Love Finds You in Wildrose, North Dakota Read online

  As though reading her thoughts, Annie spoke. “You’re looking at the nice things?”

  “I beg your pardon.” Rosemary knew her face must certainly be as red as a rose in bloom. “I didn’t mean to be rude.”

  Waving away the apology, Annie laughed. “Everyone responds this way. My parents are equal parts well-off and overbearing. Sometimes it’s easier to allow them to spoil us than to try to explain that we love them but we want to build our own life without the fancy things they had to wait twenty years to enjoy in their own marriage.” She sighed. “Try to tell my pa anything, though. He wants his daughter living in a ‘proper home.’ ”

  Inwardly, Rosemary squirmed. Had she sounded as pretentious as Annie’s parents? Rachel had been proud of her little home. Rosemary knew that from the letters she’d received over the past three years. Rachel had never once mentioned it was made of sod. Rosemary’s first opinion was that she had been ashamed to say so, but what if she hadn’t mentioned it because she honestly didn’t notice? At least not in such a way that would make her unhappy.

  Wooden crates lined the floor along the wall at the far end of the room. “Packing crates?”

  “Don’t mind those,” Annie said. “Silas is loading them all in the wagon tonight so we’ll be all ready to move out come morning.”

  Rosemary followed Annie into the kitchen, where more crates were filled with pots and pans and other kitchen items. Rosemary’s stomach jumped with excitement. Silas and Annie truly were moving. Perhaps something was finally going right.

  “Can I offer you a cup of coffee?” Annie asked. “I’d offer tea, but it’s already packed. Silas likes his coffee at each meal, so I left out just enough for supper and for him to have two cups with breakfast in the morning.”

  “Thank you. That would be wonderful.”

  Taking a cup from a cabinet across from the stove, Annie poured the coffee and set it on the table. “Supper’s cooking,” she said. “It’s nothing fancy. We killed a chicken to celebrate our last night in this godforsaken territory. I insist that you eat with us. Although I’m sure my fried chicken and bread and beans won’t hold a candle to yours. Rachel told me no one cooks as well as you do.”

  Pleased at the compliment, Rosemary smiled. “I’m afraid my sister was prejudiced.”

  “Well, that may be true, considering.” She smiled over her shoulder. “But Finn isn’t one to flatter, and he agreed.”

  The last person she wanted to discuss was Finn. Rosemary took a sip of the hot liquid then set her cup back on the wood table. “I’m curious, Annie.”

  “Why we’re leaving?”

  “Why, yes, to tell you the truth. This place is wonderful.”

  “Silas became weary of my nagging, I’m afraid. He finally agreed to take me home to Missouri.” She smiled as she stirred a pot on the stove. “My baby is due in November. But up here, we can have two feet of snow in one day during the month of November.” She stood over the stove, turning the sizzling chicken with a fork. “Silas thinks I’m worrying for nothing, but I just can’t help it. What if no one can get here because of the snow? If my time comes and I’m all alone, I know I’ll die.”

  “But your husband will be here to help you.”

  She shook her head. “He’d be angry if he knew I mentioned it, but Silas can barely watch when one of the animals gives birth. He’d faint dead away if he had to help me.”

  She put her finger to her lips in silent conspiracy as the door opened and Silas entered. He lifted his hand in greeting. “Miss Jackson,” he said. “Mighty nice to see you again. I vow I thought for a minute that Rachel had come for a visit when I saw her horse and saddle.”

  Rosemary felt the pain of his statement cut deep.

  “Miss Jackson is staying to supper,” Annie said. “And it’s just about ready, so you should go and wash up before taking your seat.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” he said, kissing her cheek. He winked at Rosemary and disappeared into a room off the living area.

  Annie turned to her as he left the room. “I’m so sorry he said that. It’s just that Rachel rode Charity over here often during those first two years before she discovered she was in the family way.”

  “I won’t pretend it doesn’t hurt. I didn’t know she was gone until I arrived.”

  “That must have been a shock.” Her tender tone nearly undid Rosemary, but she refused to break down. She needed to be strong and business-minded like her pa had taught her.

