Big Sky Daddy

by Linda Ford

  That was not a suggestion. He grinned at the woman who had been like a second mother to him all his life, grabbed the empty burlap bag off the seat of the pung and tossed it over his shoulder. “I’ll be glad to help any way I can. I’ve no time to go there today, but I’ll stop by the parsonage next time I’m in town. Mind that slick spot.” The brown paper package in her hand crackled as he took her elbow and guided her around the patch of ice in the frozen rut. He helped her across Main Street, then hurried back toward Cargrave’s Mercantile.

  The young boy shoveling the snow from in front of the stores stepped aside to let him pass.

  “Looks like you’re fighting a losing battle there, Jasper.”

  “Yes, sir, Mr. Braynard.” The boy blinked flakes from his eyelashes and gave him a gap-toothed grin. “It’s fallin’ faster than I can scoop it for sure. I get down to the end of the walkway, turn around and come back and start all over again.”

  “Well, all that shoveling will make you good and strong.” He thumped the youngster’s shoulder, then slanted a look up at the large flakes streaming from the sky and frowned. If it started blowing and drifting, it would be hard going on the way back to camp.

  He hurried to Cargrave’s Mercantile, stomped his boots in the store’s recessed entrance and shoved open the door. The bell overhead jangled a welcome. The elderly men hunched over a checkerboard in front of the woodstove at the back of the store looked his way.

  “Hey, Daniel. Game’s almost over. You got time to play the winner?”

  “You know you and Mr. Grant are too good for me, Mr. Fabrizio. I’d only lose.” He grinned at the men, yanked off the burlap bag he’d slung over his shoulder and tossed it onto the counter. The heat from the stove stung his cold hands and made his cheeks prickle.

  “Must be some dire needs at camp to bring you to town in this weather.” Allan Cargrave pulled the bag toward him.

  “Dire is right. One of the woodstoves needed repaired—” he pulled a list from his pocket and handed the paper to the proprietor “—the molasses is running low, the men’s chew is about gone and I’ll find the cook hanging by his toes from the ceiling if I don’t get back with some coffee before suppertime—among other things.”

  He joined in the general chuckle, grabbed two shovels and an ax from the tools leaning against the back wall and carried them over to the long counter.

  Allan Cargrave shoved four five-pound sacks of Old Java coffee beans into the bag and reached for the boxes of cut plug tobacco. “Looks like this cold snap has been hard on your tools.”

  “It’s not the weather. We need more tools for the hicks.”

  “Townsend’s lumber camps are still hiring?”

  He nodded at Emil Grant and rubbed his cold hands together. “We’re having a hard time downing enough timber to hold against the spring rafting and keep the sawmill satisfied since Manning bought that clapboard machine and Cole—”

  The bell jangled. He blew on his hands, glanced toward the door and eyed the woman who entered. The fur that traced the brim of her snow-covered blue wool bonnet hid her face. More fur formed a collar and edged the elbow-length shoulder cape of the blue wool cloak that fell to within a few inches of the hem of her dress. A fur muff enfolded her hands. Fancy. The hunter in him took a closer look at the fur. Rabbit.

  He turned his attention to the basket of leather gloves on the counter. His had split into useless pieces yesterday. He pulled out a couple pair that looked as if they might fit, tried one pair on and flexed his fingers, then stole another look at the woman. Must be one of the guests at the Sheffield House. No Pinewood woman wore anything as fancy as that gear. Not even Callie, though she surely could now that she’d married Ezra Ryder in spite of all his money. His lips slanted into a grin. Callie had sure led Ezra a merry chase, refusing—

  “Good morning, madam. How may I help you?”

  Allan Cargrave’s voice drew him back to his task. He grabbed the top keg of molasses from the stack on the floor at the end of the counter.

  “Good morning, Mr. Cargrave. I’ve come to see if there’s any mail for Mother. And I’m not a madam—yet.”

  Ellen. The unexpected sound of her soft voice froze him with the keg hoisted halfway to his shoulder.

  “My apologies, Miss Ellen. I didn’t recognize you.”

  “Nor did I.” He settled the keg in place and turned. “Hey, Musquash. When did you come back to town?”

