by Lilah Rivers
Tobias Wheeler has been yearning for the Stubbs ranch for as long as he can remember, hoping to expand the property his family owns. What he isn't prepared for is the fact that Mary is too stubborn to give up the ranch, driven by her own guilt. When everyone seems to turn against Mary, Tobias will realize that there is more to the picture than he ever imagined. What will he ultimately choose? To follow his heart or his business plans? Will he manage to find a balance between his own dreams and happiness?
What Tobias and Mary would never expect is to find themselves falling for one another in the midst of a threat. Will they be strong enough to make the right choices? Or will they be pitted against each other in an angry battle for the ranch?
Chapter 1
Mary stood by the window, looking out over the work being done on the ranch by the young men her late husband had hired.
There was still more than enough for them to do. She was grateful that Dirk Stubbs had been wise enough to hire such reliable men when he did.
But Mary needed to get their lunch ready, like she did every day. She was always at work in the kitchen, keeping them fed, until they went home at three o’clock in the afternoon and she could do the rest of the chores around the ranch.
Mary whirled her hair into a pin to get it up off of her neck. It made a thick, brown rope at the base of her head, threatening to come undone.
And with that, she was back to work.
Mary had never pictured herself running a ranch, but now that she was, she was determined to do her absolute best.
It was not going to be easy, but it was going to be worth it.
She threw the chopped potatoes into the pot of boiling water and stoked the flames underneath the stovetop. Mary always had a unique blend of spices that she used for her potatoes and the ranch hands loved it.
Especially Timothy, the youngest of them. He was even younger than Mary and she felt a sort of sisterly protection over him at times, always ensuring that he was eating enough.
But the ranch was doing well, as per usual, and she was glad that it meant she could give the men substantial food. Dirk had told her about days when the ranch had struggled and he could barely give them more than soup that was made by a girl in town he had hired to come and cook in the mornings, making enough food for the day.
As Mary thought about all of these things that had led up to that morning, she heard a call from the porch.
“Mary! It’s me, can I come in?”
“Please! I’m terribly bored,” she called back, stirring the pot in slow movements.
“Mmm, it smells amazing in here,” Danielle said.
“Thanks. I’m making my potatoes and I’m also trying a new blend of herbs for my buttered bread,” Mary said, turning back to look at her friend.
“Always with your cooking experiments,” Danielle laughed, shaking her head of thick, black hair.
“Well, I have to be useful around here,” Mary said.
“Useful? You do just about everything that a small woman could do and more!” Danielle exclaimed.
“Hardly. You see Timothy out there, moving those huge logs to repair the fence? And Arnold is logging a bale of hay with Glen. You think I could do those things?” Mary asked.
“No, but I also didn’t think you would be able to shovel so much hay into the stables and get the horses groomed and fill the trough for the pigs and all the other stuff you do around here. Trust me, Mary, you are carrying your weight,” Danielle said.
Mary shrugged. Her duties once the men left every day seemed endless, but she was proud to be able to take them on. It made her feel as though she was truly doing her part.
“Well, anyway, I just think it’s important that I provide food for these guys,” Mary said.
“And you do it well,” Danielle replied.
They grew quiet for a moment, but Mary sensed that Danielle was wanting desperately to ask her question. The same question that nearly everyone in town wanted to know the answer to.
“Go ahead,” Mary said, gently.
“Sorry,” Danielle replied, apologizing for having been so obvious.
“It’s all right. Ask your question,” Mary said.
“It’s just…I wanted to know what you plan to do now,” Danielle said.
“You mean now that the ranch is officially mine?” Mary asked.
“Yeah, that. I haven’t seen you since Mr. Atwater found Dirk’s brother. I don’t know the whole story,” Danielle said.
“It’s a simple story, really. Mr. Atwater was Dirk’s lawyer, now he’s mine, I guess. After Dirk died, he had to find Dirk’s brother to offer him the ranch. But his brother, Marlon, doesn’t want it - said that he’s a city boy now and that’s all there is to it. So, the ranch is mine… unquestionably,” Mary said.