  She avoided answering by lifting the cup to her lips.

  “It’s okay,” Annie said. “We don’t have to talk about it if you’d rather not.”

  “Thank you, Annie.” She held the warm china cup between her palms and glanced up at the mother-to-be as she stood over her stove. “I don’t mean to be too bold, but are you sure you want to leave all this?”

  Annie set her jaw as though she had made up her mind and had no intention of allowing anyone to talk her out of it. “The home we have in Missouri is even more beautiful. My grandmother passed on last year and left it to us. I’m her only grandchild and Mama and Pa have a big house of their own, so they didn’t need it.”

  Rosemary refrained from asking how that was any different from her parents furnishing this home for her. Was living in her grandmother’s house really making their own way?

  Annie gave a weighted sigh. “It isn’t only that I’m frightened of having my child without help.” Returning the cover to the popping skillet, she turned to the table and sat across from Rosemary. “My entire family is in Missouri.” A soft smile touched her lips, and Rosemary could well imagine her large, loving family waiting for her to return to them.

  Something twinged inside her. Self-pity, she supposed. The only so-called family she had left had pushed her away. Although thrown her away was more like it.

  Mr. Freeman came back into the room, looking freshly scrubbed and wearing a different shirt. He poured himself a cup of coffee and kissed his wife on the cheek.

  Annie stood. “Supper will be finished directly,” she said.

  “Smells good enough to eat, Annie.” He winked at Rosemary, and she couldn’t resist a smile.

  His wife rolled her eyes. “I should say so!”

  “I can see why Rachel enjoyed your companionship, Annie. It’s too bad you’re leaving.” She couldn’t resist a sigh.

  To her surprise, Silas remained at his wife’s side. “Anything I can do to help?” he asked, surprising Rosemary even more.

  “Goodness,” Rosemary broke in before Annie could speak up. “Here I am, sitting idle, while you slave away over that stove. Please, let me help put supper on the table. Just tell me what to do.”

  “When it rains, it pours. Most days I’d give my right arm for a couple of helpers, and here I am with help but almost all the work is finished.” Annie motioned to the shelf along the wall behind the table. “The plates are there.” She smiled. “I’m glad I didn’t pack them yet.”

  Rosemary got up and fetched three plates. She set each one on the table—one where she had been sitting, one where Annie’s cup sat, and the other at the head of the table, where she assumed Silas would preside over the meal. She glanced around and was about to ask about silverware, when Annie anticipated her question and answered before she could voice it.

  “Knives and forks are in the drawer below the shelf,” Annie said. She cast a look of regret toward the beautiful, handcrafted cabinet. “I’m surely going to hate leaving that behind tomorrow.”

  Her words jolted Rosemary, reminding her of why she had come to the Freemans’ home. She paused for a moment and turned her gaze to Silas. “Have you spoken to Finn about my suggestion?” Finn hadn’t mentioned anything to her about the Freemans pulling up stakes. Not that he would have, but she’d have thought he might connect the idea of the inheritance and adding land to his.

  “I did better than that.”

  “Oh, how so?” Rosemary opened the drawer and removed silverware for the three of them and headed back
to the table.

  “After you and I talked that night, I paid a visit to the land office and asked about someone leasing the land. The land officer frowned at the idea and said he’d have to research it before he’d know for sure. And of course I’m not waiting around for that. I thought Finn Tate might want to file on the plot, since he’s just next door and a person can file for up to 320 acres nowadays if he plants trees on the land.”

  “Trees? Will they even grow here?”

  “I reckon they would if someone moved all the rocks. Besides, they say trees make it rain. It can be mighty dry in this part of Dakota Territory.”

  That made sense, she supposed. “Did you let Finn know the land office was expecting him after you relinquish the land?”

  “I spoke to him earlier this evening when he passed by here on his way home from town.”

  “And what did he say?”

  “That’s the curious thing. Finn’s not interested, Miss Jackson.”

