“I’ll be staying at the Howards’,” Beth told him. “What sort of trouble do you expect?”
She was sorry she asked, for he stopped to tick off his concerns on his fingers. “Cholera has been reported in the territory. The town is becoming increasingly crowded with men of every sort. That windstorm cut off supplies—another could do so as well, leading to rioting in the streets.”
“Worse,” James intoned, voice like a church bell, “she might come back engaged to a sawmill worker.” He gasped and clutched his chest.
Simon looked daggers at him, but Beth shook her head at his teasing. So did her brother John.
“I’m sure we could deal with that,” he told James. “But Beth, Simon has a point. Here you have all of us for support if you need it. Who will you rely on in Seattle?”
Her middle brother, John, was such a dear, always concerned about the family. Before she could protest that she could take care of herself, Levi, her closest brother in age, spoke up.
“I have similar concerns. You need someone you can count on, Beth.”
Beth threw up her hands. “And you don’t believe Allegra and Clay are reliable? Look at the lives they’ve built—successful, admired.”
Levi had learned something about the tact required in his position of minister, for he made a sad face as if commiserating with her. “Allegra and Clay are good friends, but they aren’t family.”
“Precisely,” Simon said. “Someone should go with her.”
That was all she needed. Immediately they set about arguing who could spare time from their families and work. Beth stamped her foot to get their attention.
“No,” she said. “I don’t need anyone to look out for me. I’m not a child.”
“That,” James said, “is exactly why we’re concerned.”
Oh! Brothers!
“I have a solution,” Levi put in. “There’s someone in town as close as family who’d be glad to help Beth. Scout.”
Her brothers all nodded, stances relaxing, mouths smiling. Even Beth thought she could live with that solution. She’d known Scout Rankin all her life. Only three years her senior, he and Levi had been nearly inseparable growing up. Before James’s wife, Rina, had come to Wallin Landing as the first official schoolteacher, Beth, Levi and Scout had sat for lessons with Ma in the main cabin. The three of them had fished and hunted together, climbed trees together, chased each other through the woods. Only when Levi and Scout had set off to seek their fortunes on the gold fields of the British territories to the north had the trio been parted.
Scout and Levi had had a falling-out along the way, but since their friend’s return to Seattle last month, they had made up. Scout had come back a wealthy man and had purchased a fine house in town. And he had proven himself a good friend.
But while her brothers were certain Scout could keep an eye on Beth, Beth was equally certain she ought to be keeping an eye on Scout. He’d returned to Seattle triumphant, just as he and Levi had always dreamed. But his quiet nature and the wariness learned under his abusive father seemed to be keeping him from accepting the place he’d earned in society.
What he needed was a wife.
She told him as much when they met at the Pastry Emporium two days later, after she’d moved in with the Howards and made arrangements to start the next phase of her plan to find Hart a bride.
She smiled at her old friend sitting across one of the wrought-iron tables from her, looking rather dapper in an olive coat and tan trousers. Scout had never been as tall or muscular as her brothers. His dark hair was longer than currently fashionable, brushing his collar. His narrow face was marred by a crooked nose that had been broken years ago, and his left cheek bore a scar he had received while he’d been away.
“Oh, you needn’t worry,” he said, soft brown gaze dropping to the tabletop. “I doubt anyone will want to marry me.”
Beth nudged his foot with her own, and he glanced up.
“You are a gentleman,” she reminded him.
Scout quirked a smile. “I suppose money will do that for a fellow.”
“Nonsense,” Beth said, applying herself to the cinnamon roll Maddie had placed between them, white sugar icing dripping from the still-warm sides. “You were a gentleman before you left for the gold fields. Money doesn’t change who you are.”
He rubbed a hand on the olive-colored sleeve of his coat, as if uncomfortable with the elegant cut of the wool fabric. “It sure doesn’t.”
This time, Beth’s nudge was sharper, and he looked up, brows raised in obvious surprise.
“You stop that immediately,” she scolded. “You are a fine man, Thomas Rankin. Any lady in Seattle would be blessed to have you.”
Whether it was the use of his formal name or the tone of her voice, she wasn’t sure, but Scout grinned at her. “Well, there’s one lady I’d like to impress, but she’s awfully bossy.”
Beth stuck out her tongue at him.
Scout laughed. “See? You don’t stand for any nonsense from me or your brothers. Never have.”
“Never will,” Beth promised him.
“And that tells me it isn’t anything about me that keeps you from letting me court you. I know which way the wind blows there.”
Like her brothers, Scout had witnessed her earlier infatuation with the deputy.
“The wind has changed, Scout,” she murmured, keeping her gaze on the cinnamon roll. “I’ve changed. I don’t think I’ll ever marry either.”
“What?” He leaned closer, and she could feel him searching her face. “But you’re the matchmaker!”
“Just because I can match other people doesn’t mean I can pick my own husband reliably,” she said, voice prim. “That’s why people need a matchmaker, you know. They lack the vision to see the right person for them.”
“Funny,” Scout said, leaning back. “I thought it was lack of skills in society or lack of confidence.”
“Those can be overcome,” Beth assured him, raising her gaze with certainty. “But I’m beginning to believe none of us can reliably choose a mate on our own.”
“The human race is doomed,” he teased.
“No,” she replied with a grin. “I’ll save it.”
He laughed. “We’re a pair, I guess. I doubt any woman would want me given my family history. You doubt the man you want will return your affections.”
“I don’t doubt,” Beth told him. “I asked him. He doesn’t.”
She wasn’t sure why she told him. He could very well take the tale back to Levi and the rest of her brothers. But there was something about Scout, something sweet, something approachable.
And it was very nice to have someone commiserate with her.
His reaction was everything she might have hoped for. He drew himself up, color rushing back into his lean cheeks. “Then Deputy McCormick is nothing but a low-down skunk, and you’re better off without him.”
“That’s what I keep telling her,” Hart said as he stopped by their table.
* * *
He watched as Beth washed white. She’d been so intent on her conversation with Scout Rankin she probably hadn’t heard the shop bell. Georgie Howard had told him Beth had come to visit. The boy often joined Hart at the paddock to help