Mary had been shocked to learn that Dirk’s brother didn’t want the ranch. But she was relieved. It had become home in the two years that she had been married to Dirk. And in the year since his passing, she had run it all on her own.
The fact that Marlon didn’t want it only meant that Mary was going to have a chance at ruling her own life for once. She would get to make her own decisions and have something that belonged only to her.
“You know that just about every rancher in town wants to buy this place,” Danielle said.
“Oh, I know. They have all made it clear. I had inquiries before all of this, men asking if Dirk’s brother would be willing to sell it and me telling them all that last I had heard, Marlon was in Boston and I had no idea whether or not he would want the ranch or not,” Mary said.
“So? What will you do? You weren’t a rancher before Dirk. You don’t have to be one now,” Danielle said.
Mary shrugged. She had married young and this was the only life that she had known since leaving her father’s home.
“I am going to keep the ranch. I know that no one expects it of a woman, but I am perfectly capable of running it and, to be frank with you, I enjoy the work,” Mary said.
“Really? You like being so busy all the time? And dirty? How are you meant to shovel hay in a dress?” Danielle asked.
“The same as I would in trousers. Perhaps the problem is that we are so often told what we cannot do that we never even try. We prove right those who would suggest that we are incapable,” Mary said.
A dent formed in Danielle’s forehead as she considered this.
“I suppose that is true. That’s how things have always been. But even if you are more than capable of running the ranch, are you certain that you really want to?” Danielle asked.
“Yes, I am certain. This is my home, Danielle. Why would I do anything different?” Mary asked.
“You could return to live with your mother and father and you could marry again. You are so young,” Danielle said.
“I know that, but there is no one I am looking to marry right now anyway. This is where I belong,” Mary said.
“You know, even my brother wants to buy your ranch. Obviously I am not going to get on the side of either of you, but I do want you to know that he would take good care of the ranch if you did sell,” Danielle said.
“It isn’t going to happen. I am capable of running this place on my own,” Mary said, straightening her back and sliding the thickly sliced ham into the oven.
“You are more than capable of running the ranch. But you need to watch out. The other ranchers in town don’t just want to buy your ranch, they want to see you fail if you don’t sell,” Danielle warned her.
“Then I suppose I had better not fail,” Mary said in a clipped tone, turning to Danielle and smiling without warmth.
Danielle laughed.
“I suppose you had better not,” Danielle said.
“Now, would you like to try my bread?” Mary asked, tearing away a chunk and melting butter into it.
“I would come here to see you any time, but I am sure you know by now that my real hope is to get some food out of you,” Danielle giggled.
“I thought as much
,” Mary replied, handing her the chunk.
Danielle took a bite and her eyes lit up.
“I don’t think your hands would let you sell to anyone else anyway. They wouldn’t be without this amazing food,” Danielle said.
“I’m glad you like it. It really wasn’t all that hard to come up with the blend of spices,” Mary said.
“Can I get you to bake a loaf for me and my brothers?” Danielle asked.
“I already baked you a loaf. It’s there in the basket. If you can stay a little longer, I will add some potatoes and ham, although I won’t have enough to spare too much,” she said with an apology.
“I think we’ll be all right even with just a little,” Danielle said.
“How is Richard?” Mary asked, changing the subject.
“Oh, he is doing wonderfully. I can hardly believe that we are only a few weeks away from being married,” Danielle sighed.
“I am sure that you will be happy together for the rest of your days,” Mary said, excited for her friend.
“Yes, I hope so. He is going to be a dream of a husband,” Danielle said.
Mary thought about her own late husband and the life that they’d had together.
They had not chosen one another. Dirk Stubbs had been looking for a wife and he had become a friend of her father’s as a successful young rancher who sold meat to her father for the inn that he ran. By the time Mary was old enough to get married, her father was perfectly happy to see her wed to Dirk.
But at the early age of thirty-two, Dirk passed away after two weeks of influenza. It had been difficult to see him suffer under the fever; nearly as difficult as suddenly finding herself unmarried and alone.
“So, tell me the truth. Do you think you will ever marry again?” Danielle asked.
Mary shrugged.
“I know you said that there is no one who interests you right now, but would you like to marry again one day? You have barely two decades to your name. Surely you won’t spend the rest of your days on your own,” Danielle said.
