“Sam, I tell you, get over here!”
A male voice startled her near to death. “Need some help?”
When her heart came back down from her throat, she braced herself. Why hadn’t she brought the rifle with her? Evaluating the stranger, she used her intuition on the man and he didn’t seem a threat. Just then Sam ducked underneath the henhouse—she ought to make the stranger climb in there and get him.
“No, I do not need help.”
An eyebrow rose upon his forehead, a look that told her she could have declined a bit more gracefully. But she’d lost the upper hand on Sam and the stranger was to blame, therefore her welcome was going to be forced.
“Excuse me,” she said, waiting for him to step aside from the chicken coop’s doorframe.
With an engaging smile, he took himself a few feet over and out of her way. He had familiar features, but she knew that was impossible seeing as she’d never laid eyes on the man before. Once outside the confines of the coop, she felt more able to protect herself if he meant trouble. Facing him, she asked, “Is there something I can do for you…?”
“Pardon me. My name is Seth Hatchett, nephew of Graham.” He tipped his hat. “And that is why I am here, to ask you that very question.”
Her nerves grated one upon the other. She did not require help from anybody. Liang taught her how to care for herself and the farm. Resentment squirreled its way into her core. Being Graham’s nephew required a bit of politeness on her part, however she needed a moment to conjure it up. Sam peeked his head out from his hiding place, as if to gloat his escape. More determined than ever she said, “Please tell Graham that I am in need of no assistance.”
Departing from him, she retrieved a hoe from the barn and returned. Believing she’d dismissed Seth, she was surprised to find him still standing there. Not only that, but he’d taken it upon himself to coax out Sam, who looked perplexed with his neck lodged in the grip of Seth’s hand. Stung, Mary set aside the hoe, which she meant to use to get Sam out, and ground out a thank you. “I’m obliged.”
There was only slight appreciation for this act. Week after week she’d battled this chicken and today was the day the war was going to end. Seth’s interrupting gave her a defeated feeling that she couldn’t complete this task. It was hard to swallow down gratitude.
“He’s an ornery one isn’t he?” Seth asked, following her. She was heading to the bloodstained log, which hosted many an animal slaying for food. Assuming he’d also take the action of butchering, she stayed back so he could put Sam’s stubborn head upon the block.
But he turned around and offered her the humbled, yet frantic bird. “You want to finish the job?”
She clasped her hands, wanting nothing more than to finish the job. Seth appeared to be gentle and kind—an observation she did not care to accept at the moment.
*****
Surprised by her response, Seth handed over the bird. In a heartbeat he would have chopped the little bugger’s head off but he had the feeling it was something she needed to do. Perhaps it was the way she appeared downcast that he’d captured the animal when she couldn’t. She was as peculiar as his uncle said. When his uncle ordered him to pay a visit to Mary Kincaid, he’d been sure to give him grief. He didn’t want to pay a call to some wild woman he knew to live alone on a prairie. After he rode up, dismounted, and allowed his horse to roam freely on the grass, he saw a woman he presumed to be Mary, running ragged in the chicken coop. All he could make out was a disheveled female, wearing something akin to an outdated gown, tearing up her chicken coop by sheer determination to get one bird. It was then he knew his uncle would owe him big.
Now as he watched her settle upon an old stool, expertly placing the bird just so, she raised the ax and halted it mid air. The smile of satisfaction she sent his way provided an immediate and unwanted attraction to swirl within. What Uncle Graham didn’t say was how enamoring she was. The sly dog.
With relish, Mary brought down the ax. “So long, Sam!”
Never before had he seen a woman butcher a chicken so passionately. A laugh erupted from him and she brought her eyes to his once again. She believed he was laughing at her and she couldn’t have been more wrong. Her emotions simply spilled over to him. The expression she wore after that was one of someone used to being misunderstood. Admittedly, he was guilty of that very thing as he rode up, quickly misjudging the woman in the coop. How could he assure her otherwise? A wall of caution went up before his eyes. He would miss an opportunity if he didn’t make it right just then.
“Sam, huh?” He strode forward to assist. He knew farm women weren’t opposed to blood and likewise she seemed unaffected by it dripping about all around her.
Warily she answered, “Ornery Sam.”
“Agreed. The only reason he came out for me was because I happened to have some feed for my horse in my pocket. I held it out to Sam and he took the bait.”
She stood and stretched out her back. Forcibly he kept his eyes upon her face rather than down the length of her lean body. As she came out of the stretch, she held out the bloody bird, now headless. “Might I take lessons from you, Seth Hatchett, in how to get my own birds out of my own coop?”
“I didn’t mean no…”
“I am jesting. You’ve made a good point. If I hadn’t let my temper get in my way and coax him out with reason, I would have succeeded.” She eyed him. “Liang always told me to watch out for my pride. The saying is true, it does come before a fall.”
He was speechless. The woman clearly needed nothing from him or his uncle, so why on earth send him out there? And then it dawned on him and he was not amused.
***
Chapter Five
Despite the sudden frown upon her guest’s face, she asked, “Care to have some fried up chicken?”
“I believe I will.”
