In Love's Territory: A Western Historical Romance

by Lucy Evanson

  The Thompsons’ carriage was already rolling up the drive to the road when Edward’s father and Thomas finally finished saying goodbye; it was as if they were already old friends.

  Edward helped his father up into the carriage, then returned to the porch to say good night. “I’ll sleep well tonight, knowing that you’re my fiancée,” he whispered as he kissed her on the cheek. “Of course, I’ll sleep even better once you’re sharing my bed.”

  She slapped him on the arm. “Edward, don’t say things like that,” she said. “Your father is right there.”

  He grinned at her. “Don’t worry,” he said. “Dad is more than a little deaf.” He turned, went down the porch steps and climbed aboard the runabout. “I’ll see you later, my darling.”

  She waved goodbye as they set off for the road and watched until the carriage had disappeared from view. Kate took one last look at the fields, admiring the early evening sky with its streaks of deep red and purple. A few fireflies had decided to come out, and as she followed one with her eyes, her gaze was drawn up to the small cabin atop the hill, nestled alongside the tree line. Through its window, she could see a lamp glowing faintly inside.

  Kate turned and went into the house, pausing on her way to the kitchen to admire the wildflowers again. She leaned over and breathed in their aroma, and she couldn’t help but smile at the memory of Sam standing in the foyer, all clean and shiny, flowers in hand.

  She found Becky in the kitchen, hunched over a notebook, practicing her handwriting by copying the letters that Kate had printed for her earlier. “Your writing is really coming along,” she said.

  A proud smile lit up Becky’s face. “Thanks to you, Miss Taylor,” she said. “Are you ready to turn in?”

  Kate was about to speak when a yawn leaped out of her mouth instead.

  “I guess I have my answer,” Becky said. The two went up to Kate’s bedroom and Becky began to help her get undressed.

  “Oh, thank goodness,” Kate said as Becky loosened the corset. “I can breathe again. How far along are you in the alphabet?”

  “I’m working on, uh…U,” Becky said. “That’s the one that looks like a horseshoe, right?”

  “That’s right. You’re making excellent progress. Once you know how to write the entire alphabet, we’ll begin working on reading.” Another yawn overcame her.

  “Looks like it’s time for you to get some rest,” Becky said quietly. She took the corset and returned with a nightgown which she laid on the bed. “Do you need me for anything else?”

  “No, thank you, Becky. Good night.”

  “See you in the morning, Miss Taylor. Congratulations again,” Becky said quietly, closing the door behind her when she left.

  Kate slipped the nightgown over her head and crawled into bed. She opened the nightstand drawer and pulled out a sheet of stationery. Well, now I really have something to write about, she thought. Laura will scarcely believe this. A smile unconsciously drifted across her lips as the pencil descended to the paper, but before she began writing, Kate paused.

  She suddenly felt as if she were standing at the edge of a precipice. I will be a married woman, she thought. Edward is handsome, wealthy and successful. He’s everything I’ve ever wanted. Just one step and it’s over.

  “Dear Laura,” she wrote, and then paused again. Somehow the thought of putting it into writing didn’t sit well with her. She stared at the paper for a long time, unable to add anything to those two words, then she finally returned the stationery to the drawer. After extinguishing her bedside lamp, she snuggled deep and pulled the comforter up to guard against the cool night air. It was only one more step, but it was a big one. Telling Laura could wait.

  Chapter 9

  Kate couldn’t help but feel a sense of wonder as she walked around the fairgrounds. She considered herself to be a worldly person, in general. She had finished all three years of study at Mount Holyoke. She had been to Europe with her family, traveling through England and Spain. She could read some Latin and speak some French. But when it came to the county fair, she almost felt like she was some foreigner come to observe the odd and unknown ways of the country folk.

  She was first struck by the sensation while they had passed by a broad stretch of field that had been roped off. There were quite a few people lined up against the rope, apparently waiting for something to begin.

  “I wonder what’s going on here?” she asked, stopping to look more closely.

