Annie: A Bride For The Farmhand - A Clean Historical Western Romance (Stewart House Brides Book 3)

by Charity Phillips

  Despite stating his feelings calmly, there was an unmasked bite to all of his accusations and voiced opinions. Zelda looked down, truly mortified at her father’s behavior. “Daddy, please…”

  This didn’t succeed in easing the tensions that had filled the room.in the slightest.

  “Actually, we’ve found that the railway line is a great way to connect the states and make travel much faster,” Mr. Cooke attempted.

  Tom nodded. “Yeah, and it’s only going to grow. We’re in a business that’s on the way up, Mr. Hughes. That’s not to say that we hope to replace or diminish the great work you do here on your farm, sir.”

  Mr. Hughes shot daggers at Tom in particular. Zelda knew that he didn’t like the younger Mr. Cooke, but she didn’t know why. “If you’re worried about Tom being a bad influence or something, Papa, I can attest—”

  “I will thank you to keep your mouth shut, Zelda,” her father replied icily. “This is none of your concern.”

  “The family is my concern,” she countered.

  “Enough,” Mrs. Hughes said, looking from her husband to her daughter to the Cooke family members. “I’m afraid that my husband is right. You probably should begin packing your things in order to head back to your house.”

  Mr. Cooke appeared crestfallen. He nodded his head and signaled for Diana and Tom to go upstairs to collect their belongings. Mrs. Cooke rolled up the quilt into a manageable size and, nodding a bit as well, she went upstairs to place her things into the small suitcase she had brought with her.

  “Wait,” Zelda said, frowning. “We never got to have their Johnny cakes…”

  “You can keep them, Miss Hughes,” Violet Cooke called down as she went upstairs. “They are a gift to you and the rest of your family.”

  Zelda couldn’t stand to see them dismissed in this way. Surely something could be done to stop her father’s tirade against the Cookes and their railway ties!

  She felt hot tears filling her eyes. “This is the worst thing you have ever done,” she cried to her father, running upstairs to the room she now shared with Hattie. Everything had been going so well! Had she done something wrong?

  Chapter Eleven

  As Tom and his father were loading up their wagon for the journey back through the snow to their house, Tom elbowed Thomas and gestured his head towards the building in the distance.

  Thomas followed his gaze, and his jaw immediately fell open in shock. “Mr. Hughes!” he called, rushing back to the house and knocking on the front door. “Mr. Hughes?”

  Neil opened the front door. “Yes?” he asked as if he had some authority over matters.

  “I mean your father,” Thomas Cooke Sr. said, trying not to be too snippy with the boy.

  “Father!” Neil called into the house behind himself. “Mr. Cooke wants you!”

  Zelda and Hattie, sensing some urgency, rushed out of their room and bolted down the stairs at once to see what the commotion was.

  “Mr. Hughes, I’m afraid we shan’t be going back to our home today. We probably won’t be going back there for quite some time. It seems the Lord has other plans for us.”

  “What are you talking about?” Mr. Hughes asked. He made his way outside with the other men, followed by the ever-curious Zelda and Hattie. He gaped in horror when he saw what they had seen: the house in the distance that Thomas Sr. had worked so hard to build was now nothing more than a pile of wood and stones on the snowy earth.

  “Good heavens!” Zelda exclaimed, feeling her heart break for them immediately. “Oh, Mr. Cooke, I’m so very sorry. I know how hard you were working to make a home out here that would last.”

  He yanked off his hat and wrung it in his hands. “Aw, gee,” he said. “It’s been awfully hard considering I spend so many hours out with the railway workers, making sure that everything gets done on schedule…”

  Mr. Hughes scratched his cheeks and chin as he thought things over. He looked annoyed, but this certainly was a new and unique situation that drastically changed things. Where else were the Cookes to turn to?

  Zelda recognized her opportunity and took it by the reins with full force.

