraced Corra with tears and sniffles. “Remember your promise about Sunday.”
Corra hugged her sister. “I remember. Now don’t you fret. You may have new guests arriving on the train today, and you don’t want to scare them away with weepy eyes.”
Clutching her satchel, she walked outside to the wagon where Mr. Hanacker waited to hand her up. She scooted to the far edge of the seat, set her bag in the middle, then raised a hand to Letty. Bracing herself as the wagon tipped to the cowboy’s weight, she faced forward, certain he had her in the corner of his eye. He snapped the reins and the horse jerked ahead.
In less than a quarter mile, they reached the bend in the Arkansas River. And life as Corra knew it washed away on the sandbar at Texas Creek.
A familiar scent skimmed over Josiah and his gut twisted. Corra Jameson smelled like the lilac bush Maisie planted next to the porch their first year. Why hadn’t he noticed it before—at the mercantile or in the boardinghouse parlor? He propped a foot against the board. Couldn’t very well turn around and dump her off because of the way she smelled. He clenched his jaw. This whole arrangement was for Jess’s sake. He’d just have to make do.
“Tell me of Jessica.”
He hesitated, drawing a bold stare that he answered with a straightened back. “She’s a good hand.” Confounded woman searched his face as if reading sign. What else was he supposed to say?
With a deep sigh, she addressed the rocky slope on her left. “I mean, tell me a little bit about her. What does she most like to do? Does she have a favorite story or a favorite doll?”
Remorse crawled up his shoulders. Jess didn’t even have a doll, much less a favorite. And stories? Only what he shared around their campfires on the trail. No wonder Beatrice didn’t trust him. The revelation burned like gall.
“’Fraid not.” The wagon wheels grated against the hardpack like regret on his bones.
“I see.”
He hoped so.
“What are your parameters for my training methods?”
Parameters? He twisted his head away, popped the crick out of his neck. “I want her to know how to be a lady. Wear a dress and act like a girl. Do the things her ma would have taught her had she lived.” Some he couldn’t mention. He counted on her knowing.
“It’s been two years—is that correct?”
Her voice had softened, and he squeezed the reins and nodded.
“I am so sorry.”
Silence carried them on again, and he laid out the day’s work in his head, as well as the whole week. He didn’t want to ride Joe ragged, but Jess wouldn’t be around to help as much now that he’d hired a, a—he didn’t know what to call her. A cook? A tutor? A beautiful woman who smelled like spring and made him realize how lonely he’d been?
An hour later, Rena’s head came up and her ears perked. With a quickened trot, she dropped them down into the wide valley and offered a deep whinny. Corra Jameson gasped.
Her hand rested at her throat, and her mouth parted just enough so he noticed. She was either scared to death or taken by the lay of Hanacker Land and Cattle. He hoped it was the latter.
“How beautiful.” Her near whisper shot his heart through with pride and pain. Maisie’s first reaction hadn’t been much different.
“My grandfather homesteaded it when my pa was a boy. Poured his life into this valley, and I intend to do the same. I want Joe and Jess to always have a place they call home.”
She drank in the view but didn’t say another word. Just sat there, assessing the place, he figured.
“Pop had a spell a few years back that put him in a bad way. He’s bent over and doesn’t ride anymore. But he cooks for us some.” He slid her a look. “Don’t think he’ll give you any trouble, though. He’ll probably enjoy someone else’s cooking, as will the rest of us. All he fixes is biscuits and stew. Gets old, but I won’t fault him. Joe’s twelve, about as good a hand as there is, and will eat anything that’s not moving.”
She nodded, deep in thought. Was she tallying his family and their ways? “And Jessica, will she welcome a change?”
That was the rub. It’d be kinder to have Corra Jameson fixing fence, but that’s not why he’d hired her. “Not exactly.”
She looked at him again, straight on, hunting details and all the things he wasn’t saying. He hoped he could last three months with her eyeballing him like that. Made his skin itch.
Finally she turned toward the house and barn coming up on them. “I am sure we will get along just fine. But I have two requests as we set out on this task.”
His turn to stare.
“First, we must face this challenge together and support one another. If you dislike my approach with Jessica, please tell me in private, away from her hearing. It is imperative that we present a united front. Do you agree?”
He swallowed hard. “Yes, ma’am. But she doesn’t like to be called Jessica. Just so you know.”
“Next, you must call me Corra.”
Was she nothing but surprises?
“I want this arrangement to be as informal as possible, though proper, of course. But I also want Jessica to be comfortable with my presence and willing to learn the things I want to teach her. Stiff formality will only make everyone uneasy.”
“She doesn’t like to be called—”
“I understand. Does she know you are training her so she can present herself as a proper young lady to her aunt?”
Training? Didn’t sound that far off from what he did with his yearlings. “Yes, ma’am.”
She raised a brow at him. Confounded woman. “Corra.”
Her lips curved into a smile. A pretty smile. “Thank you, Josiah.”
A stone grew in his throat at the way she said his name. He stopped Rena in front of the house, and Pop pushed up from his rocker. Joe came running from the barn. Jess was nowhere.