The Brides of Chance Collection (65 page)

Let them all celebrate. I’ll hitch up the wagon and take those strange women to the
MacPhersons
. The horse snorted, and Daniel let out a rueful laugh. “Just what I was thinking.”

As neighbors went, the MacPhersons were solid men. Honest. Hardworking. But odd! The hillbilly gals back in the house would be good matches for them.

It took little time to hitch the buckboard and lead the horse out to the yard. Daniel went to Bryce and Logan’s cabin. They’d slept out in the barn last night so the women could have warm beds. Knowing he shouldn’t barge in, he knocked. When no one answered, he tentatively pushed open the door.

The compact cabin hadn’t looked this tidy since Logan and Bryce first moved in. Miriam, Alisa, and Delilah didn’t brave it. Logan and Bryce set out their laundry on wash day and picked it up at the main house that evening. Bone tired as those backwoods women had been, they’d come in and swept the logs from roof to floor, dusted the surfaces, and made the beds. Instead of the normal jumble of items on the floor, his brothers’ stray clothes, a harness, and the razor strop now hung neatly on hooks and pegs.

Daniel hefted the women’s trunk, carried it out, and dropped it onto the buckboard with a satisfying thump. Satchels and a valise went on his next trip. Wanting to be sure he’d gotten everything they brought, Daniel went back to check. He almost missed the gunnysack. It barely peeped out from beneath Bryce’s bed. One quick tug, and the bulging sack Mrs. Spencer had when she’d been in his daughter’s cabin slid right out. Fragrances rose from it—pine, flowers, leaves—almost like a bouquet.

Hannah loved flowers
.

“Mr. Chance.”

He wheeled around and stared at Lovejoy.

She smiled. “The peace out here’s extry sweet after all the mornin’ ruckus, ain’t it? ’Tis a blessing to have a big, loving family, but the noise cain be a bit much. ’Tis my habit to rise up of a mornin’ and have some time to myself.”

He nodded. Odd how she seemed to share that quirk of his.

“I come to tell you, when you give the lasses the elixir, they need to drink more water.”

“Fine. I’ll see to it.”

She didn’t fill the momentary silence with inane chatter. Instead, she stepped forward to claim the gunnysack. He shook his head in a silent refusal. It wasn’t heavy, but he wasn’t about to have a woman carry something.

“Thankee for loading up the wagon. My charges are eager to go meet their intendeds.”

Intendeds. The word seemed so ungainly. Awkward. Not that charges was any better. The word lilted off her tongue as if she were some old governess doting over toddlers instead of a vibrant young woman.

Her smile faltered. “It’s been nigh unto a year since I seen the MacPhersons. They had plenty to commend them back then.”

She hadn’t posed him the question, but Daniel answered it the best he knew how. “They’re good to my girls.”

Those few words drained the tension out of her jaw and shoulders. She beamed at him. “No one could deny what wondrous fine daughters you got.”

He hefted the gunnysack over his shoulder. “What do I owe you?”

Lovejoy shook her head. “Nary a thing. You and your kin put us up for the night and practically killed the fatted calf for those feasts.”

“You exaggerate.”

Lovejoy’s steady gaze held his. “If ’n your family always eats like that, mister, this must be the promised land.”

He hadn’t paid much attention to what they’d eaten. Then, too, he hadn’t paid much attention to this woman. Last night had been dark, and this morning he’d been worried about his daughters. Daniel took a closer look at Lovejoy. Had she been gaunt, he’d have spotted it right off, but now that he studied her, little things took on new significance. Her high cheekbones were a tad too prominent, her dress a mite baggy. She had narrow shoulders and delicate wrists. What he’d taken for being a slightly built woman was really someone who’d known lean times. It bothered him to think she’d gone hungry.

“Could be your lassies were croupy from the night fog; but if ’n they don’t shake their cough, you let me know. I’ll fix ’em up more of that elixir.”

“Lovejoy!” someone called.

“Here!” She turned in the open doorway, and Daniel caught a glimpse of just how narrow her waist was. Women often cinched themselves in for vanity’s sake, but he knew Lovejoy owed her shape to a shortage of food. He wanted to haul her back into the house and feed her a big platter of steak and eggs.

