An Unlikely Place for Love
The Disguises of Kate Tanner
Ruth Ann Nordin
Ruth Ann Nordin’s Books
Springfield, Nebraska
An Unlikely Place for Love - Smashwords Edition
Published by Ruth Ann Nordin at Smashwords
Copyright © 2010 by Ruth Ann Nordin
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Ruth Ann Nordin Books
http://www.ruthannnordin.com
For Aunt Mary who has been a source of great comfort and joy over the years. You are greatly appreciated.
Thank you to Melanie Nilles for making the cover for me!
Romantic Comedies by Ruth Ann Noridn
Meant To Be
With This Ring, I Thee Dread
Romancing Adrienne
An Inconvenient Marriage
The Cold Wife
Historical Romances by Ruth Ann Nordin
Falling In Love With Her Husband
Eye of the Beholder
His Redeeming Bride
Loving Eliza
Novellettes/Novellas
A Chance In Time (based on characters from Meant To Be)
A Bride for Tom (based on characters from Eye of the Beholder)
For more information about her or her books, please visit http://www.ruthannnordin.com.
Chapter One
June 1886
Kate Tanner felt awkward dressed in men’s clothes, wearing the black wig and black beard. The beard was itchy, but it did a good job of making her look masculine so she was determined to keep it on. Her brown pants and navy blue and green plaid shirt and white undershirt were loose on her which helped to hide her figure. She had difficulty breathing with the binding wrapped so tightly around her chest but it did hide her bosom. She pinned the brown hat on her head, hoping it would help keep her wig in place so the wind wouldn’t blow it off. She breathed a sigh of relief as she got off the train. She was in a fairly small town. It would be isolated enough to make her difficult to find, but with her disguise, she was sure that Derek Robin and Dave Reinhart wouldn’t recognize her if they happened to see her.
She walked into the post office in the small northern Dakota territory town and scanned the job listings board. She needed to do work that would keep her safely out of town. She also had to do a job that would be suitable for a man.
“Good afternoon, sir,” the post master greeted her.
She turned and nodded to the scrawny old man who was about five inches shorter than her 5'8" height. She began to speak but realized her voice sounded too high so she cleared her throat and spoke in a lower tone. “Good afternoon.” She hoped she sounded like a man. “I’m looking for work.”
“You’re not from here.”
There’s nothing like pointing out the obvious. “No, sir. I just hopped off the train. I come from Kentucky,” she lied. “The town is a small one, similar to this one. I doubt you’d recognize the name if I told you what it was.”
He nodded. “We don’t get many newcomers wishing for work.”
“Oh, I’m here for a short while, so I’m looking for temporary employment.”
“Hmm....Let me think. There are some farms around here, and farmers typically hire for half a year.” The man scanned through the job listings. “Uh huh, uh huh. Hmm...”
She forced herself not to roll her eyes. She was fully capable of reading through the listings. Deciding to ignore him for a moment, she did just that. She pointed to the opening for someone to help saw down trees. “What about this one?” she asked. It was safely out of town.
The man shook his head. “No offense, son, but you’re not strong enough in the arms to handle that task. Sawing trees down is harder than it looks.”
She sighed. He was probably right.
“Oh, this one will work for you.” He picked up the small white card asking for a farmhand. “Chad Walker is a nice man. He just lost his wife a year ago. The poor man tries to act happy but I’m sure his wife’s death hit him hard. Everyone thought she was a wonderful woman. Sadly, they weren’t able to have children, so he’s all by himself out there. He does have a couple of other farmhands but they aren’t very reliable. Good work is hard to find. If you show up on time and do your job, you’ll be a big help to him.”
“What does a farmhand do?”
“Well, Chad has a lot of cattle, sheep and horses on his property, so you will be helping with the livestock.”
That didn’t sound like her idea of a good time. She hesitated.
“Chad is a good employer,” the man continued. “He’s fair and will give you a decent wage. Of course, his farm is further out of town and more difficult to reach. He’s offering lodging and food. If you would prefer being in town, then this won’t do.”
But it would be perfect for someone hiding from danger. “It sounds perfect. How do I get there?”
“Travis Richards can taxi you out there on his horse-drawn buggy.”
“Alright. I’ll see what I can do about getting that job. Where do I find Travis Richards?”
“He’s currently at the bank. His buggy is right out front.” He pointed to it.
She saw the building across the street. “Thank you, sir. I appreciate the help.” She picked up her suitcase and left the post office. Looking both ways before she crossed the street, she quickly walked across it before Travis had time to hop on his buggy and go somewhere. She made it to his buggy just in time to stop him from urging his horse forward. “Sir!”
