“You’ll do no such thing.”
Her blue eyes widened. “I beg your pardon.”
“I said, ‘You’ll do no such thing.’ People talk in a small town like this. It wouldn’t be proper for a young unmarried woman and young children to stay out at the farm without a chaperone. Besides, I think I’ve found a young man willing to do the job—just as you suggested. In fact, I am on my way to see him now.”
“And if he refuses to take the job, what will you do then, Mr. Conquest?”
“I’ll find someone else. Robert Benton isn’t the only out-of-work young man in Frio Corners.”
“Is that his name?” Abby slanted her head to one side, causing a cascade of blond curls to fall on her shoulder. “Robert Benton.”
“Yes, and he’s a fine boy, too—plans to become a doctor. We’ll be lucky if we—if I can hire him for Ambrose.”
She started to climb out of the wagon.
“Where are you going?” he asked.
“Back to the hotel.” She climbed down from the wagon without his help. “The children will be waking up soon. I’ll need to be there so we can all—so we can all do nothing together.” She started to walk off.
“What do you mean, ma’am?”
“The excitement of living in a hotel will soon wear off,” she explained, “and then the children will want to go out and play. Where do children play who live in one room of a very nice hotel? There would be places to play on Ambrose’s farm. But here?” She shrugged.
“Maybe I could help,” Luke said. Then he wished he’d kept his mouth shut. He was already in too deep with this young woman and didn’t need to get in any deeper.
She stopped and turned. “Help? How could you possibly do that? You live miles from here on that ranch of yours.”
“That’s true, but…I’ll be driving in to church on Sunday. I feed my animals before daylight. I can spend the whole day in town if I want to. So I could pick you and the children up before church and…”
“And what?” she asked.
He thought of the church barbecue. He hadn’t intended to go. He’d planned to leave as soon as the service ended and grab something from the café. But now? Maybe he would attend the church social after all—for the sake of the children, of course. Poor little kids—penned up in that hotel like that. He owed it to Mr. Franklin to see that his future family was cared for until he could do it himself.
“There’s a barbecue on the grounds after church on Sunday,” Luke said. “We could all have our noon meal there. Later, I could drive you and the children out to visit Mr. Franklin, and after supper, I could drive you back to the hotel.”
“But what about your ranch, Mr. Conquest? You need to be there early on Monday morning, and if you take us all the way out to Ambrose’s farm, you might not feel like getting up early the next morning.”
“I have a ranch hand helping me some now. So I have more free time than I once did. I should be able to take you and the children out to visit Mr. Franklin and still get home in time to do my chores the next morning.”
“Well, if you’re sure it wouldn’t cause you any trouble, I guess the children and I will accept your kind offer. Otherwise, I doubt we would see Ambrose again until the day of the wedding.”
“Oh, yes, the wedding,” Luke said without interest. “When is it?”
“We will be married as soon as possible after Pastor and Mrs. Johnson return.”
“That’s what I thought.”
He glanced across the street. Tommy, the older of Abby’s two brothers, stood on the stoop in front of the hotel.
“Abby!” Tommy shouted, “come take us to breakfast. I’m hungry.”
“I’m coming,” Abby called back, hands on her hips.
Her face flushed, and Luke thought she looked plenty disgusted. She probably hadn’t liked it when Tommy shouted at her from across the street. But then she smiled like someone had pushed a button or something.
“I’ll stop by before nine on Sunday morning and drive you and the children to church,” Luke said. “Is a little before nine all right with you, ma’am?”
“A little before nine will be fine.”
Miss Willoughby was beautiful, all right, but she sure was a hard woman to figure out. But mostly, she belonged to someone else. He would need to remember that.
He stood there watching until Abby and Tommy went inside the hotel. Then he set out for Robert Benton’s house.
All at once he saw a flash of green. Sue Ann and Mrs. Peabody were standing in front of the café talking. Were they just chatting—or gossiping? Everybody knew that Mrs. Peabody was the biggest gossip in Frio Corners.