  “I have no idea,” Edward said. “There are some horses down at the other end. Maybe they’re going to race.”

  Thomas cast a quick glance onto the field. “Nope, this is the plowing match,” he said instantly.

  “What’s that?”

  “It’s a competition,” he said. “It’s to see who can plow the best furrow.”

  Kate took a moment to consider what he had just said. “You mean this is a contest to see who can dig the best hole in the ground?”

  “Well, there’s a little more to it than that,” he said. “You get scored according the accuracy of the lines, the depth, the appearance. It’s fairly complicated.”

  Kate glanced around at the crowd that was waiting for the match to begin. “And this is something that people actually watch?” she said in a low voice.

  “Oh, sure,” her father said. “You know, your grandfather won several of these. That man could really plow a field.”

  “Would you like to try it, Katherine?” Edward asked. “Maybe it runs in the family.”

  Kate laughed. “I’ll leave that to the professionals,” she said. “I’m just surprised. I’ve never heard of anything like it before.”

  They continued walking, catching up to her brothers and Becky. Mary had refused to leave the baked goods tent after delivering her pie, saying that she needed to keep an eye out for saboteurs. Ever since she’d decided to enter, she had become slightly unhinged, as Thomas had put it a few days ago. She had spent countless hours fiddling with her recipe, baking pie after pie which she assured the family was subtly different than the previous one, though to be honest Kate found it impossible to tell whether she had used a half-teaspoon of cinnamon or a quarter-teaspoon. It was almost a relief when she’d settled on one recipe in particular and stopped forcing pies on them; as it was, Kate’s corset was becoming even tighter than usual.

  Ahead of them, a large crowd was gathered on one side of the fairway, and opposite was a small tent that had been set up over several tables. Jake jogged up to take a look.

  “They’re pitching horseshoes,” he called. “Come watch.” The men drifted over and inserted themselves into the crowd, while Kate and Becky made their way to the tent. The tables were covered with needlework exhibits, from the most delicate lace to heavy knits, and Becky was drawn in as if by some invisible force, with Kate trailing behind. As they browsed through the tent, they could hear the occasional heavy clank of a horseshoe hitting the stake, followed by a roar from the spectators.

  “It’s too bad Sam isn’t here. He’d put those men to shame,” Becky said, nodding her head toward the horseshoe pits.

  “Yeah, I wish he had come with us,” Kate said. Her brothers had tried to get him to come along, but Sam had claimed that he had things to take care of on the farm before he would be able to go. Kate didn’t know what was so pressing that he had to take care of it just then—the corn wasn’t going anywhere, after all—but he’d stood firm and said that he would meet them later on. “I didn’t know he played horseshoes.”

  Becky nodded. “He’s really accurate,” she said, bending down to peer at the stitching on a red-and-white quilt. “Unlike whoever sewed this,” she added quietly, wrinkling her nose and moving on to the next exhibit. They continued from table to table, stopping for quite some time to examine a selection of embroidery, and finished just as the men were returning from the horseshoe pits.

  Thomas fished his watch out of his pocket. “It’s nearly five,” he said. “They’re going to announce the winners for the foo
d tasting; we should get to the main stage and find Mary.”

  Mary, as it turned out, was easy to find. Though the area right in front of the stage was choked with onlookers, she had staked out a section in the elevated seats at the rear of the tent, and was prowling back and forth like a wolf protecting its territory. When she caught sight of the group, she whipped the handkerchief off her head and waved it high to attract their attention while letting out a whoop that visibly startled the older ladies sitting a couple of rows in front of her.

  “Mary seems a bit excitable today,” Edward said as they cut a path through the crowd toward the back of the tent.

  “You should have seen her last night,” Kate said. “I opened the door to the kitchen and she nearly bit my head off. She said that the draft would make the pies cool too fast.”