  “Call me Rosemary,” she said offhandedly as her mind raced one way and then the other. Why would Finn not be interested in this place? Land measured a man’s wealth and provided for his family when he was gone. He was the most exasperating man.

  “Rosemary?” Annie’s voice drew her from her reverie. She heard a clatter and realized she’d dropped a fork on the table.

  “Goodness,” she said, her cheeks growing hot. “I’m so sorry. I was completely lost in thought.”

  Silas grinned and righted his fork alongside his plate. “I’d offer you a penny to hear them, but I’m afraid I’d have to give an IOU even for that.”

  “Don’t worry. I’ll share them with you for free.” She finished setting the table and took her place to the right of where Silas had taken his seat at the head. “Did Finn say why he wasn’t interested?”

  He stretched back as Annie set a platter of chicken on the table in front of him. He smiled at his wife, and the look of tenderness in his eyes filled Rosemary with longing. No man had ever loved her. Not that she had ever had time for all that silliness. Rachel had been the one given to dreaming and sighing over Lord Byron. Rosemary chided herself inwardly for allowing Silas’s affection toward his wife to move her. The only man she’d ever wanted to marry didn’t want her. And she’d never even asked him to love her.

  That thought could lead to the sad state of self-pity, she knew that.

  She leveled her gaze at Silas and placed her palms on the table. Underneath, her foot tapped the air. “What if I file on the land instead of Finn?” Rosemary’s heart raced, and her voice shook with nerves and emotion. “Silas, listen to me. I can buy this house from you so you won’t lose everything you’ve put into this place. I know how to run a successful ranch. My pa didn’t have a son and I always loved the outdoors. It just seemed natural for me to learn his business. I wouldn’t run it into the ground.”

  “But this is a farm, not a ranch.”

  “I’ll be honest with you, Silas. I could never make a farm go. I’ll try my hand at running my own ranch. Like my pa before me.” She kept her expression deliberately stoic. “Let’s take inventory of everything you’ve accomplished in the last three years, and I’ll give you a fair price for any of the livestock and equipment you feel you need to leave behind. I’m going to have to buy a cow and chickens anyway. I don’t even own a horse. I noticed there are several cows, and I assume you aren’t planning to take an entire flock of chickens. As I said, I’ll give you a fair price. Enough so that you won’t go to your people penniless.”

  “I got to admit, you have a good eye for the way things are, Miss Jackson.” Silas drew in a breath and held it then let it out and leveled his gaze at her. “I’ve tried to sell the livestock, but folks were hard-hit this winter. No one’s going to have any cash money for a while. I was going to leave most of it, like you said.”

  “Well, then. Now you won’t have to.”

  Annie set a bowl of potatoes on the table and then took her seat at the other end of the table, across from Silas. “But we aren’t exactly penniless. We have a house and several acres of land in Missouri.”

  Silas smiled at his wife. “That’s true, sweetheart, but without cash money, we won’t be able to plant. If we can’t plant, we won’t have a harvest, and then we can’t buy the things we need.”

  “Oh, that’s nothing to worry about. You know Ma and Pa will give us plenty of start-up cash.” She folded her hands in front of her. “Will you ask the blessing, husband?”

  Rosemary bowed her head respectfully, but she couldn’t help the fact that her mind raced far away from the subject of giving thanks for the food. She hoped the Lord would understand.

  When Silas said amen, Rosemary waited for the plates to be filled before diving back into the subject. But before she could, Annie regarded her with a thoughtful gaze. “Rosemary, if you want to move in, there will be no one to stop you. The house will just be sitting here, anyway.” She lifted a chicken leg to her lips and took a bite. “Why spend money you don’t have to spend? Just go to the land office and file a claim tomorrow.”

  The thought had crossed her mind, but something told her that wasn’t the way to do things—and since she’d asked the Lord to give her a solution, she didn’t want to go against what she felt was from Him. “I don’t feel right about profiting from your hard work, Silas.”

  Annie swallowed her bite of chicken. “But we’re giving it up. It’s not ours.”

