“You said your name was Dusty Sterling? I’m Joe Emmers.”
“Pleased to meet you, Mr. Emmers.” Dusty stuck out his hand.
Joe gave a surprised pause, but then smiled and shook his hand in a strong grip. “Not often that a white man greets me respectful like that. Call me Joe. The only person ’round here that gets a ‘Mister’ in front of his name is the owner.”
“What work do you do on the ranch, Joe? I saw you with the Herefords a minute ago.”
“I do the husbandry work. Might say I’m a cattle doctor.” He laughed. “I inspect the herd for diseases, hoof rot, insects, and the like.”
“I do a little of that with the horses on my employer’s farm.”
“This weather’s been bad on the animals’ feet, hasn’t it? I’ve seen more hoof rot on the horses than I care to count.”
Dusty thought of Sophie’s horse. “I had to keep several bottles of vinegar on hand to treat one of the mares. Linseed oil too.”
“Yeah, easier to put the ointments on than it is to keep their hoofs wrapped and dry. Our horses chew through the wrappings.”
“Put some hot pepper sauce on it. My boss’s family is from Louisiana, and his daughter makes this spicy red sauce that goes in rice dishes. I guarantee that horse won’t chew through the wrapping again.”
“Hot pepper sauce? You don’t say. Come on. I’ll show you around.”
Dusty liked Joe. He felt like he met a kindred spirit, one who enjoyed being around animals as much as he did. It was good to talk to someone who shared similar interests.
He rode his horse into the ranch and listened to Joe explain the workings of the property. Though new in town, it seemed to have everything that a proper ranch should. The property, previously an old farm, consisted of wide pastures and a healthy herd. The new bunkhouses were much bigger than what he currently resided in. But he wasn’t interested in the bunkhouses.
He gazed in admiration at the ranch house in the middle of it all, fenced in proudly with a water well. The front of the one-floor structure alone boasted large windows, through which he could see hand-tooled leather furniture and gleaming wooden floors. “Mr. Mabrey’s family sure must live well,” Dusty remarked.
“Mr. Mabrey doesn’t have any wife and children,” Joe answered. “Says he’ll worry about that when he gets the ranch up and runnin’ more. That’s wise, I suspect.”
“Yeah.” Dusty looked to the house again. Five rooms from what he could see, and built to take on additional levels, if the owner should choose. It would take him years to make enough money to build a house like that. What woman would wait that long? Not Sophie.
There he went again, letting his mind take off in the wrong direction. Sophie was a farmer’s daughter, and a pampered one at that. She was no rancher’s girl. That life required everyone to work, and not just simple chores, either. She might have shown her ability to lend a hand around the farm but a ranch would be another story.
“You married, Dusty?”
“Nope.”
“Got your eye on a gal?”
“Yeah, but she doesn’t seem to have her eye on me. At least not all the time.”
Joe chuckled. “A charmer, is she?”
“Indeed she is, but I’m not sure how she’d fare on a ranch.” Sophie enjoyed riding and taking care of her horse, but would she understand his attraction for the open range and big herds of cattle? Dusty fidgeted in the saddle, uncomfortable at revealing details of his life to his new acquaintance so soon. He flipped the table. “Do you have a family?”
Joe nodded. “A wife and a daughter. Another child on the way soon.”
“That’s something to be right happy about.”
“I think it’ll be a boy this time. I thank the Lord every day that I got taken on to work here. I don’t know how I’d provide for my family any other way.”
Dusty’s ears perked at the information. “I take it Mr. Mabrey pays well?”
“You can start out makin’ thirty-two dollars a month if you know your way around a cattle brander and a lasso. More if you prove you can work hard.”
That was significantly more than he was making. With those wages, he’d be able to build his savings by Christmas, and have some left over to invest. The railroad stocks wouldn’t be too far out of reach. Temptation whispered in his ear to apply for the job. “How do you get hired?”
“Talk to the boss. I thought you said you already did that.”
Dusty cleared his throat. “I didn’t agree to anything last time we spoke.”
“Don’t wait too long. Mr. Mabrey’s lookin’ to hire three more hands before the end of next month. Won’t need any more once midsummer’s passed.”
Dusty nodded. He had to give a definitive answer soon before Joe and Eli Mabrey both thought him unstable.
“Thanks for the tour, Joe. I suppose I’ll be ’round this way again soon.”
“Good meetin’ you. I think you and the other workers would get along.” Joe turned his horse and showed Dusty back toward the ranch entrance.
On the return trip to Assurance, Dusty fought the guilt that settled over him. He hadn’t accepted any offers to work at the Zephyr Ranch. Why did he feel like he was betraying the Charltons? He didn’t believe Sophie’s father really expected to keep him as a farmhand forever. A man had to make a living. Might as well be doing what he was meant to, if it was possible.
