“Do you cook?” Tate asked.
“Almost all my life. My mother died in childbirth with me, so as soon as I could reach the stove, I was cooking for my brothers, Seth and Caleb, and my father.”
“I’m sorry about the circumstances, but I’m sure your family appreciated your culinary efforts. However, cooking in the mountains is a different matter.”
“I’m sure I shall manage.” She looked straight at him. “Yes, I know it takes longer for water to boil at high altitudes and for cakes to bake. To the extent that I could, Mr. Lockwood, I have tried to prepare myself.”
He doubted anything could prepare her for what she’d encounter. “That’s all one can do, I suppose.” He cleared his throat. “I presume you are acquainted with Miss Bird’s mountain adventures?”
“Yes. I hope to prove as intrepid as she. Although I’m sure some of the challenges I encounter will surprise me, I have confidence I can deal with whatever befalls me.”
How can the woman be so impossibly naive? “I wish you well.”
“As do we all,” Robert said. “I admit when Sophie first proposed this adventure, I was skeptical. I’ve seen frontiers, and they can be most inhospitable, especially to women. But this gal?” He looked fondly at the young woman. “She’s fearless. In our short acquaintance, I’ve seen her outride many men I know. I’m an old cavalryman, and I know horses. So does she.” He shook his head emphatically. “If any woman can make it in the mountains, Sophie has my vote.”
Tate glanced at Sophie, noting the blush coloring her cheeks. She couldn’t weigh much over a hundred pounds. How would she face down a bear? “Time will tell,” he mumbled, aware he sounded churlish.
“So it will,” she replied merrily. “I can’t wait for tomorrow.”
“Is this your first trip beyond Kansas?” he asked, scooping up a roll and buttering it. In the pause before she answered, he glanced up. For some reason, her smile had faded and a sudden melancholy clouded her expression.
“No, I, uh, I spent 1876 and 1877 in New England studying history and classics at an academy for women.” Hesitating for a moment, she went on. “I was at a point in my life where I needed...a change.”
When she didn’t elaborate, he noticed both Robert and Effie were busying themselves with their meals. Well, he might be a man of the mountains, but he hadn’t forgotten all social graces. He’d stumbled into awkward territory and the only way out was to change the subject. “I’m a Pennsylvanian and even attended university there. I hadn’t been much of anywhere until I came to Colorado. I believed all the newspaper accounts about making a fortune in the West.”
“And did you?” she asked in a neutral tone.
“As a matter of fact I did.”
Robert beamed. “Our boy here has not only done well for himself, he has made quite a name in the mining and banking communities.”
“Congratulations,” she murmured, bent over her meal. Then she looked up. “It’s the land of opportunity. That’s what I’m seeking.”
He couldn’t imagine Estes Park would offer her that. “What kind of opportunity?” he asked merely to keep the conversation alive.
He wasn’t prepared for her candor. “The opportunity to find myself. To learn who I am all by myself. To discover what I’m meant to do now.”
In the now he heard a mournfulness that caught him off guard. Maybe she wasn’t quite the flibbertigibbet he’d judged at first. Her last word suggested a history. A burdensome one. His question had led them far beyond dinner-party conventions. “It’s a good place to do that,” he finally said.
Effie came to the rescue. “I would like to pack up some of the remaining food for your journey.”
“That would be welcome,” Tate said.
“When should I be ready in the morning?”
“I will be here at six. Have your horse packed and saddled, and we’ll be off soon after to go to the livery to pick up the wagons loaded with our supplies and summer provisions. Prepare yourself, Miss Montgomery. It is a long, uncomfortable trip.”
She lifted her head in a way that suggested defiance. “I can handle it, sir.”
From that point on, Effie dominated the conversation with tales of the military wives she’d met, some suited to the life and others woefully unprepared.
When Tate rose to leave later in the evening, the others followed him out onto the front porch. A breeze cooled the air. Overhead a canopy of stars twinkled in the ether. “Come back soon, son. Bring the boys,” the major said, patting him on the back.
“The boys?” Sophie asked.
“Tate has two young sons. Charming little fellows,” Effie explained.
“I should like to meet them.” Sophie approached him and held out her hand. “Good night, Mr. Lockwood. Until tomorrow.”
He stood there, momentarily stunned into silence. She only came up to his shoulder, but her eyes held his in an unflinching gaze. Her hand was warm. He pulled away, hoping his abruptness wasn’t discourteous. “Until tomorrow,” he echoed, then thanked the Hurlburts and went to the barn to mount his horse, all the while thinking, Never was there an unlikelier mountain adventurer.
* * *
Sophie turned to reenter the house, momentarily flustered by Mr. Tate Lockwood, whose tall, muscular body had towered over hers and whose dark brown eyes seemed to drink her in. Yet acerbic was the only word that came to mind to describe his personality. Although he hadn’t come right out and said it, it was obvious he thought her upcoming stay in the mountains was the height of folly. It was as if he deliberately withheld his superior knowledge of the place, hoping she would learn the hard way the arrogance of her expectations. Well, she’d show him—and all the other doubters.
“Did you enjoy Mr. Lockwood?” Effie hovered at her elbow.
“I’m not sure enjoy is the best word.”
“What is, do you think?”
“He was interesting maybe, or...” Sophie floundered.
“A bit brittle perhaps?”
“Certainly self-contained.” Sophie frowned. “He doesn’t want to take me.”
Effie sighed. “I suppose not. But he’s right, dear, it’s a harsh environment.”
“I think that may be exactly what I need.”
Behind them Robert locked the door. “I’m off to read, ladies. Good night. Sophie, I’ll see you in the morning.”
Effie put an arm around her shoulders. “Would you have time for another cup of tea?”
“I would welcome one.”
In the kitchen, Effie bustled with the kettle, her back turned to where Sophie sat at the table. “The past still weighs you down, then?”
“I doubt it shall ever leave me, but I am determined to quit living in the limbo of my regrets.”
“Is Estes Park the answer?” Effie set the cups down and took a seat.
“I know it sounds ridiculous, but I truly think it may be. I need a new place. One where my lungs fill with fresh air and my eyes are dazzled...”
“Are you running away or running toward, I wonder.”
Sophie watched the steam rise from her tea. Outside a dog barked. “In truth, a bit of both.” She took a warming sip. “I love my family, but I couldn’t stay in Cottonwood Falls, as much as the Flint Hills are my heart’s home. To watch Caleb and Lily together, so happy and