He turned his attention to her. “Do you need a ride?” He set the reins back down and jumped off the front seat of the buggy.
“Yes, I do. I’m applying for a job at Chad Walker’s farm. Can you take me there?”
“Chad isn’t exactly noted for welcoming strangers. You might have difficulty getting employment with him.”
She shrugged. “We won’t know until I meet him.”
“I can’t argue with that logic. Alright. As long as you can pay the fare, I’ll take you out there but I won’t leave until I verify you got the job, in case you need a ride back.”
She wondered what kind of man Chad Walker was but knew she would find out soon enough. She paid the man and got into the buggy. She adjusted her shirt, hoping it really did hide her figure. It was loose and long enough. She only hoped
it was convincing. The ride out to the farm took nearly an hour. There didn’t seem to be anyone else nearby for miles. It was the ideal place to hide. I have to get this job. Whatever it took, she was determined to get it.
The scenery was so different from Virginia. A few trees dotted the landscape but for the most part, the plains were arrayed in different shades of green. The land seemed to go on forever, and the noonday sun showed several puffy white clouds dotting the clear blue sky. A wave of homesickness brought tears to her eyes but she quickly brushed them aside. Men didn’t cry, so she couldn’t afford to cry when she was in disguise. She couldn’t afford to think of what happened in Virginia right now. She would think about it later. Then, she would make her plan. Justice must be done.
She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She settled her emotions rather quickly as she focused on slowly exhaling. My name is Bob Ingram, and I’m a twenty-eight year old single man traveling the country and working odd jobs along the way. I can do this. The postman and Travis believed she was a man. Surely, other people would too. She felt calm by the time she reached the farm. A two story white house was on her right and two large brown barns and a white building were on her left. She knew very little about farm life, so Bob would have to be new to this whole world. When the buggy stopped, she waited for Travis to open the door. Figuring it was masculine to take her own suitcase, she quickly grabbed it and exited the cab.
“Mr. Walker is a reserved man,” Travis warned her. “He rarely goes into town since his wife passed away a little over a year ago.”
She wondered why he felt the need to tell her this. It had nothing to do with being hired by him. She didn’t care what kind of person he was as long as he gave her the job. She needed a place to hide out for awhile, not to socialize.
Travis led her to the barn. “Most likely, he’ll be cleaning out the stalls this time of day. Since it’s still early in June, the weather is cool enough to do hard work without needing frequent breaks. I see Tim Montgomery and Jeff Rod made it out today.” He motioned to two men who couldn’t have been older than thirty-five. They were checking on the sheep in the white building.
She noted that Chad seemed to take good care of his buildings. She had seen several worn down farm buildings while she was riding the train, so she was relieved that her hope-to-be employer was concerned with his things. After watching the men her father dealt with, she knew that the way they conducted their professional lives reflected how well they conducted their personal lives. From the farm’s appearance, Chad was an orderly and detailed man. He will make a good employer.
When she and Travis reached the barn door, Travis called out to him: “Chad, I got a possible hire for you!”
“I’ll be down in a minute.” Chad called out from the loft in the barn. “The hail from two nights ago broke through this roof. I just noticed it this morning.”
“Take your time. We’ve got nowhere else to be.” Travis turned to her. “You’ll most likely be staying up there in that loft. He’s been preparing it for the person who is to work here.”
She frowned as she inspected the rest of the barn. Five horses stood quietly in their stalls while a handful of cats and about six hens ran around the ground. She would have to sleep with animals?
When Chad came down the ladder, she didn’t hide her surprise. She expected a widower to be an old man, but he was in his mid-thirties. He was 6'2" and slender with muscles that had developed due to years of farming. He had short light brown hair and a neatly trimmed goatee. He sighed. “I see the hens are out of their coop again.” He looked over at her. “You’re here for the job?”
“Yes, sir,” she said, using her deep masculine voice.
“I’ll tell you what,” he began as he flung the damp towel, he had used to soak up the remaining rain water, over his shoulder, “if you can gather all these hens and put them into their coop outside the barn door over there, you got yourself a job.”
Rounding up hens wasn’t her idea of a good time, but she was determined to get the job, so she started chasing them around the barn. While she did so, she could hear Travis and Chad talking.
Chad crossed his arms and told Travis, “I would fire Tim right on the spot if he wasn’t Georgia’s brother. You know how it is. If I upset him, then the rest of the family would be upset, and they would gather all their other relatives and friends on a rampage against me. Then my life would be impossible.”
