Authors: Fiona Knightingale
“Why is your dog standing on me?” The voice dripped with Southern honey in a drawn-out drawl.
“Miss? What are you doing in my woods?” He was startled to have heard a female voice from the shade of the trees.
“Sleeping, sir.” The voice sounded frightened and confused.
“Why are you sleeping in my woods?” His hand still rested lightly on the rifle, his agitation slightly diminished by the female voice.
“I’se tired, sir.”
He chuckled to himself, the answer was so obvious it did not even occur to him.
“Could you come out here please? I don’t like talking to the bushes.”
The bushes rustled and shook, and the young woman appeared out of the shaded greenery. Her dark eyes flashed with fear and self-defiance, and her long black hair shimmered in the filtered sunlight. Her threadbare dress hung loosely on her slender frame and around her shoulders was wrapped a horse blanket that was better suited for a dog than a person.
William gasped softly, and tried to remove his own coat. She shook her head and waved him off.
“No, sir, I can’t take your coat. I’ve already…” her voice trailed off. She was about to admit she had already taken enough, but he might not have missed the can of tomatoes that hid inside her canvas bag.
His eyes narrowed suspiciously, but he ignored what he assumed was the end of that sentence.
“Would you like to come back to the house? It’s a lot warmer and I can offer you some leftover breakfast.”
She had not really spoken to another person in months, and found her eyes welling up with tears from the simple human gesture of kindness. She did not trust her voice, so she simply nodded and resituated the bag on her shoulder. She silently followed him back through the woods and followed on foot as he rode the horse back to the house.
Once William reached his house with the young woman, he dismounted and tied the horse up to the railing out front before ushering her inside. She stood in the middle of the room, almost afraid to breathe.
“Miss? Could I at least ask your name?”
“Opal, sir.” The Southern drawl in her voice was touched with a hint of the exotic.
“Opal, then. It’s a pleasure to meet you. My name is William. Please, stop calling me sir.”
“Yes sir.”
He gave her a quick look and she tried to stifle a small giggle.
“Yes. William.”
It seemed foreign to her lips to call this man by his given first name.
He gestured to the stove, “Please, stand closer to the stove and warm yourself. And let me get you something to eat.”
She inched closer, feeling the radiating heat from the smoldering wood drawing her in further. He lifted a large pot onto the burner on the stove, and the heat soon sent up the scent of boiled meat and potatoes. She could not remember the last time she had hot food, and her stomach started to noisily remind her.
William politely ignored the soft rumbling, and busied himself with stirring the soup and finding a clean bowl. Once it seemed sufficiently warm, he filled the bowl for her and gestured to the table in the corner.
“Please, have a seat.”
He set the bowl down, filled two coffee mugs from the pitcher on the stove, and took up the other chair to sit down himself.
Opal wrapped her hands around the warm metal bowl and inhaled deeply, letting the scent overwhelm her as the heat from the bowl and the stove started to seep through her skin and back into her bones. William tried to graciously avert his eyes as she dug in hungrily. He stared into his own coffee mug and watched the thick black liquid swirl lazily around the tin mug.
After she had finished her dinner, she started to shuffle her feet and she pulled the blanket tighter around her frame.
“I can offer you a place to sleep tonight.”
Her eyes widened and he immediately started shaking his head.
“No, no, no. Please don’t misunderstand me. I just think that perhaps you would find more comfort in the house than back in my woods.”
Her eyes darted around the cabin’s four walls like a cornered rabbit.
“Opal, please. I have a bedroll for when I travel or go hunting. I am happy to set that up in the corner while you take the bed. Lady, whom you met earlier, likes to sleep with me so she’ll keep my feet plenty warm. What sort of gentleman would I be if I turned you back out into this cold night?”
She was unaccustomed to kindness, least of all from a white man who was obviously well off, with his house and ranch and farm.
“Please, Opal, I insist.”
She nodded mutely, still nervous about what exactly he was implying or offering.
He carefully put out the fire in the stove, and dug out the bedroll from underneath the bed. It fit perfectly into the corner behind the stove, and Lady immediately curled up at the foot of it.
He laughed and pointed, “See? She’s ready to go.”
Opal perched on the edge of the bed, still completely baffled by the sudden, literally overnight, turn in her circumstances. Last night she had been near starving and sleeping under the bushes. And this evening, she had just been well fed by this man, and was about to sleep on her first real bed in nearly a year. As soon as her head found the pillow, she was unconscious.
William smiled and shook his head. He warmed up his coffee and took it back outside to sit in his rocking chair and ponder the change that had just entered his household. Something told him it was more than a happenstance and that he needed to pay attention to what was happening and what was about to happen. After he downed the last cup of coffee for the evening, he tucked himself into the bedroll and slipped his feet under Lady’s warm body.