  “Well, we can’t have that now, can we?” Carter held out his arm for Kate to hold onto as they climbed the risers to where Mary had saved their spots. Excitable or no, she had chosen nice seats. From the elevated section they could see right over the large crowd in front of them. There were several tables set up on the stage, covered with pies, bread, cheese, preserves and the other items that had been entered in the contest. Once her father and the others sat down, Kate felt Edward gently press her back, guiding her up another row so that they were seated behind the others.

  After a few minutes, a middle-aged man with slicked-back hair climbed the side stairs and came to the front of the stage. He was followed by several other men who took seats behind a long table set back a bit.

  “Look, there’s Jim Thompson,” Mark said, pointing to the men at the table.

  “Those must be the other judges with him,” his father said.

  The announcer waved to the crowd. “Good afternoon, folks,” he called. “I’d like to welcome you all to the results of the tasting competition. Now our judges have had quite a time this afternoon sampling the entries, haven’t you, fellas?” the announcer said, extending an arm back toward the long table. The men seated there all smiled and nodded, Mr. Thompson most enthusiastically of all.

  “I’m a little surprised they asked Thompson to be a tasting judge,” Carter whispered to Kate. “I don’t think he’s ever been critical of any food.”

  “Edward, you’re horrible,” she whispered back.

  “So after a lot of hard work—and a lot of tasty treats—the judges have made their decisions. Now remember, each of the winners gets a five dollar store credit at John Gray’s up in Mineral Point, so spend it wisely,” the announcer said. “Are you all ready to hear the results?”

  Hoots and hollers erupted in the tent and the announcer flashed the crowd a wide grin. “All right, then! First up we’ve got the baked goods,” he said, pulling a sheet of paper out of his pocket and studying it. “For bread, we had a tough competition, but we narrowed it down to three finalists: Betsy Williams, Clara McDonough and Tess Brown. Ladies, can I have you join me up here on stage?”

  As the women made their way forward, Carter leaned close to Kate.

  “I can’t wait until we’re alone,” he whispered. “I want to feel you in my arms again.”

  “Edward, how can you say things like that? There are so many people around,” she whispered back.

  “I can’t help it,” he said. “You have this power over me that makes me helpless.”

  Kate smiled. “And what else would you do once you had me in your arms?”

  A loud cheer erupted around them, drowning out his answer. Kate glanced down at the stage and saw the woman in the middle waving an envelope in the air, a huge grin on her face, while the other two clapped politely and tried to force smiles.

  “Next up we had some delicious pies,” the announcer said as the women made their way off the stage.

  Kate turned back to Carter as the announcer went on.

  “You were saying?”

  He grinned and leaned so close that she could feel his breath against her ear. “I guess you’ll have to wait to find out,” he said. “But let’s not wait too long.”

  “….and Mary Dunn, of Mineral Point,” Kate heard the announcer call.

  “Oh my gosh!” Mary said, shooting to her feet.

  “I knew they were going to call her!” Becky said as Mary hurried through the crowd, climbed onto the stage and lined up with the other contestants.

  “Now I can tell you all, this was one of the toughest decisions the judges had to make,” the announcer said. “We ended up with three terrific pies in the final round: an apple pie from Alice Jackson, a rhubarb pie from Mary Dunn, and Linda Bixby’s cherry pie. I’m telling you, this was tough work today!” he said, and a ripple of laughter went through the crowd. “And the prize for first place goes to…Mary Dunn, for her rhubarb pie!”

  The whoop that had startled the old ladies earlier was nothing compared to the holler that leaped out of Mary now. She practically ripped her envelope out of the announcer’s hands and surprised him with a hug that briefly lifted him off the ground.

  “Whoa, hold on there, Mary,” he laughed as she released him, jumped off the stage and headed to the back of the tent. “I’m glad you won; I’d hate to think what you would have done to me if you lost!” he called after her. “Okay, next up we have the cheese tasting results.”

  As Mary reached Kate and her family, Thomas shook her hand. “Congratulations, Mary. Well deserved.”

