The sun was still an orange ball on the horizon as Catherine leaned back against the soddy door. She hadn’t been able to go back to sleep after she’d woken in the night.
Pop had stayed asleep. Restless, but asleep.
She desperately needed to find the peace she’d felt the early Sunday morning she’d shared a few quiet moments with Matty. Had it only been two weeks ago?
He’d arrived in her life like a tornado, upending everything.
Hoofbeats startled her, brought her gaze up. Pop would advise her to duck inside, where they’d both have a modicum of protection.
But she hesitated.
And her heart leaped as she saw a familiar cowboy ride into sight.
Matty.
He balanced easily on the horse, keeping his saddle naturally. He caught sight of her and lifted his hat in a wave.
Her eyes followed his movements and then were drawn past him. Several riders followed him. Farther behind that, two wagons rumbled toward her.
What was going on?
Heart beating with both hope and trepidation, she walked out to meet him.
He dismounted, holding the reins of a fine chestnut gelding in his hand.
“What are you doing here?”
He smiled, but his eyes remained uncertain. “Mentioned your troubles to some folks—my family, mostly. We decided to give you a barn raising.”
Her heart thrummed in her chest, her mind going immediately to Pop.
Matty jerked his thumb over his shoulder. “We’ve got the manpower and enough lumber to get you a nice, snug barn that’ll last decades. We can finish it today.”
“I can’t believe you did all this.” She shook her head, her throat clogged with emotion. She crossed her arms. “We can’t accept it. What if Pop—”
He reached out and touched her upper arm. “And what if he’s fine? Can I at least talk to him?”
Over his shoulder, the two wagons creaked to a stop. They were piled high with lumber that she hadn’t noticed before.
Two men sat astride fine horses, pointing to the flat swath of land behind the soddy, away from the creek bank. If she blinked, she could easily imagine a wood-sided barn there.
“Fine,” she whispered. “You can talk to him. He’s inside.”
Matty squeezed her arm gently. He moved past her and disappeared into the soddy.
She stood where she was, half-afraid to believe this was even happening. Matty had come back. Even knowing about her parentage.
She didn’t know whether to pray that Pop would send him home or that he would allow it. Thinking of having a new barn—a freestanding structure!—was wonderful.
She had to force herself to slow down. Take a breath. Matty might’ve come back, but that didn’t mean he wanted to be with her. Even if he did, how could they be together with his job in town and her working the homestead?
Perhaps he simply felt sorry for her. Wanted to pay her back for helping him when he’d been injured.
She couldn’t hope for more than that.
A young man rode forward at a gallop, finally reining in just behind Matty’s horse. His animal tossed its head and the rider laughed—a trilling, melodic laugh.
Catherine gasped as the young woman dismounted, removing her hat to reveal a long blonde braid down her back. She was slender, blue eyed and dressed like a man. Just like Catherine.
“You must be Catherine. I’ve been dying to meet you. I’m Breanna.” She came forward with a wide smile and hand outstretched.
Catherine couldn’t seem to find her voice. “Hullo,” she said finally.
Breanna pumped her hand in an exuberant handshake. “Matty hasn’t told us hardly anything about you, other than you live alone out here.”
More riders arrived, men dismounting behind Breanna’s horse. From a distance, another wagon moved slowly toward them. This one appeared to be full of…women.
“Did my brother drive you crazy when he was here?” Breanna barely took a breath between words.
Catherine couldn’t seem to tear her eyes away from the approaching women. She’d begun to tremble.
“Breanna, quit bothering Matty’s girl,” one of the men called out.
She opened her mouth to retort that she wasn’t Matty’s girl, but Breanna linked arms with her.
“I’m only trying to warn her about you,” Breanna called back to the men. To Catherine, she murmured, “Our family might be big, and noisy, but we’re all behind you.”
Why?
“Let me introduce you to everyone.”
Breanna kept her close with that arm threaded through the crook of her elbow, though Catherine could have pulled away at any time. She met brothers and then wives and Jonas and Penny, Matty’s parents.
They all greeted her warmly. There were no sidelong glances, no whispers after she and Breanna turned away. Only a simple curiosity.
Matty must’ve told them about her isolation on the homestead, about her lack of education, but they seemed to…like her.
She couldn’t understand it. Matty obviously hadn’t told them about her parentage—she couldn’t see them accepting her so easily if he had.
But regardless…they didn’t turn their noses up at her because of the way she was dressed or her simple home.
“Breanna!” A young boy ran up and threw himself at Breanna, forcing her to let go of Catherine in order to catch him.
“Watch out, you hooligan!” Breanna laughed. To Catherine she said, “My brother Andrew.” And to the boy, “We’re trying not to scare off Catherine, remember?”
They were?
“Who’s that?” Breanna asked.
Catherine looked up. A wagon approached from the north—the opposite direction all the Whites had come from.
“It looks like…” Catherine’s voice trailed off as realization hit. Mr. Elliott, and his family.
Inside the soddy, Matty sat on Catherine’s cot with Pop across from him, his leg still propped on the bed.
The old man looked more frail than Matty remembered, but he was just as stubborn and moody. Matty hadn’t had enough time with Catherine outside, time to check for bruises or the haunted look in her eyes that she’d had in the days after Pop had attacked her.
“I’ve brought some help for Catherine,” Matty said. “Just for today.”
Pop’s brows crunched together like two white, fuzzy caterpillars. “Who?” he barked.
“My family. My Pa and Ma, my brothers and sisters and their wives—the ones who are married. Sent an invite to your neighbor Elliott. And a couple of friends from town.”
“We don’t need no charity.” Pop’s jaw was set, his eyes squinty and unreadable.
And Matty started to get riled up. “If you’d like, think of it as repayment for all the food you fed me while I was here. And the lodging.” Such as it was.
Pop snarled.
“You know how hard she works to provide for you,” he infused the words with all the fervor he felt, especially that Pop would make things difficult for Catherine when it didn’t have to be that way. “You don’t have to come outside if it’s going to stir up bad memories.”
Pop considered for a long time, staring at the wall. Finally, he nodded.
“I brought someone to see you, as well. If you feel up to it, my brother Maxwell—the doctor—could examine you. See if he can’t figure out why you’re getting short of breath.”
Pop’s eyes narrowed. “That’s awful presumptuous of you. I don’t wanna see no doctor.”
“It’s not presumption. I care about Catherine, and Catherine loves you.”
He shrugged. “I ain’t interested in someone poking and prodding me, just to tell me what I already know. When it’s my time, the good Lord will take me home.”
“But—”
“I ain’t talking about it no more!”
Frustrated, Matty rose and thrust his hand through his hair before mashing his hat back on his head. With the old man in this state of mind, there was no way he was changing his decision. Matty could come back in later and try again. He hadn’t got Maxwell all the way out here just to walk away when Pop might benefit from an examination.