  “Daniel!”

  Ellen Hall spun to face him, her blue eyes brilliant with azure sparks. His gut clenched. The memory of her beauty dimmed between her rare visits home to Pinewood. He held his place as she walked toward him, the fabric of her long skirts swishing, small bits of the clinging snow falling off her swaying cloak to dot the plank floor.

  “I’ve told you not to call me that, Daniel.” Her eyes flashed; high spots of color crept into her cheeks. “We’re no longer children, lest you’ve forgotten.”

  As if that were possible. He adjusted the position of the keg and looked away from her. “I remember. Though why you’d prefer to be called Muskrat makes no sense to me.”

  “Don’t be boorish!” She sniffed and slanted a look up at him from beneath the fur-trimmed brim of her bonnet. “Would it destroy you to call me Ellen?”

  Likely so, the way his heart jolted at that look—phony as it was. Well, what of it? He was a man now, not a twelve-year-old boy with a first crush. He covered his agitation with a grin. “Is that what you have all your rich beaux in Buffalo call you?”

  “Of course not!”

  He reached down to the counter and grasped the neck of the filled burlap bag. “I must say, all those society doings in the big city agree with you.” He lifted his gaze back to her face and strengthened the teasing note in his voice. “You’re looking well...lots of color in your cheeks and all.”

  The spots of red spread across her cheekbones. The delicate nostrils on her narrow nose flared. “I don’t know why I bother to talk to you, Daniel Braynard!” She tossed her head and turned toward the wall of glass mailboxes.

  “For old times’ sake, I guess.” He kept his tone light, pasted a grin on his face. “It’s for sure not because I compare favorably with your rich new society beaux.”

  “True indeed. My society friends have manners.” She gave a huff, glanced over her shoulder at him. “They would never think of calling me by such names.”

  He chuckled, shoved the end of the burlap bag into his hand balancing the keg, then gathered the handles of the tools into his free hand. He’d had enough of this conversation. The words stung like salt rubbed into an old wound.

  She whirled and glared up at him. “And they would not laugh at me. They are gentlemen. And they are devoted to me.”

  The leather of the new gloves strained across his tightened knuckles. He relaxed his grip on the bag and the tools and lifted his lips into another slow grin. “Now, Musquash, don’t go all niminy-piminy on me. We go back too far for that. As for manners...” He leaned over and put his mouth close to the blue wool covering her ear so she alone would hear him. “I’ve never told anyone why I call you Musquash. How devoted would your fine gentlemen friends be if they’d seen you looking like a drowned muskrat?”

  A sound, somewhere between a gasp and a growl, escaped her. He jerked his head up and barely missed getting his jaw clipped by the top of her head as she spun about and stormed to the waist-high shelf in the mailbox wall.

  “Mother’s mail please, Mr. Hubble.”

  “There’s nothing today, Miss Ellen. That new Godey’s Lady’s Magazine your mama’s waiting on didn’t come in yet.”

  “Very well. I’ll come back tomorrow. Good day.” She gave a stiff little nod in the direction of the counter, turned and swept to the door. The bells jangled, then fell silent.

  “Miss Ellen, so beautiful she is.
Ahh, to be young again...” Ilari Fabrizio’s deep, heavily accented voice sighed through the store.

  There was a loud snort. A checker brushed across the wood game board. “Forget the dreaming and take your turn, Romeo.”

  Good advice, Mr. Grant. There’s no one in this town good enough for Ellen. Not anymore. Daniel ducked his head and stole a look through the window. Ellen’s fur-adorned blue cloak and bonnet blurred and disappeared into the rapidly falling snow. Another image to join the others he’d stored up through the years. A fitting one—Ellen walking away. He took a firmer grip on the tools and headed for the door.

  Allan Cargrave came from behind the counter and reached to open the door. “You two scrap with each other the same as when you were growing up, Daniel. I guess some things don’t change.”

  “I guess.” He braced the keg on his shoulder and stepped outside. “Put the gloves on my account.”