The next morning, Opal woke up to the smell of coffee and fried eggs with fried bread. She pulled herself away from the warm soft bed and rubbed her face sleepily, trying to discern whether what she was seeing was still a dream or was it reality. William smiled politely as she wrapped the old horse blanket around herself and made her way across the room to the table for breakfast. The heat from the stove and the smell of the food were both irresistible. He poured her a cup of strong black coffee and watched with a smile as she wrapped her delicate fingers around the warm metal.
“I have a proposal,” William started, hoping she would not read more into his idea than he intended.
Opal blinked at him blankly, having no idea how he was going to finish this thought process.
“I am hoping you would be willing to stay on with me. I could always use another pair of hands around the house and the farm, and it would appear you need a place to stay.”
She looked down at her hands in her lap.
What have I gotten myself into? I’ve come all this way only to end up in the same position I ran away from.
“I am happy to offer you food and a place to sleep, and we can even get you some winter clothing from the general store in town, but I can only afford to pay you a couple of dollars a month. I hope that’s okay.”
“Like an employee you mean, sir?” She had said so little since her arrival, he had already forgotten the sound of her Southern drawl tinged with some sort of island flavor.
“Yes, something like that. I can even try to build a wall in here so that we both have a little more privacy in the house.”
Her mouth fell open in surprise. He was not implying what she had assumed; he meant to hire her onto his farm. She might not own the place, but she would be able to tend the animals and garden and have a place to live. Not quite as an equal but not a piece of property either.
William’s laugh filled the small house. “Is that a yes then?”
“Y-Y-Yes, sir. I take the job.”
“Alrighty then!” His deep voice boomed out his approval, clapping his hands in emphasis.
“We are quickly running out of time to get to town easily. The first snow will be here in the next week or so, and I was thinking we should get into town today or tomorrow while we can. What do you think?”
“O-O-Ok, sir.”
He nodded, satisfied that she had accepted his offer without a fight. He really could use an extra set of hands despite the extra mouth to feed, and she seemed quite capable. And with the Southern drawl, he suspected that she had worked in the past, wherever she had come from.
As she ate her breakfast, Opal watched William out of the corner of her eye. He was tall and broad-shouldered, with deep blue eyes and a tanned face. His dark hair was shaggy but clean. He carried himself and spoke like an educated man, but he seemed perfectly at home riding his horse here on the ranch or even frying eggs over a wood-burning stove. Perhaps it was the kindness he had been showing her or perhaps it was the laughter in his eyes, but she found him more than slightly attractive.
“So… into town today?” she asked around a mouthful of food.
“Well, we don’t want the snow to take us by surprise. I think you’ll need some warmer clothing for the winters here, and we can always use more stock food. I have some but the winters can get cold and long around here.”
She nodded, afraid of going into town after her recent visit to “borrow” from the townspeople, but surely William could and would protect her should a situation arise. He did not seem to harbor any ill will or devious intentions.
After they cleaned up from breakfast, he loaned her an old coat to replace the blanket she had been using. When she slipped the blanket off of her shoulders and folded it carefully onto the bed, he could not help but notice the way her figure filled out the simple dress, but he turned away out of respect. He had no intentions of giving her the wrong idea, and he wanted to maintain as much gentlemanly distance as possible.
They packed up the carriage for the ride into town. Lady jumped up eagerly, and William did not have the heart to decline her the outing. The ride took a couple of hours, and Opal marveled that it had taken her two entire nights to travel the distance on foot. Once they arrived, William assured her that he would not stop into the saloon, but that they would only visit the general store. He did admit that he planned to buy a bottle of whiskey to help keep him warm through the winter.
She had never been inside a general store before, and marveled at all of the items for sale. There were beautiful dresses and warm coats and sewing supplies; hunting rifles and ammunition; fancy soaps and medicines; camping equipment; and more food than she had ever seen in one place in her life including delicious-looking hard candies and chocolates.
William took a step back and watched her stare in amazement at the options. He smiled as she fingered the beautiful dresses and sniffed at the soaps. The shopkeeper scrutinized her thoroughly, but said nothing since she was accompanying him and he was a frequent cash paying customer.
He strolled casually over the store owner and started providing his list of shopping needs.
“Don’t fret Samuel, I brought the carriage and intend to leave with it full. I might not be back ‘til spring and I have a new mouth to feed.”
Samuel’s eyebrows shot up, but he said nothing.
“Yes sir, William. We will get you taken care of.”
The young boy who worked in the shop started bringing forward the items that William had listed.
He was not buying many refrigerated items since keeping them cold was sometimes complicated, but he did pick up some fresh fruit and cheese. He focused more on the supplies that would last such as coffee beans, oatmeal, dried beans, rice, and potatoes. He had some canned vegetables from his garden already, and the meat from the cow should last a while. The chickens usually continued to produce eggs through the winter if he could keep them warm enough. Sometimes the cows would also give him milk in the winter so that would help as well.