Page 25 of A Steadfast Heart
No. It was a business arrangement. She got a safe place to stay, and he got a tutor for his kids. That was all.
He insisted that Tillie ride in the back of the wagon on the way home. All three kids fell asleep before they reached the halfway point. No surprise, really. Chores started early on a ranch, and the sun was setting.
Kaitlyn laid her hand on his arm, its heat soaking through her gloves and his coat. She bit her lip, then released it. “I heard you trying to sell your bull.”
If she’d heard him mention it, she’d heard that no one had accepted his offer. How could he have been so mistaken about that bull? He’d been sure it would improve his herd.
She bit her lip. “Word will get around. I’m sure someone needs a new bull.”
She was probably worried. Best not to feed her fear. He forced his tense muscles to relax. “Time will tell.”
“You’re doing a good job, you know.”
He jerked his arm from under her hand. He didn’t need false praise. “Glad you can tell, seeing as how you’ve been here all of two days.”
“It doesn’t take long to see how much the kids love you.”
Yeah, well, love was the easy part. Food and clothes and holding on to the family land was much harder, and he was failing a little more every day.
Chapter6
Would this day ever end?
Drew banged the gate to the pen shut, then yanked his hands back as the cow inside slammed against the fence. She needed time for her injuries to heal, but if she didn’t settle down, she’d only make them worse.
He turned and led Solomon to the back of the barn, where his stall hid around the corner from the main doors.
He removed the horse’s saddle and rested it on the wall of the stall, ignoring the pull of muscles against the bruise he’d received from a calf’s hooves. It had taken hours to round up the cattle from the ravines. Hours that’d made him more behind on the spring planting.
The older orphan calves stirred in the big birthing pen, but they wouldn’t start bawling until they heard the kids headed this way. The animals knew who fed them.
David had put Curly’s heifer off by herself. It would take a while for her to learn to drink from a bucket.
Drew slipped off Solomon’s bridle. “Let me knock off the first layer of dirt, then I’ll get your dinner.” The stallion lipped Drew’s collar. Drew grinned. Rescuing the big lug had been one of the best decisions of his life. Once Drew had finally gained his trust, Solomon had been a faithful friend for years.
Longer than Amanda had stayed with him.
Would Kaitlyn have staying power?
Drew grabbed a currycomb and started running it over Solomon’s flanks. Kaitlyn. She had definitely surprised him so far. It had only been a few days, but already the house was cleaner. While her meals had mostly been simple stews, they had been more flavorful than anything he’d tasted since Ma got sick.
Ma should have recovered from the fever and cough. The rest of the family had. But somehow the sickness that had been a minor inconvenience to everyone else had settled into her lungs. She hadn’t been able to fight it off. Or perhaps hadn’t wanted to. He swallowed the bitterness that rose with the thought. With her husband gone, perhaps her children and grandchildren hadn’t been enough motivation for her to fight.
Or maybe it was simpler. Drew hadn’t been enough.
Solomon stamped a foot, and Drew’s thoughts slipped to Kaitlyn.
Tillie loved her. David didn’t like trading off kitchen work with Jo, but Kaitlyn was right. Cooking was a useful skill. The first few meals he and his brothers had attempted had proved that. But if she had implemented the change to win Jo over, it hadn’t worked. Jo remained suspicious and standoffish.
Drew finished Solomon’s hooves and crossed to the storeroom to measure his oats. One calf snorted, then gave a loud bellow. When the other four joined in, the cacophony was loud enough that Drew wanted to cover his ears.
Outside the open barn door, Tillie giggled. “It’s okay, babies, we’s bringing your dinner.”
“Don’t see you carrying no bucket, Tillie,” Jo grumbled.
Drew glanced out the storeroom door and watched as David slipped inside the barn, carrying a bucket in each hand. Kaitlyn had two as well, while Jo carried one. Tillie skipped alongside them. None of them noticed him in the shadowed back corner of the barn. They were too focused on the calves. He’d join them when he was done with Solomon, who still shied around Tillie’s energetic movements. Drew took his horse’s dinner back to the stall.
The children’s footsteps stopped outside the large calf pen, and the buckets thumped to the floor.