Chapter 5
Luke waited while Robert Benton packed and told his parents good-bye. Then Luke bought supplies at the general store and loaded them in the wagon. He had two more stops before returning to the ranch.
He parked his wagon in front of Pastor Johnson’s home. There were several houses on that street, each with big yards. The minister had a stable behind his house with pastureland behind it. After talking to the young man who was taking care of the pastor’s animals until he returned, Luke tied the spirited young mare he now owned to the back of his wagon. He would drop Robert off at the Franklin farm, and then he would head on home.
Luke smiled internally. On Sunday he would drive Abby and the children to church, and they would attend the church social afterward—to help out Mr. Franklin, of course.
The next day after a noon meal in the hotel dining room, Abby and the children were about to go to their room when she noticed an elderly couple talking to the desk clerk. Somehow she guessed they were Pastor and Mrs. Johnson, and when they hurried toward her, she knew for sure.
The old woman moved ahead of the man, and the nimbleness of her movements and the warmth in her eyes when she smiled reminded Abby of someone much younger.
“Well, hello.” The older woman offered her hand in what Abby hoped was friendship. “We are the Johnsons. Are you Miss Willoughby?”
“Yes.” Abby shook the woman’s hand.
“That’s what the desk clerk told us. We had to cut our trip short, and I’m so glad we did since you are here.”
Deep wrinkles creased the faces of both the pastor and Mrs. Johnson, and only a thin layer of gray hair remained on the pastor’s head. His wife’s face was almost as pasty white as her hair. Yet there was something charming about Mrs. Johnson—beautiful in the true sense. The pastor seemed nice, too, but more reserved with worry lines on his forehead. Was something bothering this man?
Abby introduced them to the children by name, and Mrs. Johnson gave each of them a hug.
What kind and loving people, Abby thought.
“You can’t know how happy Andrew and I are to see you and the children,” Mrs. Johnson said. “The desk clerk told us that you visited with Mr. Franklin.”
Abby nodded. “Mr. Luke Conquest drove us there.”
“But you are so young,” the pastor said, almost in a whisper, and then he shook his head. “Then you’ve thought this through and plan to marry Mr. Franklin, regardless of his age?”
Abby’s jaw tightened, and she looked down at her shoes. “Yes, sir.”
“I see.”
He will think less of me now. Yet she glanced up and smiled.
Then the pastor did. “So when is the wedding?” he asked.
“Andrew,” Mrs. Johnson interrupted, “I don’t have time to prepare for a wedding right now. I’ll need to concentrate on the doings on the church grounds after the service on Sunday. Had you forgotten about the barbecue?” She turned to Abby. “Something came up, and they had to change the original date. So that’s why we came back early.”
The pastor gazed at his wife. “So when should the wedding be, my dear?”
“I don’t know.” Mrs. Johnson paused. “I’ll let you know when I do.” She turned to Abby and smiled. “Until then, I want all five of you to move over to our house. We have a big backyard for the children to pla
y in, and I can use an extra hand to help with the preparations for Sunday.”
Tommy smiled. “Big backyard, did you say? Is there a tree we can climb?”
“Yes, young man, and one of the trees has a rope swing dangling from it. The children in the neighborhood love that swing. I think y’all will like it, too. But there is only one swing, so you will have to take turns.”
“Oh, we will.” Tommy looked over at his brother and sisters. “Won’t we?”
The other children nodded. The old couple laughed.
“We are so glad you are finally here,” Pastor Johnson said. “Strangers are always exciting in a small community like ours. Why, we had barely stepped out of the stagecoach when Mrs. Peabody rushed right over and told us you were here. She’s a member of our church.”
“We haven’t eaten,” Mrs. Johnson interrupted. “Have you, Miss Willoughby?”
“Yes, we have.”
“We will need to grab something to eat at the hotel before we go home, and Mrs. Eastland bakes delicious pies. Why don’t you and the children eat pie while the pastor and I have lunch?”
Tommy nodded his approval, and when he clapped his hands, the other children did, too.
