grow. Gillian was thirteen, and Georgie was seven, fair-haired like their fathers but with their mother’s refined features. They were equally excited to have Beth come stay with them.
“You can tell me all about the latest styles,” Gillian gushed.
Georgie made a face. “Dresses, bah. You can show me how to shoot. Pa says you’re better than he is.”
“Well, I don’t know about that,” Beth demurred, thinking of the stalwart businessman who was the boy’s father. Clay Howard had traveled the country, including working on the California gold fields, before settling in Seattle. He knew how to take care of himself.
Her family, however, wasn’t so sure about her. The first people she told about her plans when she returned to Wallin Landing that evening were Drew and his wife, Catherine. She generally cooked and kept house for her oldest brother’s logging crew, after all. Drew would have to make other arrangements while she was in town.
“Out of the question,” he said when she went to his cabin across the big clearing at Wallin Landing. “You have too much to do here.”
He seemed so determined, arms crossed over his chest, eyes narrowed. Strangers took one look at his broad shoulders, his muscular build, and concluded the blond giant must be a bear of a man. His family and friends knew the warm heart that beat inside that massive chest, and felt free to ignore his edicts.
Catherine, ever the reasonable one, put a hand on his arm as if to restrain further comments. Raised near Boston and trained to be a nurse, she had an elegant way about her Beth could only admire. She was certain it had something to do with Catherine’s pale blond hair and light blue eyes.
“What will you be doing in Seattle, Beth?” she asked politely.
Beth couldn’t tell them the whole truth. She’d promised Hart to keep quiet about the matter. And her brothers didn’t like to encourage her matchmaking, for all none of them might have married without her help.
“I’ve promised to assist Allegra and the Literary Society in a matter,” she said.
Catherine eyed her husband. “The Literary Society? How nice that the most influential ladies in Seattle would enlist the aid of a Wallin.”
If Drew was impressed, he didn’t show it. “If they’re so important they ought to be able to take care of the matter themselves,” he grumbled in his deep voice. “You have work here.”
Beth put her hands on her hips. “May I remind you that I took on cooking for the crew, without pay I might add, because you were concerned they couldn’t fend for themselves? They are grown men, Drew. Surely they can make their own way without me for a little while.”
Drew leaned back. “That wasn’t the work I meant, though I am grateful for your help. You have a claim to improve. You’re still living in Simon’s old cabin. You haven’t even built one for yourself yet, and you’ve had the land for nearly two of the five years allowed. If the territorial land office learns you aren’t living on the claim, you could lose it.”
Why did talking with her brothers always make her feel like a child again? “I know the law. I must live on the property six months of the year. I’ll be back after Easter, and we can decide on plans for the cabin then.”
His arms fell. “After Easter? You won’t be here for the celebration?”
He sounded so forlorn that her heart went out to him. “Of course I’ll come home for Easter. You couldn’t keep me away. Rina, Nora, Catherine and I have already been planning. I’m sure they can continue without my input.”
Drew looked as if he would keep arguing, but Catherine nodded. “It won’t be the same without you being here to direct things with your usual energy, but I’m sure we’ll make do. Dottie and Callie can help.”
Drew sighed. “Very well, if no one else has any objections.”
Of course, there were more objections. Her other brothers were nearly as argumentative when they learned of her plans. Drew must have sent his children around with the news, for the rest of her brothers descended on the main cabin shortly after she’d finished serving the logging crew dinner. Harry, Tom and Dickie wisely beat a retreat at the sight of them crowding into the front room. Beth only wished she could get away so easily.
“You’ll be too far from home,” Simon pointed out, long legs eating up the plank flooring as he paced before the stone hearth. “We can’t reach you if there’s trouble.”
“I’ll be staying at the Howards’,” Beth told him. “What sort of trouble do you expect?”
She was sorry she asked, for he stopped to tick off his concerns on his fingers. “Cholera has been reported in the territory. The town is becoming increasingly crowded with men of every sort. That windstorm cut off supplies—another could do so as well, leading to rioting in the streets.”
“Worse,” James intoned, voice like a church bell, “she might come back engaged to a sawmill worker.” He gasped and clutched his chest.
Simon looked daggers at him, but Beth shook her head at his teasing. So did her brother John.
“I’m sure we could deal with that,” he told James. “But Beth, Simon has a point. Here you have all of us for support if you need it. Who will you rely on in Seattle?”
Her middle brother, John, was such a dear, always concerned about the family. Before she could protest that she could take care of herself, Levi, her closest brother in age, spoke up.
“I have similar concerns. You need someone you can count on, Beth.”
Beth threw up her hands. “And you don’t believe Allegra and Clay are reliable? Look at the lives they’ve built—successful, admired.”
Levi had learned something about the tact required in his position of minister, for he made a sad face as if commiserating with her. “Allegra and Clay are good friends, but they aren’t family.”
“Precisely,” Simon said. “Someone should go with her.”
That was all she needed. Immediately they set about arguing who could spare time from their families and work. Beth stamped her foot to get their attention.
“No,” she said. “I don’t need anyone to look out for me. I’m not a child.”
“That,” James said, “is exactly why we’re concerned.”
Oh! Brothers!
“I have a solution,” Levi put in. “There’s someone in town as close as family who’d be glad to help Beth. Scout.”
Her brothers all nodded, stances relaxing, mouths smiling. Even Beth thought she could live with that solution. She’d known Scout Rankin all her life. Only three years her senior, he and Levi had been nearly inseparable growing up. Before James’s wife, Rina, had come to Wallin Landing as the first official schoolteacher, Beth, Levi and Scout had sat for lessons with Ma in the main cabin. The three of them had fished and hunted together, climbed trees together, chased each other through the woods. Only when Levi and Scout had set off to seek their fortunes on the gold fields of the British territories to the north had the trio been parted.
Scout
