by Danni Roan
“Men,” Mrs. Hampton said shaking her head. “At least now it’s over and they can all be friends.”
As the other men separated Spencer Gaines walked toward his younger brother, then pulled Anderson with him. “I think it’s time the two of you end this rivalry,” he said calmly. “We can’t have your men picking fights with each other and tearing up Needful. The town has enough issues to deal with without neighbors feuding.”
Anderson reached up and scratched at his ear that was rapidly swelling due to a lucky punch the sheriff’s brother had gotten in earlier.
“I don’t know what started this whole thing, but you two need to grow up and get along,” Spencer continued. “Now you shake hands and apologize,” he finished feeling like an old man addressing to misbehaving boys.
Anderson’s bright eyes flicked toward Miss Perkins who still looked shocked and disappointed. “I’m sorry,” he said reaching out a battered hand. “I had no call saying what I did.”
“So you believe me?” Dan said. “You realize I never sent for that girl?”
“Sent for who?” Spencer asked scowling at his brother.
“Miss Perkins,” both men replied at once.
Spencer shook his head with a heavy sigh. “I knew something was going to go wrong with this scheme,” he grumbled. “Olive placed an ad for the girl,” he said. “She had some notion you needed a wife, Dan.”
Dan’s dark eyes widened looking at his brother accusingly. “You knew?”
“Not until it was too late,” Spencer replied.
“So you don’t have any claim on that girl?” Anderson said smiling then cringing as his lip throbbed.
“I told you I didn’t.”
Anderson reached out taking Dan’s hand one more time. “I’m sorry Gaines,” he said. “I miss spoke, and I was wrong,” he continued his smile widening. “Now that I’m sure you aren’t a rat, I know just what to do.”
Dan and Spencer watched, bewildered as Anderson hurried toward the food tables with a spring in his step.
Chapter 18
Anderson crossed the yard with a purpose. Now that he was sure thatGaines had no claims on Miss Perkins, the only thing he could think of was finding a way to make her his.
From the moment he’s laid eyes on her out on the prairie there had been a connection. Something he hadn’t recognized right away. His instincts had been to protect and save the young woman from the eminent danger of the range bull, but somehow those feelings had grown over the past few weeks into something different.
Miss Primrose Perkins was different than any girl he had ever met. She was simple, straight forward, and kind. She didn’t see herself as someone above others, and he liked that about her. She was also hardworking, independent, and willing to make the best of life, all qualities needed in a town like Needful.
“Miss Perkins,” Anderson said with a polite smile as he approached the young woman, ducking his head as he realized what a mess he must be. “It has been drummed into me that you are in fact not attached to Mr. Gaines in any way,
Anderson began. “ Since he has no claim on you, I thought perhaps I might be allowed to call on you.”
Prim looked at Mr. Bowlings’ rapidly swelling left eye and the tiny trickle of blood dripping from his temple. He was covered in dust, battered, and his shirt sleeve was torn at the cuff.
“Is that what this whole thing was about?” she asked gesturing across the building site with her arm, as heat filled her belly.
Anderson felt the heat race up his face as the accusation in her words slammed home.
Dropping his eyes he nodded curtly, cringing at Prim’s soft gasp.
“I can’t believe you started this whole fight because you couldn’t believe what I said about Mr. Gaines. I told you he had no claims on me earlier, and that there was a mix up with the ad.”
Anderson nodded, feeling like a school boy called before the principal. “I didn’t mean any disrespect,” he said. “I. Well you see Gaines and I, we have a kind of rivalry.”
Prim’s heart felt as if it were collapsing in her chest. Was the man she had been falling for only interested in her because he felt he was taking her from a rival? “I’m sorry Mr. Bowlings,” she said with a sniff as she fought the tears that sprang to her eyes. “I’m afraid if you didn’t believe me then, you never will.” With her final word Anderson watched Miss Perkins walk away, his heart thudding to the bottom of his boots like a load stone.
***
Prim felt her heart compress as she walked away from Anderson. It wasn’t that she wasn’t attracted to the man, in reality she had thought of him often and felt a connection with him from the moment they had met, but she couldn’t trust a man who didn’t believe her or take her at her word. Trust was too important to ignore.
As much as Prim wanted to turn around and agree to Mr. Bowlings idea of courting, until she was sure that he would believe her she couldn’t give in. Instead she walked along an old trail through a small clump of trees seeking out a quiet place to think.
***
“Anderson Bowlings what in the world have you done now?” Mrs. Hampton stepped up next to the rancher, her hands planted on her hips. “Are you trying to run that girl off?”
“No ma’am,” Anderson replied turning toward Mrs. Hampton and shaking his head. “I only wanted to ask if I could court her.”
