Pearl shook her head and said, “When was the last time you saw him?”
“Six years ago as he boarded the ship that brought him here.”
“So you would have been twelve at the time?”
“I’d just turned thirteen,” Jessi said, remembering the tears she and Mrs. Reilly had shed as they’d held onto one another watching the ship sail away, taking from them the man they both loved.
Pearl nodded. “I would guess you’ve changed quite a bit since then.”
“I have.”
“Why don’t you give John a chance to know the young woman you’ve grown into? He might be having trouble recognizing the woman you are now as the girl he left behind.”
“Everything all right?” Mrs. Swenson stood in the doorway wiping her hands on a flour-sack towel.
Jessi nodded. But she felt her belly cramp. Would she ever know love such as these women seemed to have? Mrs. Swenson, Maggie, Bridget, and now Pearl all seemed to be deeply in love with their husbands.
That wasn’t what she’d grown up knowing. The quick lash of temper and harsh words between them were what her parents had shared while her father had been alive. But then, Mrs. Reilly still loved her husband, though he’d been gone for longer than Jessi could recall.
Had her upbringing distorted her image of what love truly was? Maybe she wouldn’t be capable of loving John as he was used to. Did she only want John because he was the hero of her childhood dreams?
“Maybe you need to get to know the man he’s become,” Pearl said, rising from the chair, wrapping her arm around Jessi, guiding her into the kitchen.
“There’s freshly brewed coffee or hot water for tea.”
Jessi hugged first Mrs. Swenson and then Pearl. “Thank ye both for opening yer hearts to me.”
They smiled, hugging her back. “It’s our pleasure. Besides, we both have a special place in our hearts for John Reilly and think you’re just the woman he needs.”
“Isn’t it just me luck that he doesn’t want me.”
Mrs. Swenson shook her head. “You’d be wrong about that,” she said. “I think that’s what’s been bothering him.”
Startled, Jessi asked, “Ye think so?”
“There’s one way to find out,” Pearl announced. “Do you love him enough to try?”
Jessi stared solemnly at Pearl. “Aye, that I do. What do you have in mind?”
Pearl’s smile was slow and secretive. “I think our Mr. Reilly needs to see Jessi in the company of other men.”
“But ye know I don’t want to be in anyone else’s company.”
“But John doesn’t know that, does he?”
“That wouldn’t be right,” Jessi said, then paused to reconsider. “I don’t know any other men that aren’t already wed.”
Mrs. Swenson smiled at Pearl. “Yes, you do.”
“I do?” Jessi tried to think of one, but her mind was befuddled with thoughts of John and his lovely dark-brown eyes.
“There are quite a few living and working out at the Flaherty ranch.”
Jessi hadn’t noticed anyone but John when she’d been there last night. She wondered if she could convince herself and John that she wasn’t in love with him anymore. “I don’t want to be labeled a woman of loose morals.”
Pearl shook her head. “Half the town still thinks I am.”
Jessi hoped she’d closed her mouth quickly enough and sought to support her new friend. “Sure and it’s a bold-faced lie.”
Mrs. Swenson nodded at Pearl. “There’s a long story behind why the town’s mistaken about Pearl, but we’ve got work to do if we’re going to start showing John Reilly that you are the woman for him.”
“And how will you do that?” Jessi couldn’t begin to guess what they had in mind.
“You’ll go out riding with Sean or Thomas—the Murphy brothers. Then you could have a picnic lunch with William Masterson and Michael Flynn.”
“But I don’t know any of them, except for Michael Flynn.”
Mrs. Swenson threw her hands up in the air. “That, my dear, is the point. To get to know them. How will you ever learn the true measure of the man you love, if you don’t try to get to know him?”
“But you want me to go riding with the Murphy brothers, William, and Michael. How will that help me get to know John?”
“If he’s going to avoid you,” Pearl said, “which I suspect he will, he’ll be hearing about the different men you’re going for buggy rides with.”
“Won’t it be wrong to smile at another man while me heart belongs to John?”