  “Oh, please, Papa,” she pleaded. “Couldn’t they just stay with us for a while? I know that you don’t agree on everything, but surely you can find it in your heart to put your difference of opinion aside to get along. After all, it’s Christmas. Remember Mary and Joseph at the inn…? Are you really going to send them out with nothing to protect them from the cold? I don’t think it would reflect well on us as a family if we failed to help them. They’d have nothing good to say about Ogden to the folks back in California. I know you don’t like the idea of the railroad being built so close to home, but surely you want this town’s good reputation to last for future generations...”

  Mr. Cooke the elder was regarding Zelda with surprise and more than a little confusion. Tom was grinning, though he avoided looking directly at her so her father wouldn’t become angered anew.

  “I promise you this, Mr. Hughes, I would never speak an ill word about you or this lovely town,” Thomas Cooke told him. “As a matter of fact… Well, we were thinking of living out here, if the work continues to be lucrative for us as it has been. Our life in Coloma was wonderful and we’ll always have fond memories of our time there, but as the years passed, we began to crave a change, which is what brought us here.”

  A change. The word struck Mr. Hughes, and he suddenly smiled at Zelda and gave her a subtle wink.

  “I do believe that my daughter has the right idea,” he said. “I don’t think we’re so different after all. That doesn’t mean I want you to sign me up for rail work, but we all deserve a chance at a better life.”

  Mr. Cooke was so surprised by that change of heart that he dropped his hat into the snow. Chuckling, Tom Jr. bent down and picked it up, dusting the snow off of it. He handed it back to his father, who continued to wring it in his hands as before.

  “Thank you, Mr. Hughes!” he said, extending his hand to Ralph. Motioning to Tom, he said, “You run inside and inform the ladies before they get themselves all decked out in their thick coats.”

  Tom quickly nodded and headed into the house. Zelda and Hattie, beaming in victory, followed him inside.

  “Never before would I have thought that one of my father’s buildings would have collapsed and that he would be so happy about it,” Tom said, whistling.

  The two girls giggled.

  “What’s going on?” Pepper called down from the stairs. “We thought you were leaving. No offense.”

  Mrs. Hughes and Mrs. Cooke came out of the spare bedroom, holding onto some dresses. They both looked absolutely puzzled. “Have you lost your mind?” Mrs. Cooke asked her son. “Your father is going to be cross with you if you’re not helping him pack up that wagon.”

  He went to her and gave her cheek a kiss. “There’s no need,” he declared. “The storm has ruined the makeshift home that Father built. We have no home to bring the wagon back to.”

  “My word!” Mrs. Cooke cried out, bringing a hand to her mouth.

  “How dreadful!” Mrs. Hughes said. “Oh, what is to be done? I am so sorry.”

  Tom nearly giggled in his delight. “It’s all right,” he told them. “Mr. Hughes has apparently had a change of heart. He is going to let us stay. At least until we can build ourselves a new house… Most likely after the winter. Gosh, Mrs. Hughes, we really didn’t prepare ourselves for this kind of thing.”

  The two women looked at each other in shock for a few moments, and then they began laughing together. “I guess we don’t need to pack up these things, then,” Mrs. Hughes said. “You’re welcome to stay with us as long as you like.”

  “Thank you so much, Mrs. Hughes,” Violet Cooke replied. “And please thank your husband for us. I know this probably didn’t come easy for him, from what he said earlier.”

  “Oh, he’s just an ol’ stick in the mud sometimes,” Zelda said, smirking at them as she came up the stairs and helped to bri
ng Mrs. Cooke’s clothing back out of the bags. “I reminded him of what happened to Jesus and his parents on Christmas.” She winked at her mother.

  “Lord,” Mrs. Hughes said. “You’re either going to make everything a great deal easier or you’re going to ruin us all with your audacity.”

  Zelda smiled from her mother to Tom. “Maybe a little of both.”

  Once everything was moved back indoors and everyone was settled in again, the Hughes and the Cookes had a truly splendid Christmas together. There was no more talk of all of the minor ways in which the families differed. Rather, they spent time getting to see just how much they actually had in common.