  He ducked his head against a rising wind and headed for the pung. The new snow was already higher than his ankles. He frowned, stashed his burden in the back of the long box, freed the reins and turned the horse to face the road. Allan Cargrave was wrong. Everything changed with time. Ellen certainly had. And so had their old friendship and the childhood crush he’d once had for her. He didn’t even like the woman she’d become.

  * * *

  Ellen turned into the shoveled walk that led to the parsonage, her boots crunching the newly fallen snow, her dragging hems leaving a wide swath behind her. A gust of wind flapped the front edges of her cloak and sneaked beneath the warm wool. She shivered and hurried to the porch. How she hated winter! Of course, the cold did give her a chance to wear her cape and bonnet, and the fur around her face was very flattering. Harold Lodge and Earl Cuthbert had both been lavish in their compliments of her beauty in the new garments. As had others.

  The thought tugged her lips into a smile. She withdrew her gloved hand from her muff, fluffed the fur brushing against her cheeks and knocked. Daniel, of course, hadn’t even noticed. Her smile faded.

  The door opened a crack. She stared at the blank space, slid her gaze downward. A pair of brown eyes peered up at her from beneath a mop of blond curls. “Oh. Good morning, Joshua. Is—” The boy’s head disappeared.

  “It’s Miss Ellen, Mama!”

  “Ellen?”

  There was delight in the muffled reply. She smiled, then sobered at the sight of a furry black muzzle poking through the crack, the black nose twitching. The dog barked, thrust his head and shoulders through the opening and jumped out onto the stoop.

  The memory of the snarling dog that had leaped at her out of the woods behind Willa’s home when they were children snapped into her mind. Don’t let him know you’re afraid! The words Daniel had shouted at her that day as he dropped from a tree and rushed between her and the dog held her in place. She stood perfectly still. There was no Daniel to save her from an attack today.

  “Don’t let Happy out, Joshua! Take him to your room.” Hurrying footfalls sounded in the hallway.

  Joshua leaned out and thumped his dog’s shoulder. “C’mon in the house, Happy!”

  The dog rose, shook and leaped back inside. Willa appeared in the doorway. “Ellen! Matthew heard you’d come home last night. I’m sorry about the dog. Come in.”

  She looked at Willa’s smile, the welcoming warmth in her friend’s blue-green eyes, and gathered her courage. “I didn’t know the children were home. I’m afraid I’ve come at an inconvenient time, Willa. But I wanted to see you and your baby.” She brushed off the snow as best she could and stepped into the small entrance, watched the boy thunder up the stairs with the dog at his heels and held back a sigh of relief.

  “There was no school because of the storm, but I’m glad you came, Ellen. I was hoping to see you today. It’s been months since you were home. My, what a lovely cloak and bonnet!” Willa held out her hands. “Let me hang it on the peg and we’ll go into the sitting room and visit by the fire.”

  “That sounds delightful.” She slipped off her gloves and tucked them inside the muff, then removed her cloak and untied her bonnet. “You’re looking well. How are you feeling?”

  “I’m fine, Ellen. My confinement went smoothly. Did you have a pleasant trip home?”

  “Yes.” She smiled and fluffed her curls, relieved at the change of subject. “Mr. Lodge insisted on accompanying me as far as Dunkirk. Then he sent me on in his enclosed sleigh while he tended to business there. With the wind blocked out, a warmed soapstone under my feet and the fur lap robe covering me, it was a comfortable ride.”

  “I heard about the enclosed sleigh. But then, of course, I would.” Willa laughed and led the way to the chairs by the fire. “Tommy Burke and Kurt Finster saw your arrival last night and were very impressed by the odd-looking equipage. They spread the word.”

  “I’m sure they did. There’s certainly nothing like Mr. Lodge’s sleigh in Pinewood. Truth be told, there are very few in Buffalo. Of course, Mr. Lodge and Mr. Cuthbert both have one.” She stopped and leaned over the baby sleeping in a cradle beside the hearth. “So this is Miss Mary Elizabeth Calvert.” A smile curved her lips. “She has your auburn hair.”

  “Yes, though it curls like Matthew’s.”