“If your intentions are pure, then no,” Pearl said. “It isn’t wrong. Back home, did you frown at every man you happened to see?”
“No. Why would I be doin’ that?” As soon as she asked the question, Jessi knew what Pearl was getting at. “I think I understand. Would it be all right if I befriend these men and tell them right off that me heart belongs to John?”
“Would it make you feel better?” Mrs. Swenson asked.
“It might,” Jessi admitted. “But why would any one of them want to take me out ridin’?”
“Have you looked in a mirror lately?” Mrs. Swenson asked, bringing a fresh pot of tea to the table. As she set it down, she reached out to pat Jessi’s hand. “With your pretty face and your lovely lilt, they’ll be coming to call whether you want them to or not.”
“But they don’t know me!”
“Give them a chance, and you just might find that there is someone else who appeals to you more than John Reilly.”
Jessi’s stubborn heart rebelled at the thought, though her head knew it was the intelligent thing to do. “What if I’m afraid to find out if I love the man he’s become?”
“Then you’re halfway to discovering the woman you are as well.” Mrs. Swenson refilled their teacups and passed a plate with the moist slices of cake they’d baked earlier.
“Sometimes it’s best to take a chance,” Pearl began, “in order to be given one.”
Jessi’s head ached from the talk of John and the prospect of getting to know him on equal ground. And instead of trailing after the man, she’d wait for him to come to her. Rather than asking him question after question, she’d let him wonder and then maybe ask a few of his own.
Looking from Pearl to Mrs. Swenson, Jessi smiled. “When do we start?”
Mrs. Swenson said, “We do have an extra cake and a few loaves of bread we promised to Bridget and Widow Dawson.”
Pearl smiled and was about to speak, when a deep voice called out, “I thought you might have ended up over here.”
The fair-haired man who stood in the doorway smiled before sweeping inside and kissing the breath out of Pearl.
Jessi noticed Mrs. Swenson was smiling. “I’m thinkin’ this must be yer husband. If not,” Jessi said. “Then ye’d best not get caught kissin’ another man’s wife.”
“Jessi Fahy,” Mrs. Swenson said, with an elegant sweep of her hand, “meet Davidson Smythe, Pearl’s husband.”
“ ’Tis a pleasure,” Jessi said and meant it.
“So this is the lovely young woman who got the better of John Reilly?”
“Does everyone know?” Jessi grumbled.
“In Emerson?” Davidson asked. “Yes. I’m not sure about Milford. It’s on the other side of the river.”
“Maggie and Joshua know,” Mrs. Swenson added with a wicked glint of laughter in her eyes.
“It’s only a matter of time, then, before her friends the Taylors come to visit so they can meet you.”
“Why would they do that?”
“My dear young woman.” Davidson grinned. “Reilly’s never lost a fight in the years he’s lived here.”
“But we didn’t fight—” she began, only to be interrupted by Pearl.
“It’s early days yet. Time enough for that once you’ve gone out riding a time or two.”
“With Reilly?” Davidson asked.
Pearl shook her head.
“Ah.” Davidson’s knowing look worried
Jessi.
“Maybe it isn’t a good idea for me to provoke him,” Jessi said.
“Didn’t he ask when you were leaving?” Mrs. Swenson asked.
“Well, yes,” Jessi admitted.
“Has he shown up on my doorstep intending to court you?”
“Well, no.”
“Do you two have an understanding?” Mrs. Swenson prompted.
Jessi’s heart sank. “No.”
“Then the man has no reason to pick a fight with you.”
“Do ye think he will?”
“Come to call?” Mrs. Swenson asked.
“Absolutely,” Davidson answered for her. “I’d give him a few days’ worth of gossip, and he’ll be coming here with his hat in his hands.”
Jessi was afraid she’d ruin everything by blurting out their plans to Pearl’s husband, but she had to ask. “What’ll I do till then?”
“Enjoy the attention you’re about to be showered with,” Davidson suggested.
“What if I don’t want it?”
“Then you should have been born ugly.” Davidson grinned, kissed his wife’s hand and drew her to her feet. “Time to go, love.”
