Eden

She did as he asked, taking a last sip of coffee before she put the cup on the table and rose to stand before him. She dropped the quilt to the bed, feeling almost naked in the all-enveloping nightgown she wore and knew a moment of thanksgiving as he helped her don the shirt, as if he understood that she was not at ease before him with only her nightwear covering her.

He pulled the collar together, straightening the yoke over her shoulders, and his hands remained there at her throat, his gaze sweeping her length, from where her pink toes curled against the braided rug beside the bed, to the flush that rode her cheeks as she suffered his appraisal.

He bent a bit, touching his lips against her forehead. “There now. Let’s go into the kitchen. Maybe you’ll feel more comfortable there. I’ve built a good fire in the cookstove and it’s nice and warm.”

She walked beside him, her hands full with the coffee cup, unwilling to mention the casual gesture he’d made. She’d received two kisses from this man in less than a day, and her mind boggled at the thought.

His shirt hung to her knees and she was thankful for its protection, even though she wore a full-length gown beneath it. She pulled it together in the front before she sat in the kitchen chair, covering her legs with the fullness.

“You surely wear big shirts, John,” she said, her fingers smoothing a wrinkle as she looked down at the plaid garment.

“I’m a big man. My mama said I’d have to be to grow into my feet when I was just a young’un. I always had the biggest shoes of all my brothers, and they teased me about it, till she told them that I’d be the tallest of the bunch when we were full grown.”

“And are you? The tallest, I mean?”

“Yeah. And I’ve still got big feet, but so long as they make boots in my size, I figure I’ll be all right.” He looked down to where she had wound her feet around the chair legs. “Yours are bitty little things, girl. But then, you’re not much bigger than a minute yourself. I guess it all works out, doesn’t it?”

She had begun to relax, John realized, her smile brighter, almost as if she were comfortable with him, he thought, and for that he was grateful. That this girl feared him was not to be borne. He’d thought his assurances to her last night would be enough to soothe her fears, but perhaps the terror she’d suffered and the pain she feared ran too deep, and only time would give her the confidence she needed to deal with him. And God only knew what Schrader had done to put the fear in her eyes. Another question he would need to find an answer to.

“Drink your coffee, honey. I’ve got to go out to the barn and get things under way for the day. Those men are working on the stalls and taking care of the livestock, but there’s fencing to be mended and cattle to be checked on today. It’s been pretty cold out there for well over a week. ’Bout time for another thaw, but we still had ice on the watering trough this morning.

“There’s hay to deliver to the steers in the south pasture, and we need to be watching the cows that are getting ready to drop their calves soon. But I’ll send the men out to handle that. I’ll be working in the barn for today, close enough to hear you if you call me.”

It was the longest speech he’d made in a month of Sundays, he thought as he fed her all the information he thought she might need to get her through the morning. He wanted her to know his routine, wanted to assure her that he would be nearby if she needed him.

She looked beyond him, out the window, where the morning sky was overcast, but the promise of sunshine hovered just beyond the clouds. “Looks like we’re going to have a nice day anyway,” she said, her mind working rapidly as she made her own plans. “I’ll cook up some eggs for you right quick. And later on, at noontime, I’ll have dinner ready for you. Will that be all right?”

“Sounds good to me. Get those eggs cooking. I’ll be back in just a few minutes.”

He let himself out the back door and she made haste to locate a skillet, then found a crock of eggs in the pantry. A bit of butter sizzled in the skillet and she whipped eggs to a froth in a small bowl, pouring them into the skillet quickly.

The room was quiet, his deep, masculine tones but a memory, and Katie went to the window to watch as he strode toward the barn. Two men stepped out from the wide, double doors and waved at him, calling words she couldn’t hear, and then she caught the drift of their laughter as they slapped John on the back and went with him into the big building.

In just a few minutes, he was back and she slid his scrambled eggs onto a plate and found a loaf of bread in the pantry, slicing it quickly and locating the butter for his use. He ate quickly, intent on heading out to work, and she was silent, watching him and buttering a slice of bread for herself.