  Chapter Twelve

  Ogden, Utah Territory – Spring, 1869

  The Cookes continued to stay with the Hughes family for the rest of the Winter and on into the Spring. During the week, Thomas and Tom made their way out to the Promontory Point rail yard to oversee the workers and make sure that all of the plans were running smoothly and on time. On the weekends, they would return to Ogden and worked hard on rebuilding their house from dawn until just before sundown, when it was time to join Mr. and Mrs. Hughes in their house for dinner.

  “How’s the progress coming along?” Zelda asked Tom on one such evening. The temperatures were getting warmer outside and the snow had all but melted, but it wasn’t yet officially Spring. A crisp bite of cold still lingered in the air. Especially in the mornings.

  “I have to admit, it’s slow-going,” he replied with an appreciative smile. “But it’s going nonetheless. How are your animals?”

  Zelda blushed and smoothed some stray strands of honey blonde behind her ear. She smiled at him. “They’re not really my animals, but they’re doing well. Ever since we brought Genie in on Christmas, she doesn’t seem to want to leave for long. I can’t say I blame her.”

  “I think it’s sweet that you’re the one who cares for them,” Tom told her. “You’ve got a good heart and you certainly have the skills for it. You’re often on my mind when I rush off during the week to deal with the rails and the men who are working to connect them. Zelda’s taking care of her cows and chickens. They’re so lucky to have her, I think to myself.”

  She giggled a little. Would her cheeks be hot for the rest of her life now? “Why do you think that? It seems so unimportant when you compare it to the work you’re doing.”

  Tom looked into her eyes. “When a man is thinking of setting up roots in a place, it’s good to know who he can rely on… And who might be a good fit for his future household.”

  At that, he walked away to find himself a glass of water. Zelda brought her fingertips to her mouth and she bit her nails a little, smiling and feeling so light-headed now. She had long considered Tom a friend. She hadn’t really dared to dream that the handsome young man might be thinking of things beyond friendship…

  Though she normally paid attention to how her father was treating the Cookes, Zelda paid even more attention recently. It might be that, now that the weather was getting nicer, Mr. Hughes would insist on them leaving again, even though it would appear that he truly put his past animosity behind him.

  “You know, initially, I worried about how the space was going to work in here with you all,” Mr. Hughes told Tom and his father over dinner. “But now I wonder if you really must move out. Unless you’re not comfortable here, of course.”

  Mrs. Cooke smiled at him. “That’s very kind of you,” she said. “But it really is too much to ask of you, to take up so much of your space and your time.”

  Tom looked thoughtful but said nothing.

  Zelda watched him, wondering what he might be thinking. He was working hard on the new house, so he likely didn’t want to just abandon the project, even if it might have been easier for him and his family to keep on living with the Hughes family. Then she remembered what he had said to her before hurrying off. A good fit for his future household…

  Chapter Thirteen

  Zelda told Diana what her brother had said later that night as they were helping each other get undressed and ready for bed. Hattie tittered and clearly enjoyed being included in this gossip. She was also, as ever, thoroughly amused by her sister’s little crush on the neighbor boy. “What do you think he meant by that?” Zelda asked Diana as she brushed her long, blonde tresses.

  Diana looked at her and laughed lightly. “He likes you, you silly girl,” she said. “I’ve seen the way he looks at you. He’s never looked at anyone else like that before. Of course, he hasn’t told me anything but that’s only because he’s a man and they don’t seem to talk about such things. At least not with their sisters.”

  “That’s true,” Hattie said. “Neil and Daniel probably never talk about such things even with each other.”

  “That’s because Neil and Daniel are boys,” Zelda said.

  “Well, do you fancy Tom back?” Diana asked her eagerly. “I promise I won’t tell a soul if you don’t want me to.”

  Hattie beamed impishly. Zelda handed her the brush. “Sister, please go to our room,” she said at once. “Diana, I know I can trust. You, little one, I’m not so sure.”

  “That means she likes him a lot,” Hattie whispered gaily as she scurried away to the room she shared with Zelda.

