Her Silent Burden (Seeing Ranch series) (A Western Historical Romance Book)

by Florence Linnington

  But if something were to happen at the saloon—if any of those rattlers were to show back up—Wakefield needed to be the one to deal with it. He’d put himself in danger a thousand times over before he did that to Noah.

  “You sure?” Noah asked, hesitation in his voice.

  Wakefield gave a firm nod.

  “This isn’t because you’re nervous, is it?”

  Despite Wakefield’s foul mood, that got a grin out of him. “You want to stay here and clean up after a shoot-out?”

  Noah wrinkled his nose. “No, sir.” He paused. “You think that’ll happen?”

  “I don’t know.” He pointed at Noah. “But if it ever does, don’t be a hero. Save your hide.”

  “And the whiskey,” Noah joked. He popped his collar to keep the dust out and jumped down the stairs. “Don’t worry, boss. I’ll go get your lady.”

  “I appreciate it. Make sure not to tell her any stories about me on the ride up.”

  “Aw, now, I can’t promise you that. See you soon.” Noah waved with a two finger salute and strode around the side of the saloon.

  Wakefield waited where he was, arms folded, ears tuned to his surroundings. All seemed normal and calm as Noah rode out of town. There was still a churning in his gut, though, and only time would tell whether it was justified or not.

  Chapter 7

  unnaturally brazen

  7. Thea

  Chapter seven

  It had taken days to travel to Wyoming Territory. Weeks of planning. Months of waiting. And now, finally, here Thea was.

  It did not seem real.

  She stood on the platform, her bag sitting next to her, and looked all around. Pathways, from what she could see, was composed of two main roads with straight-backed houses and inclined roofs. More homes popped up around the edges of the town, where rocky hills gave way to the mountains.

  And the colors! Deep green trees. Bushes and grasses of grays and tans and every color in between. Yellow flowers. A slate-blue sky. South Carolina itself was colorful, but there was a different quality to its design. In Wyoming, even the air felt different. Dryer, certainly.

  Thea pushed her bonnet back some, enjoying the heat on her face. She would not miss the south’s sticky summer air.

  “Need any help, miss?” a man asked. He removed his hat and nodded at her bag.

  Thea smiled. “Oh, no. Thank you. I am waiting for my fiancé to pick me up. Unless… you wouldn’t happen to be him, would you?”

  He chuckled. “Afraid I’m not picking any brides up today. Just came to get the mail. Is this your first time in Pathways?”

  “How did you know?”

  “From the way you’re looking around. With a fresh gaze. Appreciation.”

  “It’s so different here. From South Carolina, I mean.”

  A ringing permeated the air, and Thea noticed for the first time that a second railroad track was being built. Just past the station, the working track went off at a curve, appearing to head around the southern end of the mountains. The second track, it seemed, pointed straight at the heart of the Rockies.

  “Do you happen to know where that will go?” She nodded at the track.

  “Yes, Ma’am. Right into the mountains. Up to Whiteridge so they can ship coal down from the mine there.”

  “Oh.”

  The boards creaked as another man approached. “Excuse me… Miss Sykes?”

  Thea’s heart somersaulted. “Yes. That’s me.”

  “I’m Noah Hahn. I work with Wakefield. He asked me to come fetch you.”

  “Oh,” Thea said in a small voice. The young man in front of her was very handsome, with a strong face and blonde hair, and she’d hoped he might be her fiancé.

  “He’s sorry he couldn’t come down himself like he planned to,” Noah said. “Something came up all of a sudden at the saloon.”

  “I see you are in good hands,” the other man said to Thea. “So I will take my leave. Good luck with your marriage.”

  “Thank you, sir,” she told him.

  “Ready to go?” Noah asked. “The wagon is right over here.”

  Thea nodded her ascent and Noah grabbed Thea’s bag, and led the way off the platform and to a team and wagon waiting in the train station’s shade. Thea tried to get a close-up view of the street, but in no time at all Noah was helping her onto the bench and they were leaving town.

  “That gentleman told me those train tracks are going into the mountains,” Thea said.

  “Right up into Whiteridge.” Noah glanced her way. “There’s a coal mine there.”

  “But you do not work there.”

  “That’s right. I’ve been working with Wakefield for longer than I care to admit.” He laughed over some private joke. “He’s a good man. I think you’ll be happy with him. Also, and he’s not one to show much emotion—but I think he’s real excited to have you here.”

  During the ride up—which took at least several hours but perhaps more—Noah filled her in on the history of Whiteridge. Halfway through the journey, Thea felt she could name almost every person Noah could.

  “And what about my future husband?” she asked. “You met him when you began working at the saloon?”

  “Oh, no. We go way back. Back to even before Cheyenne, where he had his first saloon. Back to pounding hammers on the railroad.”