“I don’t want you working too hard today, Katie,” he admonished her as he rose from the table. “I think there’s plenty to cook in the pantry, and I’d like you to just settle in this morning. All right?”

She nodded, watching as he left the cabin and then made tracks for the bedroom. Her own clothing wasn’t nearly as warm as John’s shirt, but she sought out the plainest of the new dresses he’d bought for her and slipped it over her head, carefully buttoning the bodice and sliding a new petticoat and a pair of drawers beneath it. Back in the kitchen once more, she washed in warm water from the reservoir on the stove, thankful for the fire he’d built for her comfort.

While getting dressed, she’d noted a basket in the bedroom where he’d apparently tossed his soiled clothing for the past several days, and she sought out a container now to use as a washtub. In the small entryway hung a galvanized bucket, larger than a milk pail, not as big as a bathing tub, but a good size nevertheless.

In moments she had scooped warm water from the reservoir on the side of the big cookstove into it, then added soap from under the sink to make suds. His small clothes and shirts were readily doused in it, and she allowed them to soak while she made the bed and washed up the dishes.

The corner posts on the back porch were a handy place for a short line to hang clothes on, she decided, and searched out a length of rope from the pantry, stretching it from one end of the porch to the other, tying it as high as she could reach on the square posts that held up the porch roof.

Hanging on a nail in the pantry, she found a small scrub board, and she brought it to the washtub, using it to good purpose on his clothing. In an hour, the line she’d strung held John’s clothing, his trousers and shirts and the bits and pieces of his underwear. Her own drawers she washed and hung behind the stove on the back of a chair, unwilling to allow them to flutter in the breeze where any passing ranch hand might see them.

A dresser stood against the outside wall in the bedroom and she sorted out the clothing she found there; John’s supply of drawers and denim trousers were folded neatly and stacked closely. Emptying one drawer to make room for her own sparse assortment, she took time to brush all the wrinkles out of the things John had purchased yesterday at the general store, her hands careful as she handled the fine fabric of the chemises he’d chosen for her.

“I feel like a real housewife,” she whispered softly to herself, aware that the sweeping and cleaning, scrubbing and folding that occupied her morning were enjoyable because of where she was, and who she was tending. John was a kind man, still a man, but with qualities she had not seen before in the one man who had made up her limited experience.

John would be easy to do for, and she sensed that he would appreciate her work on his behalf. Returning to the kitchen, she found a broom in the pantry and set to work on the dust that hid in the corners. A bit of cardboard served as a dustpan and she dumped the residue into the fireplace, noting that John had built up the fire for her comfort before he’d left the cabin.

A sharp rap from somewhere near the back door brought her out of her daydreams and she looked up to find a middle-aged lady watching her through the window. With a quick smile, Katie opened the door and faced her visitor.

“I’ll bet you’re Berta,” she said quickly, opening the door wide, so that her welcome would be evident.

“I sure am, honey. And you’re John Roper’s hired help or I miss my guess.”

“I’m Katie,” she said, pulling a chair from the table and offering Berta a seat. “I can make some coffee right quick, if you’d like, ma’am. After all, you sent me a cup this morning, early on.”

“I figured you could use a bit of a lay-in your first day here,” Berta said. “I make a big breakfast for those men, and there’s always enough to go around.” She’d carried in a burlap bag with her and now she bent to open it and began removing its contents. “Here’s some potatoes and carrots for you and a sack of onions, too. I figured John might not think of getting them from the general store, and I’ve got bushels full in the fruit cellar under the house. I expect you’ve already found the food from the kitchen garden I put up last fall. I brought a few jars over and put them in the cupboard for you, along with that crock of eggs in the pantry.

“And here’s a couple of jars of beef I cooked up and canned when we butchered last fall,” she said, bending low to pull more from the burlap sack. “There’s pork in the smokehouse and fresh ham in the lard barrel in the cellar, but beef don’t keep good thataway. I just can it up every year, and in between butcherings I have plenty to cook with.”