  The love in Willa’s voice drew her gaze. Her friend’s face was a picture of contentment and happiness. A twinge of envy curled around her heart. She sat and smoothed out her skirts, then fingered the layers of lace that formed a frothy V at her throat, taking comfort in the richness of her gown. She brushed back a curl and gestured toward the settee. “What is all that?”

  “Several children are going to speak Scripture verses at church for Christmas and I thought it would be nice if they wore suitable costumes.” Willa gave the cradle a gentle rock and went to stand beside the settee. “I asked for donations of material to make the costumes, and this pile is the result.”

  “You’re going to make the costumes?” She lifted her skirt hems higher to warm her feet.

  “Yes. Agnes was going to help me sew them, but her aunt took sick and she’s gone to stay with her. Callie would help, of course, but she and Ezra have gone to visit his sister for the holiday—and Sadie has to watch over Grandfather and Grandmother Townsend. All the others I’ve asked have no time.”

  Ellen swept her gaze over the narrowed blue-green eyes and slightly pursed lips that Willa always wore when she was considering something. Surely she wasn’t— No. She misunderstood Willa’s intent. No one ever asked her for help. She laughed and stretched her feet out closer to the fire.

  “There is something amusing?”

  She shook her head and fluffed her curls. “Not really. It was only that, for a moment, I thought you were going to ask me to help you.”

  “Would you, Ellen?”

  “Would I help you?” She frowned. “Stop teasing, Willa. I get enough of that from Daniel.”

  “I’m not teasing.” Willa took a breath, gave her an odd look. “I hate to ask it of you...truly. I know you don’t do such menial tasks, Ellen. But I have the costumes to make...and the church decorations. And our own Christmas to prepare for, as well. It’s our first as a family, and I want it to be wonderful for Joshua and Sally and Matthew. Mother has offered to help, of course, but she tends to hold the baby more than work.”

  She stared at Willa, unable to fully believe that she was serious in her request. “Well, I—I’ll give it some thought. I have plans to make for Mr. Lodge’s and Mr. Cuthbert’s visits.”

  “Oh, of course. Forgive me, I shouldn’t even have asked.”

  A look of disappointment swept over Willa’s face. Guilt smote her. Well, what did Willa expect? She didn’t sew. Still, it was nice to be asked for help, she—

  “Who is this Mr. Cuthbert you mentioned, Ellen?” Willa moved back to the fireplace, lifted a piece of split log out of the carrier on the hearth an
d put it on the fire. “I don’t believe I’ve heard you mention his name before.”

  A soft sigh escaped her at the welcome question. She was back on safe ground now. “He’s been paying me court since last August. He approached me at a soiree given by the Halseys, said he was quite taken by my beauty and asked if he might call on me.”

  “What of Mr. Lodge? I thought he was your beau?”

  “He is.” She glanced at Willa and sat a little straighter. “You needn’t look disapproving. I’ve not given Mr. Lodge my promise. I’m still free to accept another suitor if one takes my fancy, and I find Mr. Cuthbert’s maturity attractive.”

  “His maturity?” Willa’s brows rose. She hung the poker she was using on its hook and looked at her. “As in steadfast character or years?”

  She lifted her chin. “Both.”

  “I see.” Willa’s eyes narrowed on her. “If I remember correctly, Mr. Lodge is six years older than you, Ellen. How ‘mature’ is Mr. Cuthbert?”

  “That is not important.” She rose and held her hands out to the fire to avoid meeting that penetrating gaze. Willa was only two years older but she’d always had the ability to make her want to squirm. “Mr. Cuthbert is a man of great distinction and social eminence, and I’m flattered by his attentions.”

  “And he is as wealthy as Mr. Lodge.”

  Judged and found guilty. The indictment was in Willa’s voice. She squared her shoulders. “Not quite.”

  “Ellen! You have true affection for this man?”

  She took a breath and turned. “I have admiration for him and his accomplishments. He is a personal friend of the governor and may become the next secretary of state—if the Senate approves Mr. Seward’s appointment of him. And then...who knows how far his abilities may take him? Perhaps even to our nation’s capital.” She smiled, waited for the gasp of disbelief, the look of envy that always accompanied her announcement.