The trail was changing direction. A new destination. He felt it in his blood, even if it did leave a distressing sensation in his stomach.
CHAPTER 15
I DON’T KNOW ABOUT this petition, Sophie.” Linda cast a doubtful eye on the second page of the document where a white space awaited her signature. She rolled the pencil across the counter of the seamstress shop. “Are you sure I won’t get into trouble for doing this?”
Sophie stifled her annoyance at her friend’s hesitation. Linda wasn’t the first woman in town to consider the consequence of upholding the voting cause, and she would not be the last. All morning Sophie dealt with upstanding ladies turning her down as soon as she uttered the reason for her visit upon their doorsteps. The simple fact that Linda was her closest friend and therefore, supposed to be her staunchest supporter was what upset her patience. “Mayor Hooper wants women to sign the petition in order to see how many of us wish to vote.”
Linda read the names on the list. “I just don’t know. My mother wouldn’t like it.”
Sophie knew Mrs. Walsh and the other ladies who attended her mother’s tea socials said they would back her efforts, so long as they didn’t have to get directly involved. Little help silent support made. “You’re my closest friend, Linda. If you don’t sign this petition, what will it look like to everybody?”
“That I’m choosing to follow my mother’s lead.”
Sophie approached the subject another way. “You’ll inherit this seamstress shop someday. As a future property owner, shouldn’t you also be able to cast your vote? Don’t you think your name should carry weight in our town?”
Linda’s stiff posture began to bend. “I guess so, when you put it like that. But I’m not married yet. What if my future husband disapproves of women voti
ng and he finds out that I signed this petition?”
“You didn’t say you had prospects.”
A soft blush crept onto Linda’s apple cheeks. “I don’t, really, but Wes Browman sat next to me in church Sunday. He was very polite.”
Sophie couldn’t imagine how that tanner, with his coarse speech and manners, could show a modicum of civility. “Is he calling upon you?”
Her friend found a length of measuring tape to play with. She unfurled it instead of meeting Sophie’s eye. “Oh, no, but I thought. . . . He was just kind to me, and maybe, one day, I’ll have a real gentleman caller too. It doesn’t have to be him, of course.”
“You fancy Wes Browman, don’t you?”
The blush darkened to a crimson hue. “I didn’t say that.”
“You don’t have to. You’re as red as a beet and your hands are jumpier than a cricket being chased by a cat. Why didn’t you tell me?”
“It’s nothing. I told you, I don’t fancy Wes Browman.”
Sophie rose on the balls of her feet and propped her elbows on the counter. “It isn’t good to lie.”
“What about you and Dusty, then?”
A rock landed in her stomach. She sank back to the floor. “What about me and Dusty?”
Linda rolled the measuring tape. “Isn’t he escorting you around town while you get your petition signed?”
“No, my brother is. Dusty had other things to do today. He wouldn’t tell me where he was going, either. He’s so infuriating.” She caught her friend’s small smile. “What?”
“You don’t sound very pleased that he has other plans.”
“Only because Dusty is more accommodating when asked to help. David is always fussy when he has to travel with me into town.”
“Or maybe you fancy Dusty more than you care to let on.”
“Hush. How can you say that, knowing I have a beau already?” Sophie whirled around to see if anyone had entered the shop and overheard. “You know with absolute and indefatigable certainty that I do not, nor have I ever, fancied Dusty Sterling.”
“I don’t know anything, except that you can’t seem to stop talking to him, even after he mocked you for wanting to fashion a wedding dress before you were engaged. And look.” Linda flipped the petition back to the first page. “He was the very first person you asked to sign.”
Sophie’s tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth as she studied the neatly scribed letters of Dusty’s full name. “He wanted to. Why would I tell him he couldn’t?”
“Sometimes I think I hear more about Dusty on any given day than I do about Chad.”
She reeled from her friend’s teasing accusation. “When did you get so bold? My guess is since you’ve been entertaining the company of a certain tanner.”
Linda deflected. “Prove I’m wrong, and that you and Mr. Hooper truly fancy each other.”
Preposterous. How in the world could she show that without engaging in a public display of affection with Chad? Sophie returned to the petition on the counter. “Just sign this.”
“Prove I’m wrong, and I might sign my name.”
“Never mind, then. I’ll go across the way and see if there are any ladies at the hotel interested in the petition.”
She heard Linda mutter behind her. “I knew it.”
“Fine, Linda. I’ll go to the bank right this minute and speak to Chad. I’ll ask him to sign the petition. Then you won’t have any reason to think I only wanted Dusty to sign it. What do you say to that?”
