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Earl shook his head. “Nah. There were too many of us. They were tired just doing their best to keep us alive. We pretty much ran wild, getting into trouble and having a blast doing it.”
She chuckled. “Sounds like you weren’t raised to do hard work after all.”
He shrugged. “We all figured out in our own time that hard work was what was expected. And we changed our ways, one after the other.”
Charlotte couldn’t help but be charmed by the shirtless man in her kitchen. “I’d say I’m too tired to head into town to marry today, but I can’t let you stay here without marriage first. Even if you were to stay in a room separate from mine. My reputation is bad enough as it is.”
“Why is your reputation so bad?” he asked, ladling stew into three bowls. He pulled a pan of biscuits from the oven and put them into the center of the table.
She followed her nose to the food and sat down, thrilled to not have to cook for a change. “I was found as an infant along the side of the road by a mountain man. He didn’t know where my parents were, but he was determined to do what was best by me. He dressed me in boy’s clothes and the few times we went into town, he told everyone I was his son.” She shrugged. “I ran into the man who became my husband when I was out hunting one day, and I injured my shoulder. He had to take my shirt off to bandage it, despite my pleas for him not to.”
“And he told everyone you were a woman?”
She shook her head, wishing he’d hurry and sit down so they could eat. “Not at all. Instead, he brought me flowers and courted me. We ended up marrying just a month later, and then everyone knew I was a woman who had been running around in pants my entire life.” She shrugged. “They all assume I had loose morals for dressing as a boy, even though no one knew what to do.”
“And where is the mountain man who raised you now?” he asked.
Charlotte frowned. “He died shortly after I married.”
“Was he good to you?” Earl asked.
“As good as a man who hasn’t been around a female for a good long while. He treated me well, and he taught me everything I needed to know about hard work. He even taught me to read. Of course, he wasn’t very experienced with reading himself, so after the basics, I taught myself. I can shoot and trap better than any man you know.”
He chuckled. “And now you’re running a ranch on your own. Will men work for us after we marry? Or will that problem still be there?”
“No, it’ll be fine. The men will report to you and consider you their boss, just as they did with my Howard.”
He sat down at the small table and took her hand and the boys. “Let’s pray.”
Charlotte didn’t know why she hadn’t expected him to pray, but she was a little startled when he took her hand the way he did. She obediently bowed her head, and out of the corner of her eye, she saw that Walt did as well.
After the prayer, she smiled at her son. “This is Walt. Walt, I’m going to marry Earl, and he’ll be your new papa.”
Walt nodded, too busy with his food to care much.
While they ate, he asked her questions. “How many cattle do you run?”
“A thousand head. When Howard was alive, we had ten men working for us full-time. I can’t do the work of that many men. I need help, and a lot of it.”
“Well, you have me, so now there are two of us. I can start hiring men tomorrow. Do you know if any of the men who worked for the ranch before are still in the area and looking for work?”
“No idea. They all left en masse as soon as Howard was killed.”
“May I ask what happened to him?”
She sighed. “He was out on the ice during a late freeze last spring, just wanting to break the ice so the cows could drink. He slipped through, and though his men pulled him out as quickly as they could, he died of pneumonia a few days later.”
“I’m sorry.”
She nodded. “Thank you. Walt and I have made it, but we really should be branding the cows, and it’s almost impossible for one woman to do alone. That’s a lie. It is impossible. Last year, Howard led the branding, and died two weeks later.”
“And you’ve managed alone for a year?” The shock in Earl’s voice made her smile.
“I’m a hard worker.” Charlotte said the words loudly and clearly. She was proud of having done almost everything the ranch needed for about a year.
“I can see that. All right. As soon as we’re done eating, we’re going to town and getting married. Tomorrow I’ll head into town and see if I can scrounge up any men to come work for us.”
“Tomorrow is Sunday,” she reminded him. “I’ll introduce you to some of the kinder ranchers in the area at church, and perhaps they’ll be able to tell you where to start searching for men.”
