Noah (4 page)

“I hope the best for you, Stella.”

“You could come too, you know,” she said with a
sniff, then looked up as if noticing Levi and the other men with her for the
first time. “Or,” she leaned a little closer and spoke in whispered tones, “you
might just be lucky enough to find a good man right here in town.” Her head
jerked only once in the affirmative.

Kate opened her mouth, then closed it again.
She hadn’t told anyone in Laramie about her ad for a husband, but she’d already
vetted the unattached men in town and there was certainly no one local she had
any intention of marrying.

Levi was more like a brother to her than
anything else. Of course, he fit the bill, everything she’d asked for—came from
a family of ranchers, kind, and she had no doubt in her mind that he would be unyieldingly
faithful to the woman lucky enough to capture his heart.

She glanced over at the man and stared for a
long moment.

Nope. Nothing.
There wasn’t any kind
of spark or feelings, other than brotherly affection, when she looked at him. She
shrugged. Besides, Levi worked for the railroad and she needed someone who
could plant his roots right here in Laramie and help her run the ranch.

“I’d better get back,” Stella said with a sniff.
“The pastor is letting me stay in the room at the back of the church tonight. I
just can’t bring myself to go home. Not now.” Stella’s solemn face returned as
she brushed past Kate, blowing her nose as she bustled toward the small, newly
erected chapel—so out of place against the backdrop of several all-night
saloons.

As she turned around, Mr. Dixon, the town undertaker
scuttled down the boardwalk toward the cabin turned gallows, holding out his
lantern, his measuring tape dangling from his pocket.

It’s done
, she reminded herself again as she
joined the others where the horses had been tied. She was pleased to see that
her mount and another she didn’t recognize had been strapped to a buckboard
with lanterns dangling on either side.

She glanced at each of the men now surrounding
her, her eyes stopping momentarily on the stranger Levi had brought with him. There
were definitely sparks with him. He tipped his hat and smiled, revealing
straight, white teeth—a feature hard to come by this far west. Her belly did a
little flip-flop inside.

Who is he?

“You fellas had any supper?” she asked, forcing
herself to look away from the mysterious man who’d caught her interest. “Fannie
made fried potatoes and ham. I’m sure there’s still some left in the kitchen.”

Emmett Callahan had hired the woman to help
Kate learn how to cook. With all of the duties the ranch required of her, Kate
had neglected to be a good domestic student. She was grateful, however, that
Fannie had agreed to stay on after her father died—something that most of the
ranch hands had refused to do. No one wanted to work for a woman out here.

A coyote howled and Kate glanced out into the
vast darkness beyond the town. She didn’t hear if any of the men had responded to
her earlier question as her attention was now focused elsewhere.

Though the moon was full, it sat too low in the
sky to provide much light for the ride home. Her heart beat fast and her
shoulders tightened. The urgency that had fueled her journey into town had
fled, and she had to remind herself that she would be surrounded by able-bodied
men. There was nothing to worry about. The ranch wasn’t far. It was only the
dark. The dark couldn’t hurt her.

“Ready?” A low, warm voice asked at her side.

She jumped.

“You startled me.” When Kate looked up, she was
greeted by Levi’s friend with the sultry eyes. She glanced down at his extended
hand and bit her bottom lip as she slid hers into its warmth.

He helped her up onto the seat, then turned to say
something to Levi, who’d already mounted a horse much too short for his long, muscular
legs. It didn’t suit him.

Kate gathered the reins and waited.

“Excuse me, ma’am.” The gentleman with the white
smile and perfect jaw climbed up next to her on the wagon seat and handed her
an additional lantern.

He’s driving me home?

Her mother would turn over in her grave if she
knew that Kate had allowed herself to be unaccompanied in the front seat of a
buckboard with a man whose name she didn’t even know, let alone letting him
drive her home. She held up the lantern to get a better look at his face. Strung
on one of his coat buttons dangled a postage delivery tag and she couldn’t help
but see her name written in big fancy letters.