  “When was that?”

  “Hmm. Let’s see… Ten years ago. At least. I was a baby then. Eighteen. Thought I knew everything. Wakefield was there to watch my back when I got myself into too much trouble.”

  “Like what?” Thea adjusted her weight on the bench. One of her hips had fallen asleep. After eons of traveling, she couldn’t wait to arrive at her destination and stretch her legs.

  “One time I got into it with this Texan at a railroad camp. This fellow thought he knew everything about everything, and I thought I’d play a little joke on him by putting sand in his stew. Well, that didn’t go over too well. He knew it was me cause someone saw me and ratted me out.”

  “Oh, no,” Thea gasped.

  “Mm-hmm. I was too cheeky for my own good. Anyway, that fellow came at me, looking to clobber me into the ground. Before I knew what was happening, though, Wakefield was there, standing between the Texan and me. He fought for me, even though it wasn’t his fight to take on. Even though I likely deserved a good punch.”

  “That was brave of him. What happened?”

  “He won. I’ve never seen Wakefield lose a fight.”

  Thea sat in silence, absorbing this little nugget about her future husband. He didn’t have a temper, did he? She gulped at the thought. Jeb had possessed quite the temper. She couldn’t live with such a man again. She wouldn’t.

  Lost in thought, she didn’t notice they were arriving in town until Noah said, “There it is.”

  Thea looked. Blinked. Looked again. ‘Town’ had been a generous word. Whiteridge was not more than a few buildings. Wherever the coal mine was, it sat not in sight.

  “It is… small.”

  “Incredibly.” Noah guided the team to the largest building, one with a porch, and pulled the brake up.

  Thea’s heart began pounding with unnatural speed. This was it. She was about to meet her future husband, about to shake hands with the rest of her life.

  Was she ready for this? The panic fluttering in her chest said no.

  But it was too late. The door was opening and a man was striding across the porch and coming to the wagon.

  He turned away from the sun, revealing his face to her. Thea sucked in a sharp breath. She’d thought Noah handsome, but now she saw there was no comparison. The man in front of her was tall, broad-shouldered, and with thick arms. Noah had not been exaggerating when he said Wakefield could hold his own in a fight. This man looked like he could hold his own against anyone.

  And his face… Every line was strong and clean. His hair was dark, his lashes long, and his hazel eyes sparkled with intensity.

  Intensity over her, Thea hoped.<
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  “Miss Sykes,” he said, his voice rumbling and sending a shiver through her.

  Thea’s mouth felt sticky. “Y—yes. Wakefield Briggs, I presume?”

  He offered her his hand, and the instant her fingers touched his palm her stomach began jumping every which way. Too soon, she was on the ground, and he was pulling his hand back.

  “I’m sorry I couldn’t come and meet you at the station.” His jaw hardened, and he briefly looked over at Noah. Thea glanced at the other man as well, but if they’d had some kind of secret exchange, she didn’t catch it.

  “That is quite all right,” Thea answered. “I am simply happy to be here now.”

  Wakefield’s gaze roved across her face. “I’m very happy to have you here.”

  Another shiver went through her. What was going on with her?

  Thea had fancied a couple boys before—in her school days. None of those young sweetheart relationships had turned into anything, though. The passion had been short-lived, and the boys had grown up and moved on. By the time Thea entered adulthood, she had been too focused on helping out at home to even think about courting.

  And then, of course, there had been Jeb. She’d never had any feelings for him that didn’t involve her wanting to leave his company as quickly as possible.

  Were the feelings coursing through her the ones that Emily had spoken about when she described falling in love with Edward?

  No. How could that be? Thea had only just met Wakefield. They’d touched once—and barely, at that.

  And yet she felt she had known him her whole. No—before life.

  Now how did that make any sense?

  “I’ll put the horses up,” Noah said, breaking the reverie. Wakefield was still looking at Thea, and she gazed back, feeling unnaturally brazen in front of a man who was nearly a stranger.

  “You do that,” Wakefield replied, not bothering to look at Noah. Instead, his attention remained on Thea.

  A giddiness rose in her chest and darted all through Thea. That conversation with Pa on the ride to Charleston came back to her. He’d told her to listen to her intuition above all else. Well, she’d done that. She’d come to Wyoming even when fear had threatened to stop her.

  It seemed she may have made the right choice after all.

  Chapter 8

  hooting of an owl

  8. Wakefield

  Chapter eight

  It seemed ages before Wakefield was able to find more words. With Noah gone to put up the team, it was just Wakfield and Theodora standing in front of the saloon. They could have been the only two people in the whole world, and it would have felt the same.

