The men mumbled. Only words Jenny made out indicated they thought the boss should do it.
Finally Dug cleared his throat. “Want me to do it?”
“Please.” Burke sounded like he’d been saved some dreadful disaster.
They all bowed their heads. Paquette crossed herself.
Dug sucked in air. “We thank you, Father, for this food. And pray you’ll bless it to our good. Help us live your name to praise, in all we do through all our days. Amen.” He gasped as he finished the words in a rush.
Mac cleared his throat.
“Eat,” Paquette again ordered and the men dug in with haste as if they had to make up for lost time.
Meggie watched them for a moment, silently measuring and assessing.
“Meg, how about some food?” It had been ages since they’d had a good hot meal and the aromas coming from the pot roast and rich gravy made Jenny want to imitate the men in attacking her food. But she had Meggie to think about.
Meggie opened her mouth and waited for Jenny to feed her. She’d abandoned feeding herself after her parents died. Jenny understood it was only her way of coping—going backward a little to a safer, kinder time in her life.
No one spoke as they focused their attention on the food.
Finally Mac swiped his plate clean with a slice of bread and leaned back. Paquette placed a pot of coffee in the middle of the table and he poured himself a mug full.
“Hauled out all that stuff by yourself, did ya?”
Jenny realized he meant the junk from the bedroom. “I did.”
“Not a nice job.”
“Wasn’t bad.”
“Must have been pretty dirty.”
“I sneezed a time or two.” The others filled coffee cups and leaned back. For some reason they seemed mighty interested in this conversation. “Stomped a few spiders but nothing much.”
Lucky chuckled. “See any big spiders.” He held his hands out to indicate one about six inches across.
As a greenhorn Jenny knew she was open season for teasing but she wasn’t falling for that one. She decided to turn the tables. “Phew. One that big is nothing.” She held out her hands to the size Lucky indicated. Slowly she widened the distance between her hands until they were twelve inches apart. “There was one behind the stack of lumber that came at me with a piece of wood. But I fixed him.”
All eyes were on her now. She glanced at Burke, saw his guarded expression. His eyes seemed to grab her and invite her to follow him into exciting adventures. She jerked her gaze away. She was being fanciful. Only place he wanted her was out of here.
“How’d you fix him?” Dug asked.
She glanced around the table, delaying the moment. When she felt everyone waiting for her answer she quirked an eyebrow in a dismissive, doesn’t matter way. “I trapped him in a boot. Tied it shut. Put it on the veranda with its mate. Guess you all better be checking your footwear before you put it on.”
The men stared. Burke laughed first. “She gotcha.”
Startled laughter came from the others and Paquette cackled.
Jenny allowed herself a glance toward Burke. The skin at the corners of his eyes crinkled. His eyes weren’t black as she’d first thought but dark brown and full of warm mirth. She couldn’t pull away. Couldn’t break the moment as they grinned at each other, something silent and sweet passing between them.
“I think she got you, boss,” Mac murmured.
The laughter had ended. How long had they been staring into each other’s eyes? Jenny jerked her gaze away and fussed with Meggie, who worked on a crust of bread.
Burke pushed from the table. “I got things to do.”
The men all bolted to their feet and followed him from the room.
“I’ll help clean up,” Jenny offered as she rose from the table.
“It not for lady,” Paquette protested.
“I’m not here to be pampered.” She carried dishes to the cupboard and tackled washing them. Work was a good way to control her wayward thoughts. As she worked she had but to lift her head to see Burke outside doing something at the corrals, Lucky at his side. Burke moved with a sureness revealing his strength and confidence.
A man who belonged in this new challenging land.
A man who drew some deep longing from a secret place behind her heart.
She jerked her thoughts to a standstill.
She’d listened to those siren voices before—adventure, excitement. It had led to disaster.
She pulled her gaze away.
Father God, help me be wise. Help me heed the counsel of my parents.
She washed the last dish, wiped the table clean. “I think I’ll take Meggie out for a walk before bedtime. She needs fresh air and exercise.”
She took Meggie’s hand and together they went outdoors. She let Meg run the length of the veranda, smiling at the fun the child got from her shoes echoing on the wooden floor. When Meggie climbed down the three steps to the ground, Jenny followed. They wandered down the path toward the open field. The land rose almost imperceptibly but enough that suddenly the countryside lay before her like a great huge blanket. The sun dipped low in the west casting shadows across the land, filling it with dips and hollows. The light caught higher objects almost lifting them from the ground. The land went on and on. Amazing. Awesome.
Jenny lifted her arms to the sky.
She could almost touch the clouds. Float on them across the endless sky.
“Oh, Pa,” she whispered. “If you could see this. Feel what I feel, you’d understand the restlessness of my soul.” She didn’t want to be confined within four walls, constrained by the bounds of town life.
But she would honor her parents. She lowered her arms and crossed them over her chest.
She would keep her word and return.
Surely, once she was back she would forget this moment.
She knew she never would. In fact, she stared at the vast prairie for a long time. She didn’t want to forget. She wanted to brand it forever on her brain, a secret place she could visit in the future and find again, this wonderful sense of freedom.
Burke watched Jenny and Meggie head past the corrals. His arms tingled with apprehension. How would she react when she saw how empty the prairie was around her?
At his side, Lucky watched, too. “She’s different.”
Burke knew what Lucky meant—Jenny was different than Flora.
Lucky went on as if Burke had asked him to explain. “She’s got a sense of humor, for one thing. And she sat with us like she didn’t think she was better.”
Flora had made it clear she would not share the table with servants. She’d wanted Burke to join her at eating separately, expecting Paquette to wait on them.
Burke had refused. It was only a small thing. He should have found a way to compromise. Perhaps it would have made a difference. He watched Jenny as she reached the end of the path and drew to a halt.
In the end it was the emptiness of the land that did in Flora. As it did so many. Why, just a few months ago the marshal had taken away Stan Jones to the north of here and Mr. Abernathy had packed up and gone back east because his wife couldn’t take it anymore. Burke had heard Mrs. Abernathy now had a personal nurse to care for her.
Jenny raised her arms