Katie was awed by the generosity before her. “I never saw so much good food in one place in my life,” she said, her eyes lighting with glee. “I can fix John some dandy meals out of all that.”

“He told me this morning that you could cook and clean, but I knew there wasn’t much here in the way of stuff to fix for dinner today, so I raided the fruit cellar and brought a few things I figured you could use. There’s always more eggs in the henhouse and milk in the pantry, or the milk house out back. Or else fresh from the barn if you know how to milk a cow. But the men keep the new Guernsey milked morning and night for the house, so you can just have them bring you some ever couple of days.

“Oh, and here’s some butter, too,” she said quickly, searching the bottom of the sack. “It got a little flattened, but it’s wrapped up good. I must have set a jar of beef on it.”

Katie looked at the bounty Berta had arranged on the kitchen table and felt her throat tighten, even as her head swam with the generosity of the woman who was prepared to welcome her without question. “I’ve never had anybody do for me this way,” she said, fighting to hold back the tears that begged to be shed.

“Well, for goodness’ sake, girl. Don’t make a fuss about it, and sure enough, I don’t want you to be crying. I came over to welcome you, not make you feel bad.”

“Oh, I’m not feeling bad, just pleased that you’re being so nice to me.”

“Well, let’s get this put away and set your kitchen to rights. I’ve probably got enough here to do you for a week or so anyway, along with whatever you can find in the smokehouse.”

“John had a good piece of bacon in the pantry and I fried some up last night when we got in from town. Made him a sandwich out of it and opened a can of beans, so he wouldn’t starve to death before morning.”

Berta dug in her apron pocket and found a small tin of tea leaves, announcing that a cup of tea was just the thing for midmorning, sending Katie to the stove where she slid the big covered teakettle over the hottest spot. In a few minutes they were sharing the tea, Berta declaring that next time she’d bring along some milk to put in it, Katie happy just to have the treat of tea, something that was a rare delight at the Schrader farmhouse.

Before long, Berta had taken her leave and looking up to where the sun hung behind a cloud, bringing its glow to the eastern sky a bit, Katie decided it was more than time to begin John’s dinner. One of the Mason jars of beef made up the base of her preparations, and she added three potatoes from the bag Berta had brought, a big onion from the mesh bag, and then a handful of carrots that Berta had said were but a drop in the bucket when compared to the bushels in her fruit cellar.

When the dinner bell rang loudly from the back porch of the big house, Katie was on her hands and knees, washing up the final square of the kitchen floor, the rest of it drying rapidly in the heat from the stove. John came in the door, and she lifted herself to kneel upright as he stepped into the kitchen.

“Berta called the men in for dinner, Katie, so I thought I’d see if you were ready with mine.”

“Watch the wet floor, John. Don’t slip. It’s not quite dry over there by the door yet. Wait a minute and I’ll wipe it with a towel and then I’ll be done here.”

“What are you up to, Katie?” He leaned past the table to see her, frowning as he caught sight of her kneeling near the stove. “It looks to me like you’ve been busy, girl. My trousers are almost dry out there on the line, and unless I’m dreaming, I can smell something mighty good on that stove.”

She couldn’t help the surge of pride that rose to the surface at his words. “It’s your dinner, John. I made you beef stew.”

His grin was wide and approving as he swept his gaze over her. “Well, doggone. This getting hired help is gonna work out just fine, Katie.” He sat on a chair near the door and pulled his boots off, careful to set them to dry on a bit of carpet he kept there.

He hung his coat and hat on the hook and then headed for the sink to wash up. Katie carried her bucket of wash water to the back door and dumped it over the railing as he scrubbed his face and rolled his sleeves up to wash his arms. When she closed the door after hanging the bucket on a nail in the entryway, he was drying off with a towel, watching her as she moved across the floor to the stove.

“I don’t want you working so hard, Katie. Doing the wash today was enough to wear you out, you didn’t have to scrub the floor, too.”

She stepped toward him and lifted her face to look at him squarely. “You don’t need to worry about me, John. I’m strong and well able to do anything that needs to be done in this house. What I do here is because I want to.”