After the meal, they set out for the Johnson home, leaving the trunks and suitcases to be picked up later.
Abby squinted against the afternoon sun, taking in the trees and other plants as they walked along. The morning was cool but not cold, and the air was flavored with pleasant scents Abby was not familiar with. The woman on the train had said that perfume was made from some of the local trees in the area. Abby wondered if the fragrances she smelled came from some of them.
The children moved ahead of the adults and were practically running by the time they reached the white picket fence that surrounded the Johnsons’ two-story home. No sooner had they entered the yard gate than the children scattered, heading for the backyard. Abby assumed they were looking for the swing Mrs. Johnson mentioned.
“You ladies go on in the house,” the pastor said. “I need to drive my wagon back to the hotel and pick up that trunk Miss Willoughby mentioned and all the suitcases, including ours.”
“You go right ahead, Andrew,” Mrs. Johnson said. “I’ll show Miss Willoughby around the house, and then I have to clean this place. The house has to be plenty dirty by now.”
“I’ll help you with the cleaning,” Abby volunteered.
“No, dear. You’re our guest.”
“That’s even more of a reason I should help. What all do you have to do?”
“I need to start a wash for one thing. We dirtied up a mess of clothes while we were gone on our trip.”
“Then I’ll do the sweeping. Where do you keep the broom?”
Mrs. Johnson laughed. “In the broom closet. I’ll show you where that closet is after I show you your room and where the children will sleep.”
Abby followed Mrs. Johnson up the stairs.
The older woman indicated a door to their right. “Your room is here.” She opened the door. “We call it the Sunshine Room. The windows are on the south and on the east, facing the morning sun, and the curtains and the patchwork quilt are both yellow.” She pointed to a small chest of drawers. “You can keep your things in there and use the desk if you have letters to write. I always leave writing paper, pen, and ink in the desk. Feel free to use them.”
“The room is lovely,” Abby said. “And the material in the curtains is so thin and delicate; I can see right through it. How did you know that yellow is my favorite color?”
“It’s my favorite, too.” Mrs. Johnson smiled, pushing her spectacles closer to the bridge of her nose. “And I’m glad you like your room.”
Abby brushed her hand across the top of the quilt, and then she picked up the edge of it to inspect the stitching. “Did you make this beautiful quilt?”
Mrs. Johnson blushed. “Such as it is.”
“You are too modest, ma’am. The handwork is excellent.”
“Speaking of handwork, I need to get that wash started. So come on now and let me show you the girls’ bedroom. It’s one door down from this room. The boys will be across the hall from the girls.”
Mrs. Johnson showed Abby the children’s bedrooms and the location of the broom closet. Then Abby went outside to check on her brothers and sisters.
They appeared to be taking turns swinging. Since nobody was pushing or fighting as far as Abby could see, she went back inside and grabbed the broom. Later, she drifted into the parlor and stood at a window, looking out at the street in front of the house. She wanted to get acquainted with her new surroundings.
All at once, Sue Ann and a middle-aged woman in a purple bonnet walked by, studying the Johnson home as if they were searching for something or someone. They walked to the end of the block, but instead of going inside one of the houses, they turned around and strolled slowly in front of the house where Abby was staying for the second time. Then they stopped in front of the house as if the Johnson home was a good place to have a conversation.
The strong scent of Mrs. Johnson’s flowery perfume announced that she had entered the parlor. “Oh, here you are, Miss Willoughby.” Mrs. Johnson joined her at the window. “Why, look who is walking by—Miss Sue Ann Reynolds and Mrs. Peabody. Miss Reynolds is about your age, and Mrs. Peabody’s husband owns the general store here in Frio Corners.”
“I’ve already met Miss Reynolds, but I haven’t met Mrs. Peabody yet.”
“You’ll meet her at church on Sunday. But how do you know Miss Reynolds?”
“She paid a visit to the hotel while I was staying there.”
Mrs. Johnson’s forehead wrinkled. “Was Mrs. Peabody with her?”
