many head are you running?” he asked.
“Not many left in the far pasture, besides the bull. I sold off the young steers last month.”
He shook his head. “‘Not many’ doesn’t tell me much.”
“I’m only milking six cows right now,” she said, exasperation apparent in her tone. “There are more of them dry, with calves due in the spring. Why do you ask?”
“I want to offer you a proposition, Miss Patterson.”
She waited, noting the faint furrow between his eyebrows, the twitch of his left eyelid as he leaned back in his chair. His arms folded across his chest in a gesture she sensed was automatic with him. As if he set up a guard around himself. She sat up straighter in her chair and nodded, unwilling to give him verbal encouragement.
“I’ve been on the lookout for a farm to invest in. It must be a special situation in order for it to work to my advantage, though. I’d thought to hire a woman to live in, tend to my boys and run the house for me.” He lifted one shoulder in a shrug that spoke of his lack of success thus far.
“When your minister told me of your place, I thought it would bear investigation. Then he told me you were not willing to move from here or sell out your interest in the farm.”
Johanna nodded once. Apparently she’d finally gotten it across to folks in town that she was planning on living out her life here. At least the preacher had gotten the message, she thought A chuckle rose within her, and she ducked her head, swallowing the sound before it could be born.
Tate Montgomery rose from his chair and paced to the cookstove, lifting the lid on the covered iron pan with Johanna’s pot holder to peer within. Steam billowed up, and he inhaled quickly as the succulent scent of simmering chicken tempted his nostrils. He clapped the lid down and cast her a sidelong glance.
“You enjoy cookin’?” Not waiting for a reply, he paced to the doorway, looking out at his sons on the porch, then returned to where she sat.
His lips flattened, and he pushed the lower one forward a bit, as if he were considering what he would say next. “Have you thought of getting married, Miss Patterson?”
Her eyebrows lifted, and her eyes widened. If she’d thought herself immune to surprise, he’d just this minute effectively shot that theory all to small bits. “Not lately.” It was an understatement, to say the least. Not at all might be more to the point. At least not in the past ten years.
“What I have in mind is a business arrangement,” he said quietly, stepping back to where his chair was sitting at an angle to the table. He straightened it with one quick movement and planted himself on the seat, his hands braced against his thighs. “I would be willing to pay off your mortgage—”
“What makes you think I have one?” she asked, interrupting him.
He looked at her, noting the swift color staining her cheeks. “I’m sorry. I’m afraid I quizzed your minister last evening at great length. When he spoke of your place here, telling me of the situation you’re in, I asked a lot of questions. Apparently, the townspeople are aware of your circumstances, the hardship caused by the death of your father and the need for help to run this place. There was no secret made of your father’s—”
Her cheeks were bright with outrage and embarrassment, and she cut him off with a wave of her hand. “You had no right to pry into my business. You don’t even know me.” She swung to face the minister, who had taken up residence in the corner of the kitchen, near the window. “And you! You had no right to tell my problems to anyone. And especially not a total stranger! How could you be so…so…”
Her voice cracked, almost wobbling with her distress as she faced the man of the cloth who had betrayed her.
“My dear Miss Johanna! I only thought to help. Mr. Montgomery comes with letters of recommendation from bankers and ministers in his hometown. He is on a legitimate quest, and my only thought was to give aid where I could.” The Reverend Hughes was distraught at her accusation, his dismay apparent on his youthful face.
“This is my fault, ma’am,” Tate Montgomery said bluntly. “I should not have revealed my knowledge of your circumstances so quickly. I only thought to present my thoughts for your consideration. I am here to propose marriage, ma’am.”
“Marriage! To you?” Johanna was aghast. The man was a stranger who in the course of fifteen minutes’ time had suggested taking over her mortgage, and marrying her to boot.
Tate nodded. “It would be a business proposition. I need someone to tend my boys and make a home for them. This would be much better in the long run than my hiring a housekeeper.”
She snorted inelegantly. “You mean I couldn’t quit the job when I’d had a bellyful, don’t you?”
He couldn’t help the grin that escaped at her phrasing. “I guess you could put it that way, if you like,” he said agreeably.
She shook her head. “This is ridiculous. I have no intention of marrying. Ever.”
“You don’t like men?” It was a simple question, he thought. And if the answer was not to his liking, he’d be on his way.
She was taken aback, her thoughts scattered. Like men? “What’s to like about them? They’re fond of making messes and being waited on and spending time in the saloon.”
“All of them?” His brow rose quizzically. “Perhaps you’ve been around the wrong breed of men, Miss Johanna.”
She backtracked a bit, silently acknowledging her haste in the judgment she’d spouted. “My father was not himself the past few years. Perhaps I had a bad example set for me in his recent behavior,” she said grudgingly.
“There are good men to be found,” Theodore Hughes ventured to say from the corner.
Johanna nodded in his direction. “I’ve met several in my time,” she admitted. And then she looked at Tate Montgomery with a guarded glance. “I’ll take the reverend’s word as to your sterling reputation, but I’m not interested in marriage.”
He nodded politely. “Perhaps if I enlarge on my idea, you might consider it. more carefully.” He cast a look at the man who had brought him to this place. “Would you leave us for a few minutes, sir? I think this discussion merits some privacy.”
Theodore Hughes nodded agreeably, stepping to the doorway and out on the porch.
Tate leaned over the table and faced Johanna from a foot away. If she was unwilling to hear him out, he’d head on out. But it was worth giving it a shot. And the memory of his first sight of this house and the capable woman who was struggling to hold things together here provided the impetus he needed to speak his mind.
“We could have a good arrangement, Miss Johanna. I am willing to assume any financial burden you have, in return for a half ownership of the farm. You would take my boys in hand and tend to the house and whatever chores you want to assume outdoors. I’ll make the place run. I’ll make it run better than it’s ever run before, and I’ll do it well. You won’t have cause to be ashamed of me. I don’t drink and I don’t chase women. I won’t be expecting you to sleep in my bed, and I won’t lay a hand on you in anger.”
Her