John would have put his hands on her, would have held her close, but she’d already turned in a half circle and was reaching for the cupboard, lifting down plates and then searching out silverware in the drawer that held it.

And he thought better of his first instinct, that of touching the girl who had worked on his behalf all morning. She was not ready yet for a man’s hands to spread wide on her back, for a man’s lips to touch hers. And might not be for a long time to come. He’d do well to stifle his instincts and let the girl alone.

On the stove sat the coffeepot, the tempting smell of the fresh brew wafting to his nostrils, and he reached over her head to snatch up two cups, depositing them on the table next to the plates.

Katie folded her hands and tilted her head, as if she judged her meal ready to be served. “All right, John. Just sit down and I’ll fix your plate,” she said, locating a large spoon she’d put atop the warming oven. She stretched up on her tiptoes to reach it, and John’s breath caught as he watched her. Her arms lifted high, outlining her breasts against the bodice of her dress, the hem lifting to expose slim ankles and narrow feet.

He frowned as he caught sight of bare skin. “Where’s your shoes, Katie? You’ll catch cold that way. And you even went out on the porch barefoot. I don’t want you coming down with pneumonia, girl.”

She looked down quickly, as if she’d forgotten that her feet were bare of covering and then glanced at him, her reply coming quickly. “I took my shoes off when I washed the floor, and besides, I’m used to going barefoot. It saves on shoe leather.”

“Well, you can go without shoes if you want to, but not because you have to save on shoe leather,” he told her. “There’s plenty more shoes where yours came from. When they wear out we’ll get you new ones. In fact, they sell house shoes at the store, with soft soles you can slip on in the house.” His look in her direction was one that expressed his feelings, a smile that warmed her.

“You can have anything you need, Katie. I don’t want you ever going without food or clothing or whatever makes you happy. Understand?”

She nodded quickly. “I don’t need things, John. I’m happy just as I am, with what I already have. I don’t mean to argue with you, but—”

Her words broke off as he stepped closer and she lifted wide eyes to him, as if seeking out his thoughts. She was warm, smelling like soap and beef stew and woman, a combination he found irresistible. All of his good intentions fled as his head bent and his lips touched her cheek.

“Thanks for making my dinner and washing my clothes, honey. You’re satisfied with so little, I forget sometimes that your needs are easily met. But, know one thing, sweetheart. You don’t have to work so hard. I don’t want to see calluses on those pretty little hands.”

She watched his face as he spoke, and then drew her hands up between them to look at her palms, a frown on her face.

“I don’t have pretty hands, John. I’m used to hard work, and I know my hands show it, but that’s all right. I just want to do what I’m doing. I’m happy here with you.”

He took her palms in his, moving her back from him so that he could better see the small fingers and the roughened flesh he held.

“You’ve worked too hard during your life, Katie. I can see that by looking at you. And that’s all well and good, but it’s in the past. From now on you don’t have to work yourself to a frazzle. Just so long as you take good care of me, and keep my house clean and my meals cooked, I’ll be one happy man,” he said.

She looked puzzled at that and he relented, smiling a bit as he touched the end of her nose with his index fingertip. “You’ve got lots of years ahead of you to learn how to look after me, Katie. I’m planning on keeping you here for a long time, at least until you find yourself a good man and set up housekeeping in a place of your own.”

She shivered, her skin pale and her words put a lie to his prediction. “I don’t intend to ever get married, John. I didn’t see anything in my years out there at the Schrader farm to make me yearn for that sort of life. I’ll be happy to work for my keep and stay unmarried for the rest of my life.”

He sat down at the table and watched her as she readied his meal. “Haven’t you ever thought of having a family of your own, Katie? Children, maybe, and a husband to take care of you?”

The look she shot his way was dark. “I can take care of myself. And from what I’ve heard, it takes a man to help make babies, and that doesn’t seem like a good idea to me. I’ll stay as I am, thank you.”

If she wondered at the sassy grin he offered her, she did not question it or the words he uttered. “One day, you may change your mind.”

And thus she missed the measuring look he aimed at her as he spoke and the laughter that he muffled for her benefit.