Watching them leave, Jessi knew what she wanted. The only problem was how to go about getting it without hurting John’s tender pride a second time.
Jessi’d have to be careful not to give anyone the wrong impression, but figured she might just be able to do that if she were careful.
Chapter Nine
A few days later, under Doc’s care, the swelling in Jessi’s hand had gone down to the point where he told her she could use it, but to be careful not to overdo.
The wooden walkway was one more thing she would have to get used to out here. There were streets aplenty back home, but none had walkways made of wood. Now stone, that was something she was used to. She missed home desperately but tried hard not to complain too often.
Mrs. Swenson seemed happy to have her there to lend a helping hand. While spending time in the kitchen with Mrs. Swenson wasn’t quite the same as the hours she’d spend with Mrs. Reilly, it was soothing and as close as she’d get to being back home as she could get right now.
She’d listened to Pearl’s advice and accepted Michael’s offer to go for a ride to pick wildflowers such as she’d never seen back home, and then let the younger Murphy brother talk her into riding out to the Flaherty ranch to see a new litter of kittens.
Thinking of what she’d left behind and the new friends she’d made since she’d arrived, Jessi slowly walked along the boards, careful not to catch her toe on the edges of the uneven ones. She’d caused enough of a scene the first day she’d arrived and apparently had caused more talk by being seen in the company of Michael Flynn and Sean Murphy.
“Mornin’, Mr. Peterson,” she called out seeing the man coming toward her.
“Miss Fahy.” He nodded.
“ ’Tis a fine soft day,” she offered, still unsure of her welcome, though she’d been in town nearly a week.
“Rain’ll be coming,” he said, looking up at the sky. “ ’Bout supper time. Best make sure you’re not caught out in it,” he warned. “Lung fever,” he said, tapping his chest.
“Sure and I’ll be careful,” she assured him. “But I’ve no plans to be out this afternoon.”
He just smiled and hurried over to the mercantile.
Wondering what was on the man’s mind, she wasn’t watching where she was going and didn’t see the raised board in time. Catching her toe, she pitched forward.
“Oh!”
But instead of falling down, as she expected, she was lifted high and set on her feet. “You’ll want to watch your step, Miss Fahy.”
Rattled, she saw a dusty pair of boots nearly toe to toe with her sturdy walking boots. Smoothing her skirts back into place, she had to tilt her head back in order to see the face of her rescuer. He was a head taller than John. “Thank ye, kindly. . . .”
The tall man removed the hat from his head and told her, “Name’s Masterson.”
Her belly twitched with nerves. That was the name of one of the men Pearl and Mrs. Swenson had mentioned to her earlier. “ ’Tis a pleasure to meet ye, Mr. Masterson.”
“William.”
“Until I know ye better, it’s Mr. Masterson,” she told him. “Me mother’d have me head for being disrespectful.”
When he smiled, his features softened. “You’ve saved me a couple of steps.”
“Have I now?”
He nodded. “I was on my way to Mrs. Swenson’s to ask if you’d like to go for a ride.”
Knowing what was expected, she still had trouble agreeing. “When did ye have in mind, Mr. Masterson?”
His smile broadened, easing some of the nerves stretching tight inside of her. “Are you busy now?”
She gripped her hands together and caught herself before she started wringing them, a sure sign she was uneasy. “Well, now, I’m not sure if Mrs. Swenson is ready for me to help her put the supper on.”
Holding out his elbow, he said, “Why don’t we go and ask her?”
Jessi hesitated, arguing that she didn’t know the man well enough to take his arm, but there was no one nearby that she could ask. When his smile faltered, she noticed the scar on his cheek. Not wanting the man to think she was too proud to be walking with him because of it, she took his arm. “Thank ye. I’d like to ask her meself.”
Not knowing what to talk about, she cast about for something to say and remembered what Mr. Peterson had told her. “I understand we’re in for rain.”
Masterson looked up and nodded. “From the looks of that edge of clouds rolling in, we could be in for a storm.”
Jessi shuddered, remembering the horrible squall halfway across the ocean.