She sensed his distraction and offered a place in the barn for his horse. As he took to rounding up the animal, she saw Susanna and a giant dog coming their way. She approached the same time Seth returned from the barn. His face wore a questioning expression as the girl placed a portion of beef wrapped in paper into her hands. “My pa says to thank ye again for your services.”
Never before was Mary shy about the care she provided to folks. She believed it to be a ministry that helped people in so many ways. From dawn until dusk her neighbors labored and toiled over land and household duties. She had the means to make them feel better, to rub away their aches and pains. But having Susanna say it in front of Seth, whom she barely knew, seemed to affect her with a sudden awareness—and the disapproval she’d received from folks in town somehow seemed fitting at the moment.
She was unsettled.
Seth looked from her to Susanna but was decent enough not to probe into the services she provided. No doubt he’d ask his uncle about it the moment he returned to the ranch. “Susanna, please stay for supper.”
“I can’t, Miss Kincaid. My pa told me in no terms was I to stay here and bother you. I have to git home straight away.”
Seth was curious, it was clear, but she owed him nothing and he would not get an explanation from her. One thing for sure, she thanked the Lord that he was not in need of her services. The thought of touching him in any way brought on a panic she’d never before experienced. Once she composed herself she set aside the beef and took to plucking Sam. A pang of sadness entered her when she realized their long-running game was over. Sam was gone.
“What can I do?” Seth crouched beside her. “If I don’t help you out with something, I won’t hear the end of it from my uncle. I think you know that better than I do.” He smiled.
She tried not to look at him. It was impossible to have someone she just met stir something so drastic in her belly. The feeling was pleasant if not disconcerting. After a few moments of thought she did turn to him, but it was a mistake to do so as he’d removed his hat and she saw how captivating his eyes were. “I suppose you could repair the wood rot in my buckboard. That ought to sat
isfy your uncle.”
“Yes, that ought to do the trick.”
She would never admit that she hadn’t a clue how to fix the buckboard herself, or that it wasn’t entirely disagreeable having a body around to help with things. She just wished it wasn’t a handsome stranger, someone she’d expected to be a little less grown up. And certainly she would refuse to cave in on Graham’s demands, no matter if her heart stirred at the thought. Graham had mentioned his family during long visits with Liang, but she’d always been preoccupied in the studies her mentor put before her than to pay much mind to old men conversing. Both demanded she be educated. Whenever Graham returned from his travels he would bring gifts. Books for her intellect and oils for her talent.
After viewing Seth for overly long, she wished she’d paid more attention to their afternoon discussions about family.
*****
Throughout the afternoon, Seth’s kind nature revealed itself more and more. What impressed Mary the most was the fact that he not only brought his dish to the metal tub in the basin, but snatched hers up as well. That was something not even Liang did. As he removed chicken bones from the tin plates, he asked, “Pardon my curiosity, but how do you expect to survive the winter?”
Her spine straightened. “I believe the proper word would be impudence, rather than curiosity.”
As he stood with his back to her, she caught his profile as he shook his head. He was smiling. He came back to her and actually refilled her cup with coffee, hot from the iron stove. “I believe you have me there, Mary Kincaid. But surely you won’t withhold an answer.”
The truth was, she didn’t know. But she would rather cut out her tongue than admit to this man his own uncle’s ultimatum. Which was a horrific thought by any independent woman’s standards. She sipped the hearty liquid. He was still waiting for her to speak and he seemed to be in no hurry whatsoever.
“This is my home. I do not know how I will make it, but I will try. Liang and I have done it many times before, so I know what is required.”
The look of sincere doubt was all over him.
“There’s firewood to gather and store. You can’t expect to make it to your barn in a snowstorm to get wood. What of your animals? Food?”
What did he care anyway?
“As I said, Liang and I did it before…”
“Liang is not here.”
She rose angrily, politeness disappearing into thin air. “Now you sound like your uncle, whom I do not appreciate being lectured from in the first place. So to believe that I will receive it from you means…well, it means that you are sorely mistaken!”
“I am only here because he ordered me out here to speak sense into you.”
Disappointment filtered throughout her. She was foolish to believe she’d made a friend. “Well, you came, you caught my next meal, fixed my buckboard. So now you can go. Tell him that you did all of those things so he can be satisfied that he took care of Liang’s problems!”
“Don’t be imprudent.”
She rounded the table and stood up to him. “The only imprudent thing I’ve done all day was to entertain you. Tell Graham I will find my own way, no need for you to bother yourself again.”
***
Chapter Six
Seth rode fast and hard until he reached the ranch. After giving the borrowed horse to the stable boy he marched into his uncle’s library. He found him sitting leisurely behind the massive cherry red desk, arms crossed over his chest and looking as though he’d been waiting for his return. Just as he opened his mouth to share his thoughts on Mary, his uncle chuckled. “She’s exasperating, isn’t she?”
“Infuriating is more like it!” He paced the span of the large room.
“You believed your charms would work, nephew.”
Seth turned to him, some humor returned. “I suppose I did. How arrogant of me.”
Graham rose from his seat and poured a small amount of brandy into two glasses, handing one to him. “This isn’t Texas, son. And Mary’s no southern belle. She’s got a mind of her own and had trust only in Liang, which, as he has shared with me, was hard fought to win.”
