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As he stood with his shoulder against the pillar that barely held up his parents’ porch roof, he spotted his sister and her husband driving up to the house. The snow had barely melted, and he wanted to call out to Bernard that he was going to get stuck in the mud, but he held his tongue. He had always thought of Elizabeth as his favorite sister, but now that she’d gotten rich…well, it felt different. He wasn’t as comfortable with her as he had been.
He raised a hand in a wave. “What are you doing out here?” After a moment, he remembered his manners and went to take his nephew Michael from Elizabeth while Bernard handed her down. Earl loved his nephews and nieces something fierce, and wished he had kids of his own, but since Patsy’s death, it was hard to think of another woman that way.
“We came to see you,” Elizabeth announced, not reaching out for her son, so Earl just cradled the boy against him.
“Oh? What’d you do that for?” He knew something had to be up for them to drive through the mud in their fancy buggy.
Elizabeth smiled. “Let’s go inside and I’ll show you.”
“Show me? You’re not trying to get me to go west and marry a stranger, are you? I’m not going to be someone’s mail order man.” His sister had a one-track mind where her business was concerned. He knew if that’s what she wanted, she’d push until it happened.
“Let’s go inside,” his sister insisted.
He groaned. Shedidwant him to be a mail order husband. Didn’t she know he’d already had his heart broken by the only woman who would ever truly matter to him? “Okay, but you can argue all you want. I’m not marrying some stranger.”
He led the way into his parents’ house and into the dining room, which had a huge, long table for all the siblings and their parents. Their family had filled half the schoolhouse by themselves. He waited as Elizabeth and Bernard sat, but he stood, still holding the baby and making faces at it. “Say what you’re going to say.”
Elizabeth smiled. “Give me my son and take this letter. It’s for you. I know it is.”
Earl groaned as they made the swap, and he plopped down into a chair beside his sister. “No, I missed you, Earl. No, you’re my favorite brother. No, from you it’s ‘Give me my baby and read this letter you don’t want to read from a stranger you don’t care to know.’ I don’t know why I love you.”
Elizabeth just laughed. Bernard was stoic as always, sitting there like a huge blond thundercloud across the table.
He glanced down at the letter and started reading.
To whom it may concern:
I need a husband. I was married to a wonderful man for more than seven years, and I have a five-year-old son who desperately misses his father. I own a large ranch in Montana, and no man will work for me. Well, they will, but with my reputation in town—which is undeserved—men will work for me, but they expect a great deal more from me than a weekly paycheck. I cannot do the branding and castrating of the young calves alone. I must have help.
I’ve thought and thought about the best way to do things, and the only answer is for a man who has never met me, and therefor doesn’t believe I’m a woman of loose morals, to come here and marry me. I cannot give up the ranch my husband worked so hard for, but I also can’t run it alone. I need help, and I pray that you can find a good man for me to marry. My son, Walt, needs a father. He doesn’t speak much, and I hope I can help with that, but it’s not enough to play word games while we work together. A five-year-old shouldn’t be out working on the range anyway. I need a partner in life, though I don’t necessarily need a husband, if that makes sense. Do not come here planning to have me in your bed immediately, because it won’t happen. Eventually, I hope there’s something between us, but I do not see it happening quickly.
I live outside of Mountain Home, Montana, and it’s as beautiful as it sounds. I promise coming all this way and marrying a lonely widow woman is worth it. I’m only twenty-three, and I hope to have more children someday, so please enjoy children and be of good health. And most importantly, be ready to work. You don’t even need to respond. Anyone here can point you toward the Watkins Ranch and crazy Widow Watkins.
Sincerely,
Charlotte Watkins
Earl looked at Elizabeth with a frown. “It sounds like the townspeople aren’t as kind and loving as they could be. Poor woman has a young son and no help. No man can run a ranch on his own, let alone a woman.”
“I know,” Elizabeth said softly, looking at him as if she expected an immediate answer. “She needs someone soon.”
“But I refuse to fall in love again,” he said.
“She’s not looking for that right away. You saw what she said. She wants to take time to get to know the man she marries first. I think she was very wise to lay it all out as she did.”
“I think so too,” Earl said, staring at the letter. “You know what? I’ll do it. If I could just take my horse on a train…” He hated giving into his sister so quickly, but she was right. That letter spoke straight to his heart, and he knew he was the man who needed to be there, helping her and her son.
Bernard spoke then for the first time. Earl found the man downright creepy the way he watched over Elizabeth so silently. “You can. They will keep it in a cattle car, and you can pick it up when you reach your destination. I do it most every time I travel. I prefer my well-trained horse to one I can rent in a stable.”
“I didn’t know that was even a possibility.” Earl thought about it for a moment. “She doesn’t want me to wait either. I could leave tomorrow. Dad sure doesn’t need me with so many of us.” He really did wish he was needed at home, but there was nothing for him to do there that any of his brothers couldn’t.
“No, he really doesn’t. And you would own your own land. Maybe it’s land meant to be ranched, but you could still grow whatever you wanted. I’m sure your wife wouldn’t be upset at all having help with her kitchen garden.”
“You’re right.” He took a deep breath. “What about this reputation thing?”
Elizabeth shrugged. “You didn’t mind Patsy’s reputation.”
“That was different. I loved Patsy.”