He patted her hand where it lay in the crook of his arm. “We’ll be back long before it rains.”
“I’m not usually uneasy when it storms,” she explained. “But there was a terrible storm on the voyage over.”
As they neared the boarding house, he told her, “I’ve never been on a boat.”
She smiled and nearly corrected him, but she’d hurt one man’s pride because she’d acted without thought. She wouldn’t do that again. Choosing her words carefully, she said, “The one I came over on was so large they called it a ship.”
“Aren’t they one and the same?” he asked, not upset with her in the least.
“And so I thought,” she confided. “On the voyage over, the captain explained the difference to me.”
They’d reached the back steps, but Masterson stopped. “What’s the difference?”
“A ship is a seagoing vessel,” Jessi said. “Back home I’d been in a boat, but it fit just two people.”
“So a boat is a vessel that only fits two people?”
“No,” she said, gently removing her hand from his arm. “ ’Tis the only comparison I had, ye see.”
He smiled at her. “Has anyone ever told you that your accent is charming?”
Jessi felt her cheeks heating and hoped her freckles weren’t that noticeable. Not that she was a vain woman; she just didn’t like having them pointed out.
As if he could sense that he’d already embarrassed her, Masterson motioned for her to precede him up the steps. Relieved, she lifted her skirts so she wouldn’t step on them and stood on the porch waiting for him.
“Would ye like to come inside?” she asked. “I’ll just be a minute.”
“William!” Mrs. Swenson greeted him as he stepped inside. “How lovely to see you again.”
Jessi wondered when Mrs. Swenson had had the time to ride out to the Flaherty ranch, because Mr. Masterson hadn’t been there the other day when they’d ridden out to drop off the bread and cake.
“Thank you for the delicious cake.” He smiled as he said it. “There was nearly a row over who’d get the last piece.”
She smiled and looked over at Jessi. “It was Mrs. Reilly’s recipe.”
“I don’t remember John knowing an
ything about cooking.”
“He doesn’t,” Jessi offered, “but his mother’s a wonderful cook.”
“How long have you known Reilly?” Masterson asked.
“The whole of me life.”
He smiled down at her. “That long?”
Jessi wondered if he was making fun, but his next question caught her off guard.
“Do you and Reilly have an understanding?”
Jessi looked over at Mrs. Swenson, who stood shaking her head. “Do ye mean have the banns been read?” she asked. When he nodded, she sighed and answered, “Then, no.”
“Would you like a cup of coffee, William?”
Jessi could have bit her lip in frustration. She wasn’t sure she was ready to be alone with the man, especially since she barely knew him and didn’t know what to talk about. But having him sitting in Mrs. Swenson’s kitchen while the other woman played matchmaker didn’t appeal either. When he declined the coffee, she realized she’d best start thinking of something to say.
“I asked Miss Fahy if she’d like to go for a ride this afternoon.” He turned and smiled down at her. “She wanted to check with you first.”
Mrs. Swenson beamed at the two of them. “I’ve already got supper started, so there’s nothing left to do for the next couple of hours while it simmers. You’ll want to bring a shawl with you.” Wiping her hands on her apron, she pushed Jessi toward the hallway. “Run up and get one while I keep William company.”
What else could she do but oblige the older woman? Hurrying up the steps, Jessi grabbed the shawl she’d worn earlier and wrapped it around her.
“I hope I haven’t kept ye waitin’.”
Masterson and Mrs. Swenson stopped talking when she walked into the kitchen. “Mrs. Swenson had a fine suggestion.”
“I promised Maggie a portion of my sourdough starter, but I don’t know when I’ll have time to get back there.” Mrs. Swenson smiled at Masterson. “Since you’re going out riding with no destination, William agreed that you would drop it off for me, and at the same time you’ll get to meet Maggie.”
Jessi remembered the panicked way she’d left the Turners’ home before she’d had a chance to get to know Maggie. “ ’Twould be me pleasure. Is there anythin’ else ye can think of that I should bring?”
The Irish Westerns Boxed Set Page 83