“May I?” she asked.

The man nodded.

Kate picked up the tag and read,

To: Kate Callahan, Laramie

One mail-order-husband—

Husband?
She shot a look at him, then back down at the
tag and read it aloud. The speed of her heart increasing with every word.

“Mr. Noah Deardon, first cousin of Levi
Redbourne...” She cleared her throat. “Knowledgeable of cattle ranching. Kind
to a fault. Young and able-bodied.” She paused, heat flooding her face. “And a
man who will be faithful on his word—on the word of Levi Redbourne. Hand
delivered by Levi Redbourne.”

Kate looked up at the man who was shaking his
head, but smiling all the same.

“I should probably introduce myself, ma’am.” He
looked at her with eyes that glinted like steel in the moonlight, sending
gooseflesh down her arms. Again. “I am Noah Deardon, first cousin to Levi
Redbourne, and all of those other things. I am here in response to your ad—one
mail-order husband.”

The dark, weighted cloud that had loomed over
her for months, lifted and for the first time in a very long while she had hope.

Even dressed in men’s clothing, Kate Callahan
was easily the most beautiful woman Noah had ever laid eyes on. Her unkempt
hair and flushed cheeks only added to her appeal.

He shook his head and smiled as the woman
seated next to him read the blamed tag Levi had insisted he wear. He felt like
a fool, if ever there was one, but if it evoked another smile from the lady, he
was happy to oblige.

“You’re my package? Hand-delivered from
Oregon?” She breathed a laugh.

“Guilty as charged.”

“Only Levi would bring me a…a husband.”

As they pulled out toward White Willow, Noah
stayed close behind Levi and the others, careful not to get separated. The last
thing he needed to do was to prove himself the fool by getting lost in the
dark.

“What’s wrong with you?” Her question startled
him.

“Ma’am?”

“There aren’t many men who would be willing to
give up their lives and move a thousand miles away from home to marry a woman
he’d never met. So, what’s wrong with you? Why aren’t you already married?
You’re certainly handsome enough. And you look strong and able bodied.”

Noah was glad it was dark outside as he could
feel the heat rush to his face and neck at her assessment of him. He sat up a
little taller and cleared his throat.

“Well,” he had to think for a moment.

What
was
wrong with him?

“I don’t always take my boots off before
walking into the house. I whistle when I have a lot on my mind and sometimes
that annoys my brother. I often let my cousins—particularly that one,” he said
as he pointed at Levi a few yards ahead, “talk me into doing some cockamamie
things.”

“Like moving across country to marry a woman
you’ve never met?”

“Yes, like that.” He laughed.

She laughed too.

Kate was straightforward. No nonsense. It was
refreshing. Most of the women he’d courted or been around had a tendency to
play coy and often sent mixed signals. He didn’t need a woman who played games.
He needed someone with a good head on her shoulders, someone willing to stand
beside him. Work alongside him. Someone he could take care of. Love.

After everything he’d seen tonight, he hoped
that someone might be Miss Kate Callahan. From the moment he’d caught her
staring at him, there had been something between them that he couldn’t explain,
and he wondered if she’d felt it too. It was almost like a spark.

She was beautiful and strong, resilient, yet
he’d seen the compassion in her face as she’d spoken to the young woman on the
boardwalk. The woman who’d been betrothed to the man who’d taken Kate’s father
away from her. That alone would have impressed him.

“So, why did you agree to come to Wyoming? It’s
not the green forests and hills of Oregon, that’s for sure.” Her voice brought
him out of his reverie and he cleared his throat again.

He’d thought about that question many times
over the course of the last month on the trail. He could give her a nice
flowery answer. Something he thought she might like to hear, but if he didn’t
want a woman who played coy, he certainly didn’t want to be a man doing the
same thing.