At only twenty-one years of age, Mary agreed that she did not want to be alone forever. But she was tired of talking about all of that.
“Maybe, but for now, I would rather focus on running the ranch and enjoying the life that I have built for myself here. You know as well as I do that it takes a whole lot of time and energy to run something like this,” Mary said.
“It sure does. And the men in town are going to use that as an excuse. If you’re serious about keeping the ranch, you will have to do a whole lot of work to prove to them that you’re as capable as we both know you are,” Danielle said.
“Probably so. But I will. I’m not afraid of them,” Mary replied.
“What if they absolutely refuse to back down?” Danielle asked.
Mary grinned and turned to her.
“Then so will I,” she replied.
“Are you ready for a battle like that?” Danielle asked.
“I am more than ready. I’ll teach those men to question whether or not a woman can run a ranch. I’m more than just a cook. I have been running this ranch for over a year now and we are every bit as successful as we were when Dirk was still around. Don’t worry, Danielle. I’m going to show them,” Mary said, putting her hands on her hips and leaning against the washbasin.
“Well, goodness, Mary. I think they are about to learn the true meaning of womanhood,” Danielle laughed.
“They don’t need to learn that. They need to learn what it really means to run a ranch. Men and women aside, they are going to see that this has nothing to do with that. It’s about me. And I am a rancher now, whether they like it or not,” she said.
Somehow, saying it aloud for the first time, Mary felt more confident than she ever had before.
Chapter 2
“You’re certain? Dirk’s brother doesn’t want the ranch? It now, undisputedly, belongs to Mary?” Tobias asked his brother, Conner.
“Undisputedly. Mrs. Stubbs now owns the ranch, through and through,” Conner said.
“Mr. Atwater determined it?” Tobias asked, just to be sure.
“One-hundred percent. It’s hers now and she can sell it to whomever she wants,” Conner said.
A wide smile of victory spread across Tobias’s face. If Mary was now the owner of the ranch then it meant that the ranch would be up for sale soon. He was going to be able to finally purchase Stubbs Ranch.
Like every other rancher in town, he had been wanting it for years. Dirk was never the kind of man to give in and sell, even when everyone knew that he was more passionate about the idea of running a business in town. But Dirk ran that ranch diligently and he made it into something special.
Now, Mary was the one in charge. She would be looking for an alternative, to be sure. That meant that he would have to get there first and convince her to sell to him before anyone else made a bid for the property.
Tobias Wheeler was a born and bred rancher. Raised along with his brother, Conner, and his sister, Danielle, he had worked hard for his father before inheriting this ranch when his father had retired from his work.
And now? Now, he was going to expand.
“You know what I’m planning, don’t you?” Tobias asked Conner.
Conner smiled at him, excited about the plan. But he held back and simply asked, “Want to tell me again?”
“I am going to buy that there ranch and run it as best I can. And this land will go to none other than my brother who deserves his own chance at running the show,” Tobias said.
Conner looked like he had when they’d been children and he found out that he was getting his own axe and wouldn’t have to share with Tobias anymore.
“Still happy with the plan?” Tobias asked.
“Brother, I can’t begin to tell you how happy I am with that plan,” Conner said.
“Great! So we should probably get our bid together. We can chat with Danielle when she comes home and see what she thinks we should offer as our starting point,” Tobias said.
“Dirk always said that she was a reasonable woman,” Conner said.
“Well, I’ve never really known either of them, so I can’t say as all that, but what I do know is that we can’t let Ben Reynolds get to the ranch before we do,” Tobias said and Conner nodded in agreement.
“Danielle is likely to be a little while longer and I’m sure no one is going to get to Mary today anyway, so what say you we head into town for a bite?” Conner asked.
“I say that’s a fine idea,” Tobias replied, before jaunting over to grab his hat from the hook by the door.
Along with Conner, Tobias headed in to town and they went into Saddler’s Old Homestead, their favorite place to get a meal and spend time with the other gentlemen around town.
“Ah, the Wheelers. What are you two lads up to?” Mr. Saddler asked, greeting them from behind the bar.