  Shaking her head and blushing intensely, Zelda looked back at Diana. Now that she didn’t need to brush her hair or help anyone into a nightgown, she felt unsure of what to do, so she sat on the bottom corner of Diana’s bed. “Oh, Diana, I do like him. He’s handsome and charming, and he seems to really understand me in ways that no one else ever has… I’d like to get to know him better, but it’s not my place to ask that of him. He turned so shy when he told me of his plans for the future, at least in part. I don’t want to scare him away.”

  Diana sat down beside her and gently placed a hand on her shoulder. “You won’t scare him away. He’s probably just trying to think of the best way to ask you if you would like to spend more time with him away from the rest of us.”

  Zelda felt light-headed again, just thinking of that. She batted her lashes a bit and smiled a little, shy smile as if Tom might appear in the doorway of their room at any moment. He definitely wouldn’t, though. He was a proper gentleman. Still, she had a habit of getting jumpy and flustered as if the person she was thinking about would know that she was thinking about them at that very moment. “Do you really think so?” she asked her. “I know that there aren’t many girls of the similar age around here…”

  Diana laughed at that, shaking her head. “Oh, it’s nothing like that. It’s desperation, Zelda. You should approach him next. I think he would love that. It might make him nervous, but let him be nervous. It might call him to action.”

  The two girls smiled at each other and then Zelda retired to her bedroom to leave Diana to her privacy. Getting into bed right away, Zelda heard Hattie chuckling softly in the darkness. “I’ll remember this if ever I have a beau,” she said.

  She smiled with satisfaction and closed her eyes, thinking about Tom and what Diana had shared with her about him. It was true; there weren’t many men in Ogden who weren’t already spoken for… Or ladies for that matter. Maybe it wasn’t so much desperation as much as it was destiny.

  Chapter Fourteen

  The afternoon that Spring arrived, Zelda went outside to greet Tom and his father while they were working on the site of their new house. Carrying a tray of coffee and finger sandwiches, her pretty face lit up in a smile when she arrived. Tom carefully made his way down the ladder to meet her there. “Father!” he called. “It looks like we have a visitor.”

  Zelda blushed and batted her long lashes at him. “The two of you have been working so hard, I thought that you might want some lunch.” She admired the home that he and his father were toiling away at. With supplies from Mr. Hughes as well as some of the businesses in town, Mr. Cooke had managed to put together a mighty fine home this time. It was multi-level now, made of sturdier wood and bricks and she couldn’t wait to see how it looked wh
en it was complete.

  “Thank you kindly for thinking of us,” Tom said, taking one of the cups of coffee and a sandwich. “I only wish now that we had a blanket or something to lay out so we could have a picnic together. Maybe some other time, with some more planning?” He gazed into her eyes and she knew right away that he was asking her on a date.

  “I would love to have a picnic lunch with you sometime,” she told him, surprised at how confident her voice was. “Or dinner, for that matter.”

  “Tomorrow?” he blurted. “Are you free tomorrow evening? I wasn’t planning much outside of the usual construction, but I could do it earlier in the day so we have time together later on.”

  Zelda gazed at him, her heart pounding in her chest. His handsome face was so loving and caring as he looked back at her. He had the sort of face that upon first impression, made him seem one hundred percent trustworthy, and he hadn’t done anything to prove that wrong. “I can let Mama know that I’ve got plans. She’ll want to know what we’re up to, of course. Are you sure your papa won’t miss you?”

  Tom shrugged and shook his head. “It will only be for a while. I’m sure he can do without me. Besides, I sometimes think I get in his way.” He grinned at that, and Zelda laughed with him.

  Mr. Cooke came out of the house and took up his own mug of coffee and a sandwich. She left the tray of vittles there for them and went back to the farmhouse. Her heart flew and her face ached from smiling, but it felt so wonderful even as it hurt! She just hoped her mother would agree to this plan.

  “Young Mr. Cooke has asked me to have a picnic with him tomorrow,” she informed her mother as soon as she was inside and had found her in the kitchen, working on preparations for the evening’s dinner.