Oblivious to his consternation, she headed toward the buckboard. Delilah’s kitten, Shortstack, crossed her path, and Lovejoy scooped her up and absently stroked her. “Just look how blessed we are, girls. Mr. Chance hitched his wagon and loaded our goods so’s you cain go see your grooms.”

“Daddy, I wanna go see brooms, too.”

He fought back his scowl. “No, Ginny.”

“She’s not coughing anymore,” one of the redheads said. “Lovejoy’s elixir worked in a trice.”

“Mayhap you cain come callin’ after we’ve settled in,” Lovejoy said. She leaned down and tapped Ginny Mae’s nose. “But for today, best you listen to your pa and stay put. Here. This little kitty’s a-wantin’ a sweet lass like you to pet her.”

Twice now Lovejoy had reinforced his authority. For all her strange ways, she had a level head on her shoulders. Odd as she was, he admitted she displayed a pleasant blend of kindness and common sense.
Another man
, he told himself,
might find her likable
.

Eager to meet the MacPhersons, the women scrambled into the buckboard without a bit of help. With his brothers there, it would have been natural enough for the women to be assisted.
They’re barely civilized
, Daniel thought.

Daniel drove toward the MacPherson ranch, not knowing what lay ahead. He and his brothers had been on their spread for nine years; the MacPhersons had arrived in the dead of winter just this year. From experience he knew it took about five years to firmly establish a spread. Sven Gilder had tried to make a go of that sector and failed after two years, so the MacPhersons didn’t need a barn raising. They’d shown up, gotten the land, and tended their own business.

Sven slept in his barn. Are the MacPherson men doing the same? We offered to help them knock together a cabin, and they refused
. Daniel tried to ignore the mail-order brides’ excited chatter.
Maybe the MacPhersons will have a tent. Plenty of folks live in a tent for a year or so. Even with it being summer, these scrawny women’ll freeze at night
.

Fencing. Every rancher worth his salt kept his fences in good repair. From the looks of things, the MacPhersons were doing a fair job of that. No cattle in sight yet, but they might be in a different pasture. Ground here would sustain a sizable herd.

“I wondered if the plants would be different from back home,” Lovejoy said from beside him. “Plenty of what I’m spying is familiar.”

Daniel shrugged.

“Rich soil. Looky there at how much it supports. The garden your womenfolk tend near burst through the fence, it was so bountiful. Do the MacPhersons have much of a garden put in?”

He shrugged again. Daniel had more than enough to tend without sticking his nose in on other men’s business. The MacPhersons showed up for worship and lent a hand to others. They’d not been here but a week before they picked up the bad habit many other men in the region displayed of “dropping by” at mealtime.

“We brung seeds, didn’t we, Lois?”

“Gracious plenty. We’ll set to gardening straight off, Eunice. I reckon with this much property, the men ain’t had much time to plant beans and such.”

Daniel followed a bend in the road and sucked in a sharp breath. Lovejoy did the same.

His stomach lurched. He’d hoped things would be better than this.

“Lord be praised.” The words spilled out of Lovejoy.

“That barn’s twice as big as the Peasleys’.” Tempy’s voice held nothing short of awe.

Eunice started laughing like a loon. “Good thing I filled the trunk with all my stuff. Look at the house!”

“Yoo-hoo! Anybody ta home?” Lois cupped her hands over her mouth and repeated, “Yoo-hoo!”

A cabin just like the one they’d slept in last night sat not far from the barn. Lovejoy nodded approvingly. “Square-built.”

“It’s got glass winders,” Eunice squealed.

“Whoa.” Daniel halted the buckboard as Mike MacPherson came out of the house. “These women belong to you?”

Mike let out a hoot and dashed toward the wagon. “They’re here!”

Tempy half-dove into his arms. He swung her ’round and ’round, and Lovejoy hoped with all her heart her sister had fallen into the keeping of the man God wanted for her.

“Temperance Spencer,” Mike declared as he set her on her feet, “you are a sight for sore eyes!”

“Temperance Linden,” she corrected. “Lovejoy’s a widow woman.”