“Then why is she running away from you instead of to you?” the old woman asked with a raised brow. “I’ve seen the way she looks at you and this is backwards of expectations.”
“She thinks I don’t believe her.”
“And what did you say to make her think that?”
Anderson thought over the conversation from only moments ago shaking his head in chagrin.
“That’s what I thought. You men are more work than you’re worth if you ask me,” she grumbled. “You have to woo a girl,” she continued. “Primrose is a sensible young thing, and you’ve put her back up. You must have been dumb as a brick in what you said. Now you come along with me while Orville gets the rest of these men back to work. It ain’t even supper time yet and this place is getting built today!”
Anderson grinned and then cringed when the motion pulled at his swollen lip. He’d been a fool to start that fight with Dan Gaines, and it was a miracle that the other men hadn’t mounted up and disappeared already. If old Mrs. Hampton had an idea how to win Primrose after all of that, he would listen.
“Come on,” Olive snapped causing the Englishman to fall in step. “We’re going to have a little talk you and me.”
Chapter 19
Prim slipped into the shelter of the trees, her heart heavy and her mind troubled. “Lord, I don’t know if I did the right thing or not coming here to Needful.” She whispered sitting on a fallen log. “I wanted to find a way to provide for my family and thought marrying a stranger would fix everything.” She laughed softly. “That didn’t exactly go as planned though did it?”
Prim’s voice was soft in the quiet space as she searched her heart. “I thought coming to Needful would change my life, but this isn’t what I expected at all. Was I foolishly chasing the desires of my own heart? I need wisdom,” she continued once more.
Looking around the small clearing Prim thought back to the moment she had met Mr. Bowlings and her heart fluttered at the memory. He had been handsome, kind, and bold in her moment of need, and from the second their eyes had met, there had been a kind of connection, though she didn’t recognize it then.
“Did you bring Anderson to save me the day I stepped off of the stage or was it simply a coincidence?”
For several minutes Prim played the scene over and over again in her head, remembering the kindness of the rancher’s words and the light in his green eyes. Prim’s lips twitched into a smile as she remembered her plunge to the earth as she covered her head with her old bag. Mr. Bowlings was a sophisticated man, a man of society and wealth. She was only a simple girl from the hills of Tennessee. A moonshiner’s daughte
r was not fit for a man like Anderson Bowlings.
A yellow bird flitted over Prim’s head, landing in the tree above as it lifted its song to heaven and in that moment a verse slipped into Prim’s mind like the flutter of wings.
For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Was she good enough, in God’s great grace to allow a man like Anderson to care for her?
The question sat in her heart as she turned it over and over. “I’m still angry with him,” Prim whispered. “He should have believed me in the beginning.” But could she give him a chance? Could she get to know the man building the biggest house she had ever seen and determine if he was the man for her?
Prim shook her head, her shoulders dropping as she surrendered to her heart. She had come to Needful to marry a man who hadn’t even wanted a wife. If she had been willing to travel all this way to marry a stranger, giving Anderson, a man she already knew and cared for, a chance to woo her seemed only logical.
A wicked grin spread across Prim’s head as she sat up straighter and gazed through a gap in the trees. “I don’t have to make it easy on him though,” she said to the silence rising and returning to the work on the other side of the trees.
***
The sound of hammers ringing in the warm autumn air was only a background noise to Anderson as Mrs. Hampton led him away toward the small cabin he called home.
As he walked the rancher kept sneaking glances back at the small copse of trees trying to catch a glimpse of Miss. Perkins.
“Anderson, you haven’t been around these parts very long,” old Mrs. Hampton said in a huff and there are things you might not understand.”
“I understand women and courting,” Anderson snapped rankling at the implications of Olive’s words. He had grown up in society and prided himself on being able to mingle.
“You think you understand,” the older woman said, “but you don’t. You come from across the water there in England, and you come from a family that was somethin’. They had things, people looked up to them. Prim comes from nothing. She’s a simple girl who is still ashamed of how her father made a living. She’s a good girl. She loves God and her family and came all the way out here to try to give them a chance.”
“I know that,” Anderson said irritation plain in his voice.
“No you don’t,” Olive snapped stopping and turning to look at him. “If you had understood this, you would never have doubted that girl’s word. She came here with nothing and works hard to help me and Orville and Rosa at the Hampton House. She believes in hard work and doing her best. She doesn’t realize her worth because in her mind she’s nothing but a moonshiner’s daughter.”
“But I don’t care about that,” Anderson said. “From the moment I met her there was something, I don’t know what it was, but something that seemed to resonate between us. When I found out that she was promised to Gaines I wanted to take her home and keep her from him. I could tell from the moment I saw her she should have the best of things. I want to give her everything she’s ever wanted. A fine house, a beautiful wardrobe, anything.”