  “I knew you were going to win,” Becky said, giving her a hug as Mary settled into her seat. They huddled together as Mary opened the envelope and examined her certificate.

  Kate leaned forward and patted her on the back. “Great job, Mary,” she said.

  “Well, would you look at that,” Kate heard her father say. “It’s Sam.”

  She glanced around, expecting to see Sam seated somewhere near them, when she realized that he was up on stage, lined up with two other men.

  “Oh, my goodness,” she said. “What’s he doing up there? I didn’t hear.”

  As if to answer her directly, the announcer extended his hand to the men on stage. “So the judges told me that the cheesemaking competition was the toughest decision they had to make,” he said.

  “Cheesemaking? Did you know anything about this?” she asked, leaning forward towards Becky.

  “No, it’s news to me,” Becky said.

  “But in the end, they decided to award first prize to…” the announcer said, drawing out the pause, “Sam Hall, from Mineral Point.”

  The applause and cheers that filled the tent had their epicenter around Kate and her family; everybody from Taylor Farm leaped to their feet to shout and clap, and Sam waved to the rowdy group from onstage.

  “How exciting!” Kate said, waving back. “Isn’t that terrific?”

  Edward looked up at her from his seat. “I’m sure it is.”

  “So, Sam, you’ve got to tell us how you did this,” the announcer said, pulling him by the arm toward the front of the stage. “From what I understand, you’ve been at this for less than a year, and now you’re a prizewinner. How’d you pull that off?”

  “Well, I read a lot to teach myself the basics,” Sam said, “and then, like they say, practice makes perfect. And of course, it all starts with a good cow.”

  “You have your own cow, then? That’s terrific. What’s her name?”

  Sam cleared his throat and looked up at the Taylor Farm contingent. “Uh, I just call her ‘Anything But Kate’.”

  Kate felt her cheeks begin to glow, but at the same time she couldn’t contain a grin, and she slowly shook her head back and forth as Sam met her gaze.

  The announcer laughed. “Well, that’s an odd name, but it looks like you know what you’re doing,” he said. “Congratulations again, Sam.” He turned to face the crowd. “And how about we get another round of applause for all our contestants today?”

  The spectators rose to their feet, clapping and hollering for several minutes as the contestants waved to the crowd. Kate only noticed after a minute that Carter h
ad remained sitting, his arms crossed and a stern expression on his face.

  “Edward, what’s wrong?”

  “What’s that boy playing at?” Carter demanded, now standing so that she could hear him clearly. “Making a joke about his cow being named after you.”

  “Actually it’s specifically not named after me,” she said. “It’s a private joke. Don’t worry about it.”

  “It’s not very private anymore, and it didn’t seem like much of a joke,” Carter said. “Somebody needs to teach that boy some respect.”

  Kate laid her hand on his arm. “Calm down, Edward. Everything’s fine and there’s no reason to talk like that,” she said. “Here he comes now.”

  Sam was wading through the throng, stopping now and again to shake hands or say hello to people he knew, and only gradually was able to make it to where Kate and her family waited.

  “Sam, well done!” her father said, turning his handshake into a quick hug. “What a terrific surprise!”

  “So I guess I know what your secret project has been,” Kate said. “All this time you’ve been working on cheesemaking?”

  “Yeah, I’ve got a whole plan I’ve been working on,” he said. “I expect in a year from now I might have a real business—”

  “Sweetheart, we should get going,” Carter said, taking Kate by the elbow. “We’d best get back to town while it’s still light.”

  “Oh…yes, of course, we should go,” Kate said. She turned back to Sam and reached out to shake his hand. “Congratulations again, Sam. You should be proud of yourself. You’ll have to tell me all about it later on.”

  They were about to leave when Kate stopped to whisper in Carter’s ear. His head drooped slightly, as if she had reminded him of something unpleasant, then he turned back to Sam.

  “Congratulations, Hall,” he said. “Five dollars. You must be so proud.”

  “I can’t complain,” Sam said with a shrug.