CHAPTER SIX

THE NEXT FOUR DAYS passed quickly for Katie, bound up in the discoveries she made in John’s cabin. An extra sheet from his closet was cut up and hemmed to make curtains for the bedroom window, and she begged thread, a needle and pins from Berta to accomplish her goal. Her stitches were fine, her skills honed by years of darning stockings and mending trousers, not to mention the few items of clothing she’d made for herself to wear over the past couple of years.

Mrs. Schrader had not been enthused about the art of sewing and by dint of hard work and much stitching and then tearing out and redoing, Katie had learned how to put together two pieces of fabric and sew a fine seam. Curtains were a joy to make, she decided, especially when she knew John would be pleased with her efforts.

Berta contributed a dowel rod and together she and Katie tacked it into place over the window and the curtains were duly admired over a cup of tea, Berta’s praise for Katie’s skills falling on grateful ears.

John’s thoughts on the subject were more than she’d expected, for he told her that they would find a bolt of material in the general store that she could use for the kitchen, where curtains were sorely needed. She agreed with enthusiasm and made her plans accordingly, mentioning to John that a piece of oilcloth would look well on the kitchen table. A suggestion he agreed with, his pleasure in her plans for his cabin obvious.

She looked forward to the evenings spent before the fireplace, when John spoke to her of the cattle and horses, of the men who worked with him, and occasionally of his past. He came from a big family, his father still alive, although his mother had been buried several years ago. He had several brothers and a younger sister, he told her, all of them miles away, but close to his heart.

She envied him, a quiet sort of emotion that took nothing from his joy in his family, but a yearning for someone to call her own. John was fast becoming her friend, she thought, but she yearned to know that someone, somewhere might think of her as their family, perhaps the way John cared for his father and the brothers and sister he’d left behind. And yet, there was in her relationship with John, more than mere friendship, for she found herself yearning, on occasion, for a touch from him, perhaps his hand on her shoulder or his lips against her forehead, something he seemed to find pleasurable.

His touch was a comfort, his arm resting across her shoulders sometimes before he left the cabin in the morning to work in the barn or out in the pastures. But better yet were the infrequent times that he smiled at her and his gaze touched her with a heated warmth that went beyond his other gestures of tenderness. He’d placed his lips against her temple or cheek more than once, as a gesture of affection, and she cherished those small touches, aware that her presence in his home pleased him.

Today, after ironing his clothes and straightening his dresser drawers for the third time, she’d cooked a light meal for their supper, knowing he’d rather eat more heavily at noontime. And after the third trip to the window to look out into the twilight, she began to wonder where he could be. He’d told her he could usually be counted on to come in for his supper before darkness fell. And the sun had set already, making it necessary to light the lamp over the table.

She’d begun to fret, unable to think of what might have happened to make him so late, hearing the sounds of men walking to the house, their voices calling back and forth. And still, John was not to be seen.

Until, like a silent spirit in the night, he was behind her in the kitchen. She’d just turned back to the stove, rescuing the beans cooked with bits of ham before they burned, stirring the creamed potatoes one last time, deciding to give up and slide the whole meal into the oven to stay warm.

His hand was on her shoulder, his voice a whisper in her ear and she dropped her spoon on the floor with a clatter, turning to him, a cry of surprise and relief on her lips.

“John. Where have you been? I didn’t hear you come in. I’ve been worried. When it got dark and you weren’t home yet, I thought something had happened to you.”

Her words spun a web of caring about him and John drew her into his arms, not caring that he might be pushing her in the wrong direction, unable to halt his movements as he lifted her chin with one forefinger and pressed his lips to hers. For the first time yielding to the temptation she so unwittingly offered. For up until now he’d eased his growing need for her with tender, brief kisses against her temple, her cheek.

And yet, there was a boundary over which he would not cross, would not make Katie think he thought of her as more than a friend. She was a woman, and though her behavior was that of an innocent, he knew only too well how a woman could lure a man into her web. And the thought of ever again being enthralled by a female was not one he harbored for a moment of time.