“What she needs,” Olive said resting a hand on his sleeve. “What she deserves is your trust.”
Anderson’s shoulders slumped as he finally acknowledged what Olive was saying. He had bungled the whole thing terribly, not only offending Miss Perkins but also starting a fight at his own house raising. He had been a fool, and it was time to own up to it.
“You’re right,” he said defeat thickening his accent. “What do I do?”
Olive Hampton looked up at the handsome young man a wicked smile on her wrinkled face. Perhaps her idea had gone sideways somewhere along the way, but she was sure that she would get the second wedding in Needful before long.
“First you leave that girl alone for the rest of the day. She needs time to sort out her own thoughts and feelings. Then tonight when the dancing starts you step in when you see she needs you. Bring one of the few single girls in town, she’ll be run off her feet tonight.”
Anderson nodded accepting what the older woman said without question. “You also need to figure out what you believe,” Olive said. “God brought you here to Texas, sure as I’m standing here, and he has a purpose for you. You work on figuring that out, and after that you plan on coming for Sunday dinner,” Olive said. “We’ll start there. For now I suggest you go back to work and leave Primrose to me.”
Chapter 20
Prim was relieved when Mr. Bowlings didn’t approach her again that day, and she was thankful for the chance to think. As sundown approached Prim caught herself staring at the new house as its wide openings for windows seemed to stare back.
Orville explained that windows had already been ordered and that they should be arriving by steam boat in a few weeks. He and some of his sawmill crew would take the wagons they had driven from Smithfield nearly a year and a half earlier to pick them up and collect other supplies with Mr. Scripts.
So far in the town of Needful the Scripts had built a general store that replaced the old trading post and made the trip regularly to the river to get orders and mail from the riverboats that ran from north to south.
“Amazing isn’t it?” Daliah Gaines said stepping up to Prim who was lost in her own thoughts.
“I’ve never seen the like,” Prim admitted. “It’s a grand house.”
“It’s just what Needful needs,” Daliah agreed with a giggle. “Plenty of room for a family, or parties. One day it will be a social hub I’m sure.”
Prim nodded as she watched the men scrabbling up and down ladder nailing the long boards over the roof frame. “It will be a lovely home,” she agreed.
“Are you all right Prim?” Daliah asked. “You know we’re so thankful you came to Needful. I don’t know how Olive and Rosa were keeping up before you got here?”
Prim turned to look at the lovely blonde woman. “I’m happy to be here,” Prim admitted. “I’m sending for my mother and sister to join us as well. I don’t know what comes next, but I only want a quiet simple life.” Even if Anderson did decide to call, she wasn’t sure she was good enough for a man like him.
Daliah smiled nodding back at her friend. “Sometimes what we want isn’t what God has for us,” she said. “I certainly didn’t expect my life to change so drastically when I left Smithfield. I thought I’d spend the rest of my life helping the Hampton’s, but God had other plans, and I couldn’t be happier now that I’m a wife and a mother.”
Prim smiled at Daliah. She knew that Daliah had lost all of her family, but was able to start fresh with a clean slate here in Needful. Perhaps she could do the same. Perhaps she could leave the past behind and start anew.
“Just have a little faith,” Daliah finally said patting her shoulder gently. “There are people here who love you already, and if you let him, God will get you where you need to be.”
Prim looked up at Daliah again. “Thank you,” she said. “I think I needed to hear that.”
Daliah smiled turning as she heard a loud shout and her adopted son Chad came charging toward her followed by Billy Smith galloping over the ground as he swung a rope at Chad.
“I’d better keep those two from killing each other,” Daliah said with a laugh hurrying off to see that the boys were only playing.
***
As night fell and the workers put their tools away old Mr. Franko pulled his fiddle from its case and rosined his bow.
Mr. Ben pulled a battered harmonica from his back pocket and soon lively music filled the night.
Prim tapped her foot where she stood next to the coffee pot and before she knew what was happening she was dancing with first one then another wrangler. After the fifth dance, she was breathless and her feet were tired, so she tried to beg off.
“Just one more dance,” a puncher asked a shy grin on his face as Prim tried to excuse herself.
A soft touch on her partners shoulder made the man turn away as And
erson Bowlings took her hand. “How about a sip of tea?” the man asked his voice soft and patient.
Prim nodded letting him slip her hand into the crook of his arm and lead her to the tables where dessert and drinks were being served.
“I’m sorry about earlier,” the man said. “I hope you can forgive me.”
Prim looked at the man’s earnest face and nodded. She was getting a new start, and it was only right that she give him the same thing.
Anderson found a cup of tea for himself and another for Prim then led her to a low bench at the edge of the dance floor. “Would you like a piece of cake?” he asked kindly.