  He’d waited weeks for Theodora, and here she was, a hundred times more beautiful in person. The sunbonnet shielding her face couldn’t hide the dark waves spilling out from beneath the cloth or the shining blue eyes. She was a vision, an angel come down from Heaven.

  “Your photograph doesn’t do you justice,” he said finally breaking the silence.

  Theodora’s eyebrows rose in surprise, and a pale pink blush bloomed on her cheeks. Every little movement on her face he caught. There was nothing she did that slipped past his attention.

  “Thank you, Mr. Briggs.”

  “Please, call me Wakefield,” he corrected her. “We are to be married after all.”

  “Yes,” she agreed. “Wakefield.”

  His name on her lips sent a raging fire coursing through him. His fingers itched to brush against her cheeks, to find out just how soft she was.

  “You can call me…” She hesitated as if about to reveal a secret. “Thea.”

  Wakefield licked his dry lips. “That’s a beautiful name.”

  “Thank you.”

  Noah came back around the house, Thea’s bag in hand. “Horses are up,” he announced.

  “Good,” Wakefield said.

  He took the bag from Noah, his attention jumping from the saloon to his friend and back to Thea. Dusk was creeping in, the first shades of gray settling over the mountains. Thea was no doubt exhausted after her journey, and Wakefield was eager to get her home.

  But to do that, he had to leave Outpost.

  “Don’t worry,” Noah said, reading his mind. “Everything will be fine here. It’ll be another normal night at the saloon.”

  Thea looked between the two men, and Wakefield shot Noah a hard look. It wasn’t the time to bring up the brawl from earlier. There was no reason to scare Thea.

  Noah got it, though. Giving the other two a friendly wave, he stepped onto the patio. “I best be getting ready. The mine will be letting out any minute.”

  “I’ll check in later,” Wakefield promised. Taking Thea’s bag, he turned to her. “The house is only a few minutes’ walk from here. Just right up the road.”

  “Good,” Thea said, the relief evident in her voice.

  Wakefield wanted to touch her shoulder, to lay his hand on the small of her back. Make contact with her in some way. But he didn’t. They were still strangers, no matter how many hours he’d spent thinking about her arrival. He didn’t want to scare her off. He’d already been imagining what life would be like once she got to Whiteridge. A woman to greet him at the end of the evening… to share stories of the day with… to keep him company through winter’s harsh days and nights.

  Now that she was here, he would do everything he could to make her happy.

  Keeping a careful distance between them, he led the way past the general store and up the hill. There, the road went three ways.

  “Keep going straight, and that’s the mine,” Wakefield said.

  “And what about the other two ways?”

  “Right you’ll find lots of miner’s cabins. A couple houses owned by other townsfolk. The general store owner. The mine owner.”

  “And left?”

  “That’s where we’re going.”

  Thea lifted her skirts as they continued the climb. Her lungs were not quite used to this much exertion and she began to huff just as they arrived at their destination: the log cabin Wakefield and Noah had built. Originally, they both lived in the rooms above the saloon. But, it had felt too cramped for Wakefield, though, and Noah had been only too happy to take over the whole floor.

  And so they’d built this cabin. Which turned out to be perfect, because a husband and wife needed a house to call their own. A garden to tend to. Space to just be.

  “That’s it,” Wakefield said. He stopped walking and held his breath as he waited for Thea’s reaction.

  “It’s lovely,” she said.

  It was getting too dark to see her face, but the tone of her voice suggested authenticity.

  “I know it’s not much right now,” Wakefield answered. “The garden isn’t what I’d hoped, and I’m gonna get to building a smokehouse when I get the chance.”

  “Do you have any animals?”

  “No. I buy whatever I need from the general store and the neighbors. But we can get chickens if you want. And a dog. Daniel Zimmerman, that’s the mine’s owner, he has a few hounds. One might be pupping soon.”

  A dog for the cabin would be good. Wakefield would feel a lot better about leaving Thea home alone if there was a guard dog there as well.

  “Let’s get inside,” he said, casting a look around the area. Everything seemed normal, and he never even had visitors at the cabin, but the situation at the saloon had put him on edge. Compound that with his bride’s arrival, and he was nervous in an awful way.

  Hustling, he opened the door for Thea then felt along the wall for the lantern and matches on the shelf there. Striking the match, the light illuminated the main room, displaying the cook stove, table, braided rug, and bed.

  “Your room is there,” he said, nodding at the door leading into the second room. “For as long as you want it to be.”

  “It is spacious,” she commented, untying her bonnet.

  “I know it’s not much for looks. Maybe you can give it your touch.”

  “I can do that.” Bonnet in hand, sh
e turned to look at him. The lantern light flickered on her face, and her hair had come half unpinned. Thick waves rested against her neck, and Wakefield could feel their eagerness to come fully loose.