He hugged her again. “Soon as I get the parson, it’ll be Temperance MacPherson.”

Daniel had hopped out of the buckboard and swept Lovejoy down to earth. “Thankee,” she stammered. She couldn’t recall anyone helping her in or out of anything—ever.

Ignoring her, he pivoted and assisted Eunice and Lois out of the wagon. “I have their belongings here.”

Mike pulled away from Temperance. An unrepentant grin split his face. “We’ll tote them inside.”

Lovejoy held up a hand. “Hold it there. These gals move in; you MacPherson bucks move out.”

“Wouldn’t have it otherwise.” Mike grabbed the satchels and valise. “Y’all come on inside and make yourself to home.”

The girls flocked around him and squealed delightedly as they stepped inside the cabin. Lovejoy lagged back. She walked alongside Daniel, who toted the trunk as if it didn’t weigh more than a fistful of cattails. “Thankee, Daniel Chance. We’re grateful for all you done.”

He grunted, entered the cabin, and plunked the trunk against a wall. Squinting as he straightened up, he judged, “Cabin’s well-chinked.”

“Where are—” Lois began.

“Obadiah and Hezekiah?” Eunice chimed in.

“Obie’s in the far pasture. Hezzy took a mind to go a-huntin’. Come suppertime, they’ll find their way back home.”

Seeing the disappointment on the girls’ faces, Lovejoy rubbed her hands together. “Now if that’s not perfect, I don’t know what is. You gals cain surprise your men with the best meal they’ve et in ages.”

Lois burst into tears. “Oh my—a real stove!”

“I left my gatherin’ bag back on your wagon,” Lovejoy told Daniel when he headed toward the door. The man had a fair stride, but Lovejoy never minded stretching her legs for a brisk walk. She marched right alongside him toward the buckboard. “Isn’t it wondrous?”

“What?”

“The MacPherson land. Soil’s vital ’stead of worked to death.” They came to a halt, and she finished her thought. “Lots of promise in these here acres.”

Daniel stared just over her shoulder in silence, as if he needed to come to terms with something important.

She surveyed the property and smiled. “I reckon this place is just one stripe short of the rainbow.”

Steady and smooth as could be, he cinched his hands around her waist, pulled her close, and lifted.

Chapter 5

T
he missing stripe is on that skunk waddling up behind you.”

As if his actions hadn’t been enough to startle her, Daniel’s words took Lovejoy by complete surprise. He carefully set her in the back of the buckboard and speedily joined her there.

“Poor little polecat. Must be a mama, worryin’ over her kit if she’s out scroungin’ food in the daytime.” Lovejoy opened her gathering bag and pulled berries free from the twigs. By tossing the berries in an arc, she managed to coax the skunk into meandering in the other direction.

“Little?” Daniel gawked at her. “It was big as a barn cat!”

“Gotta admire a mama who loves her young’uns.” She wiped her palm on her skirt and nodded to herself as she nimbly slipped off the back of the buckboard. “A papa, too. Clear as water, you hold your daughters dear. ’Member to let me know if ’n they need more cough elixir, and thankee again for carryin’ us all here.”

Daniel tipped his hat, climbed from the bed of the buckboard onto the seat, and headed back toward home. If he stayed here talking to that crazy woman, she might start making sense.

Back home he halted the buckboard in the yard and went to the main house to check in on his girls. Dressed in the little gingham aprons Alisa had made them for Christmas, they were “helping” Miriam make corn bread. Miriam glanced up at him. “Lovejoy’s medicine worked. I’ll have to find out what she put in it.” She lifted the bowl and let Polly scrape the last of the batter into the pan. “Bryce is in the barn. Something’s wrong with Raven.”

Satisfied his girls were fine, Daniel strode to the barn. Of all the Chance brothers, Bryce had a gift when it came to dealing with animals. Most often he’d take care of things without asking for help or an opinion. Raven was Titus’s mare, though. He put plenty of store in that horse, and Dan decided to see if his help was needed.

Bryce sat in a corner of the stall wrapping one of the mare’s forelegs. “She’s started nodding up.”