“No. At least I didn’t see her.”
“Well, then.” Mrs. Johnson smiled. “Let’s go over to the divan and sit awhile. I think a little chat before I go in and cook supper would be nice.”
The two women in front of the house took one long look at the Johnson home and continued on down the street toward the main part of town. Abby and Mrs. Johnson moved over to the divan and sat down.
“There are so many questions I want to ask you, Abby, and some of them are downright silly, I guess.”
Abby tensed, wondering what questions she wanted to talk about, and then she forced a smile. “Ask anything you wish.”
Mrs. Johnson cleared her throat. “You said your real name was Abigail, and that’s such a pretty name. So is Abby. But I’ve never known anyone named Abigail—except the Abigail mentioned in the Bible, of course. So I just wondered how you got that name.”
Abby released a deep breath. “My mama is dead now, but I’m named for her mama—my grandmother, Abigail Grant.”
The woman looked at Abby with warmth and compassion shining in her gray eyes. “I’m sorry for your loss. Do you have any people left in Georgia?”
Abby shook her head, trying not to let the pain in her heart show on her face. “Besides my brothers and sisters, there was only my mother, my grandmother, and my—my father, and they are all gone. It’s only the children and me now.”
“I see.”
Nobody spoke for a long time. Mrs. Johnson rubbed the edge of one eye as if a tear might be hiding there. Evidently, Mrs. Johnson was tenderhearted, and somehow Abby had touched her heart.
At last she said, “Did I mention, Miss Willoughby, that we’re serving barbecue and pinto beans at the meal on the grounds after church on Sunday? I was hoping you’d serve the beans?”
“Of course, I’ll be glad to serve the beans or whatever else you might want me to do.”
“There will be lots of chores,” Mrs. Johnson went on, “and we’ll need to be at the church as soon after daylight on Sunday morning as we can. Is this all right with you, dear?”
Sunday. Her heart pulled into a hard knot. Luke was picking up Abby and the children at the hotel on Sunday and driving them to church. How could she have forgotten?
Mrs. Johnson frowned. “Abby, are you all right, dear? You seeme
d so far away for a moment.”
Abby blinked. “Forgive me. I daydream from time to time. But Mr. Conquest was kind enough to drive the children and me out to the Franklin place the day we arrived on the stagecoach and also promised to drive us to church on Sunday. It would be awful if he drove up to the hotel to get us on Sunday morning and discovered we left the hotel without telling him.”
“Throw that worry in the garbage can and set fire to it.” Mrs. Johnson nodded as if to confirm her last statement. “My husband is a very trustworthy person. If I tell Andrew to leave a message for Luke at the main desk of the hotel, he will. So go up and write that message. Andrew could be home at any moment, and as I said, there is writing paper, pen, and ink in the top drawer of the desk in the Sunshine Room.”
Abby went upstairs, wrote her letter, and read it over to see how it sounded. Then she folded it in half and went downstairs.
In the entry hall, she heard voices that seemed to be coming from the kitchen, and she went in that direction. As she grew closer, it became clear that Pastor Johnson had returned with her trunk and suitcases and that he and Mrs. Johnson were talking in the kitchen.
Abby froze. To listen in on their conversation was not something Abby was willing to do. Should she let it be known that she was about to go into the kitchen? Maybe she should call out, cough real loud, fake a bout with sneezing, or simply turn around and go back to her room.
As she stood there deciding, she heard Mrs. Johnson say, “Andrew, did you hear what else Mrs. Peabody said right after we stepped down from that stage today?”
“No, what else?”
“I don’t know where this garbage came from. But Mrs. Peabody said that Miss Willoughby came here to marry old Mr. Franklin because he is rich and that Abby must have known he had part interest in that silver mine.”
“The one near Silver Mine Pass?”
“Yes, and that’s not all. Mrs. Peabody implied that Luke and Miss Willoughby committed adultery right there in the Frio Corners Hotel on the night she arrived.”
The Secret Admirer Romance Collection Page 16