“That’s the curse of living in a small community. Everyone knows each other’s business. It’s best to keep the peace,” the buggy driver agreed.
“I should never have left the big city.”
“Why don’t you just sell this place and go back?”
He shrugged. “There’s nothing to go back to. I burned all my bridges a long time ago.”
She was getting frustrated chasing the stupid hens so she picked up a rake she found in the corner of the barn and threatened to run them down with it if they didn’t go to the coop.
Chad and Travis chuckled.
“Obviously, you have no experience,” Chad said to her.
She stopped running and looked pointedly at him. “What I lack in experience, I make up for in drive and determination. Tell me what to do and I’ll do it.”
“Put them in the coop one hen at a time.”
She realized that was the best course of action. It was amazing how she dismissed the easiest solution. I hope that doesn’t mean I should have stayed in Virginia. Pushing aside her thoughts of the past, she chased one hen and succeeded in getting it into the coop. One down, five to go.
“So, where did you find this one?” Chad motioned to her but asked Travis the question.
“He found me,” Travis replied. “I came out of the bank when he approached me about the job posting you had in the post office.”
“He’s not from here.”
“No, he’s not. He’s got a suitcase which he left by the barn door.” He pointed to the brown piece of luggage resting on the opposite door from where the coop was. “He probably came off the train.”
She managed to put two more hens into the coop. She was glad the beard was sticking firmly to her face. Her sister-in-law was right that the glue was resistant to sweat.
“Someone new might be a nice change of pace,” she heard Chad comment. He called out to her, “Where are you from?”
“Kentucky,” she replied as she chased another hen into the coop. Four down, two to go. Getting hens to behave wasn’t as easy as it looked.
“Why are you here?”
Did he really have to ask her all these questions when she was working? “I wish to see the country.”
“So you just do odd jobs while you travel around?”
“Yes, sir.”
“How long do you plan to stay here?”
She was busy cornering the last two hens so she didn’t answer right away. She picked up a stick from the ground and tapped the hens so that they ran to the coop. When she finally got them safely in the cage, she breathed a sigh of relief and dropped the stick. She walked over to the men and looked at Chad. “I’m going to stay here for as long as I want to.”
“So I can wake up one morning and find you gone? That doesn’t sound like a good employee.”
“Well, I can’t tell what the future is going to bring.” Especially my future, considering I may not have one much longer.
“I’m not going to hire you then.” He turned from her and walked to the ladder.
“Wait! You said if I got all the hens into the coop, then I would get the job. You didn’t say anything about the length of my stay here.”
He turned back to her. “I have to be able to rely on you to get the jobs done around here that I’ll need you to do.”
“Considering the fact that you keep Tim around, I am surprised you put any standards on your employees.”
“What?” He seemed offended by her comment.
“I heard you talking to Travis. Tim apparently doesn’t do his job very we
ll, but you keep him on as a farmhand. I guarantee you that I will work harder than him. I have a great work ethic. You might have to teach me a thing or two but I’m a quick learner. I took care of the hens and made sure the latch was secure on the door. They won’t be escaping again unless you want them to.”
“Can you give me an idea of how long I can expect you to stay here?”
She thought for a moment. “I can safely say a month for sure. Any longer than that is questionable.” She could tell he was ready to say no again so she added, “Look, all I ask for is lodging and food. You don’t have to pay me. I just want the experience of being in the Dakota territory.”
“In the meantime, you can still leave the job posting at the post office,” Travis reasoned.
“Very well. You can have the job, but I need to know before you leave so I can prepare to take over your duties,” Chad responded.
“I’ll tell you before I leave.” Whether that involved writing a note or speaking to him, it didn’t matter. If Dave and Derek found her, she would have to hightail it out of town.
“You’ll sleep up in that loft,” he notified her.
She followed his gaze to the loft he had been working on before she arrived.
“Breakfast is at six, lunch is at eleven and dinner is at five,” he instructed. “I don’t make anything fancy, just oatmeal, sandwiches, bean soup, grits and stew. Sometimes I make eggs and bacon but that’s not often. I’m a farmer, not a cook, and since I can’t afford to pay a woman to cook, I make what I can for my farmhands. Now, Tim and Jeff live in town, and they bring their horses in. Sam Montgomery comes in whenever he pleases.”
“Tim and Sam are brothers,” Travis informed her.
“And they figure they can do anything they want,” she reflected.
Chad didn’t seem happy with her analysis.
She shrugged. “You do not need to worry about me. I’m not afraid of hard work.”
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