“Wait until my mother comes back from the post office. I’ll go with you.”
The move was daring, asking Chad to sign. He said he wanted nothing overt to do with her cause, but Sophie refused to allow Linda to think she went out of her way to get Dusty to support her efforts. Once Chad saw how many names she collected, he might be persuaded to change his mind about getting more involved. Hadn’t she done enough since the Founders Day Festival to prove she could devote herself to something that wasn’t frivolous?
Sophie stayed in the shop until Mrs. Walsh arrived ten minutes later. Linda told her mother that she needed a few minutes to go outside and took her leave with Sophie. They walked to the bank.
David caught up with them. “Are you done with your petition signing yet?” He matched steps with his sister. “The livery’s gonna charge us for the whole day if we don’t get the horses out in the next hour.”
“Go get them. I’ll be ready to leave as soon as I go to the bank.”
“No woman works there.”
“No, but Chad does, and his signature might be the most important one I get.” Sophie raised the hem of her riding habit and took longer strides to the bank. Linda increased her pace as well.
The harsh light of day receded as they pulled open the bank door and entered the dark recesses of the building. Furniture polish and the stale smell of old paper reached Sophie’s nostrils.
“May I help you?” A teller from behind the caged counter lifted his eyes from papers in front of him.
“Is Mr. Hooper available?” She clasped the petition to her chest.
“He may still be in his office. He works only a half day on Saturday.” The teller unlocked the door to the counter and came out to stand in the small lobby. “Of what purpose is your visit today, Miss Charlton?”
“I need a document signed.”
“Mr. Hooper doesn’t do notaries.”
“I don’t need a notary. This is something else. Miss Walsh and I can see ourselves in, if you don’t mind.”
The teller gave a long speculative stare at the two women before shrugging. “It is the close of business. Go ahead. His office is to your left.”
Sophie found that the door wasn’t completely closed. Chad’s head was down as he rifled through one of his desk drawers. He looked up at the sound of her knocking. “Sophie, I was about to leave. What brings you by?”
Linda followed her into the office. Sophie turned the petition in her hands. “I’ve been getting people to sign my petition today. I wanted to know if you would care to put your name on the list.” She slid it across the desk.
A muscle in his jaw ticked. He didn’t as much as glance at the list before him. Instead he raised his dark eyes and peered at her from beneath his black brows. “I expressly told you that I wasn’t going to get involved like this.”
Sophie balked at the hard edge underlying the low, even tone in his voice. “I thought that since you helped me get this started you might want to see it through to completion.”
“Will you excuse us for a moment, please, Miss Walsh?” Chad waited for Linda to depart and went to close the door behind her. Sophie sensed the tension emanating from him, hard to be contained within the four walls.
“While I do enjoy seeing you, Sophie, I’m not overly fond of surprise visits, especially when they involve you asking me to do something that I refused earlier.”
The office became too cramped. She searched in vain for a window. “I hoped you would change your mind once you saw how many signatures I’ve collected. Don’t you think women should have a vote about school issues in our town?�
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Creases formed along the shoulders of Chad’s coat when he crossed his arms and studied her. “This is my father’s campaign, now that you’ve given him a way of influencing more voters. Newcomers to Assurance complain that our laws are backwards. Allowing women to vote in the next election will put him on par with the rest of the state’s leaders.”
Sophie noticed that he never answered her question. “I don’t understand how that can be a problem.”
“As a banker, I need to be neutral. It’s hard to do when my father is the mayor.”
“I don’t think you could ever avoid being associated with him.”
“I did avoid the reelection campaign until you brought that list of names in my office.”
Pain stabbed Sophie’s chest. “Why didn’t you say that before you helped me? A man shouldn’t court a woman if he finds it too demanding to be honest with her.”
As you were honest by telling him that you and Dusty shared a kiss? The revolting little voice whispered in her ear. She stared at Chad’s shoes in momentary shame.
“A woman as lovely as you should never hang her head. I’ll sign your petition if it will make you feel better.”
Sophie’s head shot up. She didn’t intend for Chad to think that was why she stared downward, but his name on the paper would certainly bring her good cheer. “Thank you. I won’t involve you in this cause any further.”
“Will you seal that promise with a kiss?” His eyes hooded as he gazed at her with the assurance of a man used to achieving his goals.
Sophie expected her heart to respond positively at the prospect of being kissed for the first time by her beau. She experienced a peculiar emptiness where excitement and giddiness should have taken over. “After you sign your name.”
“Always the coquette, aren’t you?” He lifted the petition from the desk and flipped it over to the first page. His mild expression turned cold. “Why is Sterling at the top of this list?”
A Windswept Promise Page 13