“What are you going to do about her? She’ll die out there by herself.”
His uncle finished the drink in one gulp and smacked his lips together. “Well I did offer her an option. Let’s just say that it did not go over very well.”
“And what was that option?” A sick feeling settled into his stomach, and more so when his uncles’ eyes bore into his own.
“Why to find a husband, what else?”
“Oh no you don’t! Oh no I don’t!”
“You don’t find her pretty?”
He was quick to answer. “Beauty doesn’t solve everything. One has to get past temperament, and hers is on fire!”
“She needs looking after, you need a wife and chillins’ to carry out our family name.”
Graham was going to be adamant in this. But he didn’t need a wife, at least not this way. Something he recalled came to the surface. “What does Mary do as a service to people?”
He had never seen his uncle ill-composed before now. He’d hit a nerve, one that was never meant to be hit. Graham Hatchett actually paled.
“Well?”
He poured them both another brandy, only there was double the amount of the auburn liquid added this time around. “She has been trained to do a certain type of therapy…”
Dread filled him as all sorts of thoughts shot through his brain. He allowed silence to prompt the older man into providing more information.
“Keep in mind that she had the upbringing from an oriental man.”
“Uncle, you’re trying my patience.”
“I know, I know! It’s not that easy to spit out.”
“I have all day.”
“Mary Kincaid has a gift to take pain out of people’s bodies in the most unconventional way of massage. It’s very popular in Europe, though not in the states as you can imagine.”
He was simply aghast. “She is physical with others for her livelihood?”
“Hardly. If you mean does she utilize her hands in a doctoring sort of way, then I suppose that is physically touching the other person.”
He remembered Susanna. “Earlier, a girl stopped by and delivered payment for services for her pa. Are you saying…?”
His uncle cleared his throat. “Now I’ve had many discussions and often times confrontation with Liang on this matter but he’s been able to prove my thinking differently. She does have a gift, and it is effective.”
Seth felt like he’d been punched in the gut. If all was so wonderful, why did Graham carry the look of guilt across his brow? “Are you telling me that she has treated you?”
“As I said, she is gifted.”
This was all much more than he could take. No wonder he felt attraction for her nearly the moment he set eyes on her, she was bewitching. A seducer. What was all the earlier nonsense of his uncle proclaiming her faith? It was why he agreed to follow his orders and check in on her—he’d been curious. Although he imagined a recluse, he believed she would be a woman of faith, but that could not be. No one would do as she does if she believed. There should be no touching a man who wasn’t your spouse. He grunted. No wonder she was confident she’d make it over the winter, she’d hardly be alone.
His uncle came at him and stopped toe to toe. “Now you listen here, son. I see the judgment written all over your face. Your ma didn’t raise you that way and you’ll not be welcome under my roof if you act on this. Mary is the most innocent young woman I’ve ever known. God provided her with a talent and she gets to be an outcast because of it.”
He needed air and resumed pacing. “This is why you hailed me from Texas? Because no one else will take her? Why such an investment in her, Uncle Graham? What is she to you?”
“Liang was my closest and trusted friend. She was like his daughter. There is something special about Mary and something about you—be open and pray about this. There is nothing wrong wit
h an arranged marriage.”
There was a whole lot wrong with everything he was hearing, but Seth kept it to himself. He knew when to stop, and in this, his uncle would have the last word—for now.
***
Chapter Seven
Despite the lack of a welcoming committee in the local church for Mary, she was resolute to attend. Women nearly swept aside like the parting of Red Sea when she made her way up the steps leading to the sanctuary. Used to sitting in the back pew with Liang, also misunderstood, she never had to venture too far in. But determination to be in the presence of hymns and hungry to hear what the reverend had to say, somehow she procured grace for them all. She didn’t have to like their indignant behavior, but she did need to be enveloped in the teachings of the Bible. If she wasn’t, what would she have to live for?
It was interesting that the patients who came to see her did so in secret. Liang had groomed her to understand that it was the Lord who provided her with a gift. He also taught that a true servant of Christ would be persecuted. Oh how that promise had worked itself out. Without grace though, she would be an idle and useless person, taking up residence on His precious earth. Never did she receive unkindness from Reverend Michael Palmer. There were always words of encouragement spoken to her—whenever he could catch her, that is. Once service concluded and she was all filled up, she was quick to leave the premises. He hadn’t caught up to her in some weeks and today he seemed single-minded in his pursuit enough to stop her from climbing into her buckboard.
Aghast, she looked beyond him as he gentled her elbow and kept her from going aboard. Townsfolk were burdened with heavy frowns, as if to wonder why ever would the reverend bother himself with such a lost soul? A scarlet.
As unconcerned as he seemed to be with the righteous displeasure of his congregants, she had to emit a grateful smile. He never gave up on her.
“How goes it with Liang being gone?”
Settling both her feet back to level ground she smoothed out the dreary brown skirt, chosen specifically to not stand out, if at all possible.
“I miss him.”
He squinted his pale blue eyes against the shimmer of daylight. “And Graham? He’s seeing to your needs? Food? Shelter?”