  “Annie, Silas, my proposal is solid. I am offering a fair sum for the buildings, whatever livestock you choose to leave, the furnishings, any feed…. And in return, I have peace of mind that the land, with the improvements, plus the house and other buildings, are mine, fair and square.”

  “Some folks would call you a fool, Miss Jackson,” Silas said. “Giving up good money when all you have to do is sign your name to a document and it’s yours anyway.”

  “Folks can call me whatever they want. I’d rather start out with a clear conscience before God than take advantage of good people in a bad situation.”

  Annie shook her head. “But, goodness, what’s a lone woman going to do with a homestead? What sort of man is going to come calling if you’ve no chaperone? Rachel was worried about you finding a proper match anyway. She so hated this country.” Annie’s eyes grew wide. “I have a perfect idea. You come to Missouri with us instead. You can buy a little plot of land there. I have two unmarried brothers and a passel of cousins for a pretty girl like you to choose from.”

  Heat crawled up Rosemary’s neck. “I can’t leave Rachel’s daughter. My sister would have wanted me in her baby’s life, even if Finn would rather forget I exist.”

  The Freemans exchanged an awkward glance.

  “I’m sorry,” Rosemary said. “I didn’t mean to make things tense. I have an unfortunate habit of speaking when I should be silent.” Her mind had tripped over Annie’s comment that her sister had hated this country. She opened her mouth to ask about it, but their attention was diverted by a knock at the door.

  Silas stood. “Who could that be?”

  Rosemary had a pretty good idea of who would be standing on the other side of the door when Silas pulled it open.

  Chapter Nine

  .........................

  There was no excuse for what Rosemary had done, running off like that. Rachel would never have stormed out of the house, saddled her own horse, and ridden off like an outlaw running from a posse. Anger burned through Finn as Silas opened the door.

  “Finn!” Silas said, stepping aside. “Come in. What’s in the basket? Oh, the baby.”

  Finn stomped into the room and headed toward the doorway leading into the kitchen.

  “What on earth is wrong?” Silas asked.

  “I’ve come to fetch Rosemary.”

  A gasp sounded from the kitchen. “How dare you presume that you can fetch me?”

  “Come and sit down with us,” Silas said, a hint of humor in his deep voice. “We’ve been having an interesting conversation.
”

  Sarah squirmed inside the basket but, thankfully, didn’t wake up. “Oh? I can well imagine what she had to say about me.” He gave Rosemary a pointed glare.

  “About you?” Rosemary’s lips twisted into a sneer. “Let me assure you, Finn Tate—you were not the topic of our conversation.”

  Her words were so forceful, they took him aback. “What, then? Why did you take the horse and come here, to my neighbor’s home?”

  “Please, Finn,” Annie said, her soft voice beckoning him to the table. “Let me pour you some coffee.”

  “Thank you, Annie,” Finn said. He set the basket on the table and took a seat. Sarah’s squirming became a whimper. Rosemary’s gaze moved to the basket.

  “Go ahead, if you want to,” he said.

  Without so much as a word of thanks, she stood up and looked inside the basket. “Hi, pretty baby,” she cooed. “Did you wake up from your nap? Come here to Aunt Rosie.” The baby quieted the instant she heard Rosemary’s voice. And when she picked her up, Sarah snuggled against her shoulder and pressed her face into Rosemary’s neck in a way she never did with Finn.

  Annie set a cup of coffee in front of him, and Silas slid the sugar bowl across the table. “Rosemary came to make me an offer,” Silas said. His eyes smiled as he spoke, and Finn had the notion that his friend was mocking him.

  “What sort of offer?” Finn narrowed his eyes and turned to Rosemary then back to Silas. “What is going on here?”

  “Well,” Rosemary said, “at the moment, I’d say what is going on is that your daughter is soaking wet and in need of a change.”

  Annie reached for Sarah. “Let me take her. I’ll get her all fixed up.”

  “Oh, I forgot to bring her a…” Finn felt like a fool.

  “How could you forget to bring her a change?” Rosemary asked, her accusing tone raising Finn’s hackles.

  “How could you steal a horse and ride off?”