He glanced over at her. She smiled, her eyes
fixed on his. A light breeze swooped across the landscape, flickering the
lantern’s flame and catching her hair like a blanket drying on a line.

Kate shivered.

Noah slowed the horses a bit as he reached into
the back of the wagon and pulled out a thick woolen blanket.

“Was it that obvious?” She asked as she set the
lamp down on the step in front of her and wrapped the covering around her
shoulders. When she was settled again, he could feel her eyes on him and she
raised the light again. “Wyoming?”

“Honestly, I needed a place of my own. My older
brother, Jonah, has taken over the family’s ranch back home. He’s married with
four little ones.”

He missed those four little ones more than he
cared to admit and it had only been a couple of weeks.

“Lucas is my younger brother. He moved to
Montana several years ago to work on our grandfather’s ranch. He met his
perfect match, Lucy, and they now have two children and are expecting their
third this month.”

He still regretted that he’d never gotten to
know their estranged grandfather before he’d passed away. But a few years back
he’d at least been able to make the trip to Whisper Ridge where he’d gotten to
know Lucy, his Montana nephews, and a handful of relatives he’d had no idea had
even existed.

“So, you’ve got just the two brothers?” Kate
turned in her seat enough that she was almost facing him.

“And Henry,” he said, focusing fully on the
trail in front of them. “Henry was the oldest.”

“Was?”

“He died about ten years ago, while breaking a
mustang.” He dared a glance in her direction.

Her head bowed.

“My condolences.”

“It was a long time ago,” he shrugged, though
he wished he could say he didn’t think about it much anymore. That day still
haunted him in his dreams.

Enough about me.

“I was sorry to hear about your father.”

“Thank you.”

“Levi said he was a good man.”

“He was.”

She obviously didn’t want to talk about it
either. They rode for a few minutes in a comfortable silence as the stars came
out to play, peeking out between the dramatic strokes of clouds as they
transformed in the sky. A soft tune danced around in his mind and he started to
whistle.

“That’s lovely,” she said. “What is it?”

“Ah, I don’t know. Sometimes I just get a tune
in my head that won’t go away.

“I love music.”

“I understand that you didn’t grow up
ranching,” Noah said, wanting to hear her voice again. “From Chicago?”

“Why, Mr. Deardon, I think you have me at a
disadvantage.”

As they passed through a large wooden archway,
the homestead came into view. It was dark except for the room at the front of
the house where a man’s obscured silhouette was visible in the window.

Noah reached down for the rifle he’d holstered
at the side of the buckboard. From what he’d learned about Kate and the ranch,
the only men that would be in the main house were Dell and Eamon, and both of
them were still mounted just ahead of him in front of the house.

Levi’d drawn his pistol. He’d seen the man too.

Loud laughter came from one of the out
buildings where a dim light flickered. It had to be the bunkhouse where the
last couple of hired hands would be settling in for the night.

Noah didn’t want to alarm Kate, so he continued
talking.

“What about you? You are beautiful and smart.
I’d bet there’s any number of men around these parts that would marry you and
help run your ranch. Why place an ad?”

“Have you seen the men around here? They are
either married, or…well, no thank you.” Kate stood, but Noah put a protective arm
up in front of her.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, sitting back down on
the bench.

“Just stay here. We’ll be right back.”

“I don’t think so,” she said, pulling a small
revolver from the pocket of her britches. “If there’s a problem on my ranch, I’m
perfectly capable of handling it.”

“I have no doubt of that.” Noah jumped from the
wagon, ran around to the other side, and raised a hand to help Kate down.

As soon as her feet touched the ground, she
started for the door, but stopped and waited for them at the bottom of the
stairs while they hitched their horses and the wagon to the rail post.

After Levi and Noah took their places on either
side of the door, and Eamon and Dell had disappeared around the back, Noah
nodded that they were ready for her to barge inside.

She reached for the handle on the door.

Noah took a deep breath, prepared for the
worst.

She pushed.